Charleston Road Trip

School's.  Out.  For.  Summer!  So we decided to go down to our brand new city by the ocean and have a look around.  On the way down, we stopped and bought Benjamin a cake/lolli-pop (only in America).  It was not immediately clear to him that he was supposed to eat it. Is it a toy of some kind?  We have yelled at him so many times for eating things that he isn't supposed to eat (leaves, sticks, coins, the Nerf football, the cats) that he's probably a little gun-shy when it comes to tasting new objects.

Finally, he took a bite.

We drove around James Island and Mt. Pleasant, two suburbs of Charleston that we might live in.  Then we went to one of the nearby beaches, Folly Beach.

We went seashell hunting.  Aunt Larissa and I used to hunt for shells at Assateague Island on family beach trips.  "Snail shells" were the coin of the realm.

We spotted sailboats, wind-surfers, and airplanes.

The first time we went to the beach, he didn't want to touch the sand or the water.  The second time, he liked the sand but still hated the water.  This time, eh, the water's not so bad.

As long as it's less than shin-deep.

 Grandpa has a story about me at the beach when I was a toddler.  I fearlessly headed off down the beach for a long while before I realized I didn't know where I was.  My Dad was following at a discrete distance to secretly find out how far I'd get before I looked around and realized I was lost.  Benjamin headed off down the beach himself on this trip, but he was after the kite-surfers that were about a half-mile down the beach (I don't think he has a good grasp of distances just yet).  He kept turning around to make sure that I was following and to shout detailed yet incomprehensible instructions to me ("Man Kite!  Two!), but I think he would have attempted the journey on his own if I hadn't grabbed him. 

Wussat?

He stopped saying "Dis?" cold-turkey last month and replaced it with "Wussat?"

Wussat?  That's a merry-go-round!

Four successive rotations:

Kempa: Expert Plumber, Electrician, and Bedtime Storyteller

Kempa came down from Blacksburg again to visit and help us unhook and re-hook our kitchen plumbing before and after our new "granite" (monzodiorite; sorry, we're geologists) countertops were installed.  They look great, but now everything else in our kitchen looks like shit in comparison.

Kempa also took over the pre-bedtime storytelling duties.  Plumbing, electrician-ing, and Grandpa-ing...Kempa does it all with style and aplomb!

On Saturday we went out to NoDa and got egg sandwiches at Amelie's and then went to Smelly Cat for delicious coffees and hot chocolates. 

Sweet Stuff

Benjamin went to the doctor for a (slightly late) 2 year checkup and to get a polio booster shot.  He has now topped 30 lbs, so carrying him is becoming more of a challenge, especially considering all 30 lbs is usually flailing wildly.

His shots have always been administered in the same special room in the doctors office.  For the first time ever, he looked around the room and immediately knew where he was and started crying preemptively.  His brain is now capable of remembering, which means he is now capable of harboring long-term grudges.  He has become a high-level sentient and aware being, like Skynet. His evil powers can only increase now.

His fury about the shot was short-lived, because he got his very own lollipop.  He enjoyed it immensely, although probably didn't enjoy having both of his parents hovering over him and incessantly reminding him to lick it and not stuff the whole thing all at once down his gullet.

We went for a bike ride last weekend and he got to try some honeysuckle.  Our fears that he would subsequently see every plant as possibly edible appear to be unfounded.