Wonderful Weekend

This is a blog post that really demands some pictures, but I have only taken a few, so I'll have to wait to see what people post on FB, and then I will add some. :-)

I have found that more people than I ever imagined actually do read my blog, and since I have been so negative lately, I thought I should update with my refreshed positive attitude before everyone starts to think I am eternally miserable.

As I write this, Vinny is making me lift my feet up so he can vacuum under me with his cousin Hannah's pretend vacuum. I should thank my lucky stars he is turning out like his daddy... he likes vacuuming.  Haha.

This weekend we are in Arizona. We have many family members and friends out here, so this trip had several purposes. We got to introduce family to baby Tiana, and we got away for our anniversary, which is actually on Monday. 7 years. Woo hoo.

We drove out Friday, and the drive was long as all heck, bu

t I guess not too awful. We did stop so Tiana wouldn't be miserable, but it sure made for a long drive. We spent that night at Marc's sister's house, which meant Vinny actually got to spend some awesome quality time with his Aunt Tricia that morning. She was one of those few awesome adults without kids who still understand that kids are just small people and treats them as such. I dislike very much when adults ignore Vinny, especially when he is talking to them. Tricia never does that, and Vinny just adores her.

Vinny and Hannah being silly at breakfast.

In the morning, we stopped by my grandmother's house so she could meet her new great-granddaughter. She appreciated it. Then we headed over to my aunt and uncle's house where it was an interesting sentimental reunion of sorts. My papa and nana were visting, and they got to see all of their great-grandchildren together at once. I hope someone got a picture of all five of them. I didn't think of it, but I hope someone did it. I guess it will be more fun to take a picture of once the two more that are coming arrive. It is really nice keeping such a close relationship with all my cousins.

In the evening, Marc and I took off for our anniversary getaway. My awesome cousin Tracy took the kids home with her. We stayed at a beautiful resort in Scottsdale and ate at this great restaurant called the Village Tavern. The name kind of threw me for a loop, but it was actually very modern. We had this fantastic bruschetta that totally inspired me to make it on my own. My mouth is watering just thinking about how great it was. I think bruschetta would be great on steak. Yum.  Best of all... I got about 9 hours of uninterrupted sleep last night. It was amazing, and I feel SO refreshed, words cannot even describe it. My mental state is improved greatly.

Tracy did fantastic with the kids. She's pregnant, so I felt a little bad about how much work taking on 3 kids at once would be, but it went okay. She had a little bit of struggle with the cloth diapers, but overall everything went well. Tiana even slept 5 hours straight for her last night. She has NEVER slept that long for me. I am thinking maybe she was able to get fuller with the bottle. I am thinking I will try to pump after feedings throughout the day and start supplementing her nighttime nursing with a bottle too. Tiana did keep her up in the early morning though, which I feel bad about, but Tracy's napping now. :-)  You want to know how amazing Tracy is... she got all 3 kids to breakfast on time. That's amazing.

It feels bittersweet to admit that the colic seeming episodes seem to have ceased with the elimination of caffeine from my diet. It has been a little hard since most of my favorite beverages have caffeine, but as long as I have things like Mug root beer and fresh lemonade, I'll survive. Some of the bottles Tiana had while we were gone last night were from the past few weeks though, so we'll see if it bothers her tonight. I've fed her fresh breastmilk since though, so maybe that will counteract it. Either way... at least I am in a better mental state to deal with it now. She's a really sweet baby. :-)