After we had so much fun last year in Sperryville, VA with the Somobrights and Hjeltaks, we decided to take another group vacation — this time to Cape Charles, VA. Cape Charles is a sleepy little town at the southern tip of the Delmarva Peninsula. It was formed in the 1880s when an enterprising duo decided that it would be more efficient to load train cars onto a ferry and take them over the water to Norfolk, VA than to go all the way around via Baltimore and other points west. Their invention of a ferry car for trains worked and led to a boom in railroad traffic down the peninsula. This was a boon to farmers there, who could sell their produce to a much wider audience. And it led to the creation of a town for railroad workers and travelers alike — the beginning of Cape Charles. The town was a hub of commerce and leisure until the Chesapeake Bay Bridge and Tunnel was opened in 1963. At that point, the railroad ferry became obsolete and the town slowly shut down. Now it’s a well-preserved patch of gorgeous old houses and largely empty storefronts. But it has great potential as a vacation destination and that seems to be what’s attracting new visitors to the town. We had a great time there and can see how Cape Charles may have a second life after all.
Hi all — a quick update from the beach for some breaking news. After spending 3 days with 2 kids his age with voracious appetites, Nico has eaten his first food. He sucked on some canaloupe today — willingly — and even asked for more. We have finally found something he’ll actually eat! (He had tolerated peaches, but just barely. He wouldn’t eat them, but at least they didn’t make him throw up.) Video to come…
Nico’s big cousin Nick graduated from high school this year. We went up to NY to celebrate his achievement and wish him well when he goes off to the University of Tampa this fall. Enjoy the photos!
Before we head out to the beach, I wanted to post these photos from July. This set does not include photos from our recent trip to NY for Nick’s high school graduation — those will come soon. And there’s no time for a long update, but I don’t think Nico really reached any milestones in July. The videos really give a good idea of what he’s doing these days. He continues to crawl, but is more interested in crawling to places that he can stand up than he is in crawling. He keeps testing his balance by taking his hands away from whatever is supporting him. He can stand for about 4 seconds like this before he falls. We’re hoping he doesn’t figure out the whole walking thing too soon…
A while ago, Nico discovered his voice and started piercing our eardrums on a regular basis. Frank had a theory that if he encouraged the squealing at sanctioned times, we would have fewer embarrassing moments when Nico screamed out in the middle of a silent crowd (like at a museum or in a restaurant). It actually seems to have worked! If we scream, he immediately screams back and we can still go back and forth several times. But he doesn’t make too much spontaneous ear-piercing noise any more.
This video shows Nico and Frank toward the end of a very long screeching match. You’ll notice Frank’s clenched hands — he learned this from Nico, not the other way around. Nico’s noises seem to come from way down deep within and he has to squeeze his hands and tense his muscles to let them out with their full force. Enjoy!
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Just a quick and dirty video posting from our dinner at a local Vietamese restaurant last night. It was taken on my phone, so the quality is not so great. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CY7UlGkq7yg
I posted a while ago about Nico pulling books off the shelf one at a time for us to read to him. The kid loves to read! This video is obnoxiously long (5 minutes!) but it shows Nico doing his latest tricks. He turns the pages while Frank reads him a book, chooses another book, crawls a tiny bit, stands up a tiny bit, and then **SPOILER ALERT** chooses another book. (Sorry to give away the ending…) This is one of my favorite videos. I’m hoping we can find one that I took of Nico and me during the daytime where you can see his face while I read to him. He smiles and squeals while he looks at the book and it’s fun to watch his face as he “reads” it. But I haven’t found that one for Frank to upload yet…
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