Let's just say that if my last post was on March 20th.... a lot has happened since! We now have a crawling, eating, babbling, traveling, daycare going, backpack riding child on our hands. I can already feel the urgency of the Summer in Bar Harbor creeping up on me, and I have to consciously tell myself to slow down and enjoy all of the little miracles that are taking place in our lives everyday.
April was another great month to watch Kiera grow and change. She is babbling and saying "da da" "ba ba" "ma ma" "blah blah" and many other sounds that create a lot of drool. Perhaps the biggest change is that she is crawling and pulling herself up to stand now! She started crawling on my 28th birthday and has been on-the-go ever since. She kinda crawls like a gobblin by crawling on one knee on one side (like normal) while stepping with her flat foot on the other side (not normal.) It's cute to see her own style mixed in there. She seems to use her foot on one side so that at any given moment she can sit back on her butt to look around. She's pretty darn clever....and nosy!
I continued taking Kiera to work with me well into May until we made the decision to find childcare for her. It was a hard decision in many ways. I had brought her with me everywhere I went for the 1st 7 months of her life. As Kiera started crawling, getting more vocal, and teething it got harder and harder to keep her "contained" at work while there were customers in the restaurant. It seemed like the only thing that would keep her cool was strapping her in the front pack... but as she got bigger and the restaurant busier it just wasn't realistic anymore. Not to mention the fact that she wanted and deserved to be crawling, squalking and just enjoying life.
Soooooooo after a great deal of searching and debating we found JILLIAN! And thank God for that! Jillian is a stay-at-home mom of 2 who has taken Kiera on as part of her pack. We are hoping that between she and Lexi, Kiera will be well cared for this season and into the winter as well. It was so comforting to find someone who we knew and trusted to take care of her and she seems to love spending time with all of them.
At the beginning of April, Kiera and I traveled to Florida to see mom and John. I also got to attend my good friend Jaime's bachelorette party while mom watched baby K. It was my 1st girls night out in a LONG time, and while I didn't know any of the others when we got there, I left feeling so excited for the wedding when I could see them again! All-in-all I was glad to be able to go on the trip, but it was a total relief to be back home where we were all able to get back into our comfortable routine. We had missed Jeff and Lexi and they missed us and we will be sure to bring them along on our next vacation!
Today I took Kiera on a hike at the Indian Point Bladgen Preserve and it was so gorgeous. We walked out to the water and could hear seals off in the distance. It was a perfect day and Kiera fell asleep in the backpack with her head against my neck which always makes me feel lovey. I had this total "high-on-life" moment where I was just overwhelmed with happiness and gratitude. I had a little skip in my step during the mile and a half trip back to the car. I carefully moved Kiera from the backpack into the car and then proceeded to get in the car and drive OVER the backpack....bending the frame to smithereens. Ugh. Jeff said that he can fix it and I have high hopes! This story should clear up any curiosity over whether or not I'm still suffering from a bad case of the scatterbrains.
It is so hard to believe that Lexi will be THIRTEEN in just 7 days!!!!!! She will be a real life teenager. So far, she is on the road to being a very cool, respectful, and fun person. I sometimes worry that any day could be the day that she starts being too cool to talk to me about stuff anymore, but so far so good! She has been helping us with Kiera and with working at the cafe, so hopefully she can save some money this summer while still having fun.
Jaime's Bachelorette Party
Visiting with Memere and Pepere
Oh and did I mention that my amazing friends and husband planned me a surprise birthday bash? It was pretty much the best.
Little Pumpkin Head on her 1st swinging adventure
Playing with Daddy at the playground
