Beach Baby

We just got back from our beach vacation a few days ago, and we are getting ready to head out to a mountain vacation tomorrow!  Busy bees lately!

Get ready, this post is gonna be really, really long!

So, it was Addy's first beach vacation, and Daisy's first and LAST beach vacation.  It was just too much having Daisy there too, especially with her bestest bud Holly.  They are both awesome dogs, but together it's nonstop action, and it's exhausting to be around.  And whenever we went to the beach, they spent their time crying for us to return.  Poor Grandma and Grandpa had to listen to crying dogs all week.  And then after one dog peeing on the rug, and the other dog vomiting on the rug and escaping from the porch (yup, that second dog was our gal Daisy), we made the decision to leave the pups at home next year.  Sorry girls.  It was too much...much, much too much.

But on the other hand, Addy was sooo fun at the beach!  (Good thing, because I don't think leaving her at home next year would be an option ;))  It took her a little bit of time to get used to it, but by the end of the week, she loved the beach.  Thank goodness, because you can't be a girl in this family and not be a beach bum!

These little wading pools that creep up with high tide are the perfect spot for little ones.  They can still play in the water, but it's warmer and not as scary as the big bad ocean.  Addy had her little pile of sand toys and she lasted a surprisingly long time there.

Hurricane Irene messed us up a little bit, and we didn't get to the beach until Sunday night, but it could've been soooo much worse.  There was no damage to our beach house, and the house had power, so we were very lucky.

Day one: Monday:

We didn't make it very far out of the house with Addy Marie.  She lasted maybe 15 minutes at the beach.  Here is one of the few pics from that day. 

She didn't tolerate being put down at all, and was only content to be carried around.  I guess I can't blame her.  I can only imagine how scary the ocean must look to a little baby.  So Grandma Hetrick was more than willing to tote Addy around and show her the ropes.  How cute are they in their beach hats? :) 



(Notice the giant log in the ocean?  Yup, its part of a pier that was destroyed in the hurricane.  One of the reasons we decided not to venture into the ocean until later in the week.  Who knows what other debris was floating around.)

Day two: Tuesday:

It was a little bit overcast that day, so we decided to take Addy to the aquarium.  It was a great time, and I can't wait to do more fun things like this with her!

Getting ready to head into the aquarium

Hanging with Pap and Grandma

Addy's favorite part of the aquarium was the tank with the Lion fish in it.  She was mesmerized by them.  So as we were leaving Mike secretly ducked into the gift shop and came out with this....Addy's own stuffed Lion fish.  It was the sweetest thing :)  (And he says he's not wrapped around her little finger... I beg to differ :))

Day 3: Wednesday:

Addy and her new pal Lionfish.  (Note Tina's monogrammed pillowcase in the background.  My sis is high class.)

Went to the beach, but stayed on the blanket under the umbrella to try to ease her in.  She loved that watering can.... not so much that bottle with water in it.  She has zero interest in drinking water.

Then at lunch time we decided to try carrots for the first time!

A little unsure at first, as always.

"Done, done, done, DONE!  No more carrots!"

That evening we headed into Beaufort for some dinner....

where Tina and Mom got the biggest dish of creme brulee ever!

Addy and Grandma at dinner.  It was nice having so many people help with Addy at the restaurant.  The girl has no patience when we are out to eat, and will only tolerate it if you walk around with her.  Which is why the frequency of our little family of three going out to eat is rapidly decreasing...which I suppose is a good thing anyway.  Time for me to get cookin'!

Not the greatest family photo in the world, but there we are.  Ha ha!

Day 4: Thursday:

We finally ventured into the water and it took her a minute, but she ended up loving it!  (As long as she had her watering can of course.)

About to fall over, but Grandma is right there to catch her!

How cute is that little hat that my mom bought Addy in Beaufort the day before?!

Mike and I with our little beach baby!  It was such a gorgeous day!

Day five: Friday:

Get ready for this....I forgot to take Addy's weekly pics on Thursday.  Huge news, I know.  Ha ha!  But it was the first week since she was born that I forgot to take her weekly pics on Thursday, and I'll admit I was slightly annoyed about it.  Yup, I'm that big of a dork.  Anyway, never fear... we took them on Friday.

"Yay for my Ariel bathing suit!"

A girl in motion!

This is seriously the happiest I have ever seen her in the weekly photos.  But why wouldn't she be happy?  It's vacation!

Ariel was a little big on her so we had to tie the straps together in the back with a strap from one of my bathing suits.  Ha ha!

Out to the beach for our last day!

I got a tip from one of my co-workers to buy a cheap shower curtain, dig a little hole for Addy, lay down the curtain, and fill it with ocean water.  It was a great idea, because she didn't get nearly as sandy, and her little pool of water didn't disappear down into the sand.  Brilliant, albeit a little ghetto looking...

The view from afar.  Daddy fishing while Pap and Grandma look on.  Addy played in her little "pool" for honestly about an hour!  I could not believe how content she was in there....

So much so that we decided to try out the ocean....

Bad call.  Ha ha!  But she did get kinda used to it after awhile.

And then all it took was a little bit of Aunt Tina and a break from the beach to make it all better :)

Whew, so that was our beach trip in pictures.  Ridiculously long, but you know I had to capture every moment of Addy's beach adventure.  And in case the pics weren't enough, here are some videos...

Ok, this post is long enough....hope everyone enjoyed watching Addy's first trip to the beach!  We had such an awesome time and we're already looking forward to taking her next year! 

Now it's time to get packing for our mountain trip!

7 Months!

Dear Linny,

Happy 7 Month Birthday!  You are growing up so fast and you've starting sitting up like a big girl!

You could sit up propped with your hands for a few seconds last month, but this month you've really started sitting up very well.  You sit there and play with your toys for a long time before you inevitably topple over. 

You've also become a rolling machine.  You haven't attempted to crawl, but you get to where you want to go by rolling there, so you have become semi-mobile!  You can roll from one end of the room to the other, no problem.

You've continued to be our little scientist, examining everything with such intensity.  And that brings out Wild-Eyed Marie.

You love the texture of your glider.  After I feed you I put you up on my shoulder to burp and you get fixated on running your little hands across the material.  You get surprised and excited by it every time.

Your favorite toy of the month is the red "Accelerate the Cure" bracelet that Mommy and Daddy have.  It's rubbery and you love to gnaw on it. 

You are saying more and more "words" as the weeks fly by, and this month "Da-da" has been your main one.  You started that a few weeks ago, and just yesterday I heard "Ma-ma" come out of your mouth!  However, you don't associate those syllables with Daddy and Mommy just yet.  You say them arbitrarily to whomever you happen to be with at the moment.  Still fun to hear!  Soon enough you'll know what they mean.

We are still going strong with breastfeeding, but we were finally able to cut down a little bit to 4 times a day because....we've started solids!  So far you have had rice cereal, sweet potato, avocado, and banana.  We've done each food for a week, and despite being skeptical of each one at first, you've done great with all of them by the end of the week. 

We've started to give you two naps a day instead of three and we put you down around the same times every day (10 and 2).  We then leave you in your crib for at least an hour.  If you don't sleep, so be it, but at least you've had some down time.  And although it sometimes takes you awhile, you usually eventually fall asleep.  So nap time isn't as stressful as it once was, but it's still a work in progress.

At night you are continuing to do very well with going to sleep, and I think the bedtime routine helps a lot.  It's funny because you love love love your bath, but you hate hate hate getting your jammies on.  We dry you off and bring you back to your room and you're fine until we start getting you dressed.  Then it's a scream fest until you eat.  It's like you are getting out your last bit of energy for the day.

But then....you sleep all night!  Yay!!!!!  We started slowing extending the hour to which I would go in and feed you in the morning, and we are now where we want to be.  You go to bed between 7 and 8PM, and we get up every morning at 7AM.  Even if you wake up before then, which you often do, we don't go in your room until 7, and you either fall back to sleep or you play quietly to yourself until then.  The morning is still your happiest time of the day.

Here are some more of your 7 month pics:

Hanging out with Daddy, waiting for Hurricane Irene to pass.  I put you in your fishy skirt just for the occasion.  We were supposed to leave for our beach vacation this morning, but Irene is messing up our plans.  So instead, we are hanging out having a Hurricane party at the Hetrick house!  Hopefully we'll be able to get to the beach tomorrow!

"Oooh Daddy, this I-Phone could keep me occupied for awhile."

"Wow, am I that many already?!!!"

It's gotten so hard to get pictures of you lying down now that you are a rolling machine.  You roll away before I get the chance to snap a photo!  I can keep you in one spot if I sit you up, but soon enough you'll be crawling away and then it'll be really hard to take your picture!

Family photo :)

And of course, a video of you on your 7 Month birthday.  Quite a coincidence what happens towards the end of the video.  What a smart girl we have!

Addy, I am loving this stage of your life so so much!  You are so happy, fun, and playful, but you are still just my perfect, innocent baby.  It's the greatest age so far, and Daddy and I have so much fun with you every day.  We love to watch you learn and play and interact.  You are my sunshine, even in the eye of a hurricane!   I love you baby girl!

Love,

Mommy

Hello My Name is Jess

.... and I am a coffee addict.  There, I said it.  I've been trying to tell myself for awhile now that I'm fine with an occasional cup of coffee here and there.  Ha.  Who did I think I was kidding? 

I gave up coffee for a few weeks back when we were desperately trying to figure out why Addy spits up so much, and let me tell you, it was a rough few weeks.  This post was right in the midst of my no coffee phase.  The breakfast dishes sat in the sink all day, the coffee pot remained full of ground up beans, the bed was unmade....all until right before Mike came home from work.  Sometimes not even then.  Not that he ever says anything, bless his heart.  (Yup, now that I've said that I have officially become a Southerner.)  I just like to have it done before he gets home so it can look as though its been done all day.  Wow.

Sometimes I wonder if he ever looks around the house and wants to ask "What did you do all day?  No dinner....again?"  But he doesn't.  Probably because he knows I'd tell him right where to shove it if he did.  But seriously, I'm here all day, and I wonder what I've been doing.  Surely he must too.  I think if I were him, I would.   And I probably wouldn't be as good about keeping my mouth shut about it either.  I mean, is it that hard to clean the house and throw a meal together?

(Side note: my house is not the disgusting mess that I make it out to be. It just isn't as clean as my apparently unrealistic standards would like it to be. The way it used to be.... pre-baby.) I guess I need to relent a little and come to grips with the idea that maybe the baseboards don't need to be cleaned every week. Things like that. I'll try it. What ends up happening is I get so overwhelmed with the thought of cleaning the house the way I think it should be done, that I end up not doing it at all. Then the baseboards aren't clean,...but neither is anything else. 

Now, think I have figured out that my lack of household motivation is directly proportional to my lack of coffee consumption.  An excuse?  Yes, but I'll take it.  I'm sorry Addy. I know that you spit up like no other, but I think we've determined that my coffee consumption really doesn't affect it either way. Right?   So can mommy please give up this delusional idea that maybe she doesn't need coffee and just go back to it?   Pretty please... with a cherry on top?   This is the question that I politely asked my daughter last week.  She smiled and said that was fine with her.

So this week has been a brand new week.  I've been a whirlwind ... cleaning breakfast dishes before noon, sweeping the insane amount of dog hair off of our hardwood floors, cleaning bathrooms, making dinner.  I feel like superwoman.  Don't mind that i am doing all of this with a slight jitter.  I just needed to get back to my daily cup of coffee.  Now all is right with the world. ... or at least, with my house.

Motivation is what gets you started.
Habit is what keeps you going.
Make it a habit!

I saw this quote the other day, and I am making it my mantra.  Happy Friday!

30 Weeks

Not much new again at our house this week.  I could get used to this relaxation.  We are gearing up for our beach trip though....which is scheduled to begin right in the midst of Hurricane Irene!  We may be delaying our trip a bit based on the weather, but we'll see.

We tried bananas this week, and oddly enough Addy was not really a fan.  It is the sweetest food we've given her so far, and I couldn't even get her to finish them on the first day!  She wasn't a huge avocado fan on the first day of those either, but at least she ate it. 

After a few bites of banana she was shaking her head "no", arching her back, and turning away.  I'm wondering if it's partly because I didn't puree it and I only mashed it with a fork.  I did add some breast milk to it, as I have with all of her other food.  But the bananas were still lumpier than anything else she's eaten so far. 

But we've kept going with it, and today will be day 4 of the bananas.  She is doing better with them, and finishing the whole container, but I think the consistency is still throwing her off.  Next time I might puree it and see if it goes any better.

Ok, I know she doesn't look all that disgusted in these pics, but I promise she was.  These pics were taken after we gave up for the day.   Mike was at work, so I was trying to feed her, take pics, and video all at the same time.  It didn't work out so well.  Ha ha.

Here is the quick video.  Don't let her fool you.  She pretends she likes them during the video, then promptly refused any more after I turned the camera off.  

Oh, and don't mind her disgustingly discolored bib in the video.  Somehow it got those little black dots in the washer one day.  I have since rewashed it several times and it doesn't come out.  And those little dots have only ever appeared on bibs.  How weird is that?  I disassembled part of the washing machine and cleaned it and everything.  But I really don't know how it happened.  So there are a few bibs in our collection that we only use at home for very messy things.  Mental note not to put it on her again for any pics or videos ;)  Why not throw it out, you ask?  I actually was going to, but Mike (of all people) suggested we keep it for messy/stain filled feedings.  Done.  He's usually the tosser.  Where as you never have to ask me twice to save something :)  But I digress...

And here is the avocado video: (She makes the funniest faces at the end.)

Other than the addition of bananas to our menu, we had a couple of Addy/Carley play dates this week:

Carley is getting so big!  She's 2 and 1/2 months younger and weighs almost as much as Addy!  It's fun to watch how they are starting to interact with one another, so I took a video.  Warning: it's not very exciting.  I was just so impressed that Addy was sitting up for so long that I forgot I had the camera rolling.  Ha ha!

That Addy Marie.  She is sitting up so well these days.  It was like overnight....boom.  She could do it.

And the big 3-0....weeks that is.  I even got a few smiles this week :)

That's all we have going on right now.  Addy is currently over at Carley's house and I am supposed to be getting things done.  So I'm off to make my chicken kabobs and pasta salad for dinner tonight.  Yum!

29 Weeks

Another pretty chill week at the Hetrick house.  It's been so nice to just relax at home...gearing up for our annual beach vacation that's coming soon!  It'll be our first vacation with a baby and 2 dogs so it'll be a whole new ballgame this year.  We can't wait!!

Here are some pics from this past week:

Playing with Scout

And the new food of the week is...... Avocado!

First bite!

"Wow, definitely not sure if I like that at all!"

"Ewwwwww"

"Seriously are we still going with this????"

Let's let Mommy try

After all of that, we got a smile!

It's so interesting watching Addy try new food for the first time.  She was definitely not into the avocado AT ALL on the first day, but we stuck with it. 

I've read that you should try giving a baby a food ten times before determining that they don't like it.  And we are determined to give her as many veggies as possible in hopes that she will acquire a taste for them.  I am not a veggie lover, and never was, but I need to change my eating habits STAT so that I can lead by example.  We are hoping that giving Addy a lot of veggies early on will help mold her to be a healthy eater throughout her life.   That's the goal anyway.

So we are now on day 4 of avocado and it is like night and day.  She hammers her little cup of avocado now with no problems!  Love it!

And its play date time again!

Ha ha!  Don't they look so serious?  Come on girls, lighten up!

There we go

Just hangin' out together

Carley loves the Step n' Play piano

Onto the weekly pics...

Big girl!

Addy was not feeling the lying down pics.  She wouldn't even crack a smile for Daddy.

And, last but not least, a BIG HAPPY 30TH BIRTHDAY to Addy's Aunt Lauren today!!  She wore a special bib just for the occasion....

(Can I just add that this pic was taken after her lunch of rice cereal, and not a single spot on her bib!  She is getting better and better at the solid food thing every day!)

Have a great weekend!