Ocean isle

We made it to the beach!!!  As usual, I'm sucking at taking pictures but here are a few.

Coming in to get clean after some time on the beach and at the pool. Abigail was working on her contortionist skills. Brady was being cute to make up for the fact that he cries more often than he doesn't cry. I'm pretty sure everyone will hate us by the end of the week. ; )

Walking from our row house to the big beach house.

The gorgeous sunset.

Brady was difficult to get to sleep tonight. Surprise surprise. He  kept crying every time I tried to out him in his pack n play. Finally, I just layed with him on Abigail's bed and when he fell asleep, I went into super stealth mode (think oceans 11 style) and snuck away. He woke up a bit later when Chris came in but he was able to keep him asleep and move him to his pack n play!  Huge win! But for a while we had this. Brady is such a bed hog. Also, lets hope he sleeps well tonight and this whole week. I'm really happy tonight is going so much better than the last, but I'm already greedy.

This is our biggest beach year ever. Five houses and 70 people. I'm having so much fun already. Even though stopping at a hotel is kind of a pain, it was so awesome checking into the house at one and getting all of today to hang out with everyone down on the beach instead of waiting til Monday. I still can't believe it... We're at the beach!!!

Thoughts

Let's test my luck actually getting my phone to publish all of these posts. I'm sure they'll all be terribly out of order but I'm gonna go ahead and say it's better than nothing. 

This is the first time I recall leaving for the beach on Friday and staying at a hotel that night and finishing the last stretch on Saturday. Makes the drive a complete breeze but man, hotels can be rough. On the plus side, our hotel was adorable. We stayed at hotel Florence and it's in the historic downtown district of Florence. The hotel is only a year old but it's style makes it look like it's from the 30s or something. The stairway and common areas on the floors were my favorite. Now I'm kicking myself for not taking pictures of it. I mean, they even had a scrapbook on the coffee table of the building process of the hotel. So so charming. Downside, no rooms available with two beds. But we made it work. 

I'm loving looking at all the houses here in the Carolinas. We are mostly passing trailers and small little rundown homes but they're so cute and interesting to look at. 

Brady slept in til 10 am which is pretty typical for him but especially appreciated this morning since he was awake so much of last night. Well, finishing the drive, Brady was asleep by 12:30... And now it's 1 and we are just pulling into ocean isle. At least he's getting a little power nap before we play on the beach! 

Cosleeping

Is co-sleeping a euphemism for "sharing a bed where no one sleeps" or something similar in meaning?

Brady and I didn't get to sleep til sometime after midnight. And Brady was standing jumping rolling climbing at 2:15 so I'm not sure exactly how much he slept during the first half of the night. I think I was half asleep but fully aware that the kid never ever stopped moving. 

A new rug

Give me your thoughts. I've wanted a rug for this space since we moved in. Our carpet isn't that soft and has several noticeable stains from the previous owners so there is some functionality to this in case that influences your opinion. Because you could be like Chris and be all "I don't really get the purpose of a rug on carpet."  I love the actual rug... The design and colors and even the price. But my question is this: is the space better without a rug?

Also, is the rug too large for the space?  The actual room is very large but the space with the sofas and coffee table is pretty average size. And I'm obviously no design expert so I'm not sure how rugs should be sized for the space. Basically, keep the rug or take it back? 

Wednesday

I had my to do list all written out by my bedside so I could be super productive and get everything done and packed for our trip and our house cleaned since Elisabeth was coming. Brady had other plans. He was so fussy when we were shopping on Tuesday and well, Wednesday was even worse. The kid cried unless I was holding him. How do I iron clothes, paint my toes, mow the lawn, unload the dishwasher, pack suitcases or anything else with only one arm?!

Well, one thing I could do under the circumstances was lay with Brady while I renewed library books online. And then maybe look at a blog or two. Because my headache was raging (his crying gives me instant and acute headaches that take forever to go away) and I just needed a break from all the crying and holding him constantly. He's got no symptoms of sickness so I'm thinking this has got to be teething. He's the slowest teether ever so this is probably my life for the next month. Good thing he's cute. 

So we dropped off library books, Brady took a 45 minute nap, Elle dropped Abigail off from her house and then Abigail said hi to Elisabeth and Kayla for a minute and headed to Lucy's house since Lucy had been waiting for her for a few hours. My little social butterfly. Hanging out with Elisabeth was awesome. I just barely got the house picked up before she arrived and the rest of the night was laundry and packing and everything that comes with getting ready for a trip. 

I layed out all the kids outfits and folded them together with the shirt facing out and called it a night. I prefer to load everything on the suitcases just right before we zip them up to go. I went to bed around 3 I think. The upside though was that this is the least travel anxiety I've experienced for a whole an I even started packing over 24 hours in advance which I'm not sure has ever happened before. Baby steps. 

Peachtree road race!

Fourth of July!

Getting to Atlanta!

elisabeth came to visit!

it was only for like two hours but still...  it was magical.

i don't know why, but it made me immensely happy that we look to be of similar proportions.  maybe i'm still a little scarred by my childhood friends always looking more like my babysitters.  anyways, it was great.