busy weekend

We had quite the weekend.

Saturday, we went to a wedding out on an island on Androscoggin Lake. We had some concerns about doing this since Natalie was coming with us, but for the most part, everything worked out even though not everything worked out. We were easily able to get ready and leave the house on time and Natalie napped in the car some. We arrived at the boat launch just before noon and the boat (driven by a former fellow teacher) arrived on time. Natalie LOVED the boat ride over to the island. She stood on my lap looking over my shoulder at the driver and the other guests. The ride was only about 15 minutes.

However, the first hang up was that we though the bride and groom were arriving at 1, but were told it was more like 2. They actually got to the island close to 430. The weather was great, so we had a great time hanging out on the beach and just enjoying being outside. But, Natalie was not cool with the sand. Even though she has been to the beach twice, she would not stand on the sand, even with one foot! I tried putting her in the water and that upset her, too. She was very clingy the whole time we were there and was with me almost the whole time. But, when she was with me, she was happy. She also played with 7 year old guest, so that helped out too. What was starting to get rough was that as the day went on, Natalie got more and more tired and cranky. Minutes before the bride arrived, I got Natalie to sleep in my arms as I sat on the beach.



This worked out well because I got to watch the ceremony without her crawling all over me or distracting the guests. I even managed to stand up (unaided, too!) and say hello to the bride before we got on the boat to leave. We managed to pass Natalie from me on the beach to Mike on the boat without her waking up, but the pass back did it. Yet, she was okay with her little power nap. We got home, fed her dinner, ate quickly ourselves, and followed our regular routine with no problems.

The ceremony itself was very nice. It has started to get a shady as the sun moved behind the trees on the island (versus setting over the water), but that is the only fault I could find. The bride looked lovely and the groom handsome. They were the only ones dressed up. The bride arrived on the boat and it was very cute how her brother lifted her off the boat so she wouldn't get wet, and it was how she was given away. She had just a small bouquet of pink flowers and her hair mostly down, both of which suited the island setting very well. The ceremony was preformed by another fellow teacher, so he was easily apple to project his voice over the waves and wind (it was rather windy by this point) since he does it over a room full of teenagers. The vows were simple, but also personalized and funny. When he said that they accepted each other with their faults and strengths, there was a funny example for each of them. We were very glad we got to attend and wished we could have stayed longer after the ceremony.

Sunday was also fun, but a equally tiring and sad. We left around the same time to meet up with Mike's mom at her hotel in Harpswell. She had finished moving out of her house since she is passing papers today. Last week had been very stressful for her with packing, cleaning, an intense mammogram fiasco, the movers, moving her cats, and problems with the buyers money transferring. Since she was at a hotel with two terrified cats, we decided to go to Freeport to walk around the outlets and stores. The weather was perfect yet again, sunny but not hot with a nice breeze. Besides food, the only one who got anything all day was Natalie! We got her some pjs, a sweater, a shirt, two coats, and snow pants. The two coats and snow pants we got at LL Bean using a $100 gift card from Mike's relatives we got a year ago. Nana also bought Natalie an outfit.

After we finished walking around the stores, it was time for Natalie to nap, so we drive to Land's End in Burnswick. She took a nice nap on the way there. After a quick nursing when we arrived, we walked around a little bit enjoying the view of the water. Next, we drove down the road to Cook's for dinner. We were there very early, so we had no problem being seated and served quickly. Natalie behaved well, but mostly because we kept giving her food. It seemed like she would eat anything we put in front of her, but finally right before we were ready to leave, she started to just play with it and bang the high chair try. She tried brocolli for the first time and wore a lobster bib for the first time, though she only had haddock.

We went to Land's End and Cook's because Mike's mom chose them. These were places that their family went to all the time in the summer on family vacations. They used to rent a cottage every summer up here, which is why Mike's family moved to Maine. So, places like The Point, Fat Boys, Land's End, The Seagull, and Cook's were all places with a lot of memories and meaning for them. I've been to all these places a few times with them, but of course they aren't as meaning full.

After dinner, we head back to the hotel. Mike's mom had a few last items to give us, things like bottled water and toilet paper that she didn't use up. Then we said out goodbye's. Natalie was stuck in her car seat and was cranky, so she didn't give the perfect goodbye. Mike was a little sad, but he understand that his brother has been away from his mom for a long time while she's never been more than an hour away from him. I think he'll feel more sad when he hears about the things they are doing together and when she isn't here for the holidays.

Natalie fussed some more in the car then fell asleep. We woke her up, gave her a bath, and then put her to bed. We were afraid that being woken up to go to bed wouldn't work out well, but she was perfectly happy and still tired.

Over the weekend Natalie didn't get to move around a lot. She was in the car or the stroller a lot of the time and then on the beach she wouldn't go on the sand, so she was confinded to my arms or a beach towel. She's been enjoying crawling and standing like usual this morning.

I love it so much when Natalie is excited to play with her books. Right now, playing with books is one of her favorite things to do. She crawls over there all the time and pulls out some books to look at alone or for me to read to her. She is also starting to show interest in stuffed animals and dolls, which is fun. Another favorite, it putting her fingers into little holes. Thank God for outlet covers! Another new trick is doing right now is trying to touch the things moving on the TV.

We've brought back the late afternoon nursing and once she lets go three times during nursing we put her to bed. This is working out well. She gets a tad upset that nursing is over, but is tired enough that she doesn't put up a fight. Because this is going so much faster now, we have stopped reading Harry Potter at bed time. We finished book 5 in the car yesterday, so we still have two books to go. I'm going to look for them on cd for Mike to listen to during his commute and I'll find time to read them somehow. Instead, we've switched over to picture books. These aren't the books that Natalie plays with in the living room. Those are books with flaps and textures and other movable parts. Bed time is now going to start being a couple of story books. I think we are on the way to merging into a nice snuggle at bed time before heading to the crib.

Another new development for us is using the saddle position for nursing. I found this when I was thinking that Natalie was uncomfortable nursing at night. This hold wasn't the solution for that, but it has been useful for our day time nursing. For example, nursing in the car yesterday and nursing on the ground on the beach at the wedding. Its great because its so easy to get her in position, and then she holds herself up instead of me supporting 20 plus pounds in my arms for several minutes. We also don't need the nursing pillow, so if we are going visiting we can nursing comfortably without it. I would still like to have it if we were staying over night, but now we really don't need it without having to worry about my arms killing me.

Lastly, after all our shopping, I think that I have to stop buying Natalie clothes for a while. We have quite a bit for her now in size 12 and a couple of items in size 18 months. Once its all washed I'm excited to lay it all our and see if we have everything we need and how well it mixes and matches, which I think will be pretty well because I tried to keep that in mind as we shopped. I've enjoyed being able to buy her clothes though. They are all so cute and I like providing for her. I like knowing that when she is wearing a cute and warm outfit, that I got that for her. Of course I know that I provide for her in many more ways than buying her things, but its still nice when I can get her toys or books she enjoys, yummy foods to try, and cute clothes to keep her warm.

Speaking of providing, I probably should get off the computer and start paying more attention to her as she is crawling about watching Sesame St. She keeps coming over and snuggling against my leg because she is getting ready to nurse. Its such a cool rainy day here that her snuggle feels soooo good.