Vacation

We just got back from visiting friends in a cute little town in upstate New York. We had so much fun, and it was hard to come back to face the daily grind. I think Annabella had the best time out of all of us though, as JJ and Seda spoiled her rotten. Her days were filled with special sweet surprises, trips to the park, and dips in the kiddie pool.

Some of my favorite memories from the trip:

• Annabella shared a room with us, and I got to roll over and watch my baby sleeping over and over again. There was just something so sweet about seeing her perfect little body curled up with her butt in the air for sleep. And I never knew she sleeps with her ankles crossed. So cute!
• Watching my baby discover smores. We couldn't get Annabella to eat a marshmallow to save our lives, but melt it and smash it between chocolate and graham cracker and it was an instant hit. She might not have known what it was, but she liked it.
• Visiting with some dearly-missed friends. Good friends are hard to come by. And Seda and JJ aren't just good friends, they're cream-of-the-crop friends.
• Swapping pregnancy stories. Seda is 8 weeks behind me in her pregnancy, and it was fun to have another expectant mommy around.
• All the good food. Seda is an AMAZING cook. Everything she makes is just so good. And JJ's not too shabby either :) I think Annabella heartily agreed as she ate more food over this vacation than any other 3 day period in her life. It was crazy to see how much food she downed and how distended her little belly was.
• Seeing Annabella wake up in the morning to discover that she was still in the place of awesome fun.
• Watching my friends spoil my child. The were pretty obviously enamored with her. I remember reading somewhere that showing my child love is showing me love, and it's true. I was so touched they spent so much time playing with her and suffering through the heat of the sun so she could be outside (her favorite place in the world).
• The local fair... There's no way I could explain it in such a way to do it justice, but I've never seen so many back-woodsy people congregated in one place before in my life. Plus it featured my first demolition derby, Annabella's first sno-cone, and a child who appeared to have bleeding chicken pox who stood in line just behind us. I didn't understand why Seda was asking which childhood diseases we were supposed to avoid during pregnancy until I caught a good look at this girl, and then I decided it was time for both of us to leave. But it was still fun.

And because I've bored you with vacation stories, I'll include the pictures Annabella's daycare teacher emailed us today (along with the teacher's comments):

First Annabella quickly found the teeter totter and bounced on it with her friend.

Then, Annabella found a quiet spot away from her friends to dig in the sand. She used a shovel to scoop sand into a small container. What a fun way to show off her hand-eye coordination.

When she was done with her digging, Annabella went to play on the slide. She stood at the top of the slide and said "hi!" to all her friends before she slid down. What fun!