vacation days

vacation with an infant is definitely different then a vacation without one! that may sound obvious, but i didn't really realize it until i was smack dab in the middle of it. that's not to say that we didn't absolutely have an amazing time, because we did, it just opened my eyes quite a bit once again to what being a mama really is. and i only had this one little one, god bless my sister who's got three!

penny was really great the entire time for being so completely out of her element. sure her sleep routine was off, but she's a very go with the flow kind of baby and for that i am extremely thankful! we went swimming, mama went on her fair share of roller coasters, we spent lots of time out in the sticky summer air, and i even caught one glorious quiet moment with a delicious cocktail. penn did surprisingly well on the 5 hour drives there and back thanks to some new little toys to explore, and some serious big ups to these here puffs! 

all in all i learned a whole lot about vacationing with a wee one, and i'm happy to say that i would gladly do it again. i want penny to be able to look back on her childhood and know that she went places. there is a big ol' world out that and i'd like her to know that her mama and papa tried to show her a good deal of it!

home again, home again...

we're back! so much fun and quality family time was squished into those few days away, and now i'm needing a vacation to recover from my vacation! we're working on getting back into the swing of things round these parts. for nearly a week i had about 10 other people around ready to help out with penny all day every day, and now we're back to it being just her and i all day while evan is at work. i'll admit, it's taking a bit of adjusting. i'm so happy to be back home though, and penny is happy to be with her papa again. there is definitely something to be said for being in your own bed, and your baby sleeping through the night when she's in hers!

a full vacation update is to come... but tonight this mama is relaxing!

skippin' town!

tomorrow morning bright and early, penny and i, along with her gaga & pop pop, are hitting the road for busch gardens in williamsburg, va! we'll be meeting up with my brother, sister, friends, and quite a few of penny's cousins. good times are sure to follow!

sadly though evan isn't able to join us because his work just doesn't allow the time away right now. pictures like the one above from last weekend make me so sad that he's not going to be there with us. why can't we just win that dang lottery already so that we can concentrate on living life without that pesky thing called money that always gets in the way.

papa bear, we'll miss you more then you can know...

ps... you can follow along with our adventure on instagram is you so desire!

milestones and sleep

this is our past 24 hours...

i just wanted to share what we've been going through here for the past day now. first i'll explain that i've been having penny take her naps in her pack-n-play for the last few days, because we're going out of town this weekend and i want her to get used to sleeping in there now, so that when we're on vacation i don't have one freaked out little lady who can't sleep because she's in a new place. now with that run on sentence all squared away, i'll explain what's happened in the above photo.

two days ago penny learned to go from laying on her belly, to sitting up. woohoo, so very proud of our little baby. we clapped and cheered, and were so happy... then bedtime came. she just couldn't get enough of her new trick, and in her squirmy sleep state would suddenly find herself sitting up, with no clue how to lay back down and fall asleep. our baby who was sleeping though the night was now suddenly waking up every couple hours sitting up, and had no idea what to do about it. so we tried to teach her to lay back down and go to sleep. only, when we go in to lay her down, it completely wakes her up out of her sleepy state, and now we have a fully awake crying baby on our hands, who still doesn't know what to do when she sits up at night. no bueno!

so we had to do what no mama ever wants to do, and let her work it out on her own. knowing penny's personality, i know that she's a quick learner, and she'll get it if i just leave her to it. so after some crying (i'll admit, from both her and i) she fell asleep. but alas, she fell asleep in the least comfortable yoga position possible. once she's out, i just go in and ever so gently shift her to her side. i say gently meaning, holding my breath the entire time that she doesn't wake up, because if she does it's all over! hopefully she'll figure out soon how to just lay down, because nap time, which was a breeze, is now taking an extremely long time to achieve these days!

it's so true what they say, once you've got a little routine down pat, they go and switch the whole thing up on you. thanks for keeping me on my toes penn!

recently... according to my iphone

days at home with this sweet girl just keep getting better and better. i'm one lucky mama for sure!

*currently penny is sitting on the floor next to me "watching" her very first disney movie. we opted for lady & the tramp to start her off. she's pretty into it!