Our NH Long Weekend

We had a great weekend in NH.  Bob and I went out on a date night, we took walks, played on the swingset, went in the hot tub and the kiddie pool on the deck and MiniM.E. even braved the pool.  

Cutest conversation:
MiniM.E.: "I'm going to brave the pool!"
Gram: "I'm going to brave the hot tub."
MiniM.E.: "Gram, the hot tub isn't braveable, it's already hot!"

A Long Drive to NH

We drove to NH Friday after MiniM.E. was done with school.  LittleL.G. is doing really well with sleep training, so against my better-mommy-judgement, I took the advice to let her sleep at home for her major naps and we left after she woke up from her second nap assuming she would be well rested and happy for a couple hours and then take a catnap for the last leg of the trip.

Well, mommy-judgement should always be trusted because the trip was the worst trip to NH we have made yet.  There was a really bad trip when I was driving solo with MiniM.E. when she was just older than LittleL.G. and it was hot and she was sweaty and she cried for 45 minutes and I finally stopped to take a break and she ended up being fine the rest of the way.  There was the time we left home and LittleL.G. screamed for almost an hour before we stopped at McDonald's to get dinner and she ate and slept the rest of the way.  There was the time that LittleL.G. cried a lot for half an hour and that made MiniM.E. cry too so we had two crying kids.  But Friday's trip: takes the cake.

LittleL.G. was happy in the car on the way to pick up MiniM.E. from school: so far, so good.  LittleL.G. was happy to see MiniM.E. and happily played with her toys while we were stuck in traffic for half an hour waiting to get on the highway: so far, so good.  We finally started driving more than 10mph and LittleL.G. started getting a little fussy, but no screaming: so far, so good.  Before we even left Saratoga LittleL.G. started throwing her toys and wasn't happy playing with anything: not as good.  And when we were only half an hour from home (even though we'd been in the car for almost an hour and a half) she started crying inconsolably: not good.  Crying continued for the next hour and a half: want to pull hair out.  We stopped for dinner and LittleL.G. was fine as soon as I picked her up.  I was sure a break and some food would put her to sleep for the rest of the trip... but no.  More crying and more crying.  She finally slept for about 20 minutes after another half hour bout of crying but it didn't last long and there was another half hour of crying before we arrived at Gram and Grumpy's.  Note: leaving AFTER a nap. DOES. NOT. WORK.

Plan for the drive home: leave FOR her afternoon nap.  Fingers crossed!

no permanent damaged caused... still a happy baby!

Almost Crawling

LittleL.G. is mobile and can pretty much get wherever she wants to go.  She started spinning on her stomach, and then moved on to army crawling.  Now she can scoot on her bum, drag herself pretty speedily around and gets into the crawling and sitting position from her belly.

MiniM.E. is really excited for her to start crawling... So she's helping with the training:

Baths

When MiniM.E. was a baby I used to bathe her every day.  With two kids running around and our new early bedtimes, finding time for a bath seems like an almost impossible task.  Now that LittleL.G. is bigger, I usually throw them in together sometime at the end of the day when MiniM.E. just wants to keep playing and when I should really be making dinner, but something has to give every few days... I don't want to be the mom with the smelly kids.

This week was the first time in a long time that we did separate baths.  Which gave me an extra hand to take a few photos.

Ice Cream, Sandbox and Baby Ducks

Playgrounds and Spraygrounds

That's what summers are made of.  (and pools and lakes, but not in this post)

We made our first trip of the summer to the "Triangle Playground" which was MiniM.E.'s favorite when we lived closer to it.

tire swinging

pumping high!

swinging together

MiniM.E.'s new favorite way to swing in our yard

 The sprayground at West Side Rec was finally open over the weekend and MiniM.E. was literally jumping for joy:

LittleL.G. was less than impressed

chewing on a water bottle was way more fun

and swinging took the cake

 Gavin Park:

Back to the Beach

We have been sleep training LittleL.G. for the past couple weeks, and I have to say she is a much happier baby when she is rested.  And I am a much happier mommy when I am rested.  However, in order for sleep training to work, we have to be home for at least two of LittleL.G.'s nap every. single. day.  That is a huge commitment for me, and so much different from my usual schedule-less days.  But I think it's worth it.  It definitely makes outings challenging because we only have a few hours in between naps.  Yesterday we went to the beach between LittleL.G.'s morning nap and afternoon naps.  Which gave us about 90 minutes at the beach by the time we got there.  I wasn't sure if it would be worth it, but I think shorter activities are better for both girls, so the only one it isn't best for is me because I have to lug, set up, take down and bring back so much that we need for the beach.  Guess I better get used to it because both girls really love the beach.