Staceytown: Vacation Recap

And we're back! We spent a week at lovely Lake Gaston, on the border of Virginia and North Carolina. This year went much, much better than last year. Last year's family vacation at the lake involved a 3-week-old Josie who hated every second of the (4+ hours one way) car ride and basically stopped sleeping for the week. This year, she slept for 3 hours on the way there (but only a half hour on the way back... can't have everything, I guess!), slept well every night, and was generally a delight to be around. Her cousins were so sweet with her, and she kept herself amused with blocks, books, and other toys, pulling herself to standing (constantly), and yelling gibberish. Ryan and I also really enjoyed getting to spend so much time with our daughter - this was the most time we've had with a healthy Josie (when we try to work from home with her when we're all sick doesn't really count) since she was less than 3 months old... and no offense to Newborn Josie, but she's much more fun to be around now ;)

[First time in the lake!]

[She did seem to like her float (which we found pretty invaluable), despite the side eye she seems to be giving it here]

So Miss Josie spent a lot of the week in a floaty swimsuit, with a long-sleeve sun shirt over it, with a sun hat on, sunblock on her face, hands, and legs, and in a float with a sun canopy... this may have been overkill, but we're taking a more Victorian approach to tanning with her, and trying to keep her as pale as possible ;)

[Baby taco! She didn't like this too much, but if the sun was too bright and/or she didn't want to wear her hat, we'd taco her up]

[Sleepy time]

[Little tiny baby splashes!]

We had a birthday party for Josie too, where she got to have a watermelon cake and watch me open her presents for her :)

[Enjoying her first balloon]

[Mmm, the watermelon was delicious, according to Josie ;)]

We also gave Josie a plum to eat on her own, which proved to be both entertaining (at least for Ryan and me) and good to fill her up, since she seemed to willingly eat more when she could attack it herself rather than eat pre-sliced pieces like we normally give her.

Josie also discovered the concept of "under" that week, and spent some time crawling under the coffee table... which went swimmingly for her until the first time she bumped her head and realized she was a bit stuck.

The coffee table actually played a key role that week - it seemed to be just the right height for Josie to pull herself up and sit herself down (repeatedly), and so a lot of her toys ended up on top of the table, where she kept herself quite occupied :-)