Well, we are back from our first family vacation, and we’re totally exhausted but very happy. Some of the highlights include:
- Watching Olivia play with sand (and attempt to take little tastes) and collect rocks
- A totally sleepless first night, where Olivia was still adjusting to the new environment and we felt like we had a newborn all over again. A “newborn” who didn’t want to stay in her pack and play, came into bed with us at 2am, kept repeating “Hi mama, hi dada, hair, ear” and pretended to eat for a good hour and a half before we put her back in the PnP and she fell asleep.
- Seeing her reaction when she had the following foods for the first time: cantaloupe (it blew her mind), lemon (no funny reaction to the sourness, just “mmmm”), grilled cheese (mildly interested save for a funny angry face she made – see pic below), french toast (not impressed, even when I drizzled some maple syrup on it), orange (a big hit since she recognized it from her play shopping bag – “ooch! ooch!”), turkey and cheese sandwich (liked it)
- Watching her run around a putting green grabbing every little flag she saw, refusing to let go of the golf ball and finally putting it in a hole only to grab it back quickly in fear that someone would take it from her
- Hearing her say , “hi bear” to every carved wooden bear or photo of a bear. Of course, at the toy store, we had to buy her a stuffed bear and a dog – her two favorite animals. She named the dog “Bear”, too.
- Seeing her stare down other diners until they smiled or waved at her whenever we went out to eat. She seriously would just stare at them until they looked, and wouldn’t turn back to us when we tried to distract her. It was awkward but amusing. She also took to some of our waitresses and tried to give them her cup or pieces of food from her plate.
- Having her sit on my lap and reach into my cereal bowl, grab a flake and feed it to me every morning at breakfast
- Seeing her get so excited about baths that she would attempt to lift her leg over the side of the tub every time she wandered into the bathroom.
- Coming home and hearing “bear, beach, basketball” repeated over and over. Don’t ask where the “basketball” came from. There was none on this trip 🙂
Aside from that first sleepless night, everything else went smoothly, and although it seemed like we packed a lot, here are the key items that we relied on during our trip: our Graco Pack ‘N Play
was perfect for walks on the beach, over rocks and in shallow water and this Genji Pop Up Beach Tent/Sunshelter
Putting Practice
"A Bear!"
