Grace's First Summer

A huge perk of being a teacher is the fact that I get summers off.  A lot of people (my husband included), think this means 3 months off every year.  For me this year, it's exactly 7 weeks (not 3 months) from my last day of school to my first full day of work.  That's okay, 7 weeks is still way more vacation than most people get.

And the summer I've had so far has been truly amazing because it's been with Grace.

Grace's summer kicked off with her first flight for our family trip to the coast of North Carolina.  Grace truly made the trip special for everyone.  She's the first baby to be born in 18 years in my extended family!  Grace got to splash her legs in the ocean, she got to feel sand in her toes, and swim in both the outdoor and indoor pool.  Her favorite part of the trip had to be dinner time. Every evening the whole family meets in Grandpa's condo for dinner. And Grace had everyone's full attention and she loved it.  It was during this trip, at 6.5 months old that Grace's army crawling really took off.

Another special part about this trip was how much time she got to spend with her Uncle Brian.  Grace is my brother's only niece, and he is such a sweet uncle to her.  I just know he's going to be a wonderful father (hopefully someday soon).  But until then, Grace just loved the attention she got from him.

The plane rides with Grace were okay/not so good. I planned to nurse her during take off and landing, but she had other plans.  Our flight down to NC went okay.  Our flight back to DTW was just awful.  It's an hour and a half flight. Grace slept for a half hour, and screamed/cried for an hour.  My mom and I tried everything we could to help.  And to add to it, she screamed the car ride from the airport to the house as well.   I think a few factors were causing the screams for the second flight and not the first.  I believe that timing had to do with it.  Next year, I will try to plan for morning flights if possible.  Our return flight was in the early evening.  Grace's fussiness level increases throughout the day.  She starts out in the morning as a happy baby.  By 5pm, she is much harder to please.  Another tactic I plan to try next year will be screen time.  Grace doesn't really have chances to see screens much (besides my phone as I take pictures of her with it all day long haha).  So, hopefully saving screen time up to be a secret weapon will help next year as well.

Also this summer, we have gone to the pool a ton!  And my parents got a mini backyard pool just for Grace, and she loves it.  She sits and crawls and splashes and plays with her toys and it's just adorable.  This summer has had many 90+ degree days, and luckily, Grace is a water baby.

  

Brian has been working a lot this summer, but we try to squeeze in family time every chance we get.  We've taken Grace to some Ann Arbor favorites like Zingerman's and Afternoon Delight (even though she didn't get to eat any food at either place)!  It's really nice to be able to sit for a meal and just enjoy being together.  Grace and I even brought him a picnic lunch at work one day from Panera.  She absolutely adores him and her face lights up when she sees him every time.

This summer we put Grace in a park swing for the very first time, and she loved it!  We also learned that many babies love this swing, and there can sometimes be an awkward wait for the baby swing.

We had a really nice visit from Brian's parents.  They noticed our long wait for the baby swing, and went out and bought Grace her very own swing for our backyard!  It's a big hit so far!

(They also installed black-out blinds in Grace's room which are amazing!  She goes to bed at 7:30 pm no matter how bright it is outside).

Grace got to meet her cousin Aedan, who is 7.5 months younger than Grace. Sheena is already a wonderful mom to Aedan, and I know Grace is going to love having a younger cousin to play with.

Grace met William Claiborne Hancock IV!  He is my friend Jessica's son and we had a fun little swim date when they were in town.



Most recently, Grace had a visit to her Great-Grandpa LaMoreaux.  He has all kinds of fun toys to show her, including a talking parrot.  I plan for Grace and I to visit him a few more times before summer is up.

And, Grace has pulled herself to somewhat standing!!  This is a scary development, but exciting!

This summer with Grace has truly been the best summer of my life.  Granted, I wish we saw Brian more.  I wish I could get more consolidated sleep somehow.  I wish it was easier to keep our house clean.  But, I will never wish away this time with our baby.  She is my everything and I wouldn't change it for the world.