California!

It feels like summer is in full swing! We have been looking forward to our trip to California for a few months now. It was so fun to travel this time with Colter because he could process what was going on- we were going to get on a plane, we were going to see Gigi & Grandpa, etc. He LOVED being at the airport and watching the planes take off an on. The flights were not amazing. He missed naps on both legs so behavior was less than stellar, but we survived. Little lady didn't have much to say about the flights. When we landed in California, we were given our first surprise of the trip, unloading through the back of the airplane right onto the tarmac. I'm so bummed this picture didn't turn out, but you can kind of see how close we were to the plane. Colter kept talking about the engines spinning around and around.

The next day we went to a train museum in the middle of nowhere. We thought it was closed, but we were just the first car there! Colter was in heaven. The entrance to the museum had a railroad crossing with a few different signal lights. Colter didn't want to move. He was almost frozen because he didn't know how to take all of the different sites in. The museum is basically a big area of different train cars. One of the first thing we found was a garden of sorts with a bunch of different signal lights. It was Colter heaven. There were buttons you could push that would make the different signals light up or move. That could have been the whole museum and Colter would have been thrilled but there was more.. Greg, Ben and Colter were walking around looking at different cars when they saw a real working diesel engine. They were checking it out when the conductor asked if they wanted a ride! What a blessing from above. All 3 of them go to go inside the engine and drive with the engineer while it was moving. Greg called Mary and told her that they were coming to the station on the train and we were so confused. Then we heard the horn and watched the tracks and realized they were actually inside the engine! Seeing his huge grin and hearing his little voice yell "SIGNAL LIGHTS!!"  was one of my favorite parenting moments so far.

On Monday we mainly hung out at Ben's parent's house, but also ventured out to a park to enjoy in and out burger.

My favorite part of the trip was watching Colter in their backyard. He would roam from one thing to the next for hours. One minute he'd be watering a tree, the next he'd be playing in a bucket of water, then he'd be picking/eating blueberries, then he'd start digging in the dirt, then he'd go put cars in their fountain. It was non stop. He was filthy and exhausted by the end of the day.. just like little boys should be. I was so thankful that Mary & Greg were so gracious with letting Colter explore. He definitely took way too many unripe blueberries off the bush, filled up their fountain with dirt, threw potatoes that he was supposed to be gathering for dinner, and probably dug 3,000 holes. We ate dinner on the patio every night and soaked up the beautiful weather.

Tuesday Ben and I took Colter bowling. I realized walking into the alley that it might not have been the best choice for an activity with Colter. He's sensitive to noise and he doesn't always like things falling over.. which is pretty much what bowling is about. He definitely took a while to warm up, perhaps it was the out of the oven cookie that helped, but he eventually got into it. Almost every day that I have gotten him from his nap, he's asked to go bowling again and "knock the pins down."

Wednesday we did a little swimming at one of their friend's pool and spent more time with Ben's grandparents. It made me teary on numerous occasions seeing how many people love our kids so deeply. There are so many people in this world who don't have anyone that cares deeply about them, and our kids have so many people that just adore them. It is a huge blessing. 

I loved the slowness and ease of this vacation. No rush to go from activity to activity, we could just be. Early morning walks, lots of amazing food, tons of play time inside and out, a few movies, lots of games.

 It was just what we needed to kick off summer 2013!!

This was our view as we were coming home. Amazing.

3ish months

Oh my sweet girl, it's really hard to keep up with time right now. I'm trying to pull the emergency break and slow things down with you, but the car keeps on driving and you are growing up before my eyes. I just adore you to pieces. You are so sweet, so smiley, and I could just eat your little leg rolls up! You continue to have a delightful temperament. I love to lay you down on the couch in our spare moments of time together, and always return a huge grin back to me and normally a little noise followed by a bunch of spit bubbles. No matter how tired or hungry you are, if I look at you, you will always smile. Even in the middle of the night I will go and get you and in the dark, I'll see this HUGE grin staring back at me. I have a rule to interact with you as little as possible in the night so you don't think it's play time, but it's so hard to ignore you when you're making sweet little sounds and grinning so wide. Speaking of sleeping, somehow you have figured out how to get out of the miracle blanket swaddle which is seriously crazy because it's like a straight jacket. I think you hop your back off the crib mattress and yank your arms up at the same time. Almost every time I go to get you from your crib, you are out of your swaddle. As far as sleep, you take anywhere between 2-4 naps a day. If you're in your crib or ergo, they are almost always 30 minutes. If I nurse you to sleep and put you in the swing, you still do your crazy long nap- usually 3-4 hours. I'm still putting you in the swing after your last feeding in the morning, around 5:30 and you will normally sleep until close to 9:30.  I know i'll have to give up the swing at some point, but it's awesome. You normally wake up once or twice a night.

 It is getting really hard to nurse you during the day because any noise you hear, you'll yank your head around and figure out what's going on. Then you look back at me and keep trying to smile instead of nurse. I normally have to swaddle you up and make it as quiet as possible to get any milk in you!

You are changing by the day. Your hair is getting so long and sticking up still. Of course everyone comments on it. Your receding hair line is definitely improving and I don't think it will be long before you have a full head of hair. I want to put your hair into a little pony tail on top like bam bam, but I think it might look a little odd with no hair in the front :) I took you in a couple weeks ago for some congestion, and you were 14 lb. You have the best leg rolls, and rubberband wrists. You're well into your 3-6 month clothes and size 3 diapers and it wont be long before we move you up into the next size!

Your head is getting stronger and I can tell you're getting close to rolling over. You are always sucking on your hands and are an expert at creating quite the drool puddle dripping down your arms. You love to sit in your rainforest bouncer and hit the animals and you also like to lay under your play mat and look at the little mermaid toy. Your grip is super strong and you're always pulling things to your face like burp clothes, blankets and toys. You're still not a big fan of your car seat, but if I give you some toys, you'll tolerate it for a while. You love being in the bath, but man alive you get ANGRY when we get you out. I don't know if it's because you're usually super tired by the time we give you a bath, or you get cold easily, or you just love your bath that much, but woweee. watch out!

I love you so much sweet girl. I get teary all the time thinking about how precious you are.