Water

 Ira has been loving water lately. 

 Before the Ellsworth Reunion he wanted to wear clothes in the rain.

 Now he just wants to strip down to the essentials.

We had fun with the Applebees when they came for a few days after the reunion.  Their last day, Ant got off work so we could go into New York with them.  It didn't work out for us though, mostly due to sleep deprivation, so we stayed to get an hour or two more of rest, then realized that it was probably our last chance to make it to Rhode Island while we're living here.  It's the last of the New England states on our list, so we planned a spontaneous trip to the Ocean State and hopped in the car. 

 Ira was unenthusiastic to be at the beach at first.  He played in the sand for almost 2 hours, before he even considered playing in the water.  The lady next to us noticed our encouraging Ira to get into the water, and gave us a friendly lecture about not changing children's personalities.  And then she looked at Ira, and in the best New England accent I've ever heard said, "ChAHrish who you ah sweet haht."  :)  

At first I thought this is as wet as I was going to get with a grumpy baby strapped on.

But then he fell asleep.  Woohoo!  The water felt great!  The waves were fun, and it wasn't too crowded...

and with time, even Ira decided to join us. 

 but not without his hat.

 He had so much fun, he didn't ever want to leave.

 Eliot of course, was having fun chilling on the beach.

Good thing we brought Ira's swim suit so he had something dry to wear home.

In other news, we started packing last night.  We load up the truck in three days, which suddenly feels a little too close.  We'll take the drive to Michigan slowly, over three days, with a long weekend in Lancaster visiting friends and family.

Today, Anthony started his new job remotely and is enjoying it so far.  

Ira has been acting more his age lately.  He's kind of like a preschool Jeckll and Hyde: super cute, loving and funny one day, and then extra aggressive and defiant the next.

Eliot is grabbing things left and right, though I don't think he's quite realized that he has thumbs, which is funny since they seem like especially large thumbs to me.  He's started growling lately, not when he's grumpy.  I think it must be all of Ira's dinosaur growling that he's picking up on.  It's pretty cute. 

Nothing much is new with me, except for starting an online class through coursera.  It's Listening to World Music, which is pretty awesome.  Thought I'd ease in with something not too demanding with all the craziness this summer.  

Anyway, life is good and busy.  Wish us luck with the move!