Things You Learn When Vacationing with Baby

= Bed-and-Breakfast owners are not totally receptive to you showing up with an "unannounced" infant

= Baby does NOT accommodate your need for rest

= Long drives are not baby's favorite way to spend his time, and he lets you know it in a LOUD and PAINFUL way

= Five days of a different environment/schedule really bite you in the bottom once you return home

= Using baby's at-home playpen as an away-from-home crib sends a mixed message that baby has a hard time decrypting

= You will undoubtedly not pack enough infant clothing to accommodate the increased number of mealtime accidents and/or spit-up events

= Meals out with baby - while harried - are certainly entertaining. Like when he crawls over your shoulder to blow really loud raspberries at the young couple next to you (trying) to have a romantic dinner. Or when he then leans over and spits up at their feet.

= You will inevitably forget your extra camera battery and charger and have virtually no record of baby's first vacation

:)

Better

I feel like I have to get better at this. At mothering. At blogging. At photographing. Lately I have been exploring links-within-links to various blogs from as close as this state to as far away as New Zealand. There are a lot of talented, thoughtful, creative people out there. It made me hopeful that I too could be one of them, but it also made me feel woefully sad and inadequate. I don't have the TIME or the ENERGY to be thoughtful very often, nor do I use my creativity or talents enough. Most of the time I am wrestling with my 6 1/2-month-old, trying with mixed success to: diaper or de-diaper; clothe him; put him down to bed; bathe him; feed him; get him in-and-out of the carseat/stroller. It doesn't sound like much, but it certainly fills a 14-hour day. There are days, like today, when I haven't gotten to bed just early enough the night before. When I was awakened after midnight by baby's cries, then again just hours later by my working-late husband who was baking a pizza. Follow that with more cries from my little one when at 5:30 he had decided enough! with sleep and wasn't it time to begin the day with crib gymnastics?

Fast forward to 3 hours later, when after a 25-minute powernap, baby was ready to go at it again. So as he was screaming himself into a hyperventilative state in his crib, I raced through my shower madly scrubbing, soaping, rinsing, drying and creaming, thinking, If this is my day today, then I should at least be clean for it.

Does it get easier? Will I get better at this? Any of it? Will I not want to cry on almost a daily basis? Will I learn to live in the moment and accept all for what it is and simply BREATHE?

Oh, this living. It's hard. And the mothering thing? Even harder.

Swimmin'

It has been some time since a photo share, so while we await the videographer's (ahem) final edit of Caleb's first swim, please enjoy! This little fish loves the water...