Boating with Babies

The first family vacation officially took place in early September. Bubby and Grandpa graciously rented a large house on the lake for a week so the kids and grandkids could come and stay as schedules permitted.

We missed the first half of the week.Hubs was working hard to bring home the bacon. We left on Wed. night after C’s bedtime to ensure she would sleep through the entire 6 hour drive. She did and we arrived in the wee hours on Thursday morning. On Thursday, the only people at the house were Bubby, Grandpa and Quinn. The others had come, left and would show up again later in the week.

Before I digress into the details, please note my key learnings from vacationing with a baby. 
• It takes longer to do EVERYTHING
• All activities attention is centered around babies.
• Babies do not observe the lazy sleep-in schedule on vacations that we adults are accustomed to.
• Late night drinking and tom-foolery no longer extends into the wee hours like it used to. This is directly driven by the point above.

C and Quinn were on completely opposite schedules. Each day, they were probably both awake at the same time for 3 or 4 hours. We had so much fun watching the two of them interact, dissecting the plethora of ways they are different.



As we went for C’s first trip on the boat, we had to strap/zip/stuff her into the infant life jacket prior to even WALKING on the dock. Safety first people, this is my baby girl we’re talking about. It is hard to gauge if C liked the boat or not because she DID NOT like the life jacket! In all honesty, I could see why. It is big, cumbersome and has a flotation piece that supports her head.

The uncomfortable but super SAFE life jacket. I swear there is a baby under there!


Once the boat was beached, the girls had a little freedom from the life jackets. They floated in the water, slept and enjoyed life.






We only got out for a couple trips on the boat during the trip, mostly because of baby schedules. I think it was a learning experience for the whole family. We learned how different things are now and how we have to shift our idea of a vacation on the lake to fit our new reality. My guess is that in the future, we’ll try to be right on the water so we don’t loose so much time shuffling back and forth, and more people can take smaller trips out to ski and relax.

I also need to mention the strong sense of nostalgia I felt through out this trip. Our boat, Mellow Yellow, is… how do I say this? Vintage. The boat is old, but thanks to Grandpas diligent and expensive upkeep, we still get to vacation on the same boat on which we grew up. There were several times on the trip it felt strange to see the next generation on Mellow Yellow. Case in point is the picture below. That cubby was home to many a tired, cold, worn out kid. There is C, taking a nap in that same spot.





It was an awesome trip. And as a new mom, each new experience illuminates the ways my life is different now, in the best way of course.



FYI, this picture is to illustrate the importance of swimmy diapers. It looks like someone used a pump to inflate her booty.

Who is afraid of a little ole comma?

I guess it's me. I often find myself reading through my posts after I've published them. There are numerous grammar mistakes (INSERT COMMA) but it seems like my most egregious offense is omitting commas.

At least there aren't a bunch of run on sentences who could read that mess all jumbled together without any punctuation not me besides how could you understand tone without punctuation?

Thank you everyone who reads my blog. Please don't hold my lack of editing against me.

New Mom

I know I haven't posted in a while. The intention is there, but the time isn't. I'll just use my standby excuse, "I have a baby". I don't know how long I can use that excuse because it doesn't seem to stop some of my more organized friends from getting it all done.

Anyways, the past month has been very eventful for our house. Caroline got sick for the first time. Hubs had a birthday. And we went to the lake and took the babies on their very first vacation! If that wasn't enough, we come back from vacation and Caroline gets sick again right as I have to leave for a business trip.

If I've learned one thing in the past month, it is that I am the baby in this scenario, the newborn mom. As Caroline is leaning to crawl, I'm learning to let her fall. As she is learning new people, I'm trying to learn not to hover. As she is experiencing new things, I'm discovering new levels of worry.

All my mom-friends probably tried to prepare me for this, but I tell you now it must be learned through experience. I now know how worthless you feel when your baby is screaming and crying looking to you to fix it and there is nothing you can do. Baby tears are heartbreaking. On the flip side of that coin is laughter. I have NEVER heard a sound so sweet. It fills me with joy. I am doing anything I can think of to encourage her giggles. She is a tough sell!

So all this to say that almost 9 months later, I'm probably less confident than ever. Let's hope this trend doesn't continue or my daughter will end up raising me.

As soon as I can I'll fill you in on Caroline's first vacation. In the meantime, I'll leave you with the best shot Hubs took with his phone on vacation - Bubby and the Babies.

Picture Pages

Pictures of the lovely Caroline from Biscuit's wedding.



This is her "I'm going to get you" expression




And some other pics from this past weekend.

Stealing Kisses.


Checking out Brutus