Vacations are so much fun. Why do they have to be so much work??? I took one teeny tiny person on vacation up north last week and it took me a whole week to get us ready and I am sure I will need to spend this whole week recovering from it! Caroline and I spent a lovely week on Heart Lake (near Gaylord) with my family last week. We can never know when Brad will be allowed to take vacation and of course he didn't get it that week but he went up on Saturday with us, left on Sunday and then surprised me on Tuesday at 4:00 saying he was on his way back up to spend the night with his girls! He of course came back Friday to get us too ;)
All in all the week was near perfection. We had GREAT weather...a few hot days but we spent a lot of time in the water then and just a few scattered rain drops that never ruined any fun. My parents and I took a ride to Traverse City one day while the Elsey's explored the U.P. (my mom doesn't do bridges so I promised her her own fun!) Caroline even enjoyed her first ride on the Mackinac Island ferry. We spent a few HOT hours on the Island and my nieces loved seeing all the horses and carriages and different kinds of bikes. Luckily I had brought my Ergo carrier and as soon as C got fussy I strapped her to the front of me and she proceeded to sleep for most of her first trip to Mackinac! Mackinac also held our only injury for the week and lets just say it involved someone other than me and a set of stairs on the boat. We all survived and are doing fine! We of course grilled out for nearly every meal and loved it. Caroline loved being in the water and as much as I tried to stop it she also loved eating the sand :) We had a tent for her to sit on in the beach but since she is crawling now she would just find a way to get to the sand on her own. It was so nice to just relax around the lake. We had beautiful views and a big deck to sit on too. There was lots of playing on the playground for the girls, lots of time to read books and listen to music for the adults (I can't remember when I last did that!) and we even had a DVD player in the cottage...I think it may take me three weeks to get the soundtrack to Mary Poppins out of my head now! I put it in one day early in the week because it was time for the girls to rest and stay in the cottage for a while if they wanted to go swimming after dinner. (naps were almost non existent on this trip for the chickadees!) Ania LOVED Mary Poppins and would sit there mesmerized....we probably watched it ten times during the week. She would look at me and say 'Minca, Mawwy Pippin??' with her big smile! I think it may be her favorite movie right now. Not only did I teach them to love that movie but I also took this vacation opportunity to teach my nieces a new 'magic word'. I spent a bit more time in the cottage giving Caroline a break from the sand and sun (and she did actually nap well for me) so I would be sitting in there and from time to time I would hear little feet on the deck and then a pounding on the door followd by "I have to go potty!!" I would get up and let Miss Abigail in; they can't turn doorknobs yet. after about the millionth time of doing this I told Abby in order to get the door open she would have to say the magic words which are "auntie Minca is beautiful'. She would bust out in giggles but she always said it :) I wasn't the only one teaching things though...My mom taught Caroline how to stick her tongue out and blow raspberries! It's cute until she has a mouthful of food...
It was quite a memorable week and now we are home. The suitcases haven't been put away and the laundry is still waiting to be done but I am giving them all the evil eye whenever I pass by them :) I did come home to a beautiful surprise though-Brad spent his evenings vacuuming, doing dishes, working on our staircase and other houshold items so I would come home to an AMAZING house. What a guy!
6 Month check in: Caroline saw the Doctor right before our vacay and it was a great visit. The doctor was excited to say that Caroline was her second patient this year to start crawling at 6 months...we are advanced! She also couldn't get over how 'well balanced' Caroline is-her exact words. Everyone always tells us how much she smiles and how happy she seems but to hear our doctor gush over it and tell us how wonderful that is for us as parents was special to hear. Caroline weighed in at 17 lbs 10 ounces but I think that is WAY off but whatevs. She is 26 1/2 inches long and is still in the 75% range for it all so the doctor couldn't be happier. She is hitting all the development marks and doing all the things they would like for her to be doing and she had fun showing off all her skills to the nurse :) We are now feeding her more foods and are in the next level of them and we are allowed to give her a lot of different foods from our plates now too. We love trying new things with her and she loves to eat so it's all good. We are teaching her how to drink water from a sippy and she loves that-she gets this triumphant drooly smile every time she takes a sip! So, we are still on track and she is doing wonderful! We were just talking the other day about how perfect she is and wondering if that meant any more children we have down the road would be little terrors :) We are having a ball with her and can't wait to start experiencing more and more everyday with her!
