granddad

the summer has come and gone and i am back at work. this summer was filled with lots of visitors. granddad, april and my parents. it was a wonderfully busy summer with lots of great memories, many that i am still in the process of "processing" for the blog. long story short...more to come...somehow...someway...although i am back at work. i think the biggest lesson i learned from this summer is this...never put off til tomorrow what you can do today. otherwise i feel like i get nothing done! one thing i have finally done is organize and put together another (hope you're not sick of them) collage. this one of granddad's trip out from back in june.

he came out the first week of summer vacation and we had a blast. it was filled with train rides, horses, the zoo, goats and more horses. this was when we first discovered that cashel only liked (past tense) animals in books. once he sees them move in real life he totally freaked out and wanted nothing to do with them. in fact, when we went to a place close to the house to look at horses he would clamp on, turn away, and say "bye bye" to the horses! he's much better now and i've even succeeded in getting him to pet a goat at the zoo.

but these pictures don't reflect that. this was back in the day when he was totally scared. granddad was very patient with him and inched his way closer and closer to the horses one day. granddad will be back out again pretty soon and we'll have to go to the zoo again and see the horses again!

hello to hollywood

mama and daddy finally made it to california and we're out on the town. first stop...hollywood...right down the street from where we live. grauman's chinese theater, hollywood walk of fame and the kodak theater!

while we were there we decided to see some of the stars up front so we went to madame tussaude's.

mama got up front and personal with some of the men.

while daddy got up close (a little too close) and personal with the lady folk.

thank goodness these women aren't real or else i think daddy would've had a black eye.

it was a great way to spend our first monday together in los angeles

kissing

we have this thing we do where jason and i will kiss and cashel will get jealous and want to either join in or only be the one kissing me (heart melt) but at the beach he started something super cute. so this is a picture of him after joining in with the kissing that jason and i did that was not caught on film. so this is pretty normal, just leaning in for a hug with mama...

...and then a...

...kiss...

...a long kiss...

...so proud and happy...

...here it comes...

...we have a fast camera so i chose to zip through to the next one...

...maybe you can't tell but cashel actually has his left hand on jason's neck and his right hand on my neck and is pushing our heads together to make us kiss...

...gives us a breather...

...then back again...

...again, you can't tell but he's actually joined in on the kissing and we're all doing the "mmmmm" sound...

...all done...

...he loves a long family kiss and so do we!

cashel and cousins and friends

if it's one thing we've learned from our travels back east, it's that cashel loves to hang out with his cousins and meet other friends close to his age

this is addison. what a sweet girl. she loved playing with cashel and being his "big sister" except for the time he was really, really pulling her hair

this is reagan and addison. reagan also enjoyed playing with cashel and being his "big brother" but enjoyed my iphone more

this is cashel and my friend connie's house. connie has two boys, noah who is 4 and mason who is 9 months old. i totally forgot to get their pictures but did snap this shot of cashel on their playground - next time connie!

oh. these are the cutie pie boys of my college friend bika. that's shan on the left and devon on the right. this is the first day i noticed cashel enjoyed smiling for the camera and saying cheese. he only does that about 25% of the time now. he enjoyed playing with them, but i don't think devon enjoyed playing with cashel so much. i think cashel was a little rough with all the jumping on top of him. that's how we roll in the bryant-barnes family but it doesn't always go over so well with others

two of my favorites. this is parker and meadow. i knew if i waited there long enough they would get into costume. parker in a star wars get up (sorry parker..don't know exactly what you are but i know it's one of the good guys) and meadow as a princess which is not so much a costume as much as her personality. if you look closely you'll notice cashel looking down. he is looking at meadow's hand because she is holding his. i think he's in love

and this is the money shot. cashel is dressed as a Hawaiian basketball player

morgan and mason hickey. these two cutie pies are the kids of my high school best friend, lori. this was the last stop of a long day in raleigh. morgan is a baby sitter in training and mason is a future gap model. cashel enjoyed them but he terrorized a little boy about his age that they had over by jumping on him. lori, kevin and i were in the kitchen and we heard squealing. i went to check and as i did lori said, miles (i think that was his name) is a little squealer. my reply was, yes, i would squeal too if cashel was standing in front of me jumping up and down

last but not least is aimee and eli. cashel loves aimee and eli. he loves aimee because she has beautiful hair he likes to pull and she is just so easy to jump on. he love eli because eli loves to play with him. especially with balls and loves to carry him around on his back. notice again that cashel is looking down....at aimee's hand because she's holding hands with him. don't worry meadow, aimee's his cousin and we're not that type of family

one more

robin (to jason while contemplating going clothes shopping): sweetie? do you like my style? i'm not sure i know my style anymore

jason: i don't really think of you as having a style. i just think of you as wearing clothes.

robin: great - that's helpful

how was i supposed to know?

jason may kill me but i just have to tell this story.

cashel is certainly not ready for potty training yet but there are times when he's interested in "peeing" on the potty, so we strip him down (usually before a bath) and let him sit on the potty. nothing ever happens. well, i've been doing this for a while now and one night jason was helping cashel. allow me to re-enact:

jason: alright cashel, hold it (penis) down

robin: oh, that's what you do? i was having him tap it

jason just looked at me and shook his head

robin: how was i supposed to know?

lately...

cashel has been cracking us up! and has been extra super sweet...but that's not unusual...he's always sweet. here's a little list:

the other day i was on the phone and what was cashel doing? he was spinning around in the living room, stopping just enough to catch his balance, then doing it all over again and again for about 5 minutes. the best part, he didn't seem to notice that i was watching.

when we were in kiawah and kernersville he would proclaim, everytime he saw me after i had walked back into a room, "found mama" as though i had been hiding. this super sweetness was mutliplied when i would have to let him cry it out for a few minutes. after a few minutes of letting him cry it out i would go back to console and help him get to sleep. each time he would smile and wrap his little arms around my neck and say, "found mama."

we've begun the game of hiding so that jason can find him when he gets home. i finally have him staying in place and not trying to rush out to see jason but he still squeals and makes lots of noises as jason is "looking" for him.

he's a southern boy (or at least his parents are). he says "in air" for "in there."

when jason or i are helping him get to sleep and he sees us getting up to leave the room he puts in a headlock and says "mama sit here" or "daddy sit here."

he now says loki and laska's names instead of "sisters." they are "yoki" and "saka."

i swear he talks in his sleep. he was in the bed with us/me the whole time we were away. this boy talks in his sleep and its normally something from that day. for example, the night after he played all day with addison and reagan he would say "addison", "reagan" in his sleep. here's what we've heard so far:
addison, reagan, eli, aimee, gary, train, dinner and our favorite....sandwich (which sounds like samwich)

he has an absolute fascination with trucks and helicopters and airplanes. the best part is his excitement when he sees or hears one of these. on every car ride we hear "truck"....but it comes out "truCK". reeeaaaallllyyyy enunciated. this boy treasures every syllable...especially the last one! we live in LA, land of traffic/police/emergency helicopters. we hear lots of helicopters and cashel stops what he's doing to let us know. our favorite day of the week is thursday - trash day. we get to see three trucks go by twice each. every time cashel stops what he's doing and runs....seriously...runs to the couch to watch.

i know there's more that he does that i can't remember right now and the best part is that there's more to come!

kiawah

we ventured east...this family of five...well, the dogs stayed behind, so it was a family of three traveling on an airplane...three airplanes going east. it went well. no, really...it really went well. it's so much easier traveling with two parents and a toddler than one...which i've done and rally for if necessary but don't especially enjoy. we ended up in beautiful charleston, sc. first visiting with one of my brothers and his family in mt. pleasant then with lots of other family in kiawah island, sc. what a beautiful place this is. although we live in california we don't live that close to the beach...not far...but not down the road either...so this was our first real time with cashel at the beach and boy did he love it! we learned that he lasts for about an hour on the beach before getting to tired, hot, and/or hungry. so most days it was tennis for jason and uncle gary in the morning, beach time before noon and again after cashel's nap, often followed by a bike ride then a scrumptious dinner with the family. cashel had tons of fun playing with his cousins, reagan and addison (more about them in another post). in fact, most mornings he would wake up saying, "reagan?" "addison?" another of cashel's new loves from this week was uncle gary. cashel walked around the house just saying, "gary?" "gary?" and looking for him! while the week didn't go exactly as planned because grandmother needed some tlc which required mama, daddy and aunt ellen to leave early, we still had a wonderful time.