::Mr. Bubbles::

Just a couple weeks ago was the first time Max allowed me to add bubble bath to his bath water. He's weird like that. I did it for him once a long time ago and for some reason he didn't like it. But I talked him into trying the bubbles again the other day and they were a big hit. He's had quite a few bubble baths in the last couple of weeks.
Anyway, yesterday we were just about out of bubble bath, so I told him that when we went out to run errands in the evening we'd get some more. Well of course I totally forgot.
So this morning when he wanted a bath there was just a tiny bit of bubble stuff left in the bottle. He was pretty disappointed when I told him we forgot to get new stuff.

So we walked down the street this afternoon to get a new bottle at CVS. Of course at CVS a bottle of Mr. Bubble is about twice what it is at Walmart. But some things are just important, so we bought it.

We got home and I asked Max to take the bottle into the bathroom and put it away. I went to get the dog some water. As I was doing that I heard something, but I couldn't quite figure out what it was. I finally realized that it was the bathtub, of course! Max was running himself another bath!
I rushed in there but by the time I got there he'd already emptied at least half the bottle of Mr. Bubble out onto the bottom of the tub. Arrrgh.
So I had him get in and he had the bubbliest bath ever.



Please disregard the peanut butter sandwich that's all over his face. That's why he needed another bath I guess.
And I don't know what's with the big dark circles under his eyes. He has a little cold right now, so that could be it...or maybe it's because he's been going to bed late and getting up at 6 or 6:30AM...I'm not sure.

The bubbles piled up quite a few inches above the edge of the tub.
When I was little that was my dream bath. If only I'd been smart enough to get to the Mr. Bubble before one of my parents!

Here's the bathtub guard, on duty. Sultan isn't enjoying the heat today I don't think. He's sleeping in front of the fan a lot. But he took a break from that to keep an eye on the bathtub boy.

Now I know that I need to keep the bubble bath up high. We learn new things every day, right?
Oh well it makes him happy, and sometimes that's all that matters. And a cool bath is never a bad idea on a very warm day.

.::More Beach::.

OK, so we're not trying to make anybody feel bad, but we went to the beach last week. A different beach, and as Max requested there was no seaweed--well at least a normal amount.
It was right at the end of the heat wave we had, and unfortunately we picked the wrong day to go. It was very cloudy and kind of cool.
Because of that at least we had most of the beach to ourselves.
It was just Melissa, Grant, Max and I this time. We stopped for lunch at a little shack by the beach. It was pretty yummy.

They have really weird hotdog buns here.


Kris and I got Max a little sponge bob boogie board so he could learn to do it. He thought he knew how right off the bat. He would run along the sand, throw the board down and dive onto it. Not in the water. It was pretty funny.

Melissa tried to show him how to do it.

He was pretty confused at first.

But finally got in sort of the right position.

I don't think he realized the water was going to come and jump on him. It was pretty cold.
I love his face in this one! Close up:

He was a lot more prepared the next time. He's laughing because he thinks he "did it!!!!" That's what he kept saying. He was very proud of himself.


As I have probably said before, he's really brave in the water. He doesn't let much phase him. He worked on the boogie boarding for a while longer even though the water was getting colder and colder and a cool wind was beginning to blow!




And of course he got a few more jumps in before it started raining on us. Brr that was cold.


We drove over to a little town called Watch Hill which is very close. It's a cute place. We had some ice cream and Max got to ride on the Flying Horse Carousel. It's supposed to be the oldest one in the country right now.

Supposedly it was built around 1876. The horses don't go up and down or anything, they basically just hang and swing out a little when the thing goes around. It was pretty cute. He loved it of course.

It was a fun day. I feel like we're really getting to take advantage of the fun of summer out here so far. Thanks Melissa for driving us all around and showing us everything!

::He made it!::

We have a dog!
For anybody that doesn't already know, Sultan has been staying with my parents since we moved, in early May.
He flew in at the end of last week. Luckily Kris was able to leave work for an hour or so to help me get him. The kennel was heavy (and HUGE) and Sul was very anxious to get out of the airport. And by that I mean he totally dragged me out by the arm. So I don't think I could've done it without Kris.

Sultan didn't forget to bring his tongue with him.

Isn't he cute?
But I bet you didn't know that I have TWO dogs.
One's named Sultan, and the other one is named Sultan.

They both bark, and they both walk on all fours. It's just that Sultan number two has a little higher bark than Sultan number one. And it's nastier feeling when he licks you somehow.

This one thinks he's pretty funny.


Sultan didn't know we got another dog while he was gone. He was interested for a while--long enough to get inspired to stick his tongue out too.


The real Sultan was pretty dirty and smelly when he got to us. I think he was a little stressed out in the plane--maybe all dogs do this, but when Sultan gets stressed he gets a little smelly. Kind of doggy musky smelling. Anyway, he was due for a wash.

So I had the official dog washer and his lovely assistant do it.

Max made sure and sprayed everyone liberally. I'm sure Sultan appreciated it.

Doesn't he look like he's having fun?

Poor guy! He's really patient and good.



And he's cute when he's wet. The dog washer isn't so bad himself!

It took Sultan a couple of days to recover from his trip, but he seems to be ok and normalized now. He's eating food, so that's a good sign. He seems to like our place, and enjoys sitting by the door watching stuff happen. He's also enjoyed going out for jogs with Kris and I. There are a lot of different smells for him to explore out here.
We're glad to have him home.

We love Sultan!

.::Seaweed Beach::.

So last week when I was complaining to everybody that I couldn't go to the beach because Max woke up sick, I neglected to mention that we had gone to the beach with some other friends just a couple of days before.
But seriously, would you have felt bad for me if I'd told you that? No! And I needed sympathy.
But now I have to come clean and admit it, because I have these fun pictures that I wanted to post.

And, as always I don't keep up with the events in my life on this blog too well, so I'm behind. This was a little while ago, like maybe a week and a half.

We headed out to the beach with a couple of the other wives from Kris's residency--Melissa and Angie. Melissa has a two month old baby (Grant--so cute!) and Angie is pregnant, due any day now really.
We're told there was a hurricane out on the water somewhere that was making some pretty big waves. When we got to the beach, not only were there bigish waves, but there was seaweed all over the place!

The sea was packed full of it. It was all over the beach where the tide had been, and you could hardly walk without stepping in it. One of the ladies that worked there told me she thinks the hurricane must've roughed up the waters out in the ocean somewhere and torn up all the seaweed and brought it to us, like a lovely, stinky, slimy present.

Max didn't like the seaweed too much.

But of course, it didn't keep him down for too long.

Can you see the black waves rolling up in the background of the above picture? The waves were so full of the seaweed it looked weird. And gross of course.



He loves to jump over the little edges of the waves as they come at him.

It really felt nasty to get in the water, because the waves would come up around your feet and legs, and bring all this seaweed in, then when the water rushed back out it would leave you with all sorts of seaweed wrapped around your feet and/or legs depending on how brave you were.
Such as this:

There are some weird kinds in there I hadn't ever seen before. I'm used to just kelp I guess. That stuff just felt so slimy on the feet!

Then Max went out and found a huge hairy clump of weed that looked like a big octopus and brought it to me "It's for you mom!!" just like he does with dandylions and any other flowers he can get his hands on. Then he said "I want to bring it home!"
I told him thanks, but that big old seaweeds like that have to stay in the ocean. Somehow that worked.

But here's the really gross story.
Angie and I were standing by the waves keeping an eye on Max and chatting when we saw a big disgusting maxi pad wash up towards us. I called to Max and told him we should move down the beach closer to our towels and such, hoping he wouldn't see the thing.
We did. A couple minutes later though I look up and see him hurrying back over to where we were. He goes straight for the pad and picks it up. I can see he's excited and yelling "look what I found!" I yell to him to put it down, NOW, but of course he either can't hear me or chose not to. So I had to sprint down the beach, which is not my favorite thing to do in a bathing suit, in order to wrench the disgusting thing from his hand.
Why is he like a magnet for the things that I don't want him to do? Why?


He decided next time we go to the beach he didn't want it to be the "seaweed beach" and I don't blame him. I'm hoping next time it's not the "sanitary napkin" beach either. EWWWWWW.

But we all had a really good time, despite the seaweed. We played in the sand for a long time with the little cheap buckets and castle molds I bought, and I got to chat with my friends which was nice.
I made a great investment the other day and bought a beach umbrella. Who knew that people even had those? It was great because we could play in the sand without feeling like our heads were burning off.

Isn't it great? I think it was about six dollars. I'm glad I have it. You can see Melissa and Angie in this picture--Angie is on the right. She dug a hole in the sand for her belly and was able to lie on her stomach for the first time in nine months. She said it was heavenly.

So we're going back soon. Seaweed or no seaweed. Max and I love the beach, that's all I can say!

::Summer::

See his pink cheeks? We took a walk down the street to run some errands, and by the time we were done he was so pink and hot. I felt bad for him and got him this ice cream sandwich. He'd been craving one for a while.
He took it out back (not his choice). In these photos he's sitting in the window of the back neighbors garage that backs up to our backyard (um, get the idea that it's the in the back??.) He told me he was "getting some fresh air in the dark" over there.
I love the way he puts things sometimes.

It actually finally cooled down today. It felt great.

.::Cliff Walk::.

Yesterday afternoon we got to the point where we just couldn't stand the heat anymore so we hopped in the car and drove out to Newport, RI.
Geography is very difficult for me to grasp out here, much less explain, but Newport is south of us--down on Narragansett bay. The very south end of it sticks right out into the ocean.
We thought maybe we could catch some ocean breezes down there.

We did catch the breezes, and it was a perfect opportunity for another on of my photo essays! I hope you enjoy the following.

Newport has a ton of old money mansions all along the ocean. They're beautiful. A lot of them are now museums or serve other purposes.
We stopped and took a walk on a path that led along the cliff above the ocean and behind some of the mansions. The views were really wonderful.






As usual we had to fight with Max over holding his hand, and then drag him along once we had him in our grip.
He tried to give Kris flat tires the whole way back. What a well behaved child, right?

We realized the other day that he thinks there's some sort of a difference between running away from us and walking away from us. And that walking away is ok. It was good to know so we could try to set him straight.





He looks a lot more contemplative in the above photo than he is in reality. Don't let him fool you.





Isn't the ocean beautiful?

The flora and fauna we saw were irresistible. I couldn't help but capture them for later use.









It was cooler down there, but the air was still just SO soupy. The humidity here is better than in was in Kansas City, but sometimes it's still really intense. After living in it for four years, I'm still not used to it!
But it's ok. At least the air was cooler. That's what we were looking for.



Well, that's what Kris and I were looking for. Max just wanted to swim.

That's all he ever wants to do. Soon enough I'm sure.

Thanks for coming on our walk. Does this make you want to come visit? (well except for the hot sweaty house part?)