Last Saturday we left for Topsail Beach with my family.  My grandparents, my mom, little brother, older brother and his wife and my niece, and my aunt and two of her three children were in attendance.  We had a relaxing weekend at our favorite beach.

At this same time, Gwyn decided that she was going to start showing her resistance to certain activities such as being diapered, getting dressed, and having sunscreen applied.  She has started protesting by rolling around and hollering.  Brian and I are learning to deal with this new stage of infancy and I’m sure her tantrums will only get better with age. However, on a good note, she also learned to stand up holding onto furniture this week.  No cruising yet, but pulling herself up, yes.

Bella, my 6 year old niece, was such a big help.  She especially liked to help bathe Gwyn and would eat lunch with her.  Gwyn is fascinated by Bella and all that she does.  I’m hoping that she looks up to Bella because Bella is a good girl.

We set up Gwyn’s baby pool on the porch since it is usually extremely hot at the beach at the end of July.  It also helped because Gwyn was not a big fan of the sand, unless it meant eating it.  She did like the water the second to last day there but that is because Brian was holding her in the waves rather than setting her in the sand on the water’s edge as I was doing.

One day her 2nd cousin, Nick, put a fish in her pool.  She was ok with it untill it brushed up against her leg.  She started crying and was clinging to me… I had to giggle.  Then when I tried to put her back into her pool, she held the one leg up from the bottom of the pool until she was assured that the fish was no longer there… even Grammy sat in her pool with her to ease her fears.

She got to spend a great week with my grandparents.  Here is a picture of Gwyn playing with her Great Grandpa.

Gwyn slept with my mom (Grammy) and my Aunt Bonnie for the first 3 nights and the last night woke Grammy up at 3:30 am.  So she got moved into our room.  I think that the 3:30 am wake up was due to a bad dream.  I also think that her teething contributed to the bad nights.  She is currently drooling like a running faucet.  We go through more bibs then ever and she is constantly fussy, which is just not Gwyn.  I’m hoping that this tooth breaks through in the next day or so.

She LOVED the fresh air at the beach.  We often took her for walks on the beach before bedtime; however, this afternoon, she feel asleep for her nap on the porch swing with me.

Saturday morning came and we headed out to meet Brian’s mom, sister, and our niece.  We met in Smithfield for some shopping for a few hours.  We had a good time seeing Brian’s family and got to love on Layla whom we hadn’t seen since going to Myrtle Beach at the end of June.

We got home around 4 pm and were welcomed by all our animals.  Keegan and Tess loved on Gwyn as she squealed in delight.   She too missed all her animals as I think they missed her.  We sure are glad to be home but not glad to be headed back to work this week.

We have a busy week of appointments.  I found a lump on Keegan’s chest just prior to leaving for vacation.  We have an appointment with the vet on Monday at 11 am.  I’m worried sick, to be honest.  I feel like he looks thinner then before we left and his hair has been coming out in clumps.  So I’m hoping the lump is nothing but I’m worried that it is something.  Keegan is 6 years old and I would be devastated if this lump was not good news. Good thoughts all around are in order.

Gwyn has her 9 month check up on Friday.  Can you believe she is 9 months old already?  I’m wondering where time has gone.  But to be honest, she is so much fun at this age and I’m loving every moment of it, as is evident by this picture.

I hope everyone has a great week…that’s it for this Sunday.

UPDATE: Keegan is fine! We went to the vet this morning (Rachel came home for lunch and then worked late) and had the lump on his chest checked out – turns out it is just a “fatty tumor”.  They used a needle to take a sample and checked it out for us, and everyone (incuding Gwyn) was relieved!  Both Keegan and Tess got some chicken tonight in celebration. Hope all of you are well and in chicken bliss like the dogs. -Brian

Vacation, concerts, weekend trips, job hunting, swim lessons, pool parties and life in general has gotten in the way of sharing more pictures and stories with you all.  Once things die down a bit (probably August), we hope to update the site each and every Sunday night.  (so check back on Mondays!)

The month of June went by in a blur as we went to two concerts – R.E.M. (my Father’s Day gift!) and my favorite band later in the month, The Cure.  Scott, Rachel and I enjoyed the R.E.M. concert, even though it was almost 98F that evening, but all agreed that we had wanted to hear more of their old songs than we did that night.

A week later the three of us, along with Gwyn, traveled to Charlotte to see The Cure.  Mark and Anne were more than happy to watch Gwyn for us, and the concert was freaking awesome.  I had not seen them since ‘96 in Virginia (I was 22!) and they did not disappoint – they even played THREE encores!  It was nice to be back in Charlotte, even for only one night.  It made me realize how much I still miss that town.

The rest of June went by pretty fast, along with it our family trip to Myrtle Beach, SC.  A trip to Myrtle Beach used to be something of a tradition in my family, as we would travel down from Ohio every year for about four or five years straight.  We even stayed in the same motel each and every time too.  This year was special as my parents, my sister and her husband, my two nieces, and the three of us went down for five days to stay in a condo on the beach.

Here are a few pictures from the trip – you will notice there will be no pictures of myself, as I turned about three shades of red from our first full day at the pool.  Lucky for me there were better things to take pictures of anyways.

Gwyn and Rachel having fun at the pool.

Gwyn and Layla having fun before bedtime.

Gwyn and Layla pose for the camera.

Gwyn poses in orange.

Finally we have some recent pictures from here at the house of Gwyn having fun with her favorite toy of all – a Baby Einstein table that plays music and talks.  You can notice how much more hair Gwyn has now than the previous pictures, not to mention that she is able to pull herself up to the table and go to town on that thing.  I think she might have a bit of Spinderella in her as well, as she often comes up with some pretty sweet beats.

And finally, I leave you with one of our favorite faces that Gwyn has started to make when she is really, really, concentrating on something.

What’s not to love?

]]> http://brassinefamily.com/2008/07/24/11/feed/ 5 http://brassinefamily.com/2008/06/04/10/ http://brassinefamily.com/2008/06/04/10/#comments Thu, 05 Jun 2008 02:37:19 +0000 Rachel http://brassinefamily.com/?p=10 We took Gwyn to Ohio to meet Brian’s Granny for the first time over Memorial Day Weekend. We drove up in the Highlander with Brian’s parents. It took 11 hours to get up there…missed our exit…and 10 hours to get back. Gwyn only fussed during the last 30 minutes of each trip.

While in Ohio, we went to Columbus shopping and ate at the Cheesecake Factory where Gwyn sat in a restaurant high chair for the first time. It was rather nice to be able to eat a meal out without holding her or taking the stroller inside where you are always wondering if it is in the way of the server.

That Saturday, we met my mom at the Cleveland Zoo. We had a great time and it is a really nice zoo. Gwyn was such a trooper and enjoyed being strolled around.

Here is Gwyn at the zoo laughing at Brian…

Here is Gwyn taking a much needed nap while we wait for Grammy to buy something for Uncle DJ…

We did some relaxing too and just hanging out at Granny’s. Here is Gwyn taking a bath in the sink…

I hated to come back and go to work. It is so hard to go to work everyday and be away from Gwyn. She is changing so much right now. She sits up so well by herself. She is learning to crawl and trying really hard to coordinate her legs and hands movement to actually move forward. She smiles ALL the time and Brian can make her laugh like nobody else can.

The down side of the trip…I gained 1.4 pounds after losing 4.6 pounds. However, the next week, I was down 3.8 pounds for a total weight loss of 7 pounds. I only have 11.2 pounds to go to get to my goal. Good news is that I started running again!

Here is a picture of Gwyn’s big, melt-your-heart smile to leave you with until next time.