"The world is full of music, dreams, and lovers There ain't nothin' like the summer..."

Umm...not sure where the time has gone...but it seems to be going faster the closer we get to the beginning of August...not a fan, not at all! Anyways, we've been busy and I still don't feel like I've gotten caught up on ANYTHING yet! So, here goes...

Saturday, July 24th and Sunday July 25th
We got up very, VERY early on Saturday morning...way too early. We had to drive to NH for our niece's first birthday party. We had decided that when A woke up for the day, or wouldn't go back to sleep, we would get in the car and leave. She woke up at 3am and would NOT go back to sleep. Finally at 3:45 we decided to just pack up and go. We were out the door at 4:30am.

She slept for 1 hour before we stopped for breakfast, then maybe another 40 minutes the rest of the way. It's a 5 hour drive. Needless to say Matt spent a lot of time in the back seat trying to keep her entertained. She's been sleeping terribly and I'm not sure if it's teething or what, but giving her tylenol or motrin doesn't help.

We got to NH late morning and hung out. After a while we tried to get A to go take a nap, but BIL didn't have the pack n play set up for us and told us just to put her in Niece's room for a nap. I don't know how anyone naps in that house, but in our house we have blinds and curtains on the window. There was no way she was going to sleep with the room lit up like a Christmas tree.

The smaller italicized text is just my complaint about how difficult a time we had with A not sleeping: Skip over it if you want.

A got more and more and more and more miserable! Finally I gave up and we went for a drive...she fell asleep...it lasted 40 minutes. Then she didn't go down for the night until 8 (still not wanting to sleep). She slept until 2am, then decided to party until 3:45am. Went back to sleep and whimpered every 15 minutes. Finally at 4:45 she was crying again. I picked her up and she felt warm (the house is AC'd and got very warm during the night), so I stripped her down to her diaper. She was so, so tired...I put her on the bed between us and she flopped over her legs and fell asleep...I repositioned her so she was at least flat and she slept until 6:45. At that point I was exhausted and SIL was up and asked if I wanted her to take A: Yes please! I slept until 8:45...of course Matt came down with something and was throwing up all night and of very little help.

I'd love to tell you how the party was, but I was dealing with A most of the time. I did get some pictures though. It was hot as Hades outside and we spent some of the time outside in the kiddie pool.

We left pretty early on Sunday...after we had breakfast. A was still being miserable and I had wanted to stop in Wilmington, VT to check out a quilt shop and we wanted to break up the trip as much as we could so we stopped here and had lunch. We even made a second stop, which broke up the trip further...my aunt and uncle's for dinner.

My mom had called and said they were heading up there and we figured we'd make it just about dinner time and we did...it was great to see my aunt and uncle and spend time with them. A was in good humor (finally) she had slept the 2 hour drive between our lunch stop and the dinner stop.

Monday July 26
My mom went with A and I to swimming lessons today, so that we could get some pictures and videos. The class isn't anything fancy...it's more or less to get infants into and comfortable with the water. Basically we sit there in the shallow kiddie pool and play with toys and splash about.

A loves the water...there's no question about this. She's even getting adventurous enough that occasionally she will stick part of her face in. Of course it's immediately followed by much spluttering and coughing (she has a flair for the dramatic...wonder where she got that from).



Random Things
We've started to introduce a tooth brush to A...yea, even though she only has 2 and there is absolutely no sign of any others in spite of the terrible nights and fussiness and occasional runny nose. She really enjoys it...probably because it's something that I let her stick in her mouth. She sat still the other day for 20 minutes just chewing on her toothbrush.


The county fair (and our insanity) is coming up soon. They have an annual Cutest Baby contest, the winner gets a savings bond. Every year I've wanted to enter it and this year we are!! YAY! The other day we did an impromput photo shoot to try and get a picture of A (yea, because you know we don't have any *note sarcasm*) Here are the ones we're looking at(haven't edited them yet)

Hope you're all doing well!