Glenn had his last day of school today (all 1 and 1/2 hours). His teachers were fighting back tears at pick-up time. It's sweet to see that they care so much about the kids. But the kids clearly didn't see what the big deal was. Although, last night, I told Glenn that tomorrow was going to be his last day and he needed to say good-bye to his teachers. He said he didn't want to. Then I remembered he doesn't like good-byes. I said, "You don't want to say good-bye?" He shook his head no. I asked him, "Do you want to just say hi instead?" He said yes. I told his teachers that, and they thought it was sweet. When we were leaving, he said that there was no more school. Then he asked about church school. I told him that was over until the end of the summer, too. The poor kid just wants to go to school. On the way home, he said, "No school. No lots of fun." I said that we can have lots of fun at home, can't we. He perked up and said, "Yeah, toys. Good job, Mommy. Give me five!" I guess he thought that I had a good idea.

Alexander can now walk across the living room if he takes his time. He'll stop a few times so he can catch his balance, then continues on. But most of the time he gets excited and wants to get to whatever he sees quickly and tries to run. Then of course he falls pretty quickly. He's been really sore with one of his molars trying to break through. Tonight, I gave him some teething gel and he let me rock him with his head on my shoulder. Ever since he began to crawl, he has not let me rock him. Once he's fed he doesn't want me to hold him anymore. So, although I felt bad for him because he was in pain, I really enjoyed rocking him. I was rocking Glenn today after he fell out of his bed during quiet time (who knows what he was doing in bed that made him fall). It was definitely not like rocking a baby since he's so tall now, but I'll take what I can get. :)

We had a fun weekend. We went to Sail Jacksonville on Saturday. They had probably 10 boats on the St. John's River in downtown Jacksonville. Some were really big sailing ships and some were smaller. Glenn was so excited to go on them. There were a lot of people dressed as pirates, which was a bit scary for Glenn, but he did okay. We also had ice cream and Glenn got to jump around in a bounce house shaped like a ship and make a sand castle. Alexander and I sat on the walk by the water while Bob and Glenn went on the ships, although we all went on the largest one together.

Here's Glenn at the wheel of the biggest ship:


And here's Alexander wearing his sailboat romper (yes, that was planned)while we waited for Bob and Glenn. He's grinding his teeth on his gums since they are so sensitive from his teeth trying to break through:

Alexander has been walking a lot today. Previously, he would just walk a couple of steps then fall. But today, he has been walking up to 10 steps at a time before stopping and standing before taking more steps, or falling. Sometimes, he doesn't get very far because it's more waddling in place, but other times he actually makes some ground. He's very proud of himself.

Glenn had lost a tooth in January and when they took an x-ray at that time, they said he was going to lose the other top front tooth. Well, now this tooth is very loose, barely hanging on. He likes to show us how much it moves, because it grosses us out. I'm sure it'll come out soon. And when it does, we'll get a partial for him so that he can continue to develop his speech. His teacher was testing him this week since it's the end of the school year. She is so pleased with his progress this year, and so are we. She was so excited to tell me that he recognized all but two letters (and one of them I know he knows because it's one of his favorite letters), and knows almost all the sounds of the letters. He also could replicate patterns more than what is expected for entry into kindergarten. Since he's only 4, he'll still have another year of preK next year. He'll be very prepared for kindergarten.

It has been a very busy weekend. But before I get to the weekend happenings, I have to back up to last Wednesday. I was sitting on the couch with my toes hanging off the coffee table when Glenn sat on my legs. At first it was okay, then suddenly it wasn't okay. My foot really hurt. So, Thursday I saw my doctor and she sent me for an x-ray. Thankfully it wasn't broken. But she thinks I have a bone bruise. It's slowly getting better, but I wasn't able to walk in the Relay for Life. I basically took care of our fund-raising- we sold food and since we were Team Hogwarts (from Harry Potter), we had the sorting hat, which figured out which house the kids would live in if they went to school at Hogwarts. It was cute. Overall, our team of 6 women made over $1700 between donations and our fund-raising at the event. Our community's Relay made over $30,000. Thank you again to everyone who donated. I was so tired when I got home around noon on Saturday. I did come home for a few hours because Alexander needed me to feed him. So, I got a couple of hours of sleep. Then I slept most of Saturday afternoon. Yesterday, I slept more after going to church.

Today, we went to the beach. It was the first day of no rain for a week (well, it's raining now at 8:15, but at least it didn't rain during the day). It was also Alexander's first time at the beach. I was a good mom and brought the camera. Both boys loved the sand and water. Glenn was a little fish and loved jumping in the waves. Alexander took to the sand a little slowly. But eventually he was licking it off the water bottle and putting fist fulls of sand in the mouth. This of course drove me crazy! We brought his little sun tent, but he just tried to roll it over- no napping, everything was too exciting. Who can blame him?

Here's Alexander checking out the sand for the first time.


Glenn playing in the sand:


The boys playing with each other:


When crawling in the sand, he didn't really like it on his knees, so he'd crawl with his butt in the air so his knees stayed off the sand. He also does this when crawling in the grass:


Alexander covered in sand:


We stayed there for about 2 1/2 hours. When we came home, we cleaned up, ate and slept the rest of the afternoon. I'm still finding sand everywhere. I like being at the beach, just not the sandy part. :) Back to the school routine tomorrow.

It's been a big weekend for Alexander. He got a haircut yesterday. This is his first full haircut. The other one he had was just a couple of patches of newborn hair that didn't fall out when the rest did. It wasn't easy, and he did not enjoy it. He even hated his bath afterward because he was so worked up from getting his haircut. Here are the before and after pics.


Alexander also took his first steps yesterday. I was doing dishes and Bob said he just took a step. To tell you the truth, I didn't think it was true. So, I came out of the kitchen and had him stand up. Sure enough, he took a step, and on the second step fell. Just before bed, he took 4 or 5 steps. It happened so quickly, we're not sure how many he took. He's been showing off all day.

Glenn has become quite the recycler. He loves to help out in the kitchen and he found an empty box the other day. I told him we need to recycle it. He said, "Oh, okay." And he undid the flaps at the bottom of the box, flattening the box, and put it in the recycle bin. I was so proud. :)