Noah's first summer vacation

So we are now back from our summer vacation in Maine. I must say that the weather was significantly better than last year. Granted I was just over 3 months pregnant at the time and literally just finishing with the morning sickness so I was less active than this year, but seriously...I read 2 or 3 500+ page books because it was cold and rainy the whole week. This year we had sunny mid-80s gorgeous weather up until Wednesday evening. Then we had a HUGE thunderstorm and for Thursday and Friday the weather was still very sunny, but a bit too cool to go swimming (mid 70s and breezy). Aside from the weather, there were a few stumbling blocks, but nothing catastrophic. In the middle of Monday night, I had some serious problems with a 24 hour stomach virus. Between my 5 or 6 trips to be sick and Noah up and down still adjusting to sleeping in the pack and play, Tim and I didn't get much sleep. Thankfully the fever broke Tuesday night and I felt pretty close to normal by Wednesday morning. We had fun swimming and relaxing on Wednesday and then we had some more "fun" Thursday. Noah woke up Thursday morning shrieking and in a FOUL mood. We chalked it up originally to hunger or a disrupted routine. After his early morning nurse, he then proceeded to go on a half day nursing strike. The pediatrician was called, they told us to go to the local ER to have him checked for an ear infection...you get the picture. Thankfully the hospital was fairly close and very small so we were back to the cabin within 2 hours with no diagnosis...no ear infection, no other problems other than a minor fever. So we gave him some baby Tylenol (which mind you he seemed to get slightly high on) and he resumed nursing by late afternoon. He was a little fouler than normal for the rest of the day, but nothing much to speak of. Since we had to be out of the cabin so early on Saturday morning and the weather was getting cooler and rainier, we decided to pack up and head back to Memere and Pepere B's Friday afternoon. By Saturday morning, I started up with what Noah must have had. I am still trying to deal with the hacking cough and runny nose as I type. If only I had gotten the baby version Noah had...no such luck. Anyway, as promised, I have posted lots of great pictures from our vacation week.

Since we were a little concerned about Noah getting antsy during the week, and we were hoping for some dinners that didn't include holding a wee man, we brought the Jeep with us to Maine. Here is Noah Jeeping on the wide open hardwood freeways at Memere & Pepere B's. Hopefully Tim will get up some video of Noah's new pass time, which if you can imagine this, involves him beeping the horn with his face while shaking his head back and forth. Its much funnier to see than to read about trust me! :)

Noah was hanging out on the floor playing and being cute while all the rest of us were working like dogs to unpack the cars and organize things in the cabin. I want to trade places with him for a change!

Here is a great picture Tim took of the sunset views we got from just outside the cabin. This is overlooking Whitney Pond, which is technically a lake as it connects to other small ponds in the Sebago Lake region.

Sunday morning it was time to inflate the floats so we could go check out the lake. Noah was on quality control, checking to make sure Daddy was doing a good job. This one looked good to him, the smirk is that of approval I suppose.

Just double checking to make sure the arm was really comfortable...or proving to those reading that as of last week he still hadn't quite totally mastered the ability to sit upright unassisted for a long period of time (like 1 minute!).


Since Noah seems to love bath time so much, we figured he would also be a fan of the lake, so we got him his own wee man-sized float. Its great since its got a canopy to keep him in the shade and a little mesh seat so that he can lounge around in the water without us constantly having to hold him or worry about him becoming slippery when wet. He seemed to absolutely love it!


And this here was exactly how he spent the whole time he was in the water...gnawing on one of the variety of toys we stuck in there with him. As long as he has something in his mouth, he seems to be quite content with the world.


Later that afternoon, Daddy decided he would go on a kayak ride and explore the lake a bit. Noah is still a bit small to a) fit into a life jacket, b) trust to remain seated with his hands and arms inside the kayak at all times, and c) not turn into a crank monster at a moments notice because its nap time, so we decided that seated in the kayak while still on solid ground is probably the best option. Doesn't he look like a big boy sitting in there with his arm draped on the side...you can almost hear him saying..."okay daddy, I'm ready, where are you taking me?"


After some more floating around on the lake, Noah got a little tired, so we decided to lay down on the beach for a bit to dry off before heading inside for a snack and a nap for the little dude. Check out the bathing beauty laying on the sand.


He is even cuter without the pacifier in the way!


Since we only had so much space in the car, we decided to do the foam seat for meals this week instead of the high chair. With the base attached he couldn't arch himself backward and risk toppling over, so it ended up working perfectly. He is sitting here waiting patiently while I heat up the sweet potatoes.


By Tuesday it had gotten really warm and with no air conditioning, we had to get creative in keeping cool. Noah got a cool towel on the head and a frozen teething ring to play with. The rest of spent the evening sitting in front of fans with some ice tea...I like his way better.


In the spirit of learning and being cute, Noah had to try out all of the floats. This is an older one we brought that obviously had some seriously leakage going on since it was half deflated with no one using it. Noah figured out really quickly that when he is laying in there if he kicks his legs his head bounces up and down. He thought this was the funniest thing ever and had a great time playing there for a bit. :)


Here's Noah and Daddy hanging out before bed and being silly. This was right before bath time cause you can still see the shine of baby sunscreen all over his face. We have never given so many baths in one week...usually its every other or every 3 days or so, while we were at the camp he got one almost everyday to get rid of all of that sunscreen and bits of sand leftover after a day of playing.


Checking out the last of the floats for the week, this one is quite comfy, but too hard to bounce on...I'll play with my feet instead.


A great shot of the lake Tim took from the beach...see, it really was gorgeous weather!


Friday afternoon was spent packing up and getting ready to head back to civilization. We didn't want to forget the wee man, so we packed him up in Memere's suitcase for the ride! (Seriously, we strapped him safely in his car seat for the drive...we just wanted another cute picture!)


So that was our vacation, better than last year, but hopefully next year we can avoid illness AND have the gorgeous weather too! As promised, I will now provide the various updates. In the Jardine crib recall saga, we are on day 15 and we have just today sent back the UPS envelope with the dated label and all of the hardware. So Noah is officially without a place to sleep besides his pack and play. Am I ever glad I purchased one of those things! The envelope arrived at some point while we were away (Lord only knows when), but since the crib had already been taken apart to move it out of Noah's room for the deleading, getting together all of the hardware and stuff to send back took a matter of 10 minutes. The worst part was removing the mattress support strips, which required a phillips head screwdriver...I stressed over that one! Tim dropped the package off at a UPS store today, so we'll see how long it takes to actually receive the voucher for the new crib. Oh, and Tim also called the local Babies 'R Us this evening to ask again if we could order a crib online and bring in the voucher and the packing slip to get our credit card refunded (which I was told once I could probably do by a manager in the furniture dept.), only to be told that no, the only way to use the voucher is to bring it to the store and pick out one of the cribs off the display floor. I am quite peeved given the fact that I found one I really liked, matched the rest of our furniture really well, got good reviews, and was a best seller that is only sold on the BRU website! AND...they won't special order it for you off of their own website, they say they can't do that! I am hoping that if we call again in another week or so, they will have changed their story again, but for now, I guess we are resigned to picking out one from the store.