The first year of a baby's life is filled with "firsts". Even though all of these things your baby will probably do a million times, there is something special about capturing those first moments. Joey is 4 1/2 months old now and we have had so many fun firsts. This past weekend we had a bunch of "firsts". Not only did we have our first vacation with a 5 hours drive to Florida to go see Nana, but he also got to experience the beach and the pool for the first time.
We left on Friday morning... days, yes days before this I was doing laundry and packing Joey's things. Being this was the first time we have gone out of town with him, i really wasn't sure how much or even what to take. So I started with the obvious... diapers, wipes, formula, etc. That was easy. you can never have to much of any of that. But when I went to try to figure what clothes to bring... well... I think I went a little overboard. He is going through this phase right now where he is drooling like crazy (I'm pretty sure he is teething) so we go through a bunch of bibs everyday. Sometimes is so much he gets the tops of his shirts wet (which he hates) so we end up changing that to. So I packed a bunch of bibs, a bunch of onesies and some other stuff. needless to say we had more stuff for the kid than for ourselves. lol.
The trip started out well. He had his toys in the back and then took a nap. We stopped in Darien, GA to change and feed him and walked around for a little bit at the outlets there. I wanted to get him out of the car seat. Then we got back on the road. We stopped at the Florida visitors center and got out and stretched again. And of course did the obligitory photo in front of the "Welcome to Florida" sign. We were probably about half way there and he just started crying like he was saying "I'm over being in this car, get me out!" I couldn't blame him... I was tired of being in the car myself. I ended up jumping in the back seat, making him a bottle and feeding him as we were driving. he went back to sleep and was fine until we got there. We got checked in, had dinner and he was so tired I laid him down on the bed and he was out. Little itty bitty guy in the king size bed was too funny.
On Saturday we woke up (at 7am... Joey doesn't understand vacation time yet) and got ready to go to the beach. this meant lots of sunscreen and his new monkey swimsuit from Gymboree. Then we lugged the cooler and our bags and towels down to the beach. I guess all of that walking made him sleepy, because he was passed out by the time we got down there.
Once he woke up, he played in the sand and got to put his feet in the ocean for the first time. He wasn't to sure about the water (it was a little cold).
Then we went up to the pool for a little while. i had bought this great turtle floatie thing for him at Target and was excited to try it out. he was not so excited... After that it was time to go to the room and take a nap... all of us. :)
So we learned a lot of things from this first trip as a family of 3. Well... we learn new things everyday being parents. you figure out what works best and what to never try again. You realize that not everything you read while you were pregnant will happen and that it is possible to do stuff with a little one. the biggest thing you learn is that you have to plan things, yet still be flexible. because what baby needs/wants comes first. We have 3 more days of vacation left... then back to work. Joey starts with his new nanny on Friday and his 4 month checkup is in the morning. So a few more "firsts" will be added to the list. It is hard to believe its almost July. Time does fly... even more reason to really enjoy all of the "firsts". :)
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