Nathan, Oma and I went to the Maryland State Fair this weekend (unfortunately Gary had to work.) It ended up being a lot of fun. We visited the animal area first and saw lots of baby animals, including adorably playful piglets and some just born chicks. Nathan got a big kick out of hearing the pigs oink…he kept telling them to do it again and then he’d giggle.

I think the rides were his favorite part, even more than the corn dog and cotton candy (he didn’t seem to quite know what to do with that.) But I knew he’d love the rides, which was one of the big reasons I wanted to take him to the fair in the first place.

Nathan’s first corn dog. He seemed to really like it, but then quit halfway through, so we’ll have to give it another try.

Rides!

Nathan loved this boat ride at first, but after a few minutes his face went from smiling and excited to a little scared and maybe feeling a little ill. And unfortunately the ride kept going and going and going. I felt so bad for him, but Oma and I just kept cheering him on whenever he came around. I was proud because he got off, wobbled a bit from turning in circles for so long, smiled, and told us he wanted to go ride the motorbikes.

The motorbikes were a big hit. Nathan went on them twice and would gladly have gone on again, but by then it was obvious he was getting tired and it was time to head out.

We enticed Nathan to leave the fair by telling him we’d go look at the helicopter out front. The Medivac had landed earlier and we ended up getting there at the perfect time…right when it was about to take off. They warned us it’d be windy, but I had no idea it would be THAT windy!

Wind blown and watching the helicopter fly away.

Boy loves his Cheetos.

But OMG they are messy.

We went to the beach again a couple weekends ago and had a great time. It was just the three of us and even though the weather wasn’t great most of the time, we managed to have plenty to do…we made it to the beach a couple times, visited a water park one afternoon, made a trip to the boardwalk, played mini-golf and took some walks. It was relaxing and nice to just move at our own pace.

When we were at the beach in July Nathan loved the sand but didn’t want to touch the water. This time we got him into the water and he loved it! The tide was going out and it had created a little sand bar so we could walk out a bit with the water only up to Nathan’s knees and the waves were were smaller by the time they got to us. Nathan had an awesome time jumping the waves while he held our hands.

There was the usual digging in the sand too.

We visited a water park one afternoon and after a little time warming up to the place and a couple failed attemps, Nathan decided to try one of the smaller water slide that he could go down himself. And he loved it and immediately wanted to go on the big water slide with us. We spent most of the afternoon going down that water slide or floating around the lazy river. It was a really fun afternoon and it was awesome to see Nathan overcome his fear.

We played mini-golf a few times because it was only a couple blocks from where we stayed and was a good activity when the weather wasn’t good for being wet. Plus Nathan loved the idea of the animals and pirates there. After one of the visits we decided to try out some of the arcade games and Nathan had fun playing on the motorcycles and cars.

The trip to the boardwalk was fun too. It was a nice afternoon and because it was the weekend before school started, I think the crowds were down a bit.

Nathan took his first ride on the boardwalk tram.

And he enjoyed his first Dippin Dots (my first ones too)

Ice Cream Headache?

He also had a great time on all the kiddie rides and didn’t want to leave at all.

Another almost first was that for a couple hours one night we were a little worried that Nathan had his first broken bone or sprain. He’d been jumping and twisting around on the couch and caught his toe in between the cushions. It’s rare that I hear him cry out quite like that and his poor little pinky toe was red and swollen. We contemplated a trip to one of the clinics in Ocean City but decided to tape up his toe with a bandaid and wait until the next day to see how he was. And he was, of course, just fine. (Thank goodness. That’s a first I’m happy to wait a long long time for.)

Lots more pictures from the weekend here.

Last night I told Nathan we needed to wash his hands before dinner. He went right to the bathroom, but I was a little slow getting there. Before I made it in, Nathan came back out with two wet hands and said “I wash.” I asked how he washed his hands because I know he can’t quite reach the faucets. As I tried to process this, I followed him into the bathroom…where he pointed at the toilet. Awesome.

Nathan knows how to pump his legs on the swing now!

(This is fuzzy ’cause it’s from my cell phone)

Goofball. He likes to bite holes in food, especially tortillas. Give him a piece of bread and he’s usually trying to eat the middle, not the ends. This is especially lovely if it’s buttered bread