party all week

It's been an ordinary (but lovely- ordinary doesn't always mean boring) week here. We work, we commute, we cook, we clean. We enjoy our sweet girl and try to make the most of every minute we have with her.

Like with a Tuesday night pool party in the driveway. Who says swimming is only for weekends? 

You see this face? This face likes to swim EVERY night.

We're trucking along with Whole30- today makes Day 22, so the end is nearly in sight.

Can't say I haven't been thinking about that day and about the glorious phase of 'reintroduction,' as they call it.

Since I don't see an official day to reintroduce gum, I'm going to assume it's day 1! Wooo!

 On Wednesday night we celebrated my niece's first birthday! Millie was a big fan of the party hats. And also, not shockingly, the cupcakes.

Trust me, I know exactly what to do with food.

We didn't actually let her eat one...I just wanted to see if she knew what to do when presented with a frosting-and-sprinkle-covered item. Eliana basically just stared at her cupcake for a few minutes and looked bewildered. But then, she doesn't eat many finger foods, so how was she supposed to know to pick it up and shove it in her mouth? Millie, on the other hand, eats with her hands all day long. So I was pretty sure she would know exactly what to do with a cupcake. And I was right. Cupcake right in the face, BAM. I snatched it away (mean Mommy, I know), but she had several good licks of frosting before I could wipe off her hands and face, so she felt like it was a pretty good deal.

Obviously it would be awesome if there were pictures of this monumental moment, but I live in a constant state of "memory full; no space available for new pictures" on my phone, and it all happened too fast for me to have time to delete older pictures, so...no pictures. Waaaaah. My next phone is going to have one billion gigs of memory. Mark my words.

On Thursday Millie got to have water day at school! Not surprisingly, she was a big fan.

I showed those babies how we DO it!!

I was pretty jealous of her teachers for getting to experience that much cuteness in one morning. But then I became un-jealous when I calculated how much work it was to suit up, sunscreen, and swim diaper all those babies...and then keep them all happy and supervised...and then undo it all twenty minutes later when they were done. Yeah. Hats off to them.

The transition to the crib is going okay, still. She's better and better through the night- she doesn't wake up or need help hardly at all in the middle of the night now. But the going to bed part is definitely not as smooth as it used to be in the Rock n Play. I think that back then, even if she wasn't overly exhausted, once we laid her down...well, she may lay there for awhile with her eyes open, or babble, but there just wasn't much she could do, swaddled and stuck in a small enclosure like that. So she'd fall asleep pretty fast. But now, if she's not absolutely exhausted? Well...FREEEEEDOMMMM!! She can roll around, hop up, throw her pacis on the ground, jump...I mean, the world is her oyster. She takes advantage. And it's the same in the morning. Even in the RnP, she would often start stirring earlier than we were ready for her to get up- 6:30 or so. But we'd put her paci back in, leave her alone, and she really had nothing else to do but fall back asleep. But now, when she wakes up early...well, it's the same as at night. She just gets herself on up for the party.

So anyway- all of that is to say that she's not getting as much sleep as normal. And then her days are filled with swimming and sun and birthday parties, and sometimes it just all adds up to this:

Zzzzzzzz.....

Sometimes you just can't stay awake to finish your breathing treatment. I had turned around to work on some packing- two seconds later I look at her and she's toppled over asleep!! It was the cutest and most pitiful thing ever! Don't worry- I picked her up and cuddled her while she slept and finished her treatment. Then I put her straight in the bed and for once (this week, anyway) there was just stillness and sleep. Sweet girl didn't even have it in her to give us a good roll. 

We are visiting my family this weekend- we are looking forward to spending time with Millie's cousins, doing some swimming and fishing, and most importantly, seeing my grandparents! They are coming all the way from Texas and this will be Millie's first time to meet her great-grands! I'm so excited- they had been waiting and hoping and praying for her right along with the rest of us, and I am so thankful that they will finally get to meet her.

I hope you have a wonderful long weekend (well, if you're American. Sorry everyone else.)!

P.S. Today it occurred to me that I graduated from college TEN YEARS AGO, so now I feel particularly ancient. That is all.