Beach Trip

For Mother's Day weekend, we were invited to join Heather's parents on Hilton Head Island. Since Eliza's last beach trip, she's grown so much and made so much progress developmentally (even if my prediction that "next year, we'll be one of the families walking hand in hand with their toddlers" was a bit overly optimistic) that it's hard to believe it's been less than a year since then.

The beach in mid-May turns out to be a bit early in season for Eliza's liking - though she enjoyed sitting and playing in the sand, the chilly breeze and bright sun (hardly a cloud in the sky!) were more than she wanted to handle for an extended period of time. After a half hour at the beach, trying to eat handfuls of sand and rubbing her eyes against the brightness and wind, she was well and truly coated with sand, so that counts as a successful beach trip right there. Across the three days we were there, we probably only spent an hour total on the beach, but it was fun anyway and good for Eliza too.

We spent more time at the hotel pools than at the beach. I'm not sure Eliza even noticed how cool the water still was - we got her out when she started to turn blue but I think if it was up to her she would have stayed in longer. She really likes being in the water lately! Bath time is probably her favorite time of day at home, and in the pool, floating free in her ring (with us nearby of course) really made her happy. We're signed up for swim classes with her in June and are really looking forward to it!



Since the official reason for the beach trip was a Rotary Club district conference (for Heather's dad), we were also able to cross paths with my brother Paul and his wife Michele, who were there for the same reason. It was the first time we'd had a chance to see them since December, so it was a very welcome visit. Unfortunately I didn't think to take even a single picture with them and Eliza!

That's enough news for one post, I think. Hopefully another post soon!

Changes?

Apparently keeping this blog up-to-date has somehow fallen off of my to-do list. Along with grocery shopping. I don't think I have been in 3-4 weeks. Luckily, I had (HAD!) a decent stock of food and we get a weekly delivery from the farm so no real lack of food here.

I've been struggling with what's happening with this blog and that's been demotivating for doing any updating. Lately it's evolved into an irregular, sanitized, and general update to family, friends and whoever else wants to read. Ideally I would like to see it be more of an accurate, day-to-day view at Eliza's childhood. The ups and the downs and all the nitty gritty in between. I think we've tended lately to highlight just the positives and especially the "normal" child milestones. Probably cause it's easier, and we don't want to feel like we are complaining about any of the downs or the struggles that we go through....cause people definitely have it much worse.  But this is our story and I think we owe it to ourselves and to Eliza to document it completely and honestly.

Perhaps others are also interested in a closer view of one baby's (and her parents') journey through overcoming her much too early beginnings, and perhaps not. But even if not, this is Eliza's only baby book, so we need to at least keep it current for her! Poor kid, she doesn't get anything normal.

So we will see if we can manage to make changes around here... since living the nitty-gritty seems to take time away from writing about it. :)

And to make up for all that  philosophizing here are cute pictures of babies (from way back at Easter, woops!)