Smith Mountain Lake ~ Part Three

Wednesday

Wednesday morning, we took the boat over to Smith Mountain Lake State Park and docked it near the beach. We spent the morning swimming in the lake, basking in the sun, and playing in the sand. We really like the lake (more than the ocean) for small kids because of the calm water. Wes and I can sit on our blanket and watch the twins play in the water without worrying about them being taken over by waves. It's great.

Here's a pic of the "beach" from our boat.

 

Gavin jumping trying to catch the little fish swimming around.

My view of Wes, Viv, and Gav from the beach.

I just love the clear water.

After lunch and nap, we went to Walmart (for some iced coffee- YUM!) and Goodwill (to get the lamp). Ont he way there, Vivian insisted on reading my "Happiest Baby on the Block" book while wearing her glasses (that she's been wearing for weeks now) and eating a pink lolly pop. She's hilarious.

 That night, we ate dinner together and watched "Tangled" on TV.

Thursday

For some reason, Gavin woke up super early Thursday morning.
He also NEEDED to wear his Spiderman hoodie, and blue
goggles; all while eating a TON of watermelon.

We took the boat over to the beach again Thursday morning. By this point, Gavin and Vivian were pretty used to getting ready. They knew that they needed their life jackets, that the boat needed to be untied from the dock, and that someone needed to steer while someone else pushed off. Of course, they each volunteered to do each of these jobs.

Vivi and her glasses.

The view of our dock from the water.

Gav said he wanted to wear his boat life jacket
at the beach so that he could "do work."

"Back away from the blanket."

At one point, Vivi found some older girls he wanted to play with. I told her that she had to introduce herself and ask if she could play with them. She walked right over and said, "Hi, I Vivi. Can I play with you?"I couldn't beileve it.

Gavin joined them at some point. But he refused
to introduce himself. We're working on it.

After lunch and nap, we went up to Bridewater Marina to return the boat. Vivian and I drove the boat while Wes, Gavin, and Paxton drove the car and met us there. 

Viv and I taking the long boat trip back to the marina.

Once the boat was returned, we hung out at the marina for about an hour before heading back home for dinner. Of course we made a stop at the arcade.

Here are our wonderfully well-behaved children climbing
on one game to increase their ticket count.

We also fed the fish popcorn.

YUCK!

We ate at home that night and had a quick photo shoot with Pax in an adorable outfit from my Aunt Rita (Thanks! We love it!).

 Part Four of our vacation is next...

He's an Easy Baby

I've been debating in my head about whether I should write this post for several weeks now. Not because I wasn't sure if he was actually an easy baby (I've been sure of that since the first week of his life), but because I felt bad writing about it. You see, Gavin and Vivian WERE NOT easy babies. Gavin had acid reflux that made his poor little tummy hurt all of the time. He would eat, scream because of his aching belly, spit most of it up, scream because of his burning throat, and then scream because his belly was empty. We were constantly wondering if we were feeding him too much or too little. Vivian didn't have reflux, but she did have that hemangioma on her leg that ulcerated when she was about 6 weeks old. Her poor little leg had a bandage that needed to be changed 3-6 times a day (and the bandage changes were very painful). These aren't the only things that I think contributed to their fussiness. I believe it was so difficult for us to have a peaceful house for four main reasons: (1) they just didn't have calm-baby temperaments, (2) we were first-time parents trying to figure it all out as we went along, (3) there were TWO of them, and (4) they each had a fairly significant issue causing them actual physical pain.

Needless to say, when I would hear other moms say to me, "My baby is such an easy-going, good baby," I wanted to secretly punch them in the face. And kick them in the shins. And then stomp on their lifeless bodies when they fell down. (Too much?) I hated hearing other people boast (or even just comment) about their babies who cried very little, were good sleepers, and learned to "self-sooth" at an early age. Gavin and Vivian would scream for hours and hours and hours through out the day. They were not easily soothed (except for on rare occasions) and they have never been (and unfortunately still aren't) good sleepers (okay, they're absolutely terrible sleepers). It was tough. And as we got closer to Paxton's arrival, I wondered how we were going to do it again.

Then he was born. And he was different. Paxton is easy (at least for the last 13 weeks); especially when compared to his siblings.

Paxton is totally go-with-the-flow (we take him everywhere with us and he rarely makes a fuss). And he has a rather consistent routine. He eats, plays, sleeps, eats, plays, sleeps, etc. He has two parts of the day where he sleeps longer and he only wakes up 1-2 times to eat (not just to scream like G & V) at night. He's also easily soothed. If he's upset, one of us can easily calm him down in a few minutes. Paxton has never screamed for more than 5-6 minutes at a time. It's surreal. And maybe he just has an easy-going temperament, or maybe we just know what we're doing this time, or maybe it's so easy because there's only one baby to focus on. Whatever the reason, I'm basking in the glory that is an easy baby. And yes, I'm bragging a bit. I think I deserve to after raising two hellion babies.

*I'm really sorry if you've read this post and you have a fussy baby. Believe me when I say that I feel your pain. It sucks now. But it will get better. At some point.

Canvas Instagram

I just ordered this Instagram collage (that I made with picasa) to be printed on a 16x20 canvas (from EasyCanvasPrints.com)! I can't wait for it to get here!