Memorial Day 2016

Memorial Day is always a fun weekend because it signifies the beginning of summer. Last year we weren’t able to go to the cottage because Lucy was only 2 weeks old, but this year we were packed and ready for 5 days of family fun! Instead, we got 5 days of Lucy fussiness. To be fair, she wasn’t feeling well, but it was still a pretty challenging weekend.

It got off to a great start. We left Friday morning just before Lu’s morning nap. She snoozed for an hour or so and then happily played with her toys and cooed at Snort for the rest of the drive. 

We were super excited to see Tommy when we arrived. He was mesmerized by his Uncle Matty’s stubble . . . his daddy doesn’t grow any of that!

Tommy with his mama and Gram on the boat. 

Lucy took a fairly decent afternoon nap on Friday, and when she woke up she felt really warm to me. At first I figured it was just because it was so hot and humid out, but then I noticed that she wasn’t really babbling away or playing so I took her temperature and it was 103.7! I gave her some Tylenol and thought it would help her sleep, but I was wrong. No matter what we tried, she just cried and cried in her crib. 

Here’s our attempt to lull her to sleep with a bottle and boat ride. It didn’t work. As soon as she finished her bottle she started crying so we headed back. 

Aunt Sarah was sweet enough to give me a little bit of a break. Here they are reading the Good Housekeeping I tried so hard to read all weekend (never happened). At one point Aunt Sarah tried singing to Lucy and turned to the magazine articles for inspiration because I heard a song about abdominal pain and diarrhea! haha  #itdidntwork #grosslullabies  I’m fairly certain Lucy wanted to stay up late so that everyone could enjoy her adorable flamingo pajamas as much as possible. 

The next morning, despite a developing rash all over her body and lack of a morning nap, Lucy went swimming with daddy in the deep end!

I’m happy we had the life jacket to keep her cheeks afloat! 

A rare moment of happiness with Miss Stephanie! How cute are they??!!

This girl does snack time like nobody’s business. She sits still and eats whatever yummies I’ll give her. In this case, it was her surfboards. 

For her second snack of the day, Lucy sat in her super cute baby adirondack chair to enjoy some Honey Nut Cheerios. She was at the perfect level for Sydney to pester her for a piece or twelve. 

Sydney is super bad with kids. Like, we can’t even have kiddos over to the house when Sydney is loose. When I was pregnant, I was convinced we were going to have to get rid of her. However, Sydney must recognize that Lucy is part of our pack because she is very sweet and gentle with her! She’s better with Lucy than Snort is. 

I wish I could have snapped a fourth picture in this sequence, but I had to drop the phone and pull Sydney away. Can you guess what happened next? Lucy opened her mouth to reveal a mouthful of HNC, and Sydney went in to lick them out! It was hilarious, but don’t worry Aunt Carla, there was no tongue to mouth contact!!

Sarah and I were super excited to try out the double stroller with both of the babies. We loaded them both in the stroller with the hope that Lucy would finally fall asleep. 

A certain little man could not keep his hands (or his book) to himself, though, and Lucy in all of her not feeling well glory, was not having it. Sweet girl started crying immediately. 

Look at those faces! One is sad, and one knows exactly what he’s doing! 😉

This is a pretty standard face for the weekend. We ended up alternating carrying one baby while the other road in the stroller. 

The next morning they made up over at the learning farm toy. 

Tommy’s practicing his gentle touches. What a sweet boy!

Lucy’s pajama game was pretty strong this past weekend. This little cupcake onesie was a hit with everyone! 

After multiple attempts to get Lucy to nap either in her crib or on me failed, I put her in the stroller and took her for a walk. She was asleep before we reached the end of the driveway so I walked for about an hour. Rested baby, sweaty mama. 

Tommy and Gram on the boat! 

The captain and his first mate. 

I would say that Sunday afternoon/evening was the climax of Lucy’s fussiness. After yet another failed attempt to get her to take a nap, I settled for some snuggles on the couch while watching Shrek. I thought she’d doze off, but she didn’t . 

We had pasta for dinner, and Lucy was throwing an absolute fit in her high chair so I put her on my lap. I was holding her plate with pasta and green beans on it trying to get her to eat. She took a handful of pasta and sauce and threw it all over my leg and smeared it around. I was losing it, she had clearly already lost it, so I asked Matty to bring her a pouch to eat instead. As soon as she started drinking it, I felt her head moving strangely. I looked down and her eyes were closed and she was falling asleep right there in my lap! 

The literal definition of a hot mess!

Lucy snoozed on my lap for about 20 minutes and then woke up. I was actually happy about that because there was no way I was putting her to bed without a bath. We gave her a bath and then spent a few agonizing hours listening to her cry, bouncing her, cuddling her . . . whatever we could do to get her to go to sleep! During that time we heard Brian make a bit of a commotion, and it turns out that Tommy had pooped all over him while they were rocking in the rocker together!

Needless to say it was a trying evening, so by 10:00 when both babies were finally sleeping, Sarah and I celebrated with some brownie batter . . . no time to wait for actual brownies to bake!

This brings us to Monday. I officially dreaded any and all nap times by now, and when it was noon and Lucy hadn’t napped yet, Rita suggested we take her down to the porch swing. In my mind, I’d get her to sleep and then leave her with Rita while I FINALLY got to go out and enjoy the boat and beautiful weather. Well, we were successful but, unfortunately, Lucy fell asleep across both of us. She needed a nap so badly that I didn’t want to risk waking her up by moving. 

So, I missed the boat . . . again. However, if I have to be stuck somewhere holding my super cute baby while she naps, this was not a bad view!

Later on in the day we attempted a boat ride. Doesn’t Lucy look thrilled?!

Sarah, Brian, and Tommy were going to leave midday to head back to Illinois, but decided to wait until later in the day to try and avoid the holiday traffic. We decided one last boat ride with them was in order. Here’s me sitting on the damp boat floor (because that’s where Lucy wanted to be), trying to feed her dinner and keep her happy because she’d only had her 30 minute porch swing nap all day. 

Monday evening Lucy got a bath and finally went to bed without a fight! In fact, she fell asleep while Matty was giving her a bottle. Matty and I took an evening boat ride, then we came back and showered and hunkered down to watch The Bachelorette. Probably the best part of my vacation! 😉 

This collage pretty much sums up what I spent the weekend doing. Don’t get me wrong, I LOVED the cuddles, but the crying and not sleeping got pretty stressful after awhile. 

We left to head home on Tuesday around noon. We had thought we’d stop for lunch, but Lucy kept sleeping and sleeping (woo hoo!) so we didn’t want to chance waking her up. By the time she finally woke up I was getting HANGRY, so we stopped at the first place we saw which happened to be Arby’s. We NEVER eat fast food, but I do love me some Arby’s! I was so excited to eat a roast beef sandwich and curly fries that three things happened:

1. I forgot to take a picture of it until the very end.

2. I didn’t even allow myself to feel guilty.

3. When Matty raised his hand in the air as a gesture of thanks to the car behind us for letting us in when the traffic was heavy, I went up to slap his hand because I thought he was high-fiving how awesome the food was! haha Maybe you had to be there, but it was pretty funny. 

Are you still there? Did you stick with me? When we got home on Tuesday Lucy still wasn’t herself so I took her to the doctor this morning. It turns out she had Roseola, which is a high fever followed by a rash on the body. In an unrelated but unfortunate coincidence, she also developed two random sores in her diaper area which got infected. She’s got some cream and some oral antibiotics and will hopefully be on the mend soon. 

Positives: beautiful weather, time with family, Lucy had a few times of enjoyable swimming

Negatives: not much sleep, sick baby, didn’t really get to visit with our two sets of friends who were with us for two days, not much Matty/Molly time

But totally worth it. We are still adjusting to traveling as a family of five (gotta count those two crazy dogs), and I learn something new every trip. 

Here’s hoping that the 4th of July will go a little smoother!