Wednesday, June 6, 2012

where fore art thou, emerald coast?

Top of the order today: I just booked a condo in Destin for August. I am so thrilled!!! My husband insists that a week at the beach with 2 small children is going to be a brutal experience but I disagree completely. I searched rental properties for hours and found one that is a first floor end unit, walks out to the beach and has direct access to a pool. I think it is going to be a SUPERB week. I love, love, LOVE this part of Florida, it is my favorite beach in all of the US. If anyone has any child friendly activities in that area to recommend, THEN PLEASE DO. :)  (And please pray for no hurricanes but thank you, Lord, for travel insurance.)

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This last week has been H-A-R-D. I thought that baby S was just teething, but it seems she is going through a huge wave of MOMMY specific separation anxiety. She cannot bear for me to leave her sight for even a moment. I get the death grip if I even try to put her in her carseat. After almost 5 solid months of a flawless 2-nap-a-day plus easy bedtime schedule, she is refusing naps and fighting bedtime with all her might. I have to stay in the room for up to an hour each time to convince her it is ok to go to sleep and she'll only concede to 1 short nap a day, if at all. She wakes up from said single nap PIPING HOT MAD that I am not in the room. We had to lower the crib to the bottom setting because I was convinced she was going to rocket herself out of the thing, hurtling towards the floor in her fury.

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She has 2 new top teeth. Though they aren't the middle top 2, they are the next pair out, so she looks like she has little fangs. And she grinds her bottom 2 across the new top 2 and the sound makes my blood curdle.

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I get FAR less done in any day without 2 full 2 hour naps from the baby. She's only doing a single 1-1.5 hour nap in the afternoon and she requires my attention ALL DAY EVERY DAY. I cannot leave a room or take my eyes off of her for a second, she is in to everything and anything and she is climbing and falling non-stop. I wish I could call in some reinforcements but I don't have any. I am so tired by the end of every day, I fall in to bed and crash. I love my kids. I love being with them and having the opportunity to work from home. I have to say that lately, my tank is just out of gas. I'm sure that this, too, shall pass.

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Summer Mother's Day Out started yesterday. THANK YOU, GOD.

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Little L is going to start semi-private swim lessons here at our house with one of our neighbor's kids this month. It is more expensive than going to a swim school but the idea of having the instructor come HERE and teaching her in our pool makes me pleased as punch. I'm not a strong swimmer and considering we own a pool, it is of the utmost importance to me that my kids can swim well. We installed a safety fence around the pool early this year, but I still have nightmares about one of them falling in and drowning all the time.

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I think if I could do it all over again, I wouldn't have bought a house with a pool filled backyard. I love the house but I've really been loathing that pool this year. I cannot change it but I am just throwing it out there that the next house we buy will not have a back yard that is all pool, if any pool at all. It is funny how priorities shift over time.

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I have a very good friend that I've known since elementary school who just got engaged and is planning a spring wedding next year. She has asked me to be a bridesmaid and for the girls to serve as her flower girls. I am really looking forward to it.

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Someone is going to be a year old in 6 weeks. SIX WEEKS. HOW IS THAT EVEN POSSIBLE?!?!?!

THE END.


6 comments:

  1. I sent my friend Jessica your link (maybe you guys are already friends? I don't know) - they just got back from Destin with a 3 and 2yo and had a blast. I'm sure she'll have great ideas. :)

    As always, I can relate on all accounts. Chasing the insanely fast 1yo around while trying to keep peace with the 3yo. Life is good. :)

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  2. Hey! It's the afore-mentioned Jessica. We just had a blissful, amazing week in Destin. Every day my husband says "I wish we were back in Destin" and he is NOT a beach person!
    The best advice I can offer is to 1) go with such low expectations that all you can do is be delighted, 2) make very few plans other than beach/pool/naps, and 3) stay in a condo which you are already doing! It was lovely to have laundry, couches, rooms...it felt like home and made it wonderful to stay in at night. We ate breakfast and lunch on the patio/balcony each day and the kids loved it. The one day we tried to do more than just beach/pool it was miserable (whining! crying! gnashing of teeth!).
    As for places to go if you do brave the streets of Destin: Fudpuckers is great for feeding/seeing alligators (boys likes it), and we tried a new ice cream/custard shop each night. We made sure to get snow cones on the beach. Little special things like that. Vacation stuff! I heard there is a boardwalk area that shows kids movies outside and has lots of fun activities, but my kids have such early bedtimes that we didn't explore. Don't bother with the Pancakery...it was good, but EXPENSIVE for breakfast. We got Donuts from The Donut Hole and they were good but not great. Honestly our kids loved eating cereal on the balcony more than anything else we tried.
    But other than beach/pool we didn't do much. It was Heaven.
    I hope you have a blast! My husband was so down on the idea and the minute our kids had their feet in the sand he was sold!

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  3. I only have a minute because E. is not napping (the two-one transition is not going smoothly over here), but wanted to say that the sound of them grinding their teeth together is possibly my least favourite part about a baby. I cringe every time he does it. He seems to start up again each time we get more teeth.

    I cannot believe S.'s birthday is so soon! I found things slowed down a little for us after E's- it was like since we weren't staring down the gauntlet at the big day anymore, we could just relax.

    xoxo
    T.

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  4. A family vacation sounds like a great plan, especially one to the beach. I am sure the girls will love playing in the sand and building sand castles together.

    Really cool about the swim lessons. Little Bean has been taking lessons for a couple of months now, but I feel like she has made little progress. In fact, I almost feel like she has been going backwards lately. :(

    I miss 2-nap days too. I can only imagine how much more difficult it is when you work from home and need that time to get things done. I'm sure it wouldn't be as bad if she wasn't in a clingy phase and could entertain herself nearby while you worked. Toddlers can be so difficult at any age. Either they don't want to be apart from you, or they do so they can overfeed the fish and make messes. ;)

    Take the girls to your family's house and go on a date with your Hubs!

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  5. Vacation sounds AWESOME. I hear Destin is beautiful. Love beach vacations with kids. I think beach is so much easier than a pool.

    That's awesome about L's swim lessons, although funny how you flip-flop re the pool. :)

    S's having a birthday soon?!? Where did time go....

    xoxo

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  6. WEEEE for a vacation! It will be awesome, we only took 1 kid to the beach, but it was seriously a breeze (if you don't count all the STUFF you need for them! but that's nothing new, right?)

    i am seriously contemplating getting some swimming lessons for G at my mom's pool. She is really comfortable in the water, but does NOT want to put her head in. I NEED her to be a good swimmer.

    you are an amazing mama, just wanted to let you know! :)

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