I am feeling generous today so I am posting two videos. The first is from our vacation. It is about 2 minutes. Just some clips and highlights of the week. The 2nd is of Desmond laughing, it makes me laugh and smile to hear him laugh like this. Have a great weekend everyone.
Day 1:
Oh how we packed, and packed, and packed some more. We all know Jackie loves her lists, and her packing list was enough for 10 people preparing for Judgment Day (see picture). I also have this “thing” where I like to do things in one trip, like get the grocery’s from the car in one trip, or move from car to hotel in one trip. I call it the “One Trip Hogan” and from the picture link above you can see I was testing the laws of physics and almost broke my streak, but I did it, in one trip, up 15 floors and through a parking garage. I got some looks, but I did it.
We did the trip in about 4.5 hours with stops, thanks to some very skilled co-workers with their back road secrets, thank you Doug and Kristi. When we go there the first thing we did was hit the pool, the slides and the beach! We wore that poor little guy out. I never seen someone so excited to be in water, because this time it was about fun and not “lessons”. After the beach we ate at Sharky’s (thanks April) and walked the beach. From there we went home. Desmond slept 14 hours! Now that is some serious fun.
Day 2:
When Desmond finally woke up, I noticed he was quickly gathering his bucket, shovel, and shoes, and putting them all by the front door, he quickly ran up and down the hallway putting each item in a pile. That boy wanted to go to the beach! So we did! I was excited to be at the beach to build me some sand castles. The thing I had not accounted for was Godzilla plopping his big fat SUMO butt on each castle I made. So I dug a deep hole and put him in it, this contained him long enough for me to complete my master piece. Of course as soon as he got free, he sat right on it, and we both had a good laugh about it. Good times.
That night we ate Pineapple Willy’s which is now a new favorite for us, and somewhere we will be going to from now on (nice job Char). I got me some ribs, a big boy drink and I was a happy dude. Jackie got her self a nice po’boy sandwich was was big enough to feed two. Desmond tore down on some ribs himself. A wonderful night, on the beach eating dinner with the ones I love most.
Day 3: Shell island! This was a fun time, we went and took a little ferry over to shell island. This was fun for the little guy, his first time on a boat, his thoughts on it? Vroom! Vroom! of course. Shell island is very pretty and secluded (no hotels or anything), although there was a lot more people there then I expected. There are lots of shells, but all the good ones were taken by the time we got there. I am sure if you got there early enough there would be lots to pick from. My advice on this is go early and wear lots of sun screen, because it was hot hot hot!
Day 4: Seaside is one of our favorite places to go, its only about 20 minutes from PCB and we have stayed there lots of times. Its so clean, white and just very small beach town type atmosphere. The water was so blue it was just a beautiful setting. We walked around some gardens, walked over a bridge, and just had a beautiful morning outside.
That night we headed to a hidden restaurant called “The Boatyard”. This was excellent! I had a hankering for a cheeseburger, and they did not fail. It was one of the best, maybe the best cheeseburger I have ever hard. Right up there with the ones in Jamaica. I was so full after it. Desmond tore down on some sweet potato fries, in fact that’s all he wanted. Delicious! We will be going there again.
Day 5: It all comes to an end, we hit the beach one more time, hit the pool, enjoyed some sun, and wrapped it up.
I must say, this was by far one of the best vacations we have been on. It was our first as a threesome. I was worried about it with a small child, but Jackie and I found ourselves doing things we normally would not do on vacation. Stopping and taking a moment to watch Desmond’s face light up on the little things we blow right past normally. Jackie did such an amazing job packing the food, getting the things we needed together so we could go out to eat at some great places. Our meals at home on the balcony were just as enjoyable as a $40 meal out, and for that hard work on her part he got to enjoy so much more. Thanks babe for all that effort. You did an amazing job planning that.
I think PCB will be our new destination spot, it was fun, not too far and really hope we can convince some you all to come down with us sometime, because we will be going lots more often! I have posted all the pictures from the vacation on the gallery. You can follow that link here. I will have some video later in the week 
It is Friday again, thank goodness for that. I have another video for you. I guess Friday is video day. So this week in the life of Desmond it has been all about talking, pointing, grunting, being sneaky or just showing his frustration.
Lets start with talking for example. I say “Hey Jackie dinner is ready” he says “KAACKIEEE! KAACKIEE!” Oh yes he knows who his momma is, and she is KAACKIE! Also “EAT” is another of his favorite words. You can also ask him questions, and usually the answer is YESH (like Sean Connery) or NUH.
When I come home from work now he wants to be picked up ASAP. As soon as he is picked up he points. Points to something, anything it does not matter, but he wants to make sure I know about it. The pointing is always followed by a questionable grunt, like Tim Allen on tool time.
Sneaky, oh yes he is learning to be sneaky. He can climb up on chairs and reach things he is not supposed to reach. If he hears you coming around the corner he will turn around sit on his butt and look innocent and smile. Very sneaky Dr. Jones, veeery sneaky.
Frustration, this is a hard one to watch, he gets frustrated when he is unable to accomplish something on his own. There is one chair in the living room he wants to get up in soo bad, but its just an inch too high. He will climb and scramble and hike that leg up, but its just too much. This is when he hulks out. This is hard to watch. Yesterday I helped him up into the chair, gave him a snack, a drink, and flipped the channels to find some cartoons. I never made it to the cartoons, because go-kart racing was on the speed channel. Immediately its VROOM VROOM, VROOM VROOM for 20 minutes. That boy loves him some cars. The picture above is him enjoying all that. The video below is from last week. We had him try his new pool and swim suit. We think he likes it. Have a great weekend!
Today was Desmond’s last day for his ISR swim lessons. It has been a long road for the little guy, and his mom too. I have to say I am so proud of them for sticking with it. The results have just been so amazing, and I am so very proud of him. Yesterday he was to swim fully clothed, diaper, shoes the works! And he did awesome! Standing ovation awesome! Below are some pictures from that. To celebrate his big day, we went to firehouse subs! He got his 1st very own kids meal! Fire Hat included. He had a blast, and chomped down his grilled cheese and Oreo cookies.
I was able to get some video of today, and show all that he has learned. Some things I want to point out from this video, as I am sure I will get search hits from the ISR references. the idea of ISR is to teach children how to rescue themselves. It is not a swimming lesson for fun. It is designed to teach them to act calm when they fall into the water and float, breath, and get to the side of the pool. This whole process has taken over 6 weeks. The 1st part of the video shows Desmond getting to the steps, he stands up, and loses his balance, falling in backwards. This is a perfect example of how it happens. The instructor let him fall, and he recovered himself nicely. This is what it is all about. I highly recommend this program. You can learn more at www.infantswim.com
