A NH Getaway: Day 1

Today we woke up early, as always, for MiniM.E.'s 9-month check-up.  Usually early is 6:30, but today I was lucky enough to sleep until 7.  Which would have been amazing had I not planned on being woken up at 6:30... My mom drove in Sunday to collect us and bring us back to NH for the weekend.  To make the trip as smooth as possible, we figured on leaving for MiniM.E.'s first nap.  Which would likely fall right after the doctor's appointment.  Which meant we had to pack the car.  And eat breakfast. And feed the baby. And change the baby. And get the baby in the car.  In one and half hours.  We did it... no time to spare... Fortunately, we had a break from vaccines this time, so I didn't have to prep myself for the inevitable embarrassment of crying in the doctor's office.  We chose an early morning appointment in hope that there would be little time for the appointments ahead of us to back up, resulting in us sitting in the tiny examining room for hours with nothing but tongue depressors to play with.  With the stress of packing everything up in such a short amount of time, I might have chosen the tongue depressors... but everything went smoothly and we were out and on our way to NH.

I was super excited to be home for the week.  Mostly because it's nice to have help during the day and have someone do my laundry and cook for me.  Also, as awesome as our kiddie pool is... on hot days sometimes you just want to go swimming.  In more than 3 inches of water.

As soon as we could we suited up and got in the pool.  MiniM.E. had a blast!

While drying off, we had a flower photo shoot with Aunt Jen.

All the swimming and fresh air tired MiniM.E. out.  Unfortunately, not so much that she slept through the night...

The Ridiculousness Continues...

When I posted about the "Terrible Eights," I may have forgotten to mention a few key issues I have with my now-eight-month-old.

Issue 1:  I like my sleep.  Apparently, Stretchy does not like me to sleep.  This is apparent in the fact that she wakes up more now than when she was a tiny infant.  Like every 3 hours.  Or less.  Last night, SEVEN times... SEVEN.  Let me just write it one more time for emphasis:  SEVEN.  Which, according to my awesome new toy, the fitbit, means out of the 8 hours and 15 minutes I was "in bed" I only slept for FIVE. AWESOME.

Issue 2:  I like to eat breakfast.  Apparently, Stretchy does not like me to be full and would prefer I was starving all day.  In the past, I was able to make my breakfast and eat it while Stretchy ate hers.  Now, since she refuses to eat breakfast, I must either eat my breakfast (tasty warm oat bran) while playing on the floor (resulting in oat bran covered carpet and/or toys) or let it get cold and gross on the table and throw it away when it becomes inedible.  Thus, I am now looking for new breakfast options... I am also hungry.

Issue 3:  I like to walk in a comfortable and upright position.  Apparently, Stretchy prefers that I walk with an extra 18 or so pounds on one hip so that my spine looks like a fish hook and I'm practically hobbling after a quarter mile. Obviously neither stroller we have is comfortable or exciting enough for her.

Here is evidence.  Yesterday I planned on taking a nice relaxing walk by the golf course at the Saratoga State Park.  Stretchy started out happy enough in her stroller.

We even saw a bunny.

This is us in the same spot on the way back.

What's different?  Aside from Stretchy being out of the stroller, I look unhappy tired like I love my baby so much that when she screamed her head off as if her arms were being torn from her body, I carried her an entire mile rather than let her suffer in the torturous stroller.

Issue 4:  I prefer people did not think I abuse my child or endager her in any way.  Stretchy, on the other hand, seems to want people miles away to think that I am either lighting her on fire, or letting her be mauled by wild animals.

Evidence:  In the parking lot after we returned from the previously described walk, I placed my seemingly comforted baby in the safe confines of her carseat so that I could pack up our belongings and take her home.  No sooner had I put her down than she began screaming so loudly and inconsolably that I immediately picked her up for fear that someone in the vicinity would hear her and call 9-1-1 or rush to her aid and call CPS because surely a child can only cry like that if she is being severely injured or mistreated.

My only other option seemed to be to set her in the grass while I put the stroller away.

This was a miracle decision on my part because A) she stopped crying, B) she seemed happier than she had in the past few days, and C) we had an activity to entertain her for a good 30 minutes.

I also got some really cute pictures...

Mother's Day Weekend... and Other Stuff

After a long day of "fencing" on Saturday, I was excited for an awesomely relaxing Mother's Day.

We had it all planned.  Wake up, hang out with the baby, have lunch at Denny's (I have an ever-present craving for pancakes) and just relax all day...

Well, my day started much too early thanks to one sleepless baby... though who can be sad to wake up to this?

so I was just a bit tired and cranky.  We managed a very nice walk at the Saratoga State Park, but were almost brain-damaged by a couple who was so bad at golf that their balls were raining down on our heads. Then Stretchy, fell asleep ON THE WALK... which always makes me a bit sad because I cherish my nap times... when else would I get anything done?  Around noon we arrived at Denny's (I was so psyched!) only to find a ridiculously long wait... and Stretchy had already cried during the entire 25 minute drive there, so we had to resort to plan B: Friendly's.  Of course, breakfast at Friendly's ended at noon and we ordered at 12:15 so guess what I couldn't eat for Mother's Day Brunch?  Pancakes.  I was pretty upset... it kind of ruined my meal... who wants a sandwich when you could have had pancakes?

BUT, fortunately, we took advantage of the nice weather and headed to a park downtown where Stretchy was excited to play in the grass and we got to feed a duck.  At least that made things a little better.

Stretchy also got to ride the Carousel for the very first time, which was pretty much the most adorable thing I've ever seen.

I was kind of hoping for her to crawl for me as a Mother's Day present... which didn't happen.... BUT
she is babbling now, which is super cute.  AND she can play peek-a-boo by herself.  Also pretty awesome.  So I'll wait on the crawling.

News from Wednesday: TOOTH #2!!

Teeth!

This past week I had a very cranky baby on my hands.  BUT, congratulations to my baby- she has her first tooth (with another just waiting to poke through)!!

I've been doing my best to keep her occupied during the day, by dancing, singing and acting absolutely ridiculous, but unfortunately, we've had a few nights of very little sleep:

see, even the baby is tired... and she's NEVER tired...

while we wait for the second tooth to finally push through.  Its RIGHT THERE.  I can SEE it.  But its still under the gums and seems to just be hanging out enjoying torturing Stretchy and me.

Today was gorgeous, so thankfully we were able to keep Stretchy occupied outside while we put up a new fence.  She looked pretty cute today.  Here's evidence:

Being the foreman

Not too happy with our progress

Definitely not happy with the hat...

Stop everything.  Where are the cats?

Really?  You want to put that THERE?

See, I wanted to PLAY with the hat!