Lots of Fun and Other Stuff...

So we've been our usual amount of busy this summer.  I will start from today and go backwards...

Leo got tubes in his ears this morning.  He was a champ! Here he is in his little tiger gown waiting for surgery...

 Dr. Chicola said that he had a lot of fluid in both ears that had been in there for a long time.  I am so happy we put the tubes in now.  Leo will feel so much better!  After surgery, his Dr. came to talk to us and said that after they brought Leo back, he was very calm and just sitting on the bed watching everyone do their thing.  Then when it came time to put the anesthesia mask on his face, he held it over his nose and mouth and within a few seconds he fell over to the side, asleep.  Dr. Chicola said he was surprised how calm Leo was.  They warned us that it would be typical for Leo to cry coming out of the anesthesia, but he didn't cry or fuss at all.  He was groggy for a few minutes and seemed a little loopy, but never fussed and sat with me while I rocked him for about 30 minutes.

He was ready for that milk!  He hadn't had anything to eat or drink since 7 pm yesterday evening.  I am so proud of my little man.  He seemed to feel just fine today; you would have never guessed he'd had surgery this morning.

Leo is talking all the time now and it's really fun.  That's another reason I am happy he has tubes, it should help clear up his speech.  He's started saying things like, "Helicopter...where'd it go?" and "Daddy...where'd he go?"  He is still very polite and uses "Thank You" quite often (and appropriately).  He also loves to say Bye Bye to things and people, "Bye Bye Daddy", "Bye Bye Mommy", "Bye Bye Spring", "Bye Bye Minnie", "Bye Bye Outside", "Bye Bye Helicopter".  And we also get a big happy greeting every morning" "HI MOMMY", "HI DADDY".  He requests to talk to "Amaw and Popo" (Grandma and Papaw) all the time and loves Skype.  The other night before bath time he said,  "I go peepee in the potty."  That's probably his longest sentence to date.  And he has, in fact, been going pee in the potty on a regular basis after his bath each night.  We are so proud and he is proud of himself. 

Our trip to St. Pete Beach was totally awesome and relaxing and fun and perfect.  I had so much fun and I think we all did.  Kendra and I had fun recreating the good ole jr high days...playing in the gulf and pool like we did when we came down to Panama City.

Only this time we were of legal drinking age which made it extra fun.  Chae and Leo had fun hanging out and James found a nice little internet cafe to work in, so his days weren't too unpleasant either.  Ken and I also had a blast taking drives with my mom and listening to stories of when she used to vacation down in Treasure Island with her family and friends.  (Don't worry Mom, I won't post any of your secrets!)  We also went to the Tampa Rays vs New York Yankees MLB game.  It was rather enjoyable and Leo lasted 7 innings which is more than I expected.  Here he is watching a home run...

Here are some other pictures from our trip.  I had to steal these from my mom because I only took two pictures from my camera phone (and zero pictures from my camera) while we were there.  Woops.  Guess I really was having too much fun. 

What a wonderful trip.  I think we are going to try to figure out a way to do a family vacation like this every summer (with Katie and Brett, too!) instead of making the Indiana/Cincy trip each summer.  I don't know if we'll be able to swing it, but I sure hope we can.  It was so much fun.

I am leaving you with my favorite picture from the trip.  It's one of Kendra's so I'm stealing it from her. She is a wonderful, wonderful photographer.  (Check out her blog: Krantzography).  She took so many beautiful pictures, but I am only going to post one...

Watching the sunset on our last evening in St. Pete.  It was simply perfect...