Baby's First Beach Trip

Having a baby born in mid-May, I was too scared to plan any beach trips for this summer until Labor Day.  I just couldn't fully convince myself that she would be healthy, or even if she were healthy that she wouldn't have colic or hate to travel or be generally too difficult to manage a beach trip with.  But once Eloise arrived and proved herself to be the world's best baby and we had a last minute chance to go to the beach for a few days, we jumped on it.  Sadly, Robert had to work, so he missed out on Eloise's very first time in the ocean.  Fortunately, she won't really know the difference... she pretty much just slept right through it all.   And we'll be back again soon... with Daddy next time!

For now, lots of pictures of baby sleeping on the beach and a few of big sister playing hard, like she does.

I even snuck in a little (extra) light beach reading.  (I recommend.  I love Mindy.)

How we ate, by night and by morning, on the porch.  Not a bad life.

Poolside...

 A few fishy outfits...

Their cousins came to spend the second half of the week there, so we overlapped just a couple of hours and snapped this moment of all four of them together.

See you again, soon Kure!  Thanks for the good memories of Eloise's first visit to the beach.  I'm sure she'll grow to love it as much as her sister, mama and Sweet Mama do!

Blueberry Pickin'

Blueberry picking is always on our list of summer to dos.  There are several farms nearby so one Saturday while Daddy was at camp for a meeting the girls ventured out.  Sweet Mama had never picked blueberries before, so we had her come along to help us gather this year's bounty!  The morning before we went we read Blueberries for Sal.  Just like Sal, Clara managed to fill her belly with berries, but by the end of the morning there weren't any in her bucket.   

After we were done picking, we enjoyed a picnic together before heading home.

And once we got home with all those blueberries, of course we had to bake some blueberry muffins.

Ahh, the sweet tastes of summer!

Want to take a look back?
Blueberry Picking 2013
Blueberry Picking 2012

Milestone Update: 8 Weeks/2 Months/10 Weeks

So far, I've done a good job of not dropping the ball with the second child and am remembering all her milestone photos.  I've just not had the time or energy to get them all posted.  Since the 12 week photos will be coming up in just a few days, I thought I better hurry and get these posted.

Eloise is happy.  In case you can't tell, this two month old baby smiles big and often.  She's laid back and easy going, just like a second child is supposed to be.  She loves her family, maybe especially her mama and her sister, although she will flash that gummy grin at anyone.  At two months, she's still sleeping a LOT... like around 18 hours a lot of days.  She rides great for long trips which is a blessing because we have been on the go a lot.  I thought I had done so well getting her to take a bottle early and easily, so I didn't bother with it for awhile after that and unfortunately, now we can't get her to take one.  But she loves to nurse (and I am loving nursing her) and she sleeps an 8-10 hour stretch most nights.  She loves to watch her mobile, she's not a big fan of tummy time (or really being put down on the floor at all - tummy or back!), and she loves being outside.  Her favorite thing is to be held and snuggled, which we try to squeeze in as much as we can, but she also spends a good bit of time in the baby carrier strapped to me.   I thought Clara was a good baby (what does that even mean though, aren't all babies "good"?), but she was terribly high maintenance compared to Eloise.  Eloise will sleep anywhere, eat anywhere and roll with anything.  I know these early days are coming to an end soon and before long she'll actually need to nap in her crib, but for now, we've loved the flexibility of an easy going, happy go lucky baby.

Eloise recently had her 78th day of life and I thought all day about how Clara didn't come home until she was 78 days old.  I tried desperately to savor every moment of these first few newborn weeks and make it count as double.  I don't know that I'll remember everything like I want to, but I know that I enjoyed it.  My heart is so full and I'm so taken with this newest life in our midst.  She's a beautiful soul.

Thanks be to God.