sand, sun, and SLEEP

*WARNING: This is a VERY long post.

We had a great trip home. Yes, I still call my parent's house home. I LoVe to go home. I like to sleep in my old room, pad down the hall in the morning to my old kitchen, and mainly I just like being with my mom and dad {and Jackson}.

Going home has been a bit of a challenge lately {i.e, the past eight months}. Reese is NOT a good traveler. We have groomed our son to be a bit of a stickler for scheduling. He is a creature of habit, much like his mama. This makes any traveling difficult. We have been home three other times with Reese. Each of those trips was exhausting. He didn't sleep. Didn't nap. And didn't ride in the car well.

I am happy to report this trip was much more successful. I decided after our last overnight excursion to cart Reese's crib mattress to Pensacola. You laughed at me, I'm sure of it. Laugh no more, my friends. That was the best idea I have ever had. Yes, it was a bit of a pain to take the crib matress and bumper pad with us, but we were desperate. And Reese slept as well in Pensacola as he does at home. Yippee!!!!

While at home we were super busy. Thursday, Lofton {and my dad as his helper} started construction on the pergola for my mom. Lofton worked like a slave to get it finished and it is so beautiful. It took him all Thursday afternoon and all day Friday

He is supremely talented.

Friday, Mama and I hit the mall with our favorite baby to do some shopping. He was a great shopper... for the most part. Things started to fall a part around nap time, which coincided with me being in the dressing room in Ann Taylor. There was some very loud yelling {Reese not me}, but as soon as we started walking again he fell right to sleep in the stroller.

My parents were quite amused to see the changes in our little man. He has developed a fiesty personality over the past few weeks. There is a lot of shrieking, mixed with a little yelling, and {around food time} some spitting. He is sneaky and silly-- and stinking adorable.

There was also some exploration of new foods. I read in baby book that at nine months I was eating finger foods and table foods, so I decided to test the waters. Reese ate, and loves, yogurt. Clearly he takes after me, yogurt is a staple of my diet. Yo-Baby it is. It's a whole milk, organic yogurt. We've tried the apple and the blueberry. This morning he ate some for breakfast. He also ate some banana {still not a fan}, some biscuit, and some cheese grits.

Saturday we hit the beach. The water was a bit chilly, and Reese whimpered anytime we took him close, but he was brave enough to stick his little feet in.

He basically spent his time in the turtle pool. I'm so glad I thought to bring it. He splashed in the water and chewed on his toys, all the while watching everything going on around him.

All that playing wore him out. He actually took a decent nap under the umbrella.

It was a long ride home yesterday and we were sad to leave. Maybe that's why Reese was such a cranky toad on the way home. He really misses his Buck and Nonna when they aren't with him. Lucky for us, we'll see them on Thursday.