My inspiring thought for today...

...because I needed to read something positive today...

Say what you have to say, not what you ought. Any truth is better than make-believe. ~Author Henry David Thoreau

3 Months!

She's almost 14lbs already (13lbs 6oz to be exact). Too big! She's almost double her birth weight. She's holding her head up now and her new thing is trying to sit up. I'm not sure if this is her belly issues or her trying to strengthen herself ,but it's funny. She looks like she's doing crunches. She especially likes to do this in her car seat. I need to video tape it. She works so hard at it! She'll be doing yoga with me in no time.
She is also giggling now. Not just coo giggling, but actually giggling. I love it.

She will not appreciate this picture someday:

Not the most flattering of Dustin, but she is edible. This was right after she went "swimming". She is loving the water now. Thank God. Dustin would have traded her in, I believe.
She is such an angel. I fall more in love with her everyday.

Picture Story Part 2

Anyway, after waking up at 5am, we decided to get out early and go sightseeing. St. Augustine is an amazing, historic town with so much to see. It was ungodly hot though, so we weren't able to walk around as much as I had hoped.
Here's what we did see...

Fort Matanzas...

Old churches... (this might not be exciting to some but the old buildings facinated Dustin and I. Living on the west coast of Florida, we just don't see things like this)


and this was taken on historic St. George St, where all of the touristy shops and restaurants are...

After overheating ourselves, we went back to the condo and relaxed. We tried the beach one more time, which didn't work out so well for Lily this time but I got a cute picture out of it...

Finally, that evening, we met up with our good friends, James, Anne Marie and their daughter Ryleigh, for dinner...

So those were the highlights. We had a great time. I can't wait to travel more with Lily and have her experience different places. It's so fun to see things through their eyes, even at this age. I imagine that only gets to be more fun as they get older.

Some things I learned about traveling with a 3 month old...

• NEVER stay for only two nights. It's way too much work, unless you're only driving 10 minutes away. As you saw, you have to pack everything, whether you're staying for a night or a month. Next time, we'll stay at least 4 nights, wherever we go.
• Babies are, indeed, portable. I was so worried that she was going to be freaked out by her change in environment or get super cranky because we were on the go so much. Not the case. She was a trooper and just took it all in.
• Don't take a baby to the beach until they can sit up. Although we had the fancy tent for her, her only choice was to lay down in there. If she didn't want to, she screamed. I couldn't fit in the tent to hold her up. Just don't do it.
• Get a big place, not just a regular hotel room. You'll need extra space for all of the extra stuff and you'll be in the room more than you think. It's doable in a regular hotel room, but just not very comfortable.
  
• Finally, vacation has a whole new meaning. This is a good and a bad thing. The good was already mentioned, seeing new things through a little one's eyes and all of the new experiences. It's the best...but...I won't lie...it isn't a relaxing time, at this age. Carrying all of her stuff all over the place, not being able to see/do what we wanted to do, worrying about her (is she hungry, tired, over heated, etc) makes it a little stressful. I'm not saying it isn't worth it, it just redefines vacation. I would do it all over again in a heartbeat. We're already planning our 2010 Costa Rica trip with her!
  

A New Way to Vacation: A Picture Story

That's the best way to describe traveling with an infant. It's a new experience. SOO much fun, yet a lot of work. I'll do a picture story, for your entertainment.

I mentioned a couple of posts ago that we were headed to St. Augustine for our anniversary. The three of us packed the car....literally, PACKED the car...

We made it about 2 hours before Lily was ready to stop. Our goal was to make it to Orlando, which is about 3 hours away, but Lakeland was as far as we got. Not too bad though, considering Lily has never been on a car ride longer than 25 minutes! We were able to make it the rest of the 2.5 hours after that, all the way to St. Augustine. She did so good on the trip.

We checked into our "condo". I'm not going to lie, it was a piece of shit place...but, THIS is what we paid for...

...the view. It was beautiful. We were on Crescent Beach, which is about 20 minutes south of downtown St. Augustine. Beautiful white sand. Very different from Venice beaches, beautiful in different ways.

So, Lily was being so good. We decided to take her, and all of her tons of stuff, down to the beach. Yes, I realize she is young for this adventure, but we were prepared. We bought her an "infant cabana", that happens to be UV protected. (Who would have thought they have this stuff?? Leave it to me and my internet skills and I'll find it!) We also had an umbrella over the cabana and I put Water Babies sunscreen on her AND a UV protected hat...which actually fell right off, but the intention was there.

I have to interject a sub-story here about unsolicited baby raising opinions.
As we were walking down to the beach, there was a young girl walking behind us with two guys. They were about early 20s-ish. They all had beers in there hands and clearly no responsibilities at all. Dustin and I were struggling a little, carrying all this shit, plus Lily was screaming at that moment.
We were just trying to make it down to the beach and get her out of the direct sun. All of the sudden, I hear this bitch pipe up and say, "If I were that baby, I'd be screaming too. What a bunch of morons bringing a baby out on the beach. F-ing idiots!". She rambled in for a bit but I couldn't hear her anymore because they trailed behind.
I don't know why but this REALLY bothered me, as in, I was ready to go back and punch that girl. Those of you who know me, KNOW that I am not a violent person but I swear she struck a cord that I didn't know I had. My animal instinct came out in me and I immediately had the motivation to defend myself and the mom that I am to Lily.
Ugh, I was pissed. I'm still trying to get over comments like these. It isn't easy for me.

Anyway, Lily napped and stayed cool in her cabana. We stayed for about 45 minutes and then she got in the pool for a minute. She loved it. It was so fun to watch her experience all of this for the first time.

Then, she got a bath and relaxed with us...

Later that evening, we went to the lighthouse (which I have a fascination of)...

The one thing Lily didn't want to do on vacation was sleep in. She woke up at 4:50am the first morning, after going to sleep at 10pm. Ugh. This made a tired mommy...

but a beautiful sunrise...

To be continued. Hungry baby.

One Year Ago...

...I had the most amazing weekend of my life.
Thank you to all of our friends and family that made our 2008 Costa Rica Wedding Trip AMAZING! We cannot believe it's been a year already.
Happy Anniversary Dustin. Thank you for loving my crazy and being the best dad to our gorgeous daughter.

If you want to see how much fun we had, enjoy...