Our Second Home

Last week we were in NH again.  Who could pass up an opportunity to have a live-in babysitter (thanks Mom!) free food, laundry and unlimited swimming in an in-ground pool and hot tub?  Certainly not me.

Bob drove with us and stayed for the weekend, and MiniM.E and I stayed until the end of the week.

We didn't do anything particularly exciting, but I think that's part of what made it awesome.  A nice relaxing week...

To keep your reading time to a reasonable 5 or so minutes, I will avoid a photo bomb and instead try to recap some of the cuter highlights from our trip.  Note the word try.

Swimming with Daddy

Toss the baby

We had a toss-off.  Daddy won.

Playing with pool toys

Finding MORE pool toys

In the baby-friendly hot tub

Going for a walk

Playing with a broken pair of glasses.  Looks even more fun than the pool toys.

In the hot tub with Gram

Finger up the nose

Testing a smoothie

 C & H came over for a play date and we broke out the long-lasting bubbles.

Bubbles with H

Come back here!

Love this photo.  Might have to replace the engagement photo from this post.

Walking with Auntie Jen

Standing alone!

Just woke up

and wasn't too happy about all the pictures!

Double Digits

I don't even know how this happened, but my little girl is *gulp* TEN months old (what will I do when its years?!?).  They grow up so fast... everyone was right.

I can't believe what an incredible little person she's becoming.

A Week Ago... (A Recap)

MiniM.E.'s grandparents visited for the day.  In my last post I mentioned that Bob may have lost the camera, but as a typical guy might, he just did a bad job looking for it.  Turns out, it was in his backpack.  Here are the photos...

Thanks for the mini chair!

Snacking at the track breakfast

Practicing standing

Pointing at the horses

Guess the tour of the backstretch wasn't very interesting for MiniM.E.

Swinging with MeeMaw

Did I Mention My Baby is AWESOME??

I just can't believe how quickly babies learn.  Yesterday morning the quickest Stretchy could get around the house was by lying on her stomach, shoving her face in the floor and using her toes to push forward... inch by inch.

Then yesterday she somehow learned to crawl, pull up, stand and cruise.  All in one day.

So this morning, I started baby-proofing...

Is it the cutest that she crawls like that?  Definitely.

The Terrible Eights?

Stretchy is a whole eight months old!  Where does the time go??

She's working on crawling and wants to stand and try to walk all the time.  Which is super awesome.  I also found out she understands us.  You can say "clap your hands" and guess what?  She does!  Amazing.

She's also been incredibly fussy.  All. The. Time.  Or at least it feels like all the time.

It's probably cutting teeth.  Apparently, once they get teeth, anything and everything can be attributed to teething... until they're done getting teeth.  Awesome.

She also has the worst case of mommy-itis.  Ever.  I can't even leave a room in my house and go someplace else without evoking a screaming fit which must leave my neighbors thinking I have a secretive torture chamber.  Forget going to the gym and let her stay in the babysitting room.  The second I set her down she starts crying.  And continues crying.  Until fifteen minutes later (which is apparently the standard amount of time they must keep your screaming kid) when they have to come get me.

And now she's learned that if she wants something that I've taken away, she can scream and cry and most likely, I'll give it back.  This is inclusive of cell phones, toys, kitchen utensils, cameras, stuffed animals, dirty diapers and hair elastics.  It also applies to occasions where she is someplace she likes and I try to remove her to a new location.

She's so super cute that I can't be mad at her, but it can get kind of trying.

AND, as mean as it may be, I do kind of enjoy cute screaming baby pictures...

A Busy Week

Once Stretchy and I were both feeling better, we ended up having a pretty busy week.  I think it was really good for us because we'd been stuck in the house like we were quarantined for almost two weeks and cabin fever was starting to drive me a little nuts (and I certainly cannot afford to be more crazy than I already am).

Wednesday my sister arrived to spend part of her vacation with us.  Its always nice to see her and we haven't been home in a while, so it had been too long since we'd seen her last.  Unfortunately, it took Stretchy a while to warm up to her, but soon she had a new favorite play-mate (and I got to take some breaks to finish recovering!)  My mom came too since she's always looking for excuses to come see her favorite person... and her daughter...

We did some shopping and ran some errands.

Are we getting in the car already?

We headed up to Lake George (which was kind of a bust since most things were still closed for the season) and strolled around downtown Saratoga.  And we played with the baby...

It was really nice to see my sister and have company for a while.

They left Friday after Stretchy's first swimming lesson and we had a quiet evening.

Saturday we went up to Lake George again- this time to the Recreation Center where we took a hike in the woods, had a picnic with some friends we met in Germany and their kids.  Bob and the other dad took their bikes out on the trails there while the other mom and I watched the kids on the playground.  Unfortunately, a six-month old can't really play on the playground, but she seemed to have a good time sitting on the picnic table and watching.

Family photo... no, it's not a skirt, the baby's legs were cold- it's a blanket!

Sunday we went to a baby shower and had a BBQ with one of our friends who just moved back from Belgium and will be starting work with Bob soon.

Hanging out with the big kids...

I have to say, after more than a week of doing nothing, we definitely made up for it with everything we did last week!  Today we'll take it easy and enjoy the nice weather!

Here's some cute pictures of Stretchy hanging out on the couch this morning:

Standing and reaching

After falling over

Almost in the crawling position!