NH: The Weekend

Friday we practiced clapping

 climbing

 and crawling.

 We played with a plant

 And the flowers it lost.

 And we hung out with the cat.

Did I mention my kid is an expert speck of dirt finder?  She LOVES my kitchen floor...

A plane? Bird? Cloud? Nope... probably a ghost or something...

And went swimming.  And took naps.  And ate food.  And went shopping.  But those things aren't glamourous enough for photos.

I lied.  Shopping with a baby is always photo-worthy.

Yes, I bought the book.  For the record, it is an Indestructible.  Best invention ever.  Which, I should have thought of so I could be a millionaire.  However, I didn't, so I'm not.  Sad face.

And then Daddy came to meet us.  MiniM.E. was very excited.  Well, she didn't actually say that, but she kicked her legs a bunch.  And then we had to put her to bed because it was late.  Oh well.

Fortunately, we had Saturday to play in the pool with Daddy.

And go to the Concord Market Days.  Which was an ok outing, but seriously USA, get on the street festival bandwagon.  A street festival (a la Dresden) must have A. bratwurst stands (or at least some tasty greasy food), B. beer, beer and more beer, and C. beer.  Did I mention a street festival should have beer?  Eh, its ok.  I've learned over the past year to lower my expectations of street festivals.  We don't have cute wooden figurines, or cold fish sandwiches, or little huts in which to sell goods...

After the market days we played in the pool some more, had a BBQ, relaxed on the deck, and enjoyed being taken care of by my parents (thanks guys!).

PS: above photos were taken by my sister.  I am petitioning for her to leave her job and come live here to be my permanent photographer.  No, I lied.  Though that would be awesome.  But she should probably be a photographer, right??

I forgot to mention we put the cat in the baby swing.

We couldn't leave Sunday without swimming some more... and as MiniM.E. went down for her second nap of the day, we left.

It was so nice to relax for a week by a pool while having my mom make me food and do my laundry... and have two or three other people fuss with MiniM.E. a bit.

Now it's back to the grind... (because playing with toys, sitting out in a kiddie pool and taking walks are such taxing activities...)

NH: Day 3

Today we spent the afternoon with MiniM.E.'s "boyfriend" H and his mom C.

MiniM.E. was excited to see H, and they played together inside for a while

 but I think she was even more excited to spend the day in the pool.  So was I.  And so were H and C.  So we were all happy campers.

Nothing beats being swung around

except maybe being thrown!

Baby surfer!

I couldn't get enough of the adorable babies in the pool... but alas, MiniM.E. needed a nap...

Afterwards we enjoyed the cool evening out on the deck.

Sunscreen: the new hair gel

Then we played for a bit inside... and might have dressed up H in a dress... because what mom doesn't need that blackmail for her son later in life?

"Look everyone I'm standing!"

"Aw, wait a minute, what's this you put me in?  A DRESS?!?"

As you can see, H really wore MiniM.E. out...

NH: Day 2

My sister had the day off today, so we decided we wanted to do something fun with MiniM.E., hopefully near some water.

We thought of the ocean and lakes, but as nice as being near the water sounds, it's not quite as fun when you're huddling on your 1 square foot of beach beside the oily tanners, the sand-kicking kids, the yelling moms and the radio-blaring teens.  Especially if its super hot and you have to weave your way to the water.  Fortunately, my sister is a fantastic swimming-spot locator, so we ended up at a super cute sandbar in the river.

Here is MiniM.E. checking out the weather in the morning

 And trying to play with my parent's cat.  Unfortunately, the cat was not nearly as excited about MiniM.E as she was about him.

After a nice morning nap, we headed out and had a great afternoon at the river.

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...