Weekly Babble Blog: After some delay....

Wow.....so sorry for the delay! We have had a couple of busy weeks and I am way behind. I do love that taking a blogging break warrants some emails from friends who miss me!

Where to begin....so we had family here the weekend before last. Much love, attention and doting was given to baby Lane and she loved every minute of it! We even took her to the Pink House downtown for dinner! Then we had a couple days in between family departure that were a blur of cleaning, packing and swim class before we left for a quick trip to Florida. Dave had some business down there, so we turned it into a family road trip and it ended up being a wonderful recharge for all three of us! Ode to the wonders of baby monitors and first floor rooms that are near the jacuzzi and pool.

An ever-loyal Starwood club member and AMEX card user, my dear husband usually insists that we stay in a Sheraton, Westin or W hotel so that we can either earn or utilize points. His business was in St. Petersburg, making the closest Starwood in Clearwater Beach. One of the smaller hotels in the area, it was perfect for us - located on the beach with a nice pool, pretty landscaping and on the trolley route so that Baby and I could get around the day that Dave had to work. I had big plans for that day, thinking that we'd head out to the aquarium or downtown St. Pete but we ended up taking the trolley around Clearwater, walking the pier, doing some shopping and wandering...and that was it. When Dave joined us on Saturday we did a little more exploring, but we pretty much walked to dinner at a couple good restaurants, hung out at the beach and did some fountain play with the baby at the pool. Both of us really liked the area, it is clean and pretty and felt like we were much further away than we were which was nice.

We did everything we could to insure a cranky baby - nap schedule interruption, overstimulation, late and inconsistent bedtimes - you name it - and Lane did fantastic. She was happy and smiley and giggly through the whole trip. I was dreading the car ride, but with some toys and some lean-nursing she was a real trooper - not one meltdown. Which brings me to....

#17. Your tenacity. Kiddo, when you want something, there is no stopping you. Be it sand, grass, a sip of water from my cup, nursing or Daddy's watch, you are one dedicated kiddo. I hope that I will be able to help you channel this positively, because I don't think there is any stopping you when you get your mind set on something. I promise I'll do my best if you'll promise to stop climbing my shoulder to pull at my hair and poke at my eyes.

#16. Babble. Baby I love your babble. Your usual babble has now combined with large fish-like mouth movements that seem to mock conversations around you. We are big fans of Christmas Vacation, and Daddy has called you Aunt Bethany because we cannot understand one word, but you go on and on anyways. Keep babbling baby....you come from long lines of long winded people...mommy included.

Some pics of the trip.