Summer Break #1 - Gulf Shores

Every summer, daycare is closed for one week in June, and one week in August. For our first summer break, we decided to head to Gulf Shores for a vacation with Nana and Papa. We stayed in a 2 bedroom condo which was very nice even though it was a block off the beach. There was a bit of oil on the beach, but it wasn't horrible. It did leave a nasty residue on my legs after I walked in up to my ankles though.

As it turns out, that didn't matter for us too much because Cassidy HATES the sand. She cried every time we tried to get her to put her feet in it. She barely tolerated it with shoes on, even backing out of it while whining one day when she found she had wandered into a small patch of sand on the pavement while walking.

So we spent our time at the pool.



We brought our bikes along, so we enjoyed several bike rides. With Nana and Papa there to have fun with Cassidy, we were able to have a little time to ourselves including a 12 mile bike ride along the gulf.


Cassidy enjoyed walks with Nana to look for lizards and pick flowers,

making friends with the girls in the condo next door,

and spending time at the park with Nana and Papa almost every day!

She also enjoyed her very own chocolate ice cream cone for the first time. With a little help from daddy to turn the cone and take a lick when things were getting out of control, she managed to keep all of it on her face, and NONE of it on her shirt!

(ironically, I just noticed that she's wearing her ice cream cone shirt in this picture!)

Before our vacation, we had started giving her the occasional piece of chocolate which Jeff and I usually indulge in after dinner. Well, before too long, it became a nightly ritual. And shortly after that, she was asking for "Cccchhaawwccooo" (say this while spitting and sounding german and you'll pronounce it just like Cassidy) first thing in the morning and as soon as we walked in the house from daycare. We've created a monster! She definitely has her daddy's chocolate sweet tooth ... though since the pregnancy, I can't really judge as I've developed quite a sweet tooth as well.

The only problem on vacation was sleep. Cassidy didn't adjust too well to sleeping somewhere besides her own crib and bedroom. Mostly the problem was that we were in the same room with her. Everytime she woke up, she would stand up and cry for us. Letting her cry it out was pretty much an impossibility with us laying in bed 4 feet away. We did try for the first couple nights, which ended up with us in the living room, Jeff laying on the couch, me laying on the loveseat, and by the third night, Nana sitting in the bathroom with the fan on to drown out the noise because she couldn't take the crying anymore.

We tried a new pack n play from walmart since we were using Cassidy's small bassinet/pack n play which she is really too big for in the hopes that she would be comfortable enough to sleep through the night.

Nope.

We tried walks at 4am to get her to sleep after hours of trying to get her back into her pack n play once she had drifted off while holding her only to wake up again upon putting her back in her pack n play.

Nope.

So by the end of the week, Cassidy would begin the night in her pack n play after falling alseep while nebulizing, wake us up crying around 1am, and then spend the rest of the night sleeping while one of us held her. Our last night there, Jeff had headed back to New Orleans for a soccer game, and Cassidy spent the second half of the night in Jeff's spot in the bed.

Hmmm... so much for sleep training.

All of this not sleeping made for naps at unusual times in unusual places,

including heading out for lunch wide awake, cheerfully greeting everyone in the restaurant with smiles and blown kisses, and then passing out on the table before lunch was served.

So we gently moved her to the floor on top of her diaper mat and ate our lunch while laughing hysterically, while wishing I had thought to get the camera out to take a video of her head beginning to nod and then falling forward onto the table.

Surprisingly, even with the disruption in sleep habits, returning home brought us a full night of sleep on night one, 2 hours of crying/sleep training on night two, and sound sleep all night long almost every night after!

We also figured out that she was getting cold at night. Most nights when she did wake up, she would cry until we'd go in by her. She'd then hand us the blanket and lay down for us to cover her back up and go right back to sleep with minimal fussing. We already keep the house at 76 at night, so we decided to buy a couple of toddler sized sleep sacks for her. We put one of these on over a long sleeved onsie, or two piece pajamas plus socks. Since we've started this, she's slept all night, EVERY night!

We had a GREAT time on this vacation!!!! Thank you for joining us Nana and Papa! It was wonderful to have you along, both to spend time with as well as to give us a break from Cassidy so we could have a few moments to ourselves! We can't wait to do it again ... in August?