July was a crazy busy month for us. Paul had normal work stuff and a consistently abnormal schedule. His NORMAL hours are Monday to Friday 12:30 pm - 8:30 pm. He has worked a lot of daylight shifts and I'll admit it's been really nice. Our county had 5 (it may have been 4) fatalities in just 2 days so his traffic unit (the motor cops) have been running around like deliriously fools trying to get paperwork done in the event that charges are filed. It's a lot of driving around looking at cars, talking to people and reconstructing the accident. Things are finally slowing down... Just in time for the motor officers to head to NYC for 4 days at the end of the month for the annual 9/11 memorial ride. I believe next year is the final year of this event and since my dear friend Stephanie will be living in NYC, my goal is to drive there and enjoy the festivities (and much needed girl time).
This past week was National Night Out and I was so happy Afton and I could attend. I was toooooo sick last year to go.
I was annoyed with myself that I forgot to get a picture of Paul and I while I was ther. Next year!!!
Like I said before... I cannot believe Afton is 8 months old!!! She is ALMOST ready to crawl. We give her tummy time every day and although she has perfected going backwards, she has not really grasp the idea of moving forward. I am so anxious to watch her crawl but I know I wont be able to keep her confined to one place without gates, lol. In our current living area, crawling will be... interesting.
Afton is learning how to play peek-a-boo with us. She pulls a towel over her face and then yanks it down and giggles when we say "boo". She did it for the first time while she was in her stroller at the mall. At first I could not figure out what she was doing. Once I realized she was wanting to play, we had a great time together! She now grunts at us when she gets annoyed, lol. Is it sad that we find these moments hilarious???? Yes, I laugh at my child when I probably shouldn't. Oh well! :) Afton's sleep pattern has changed drastically the past month. Before we left for Missouri we had done months worth of sleep training and had it down to a science. We would give her a "night time" bottle (formula with cereal) at 8:30 or 9:00 and we would rock her to sleep. She has always been a pretty good sleeper but has still woken up at least twice throughout the night. Never for long though (thank goodness). Well, when she and I returned from Missouri we went through about 4 nights of hell. She would fight and fight at bedtime. She wanted her bottle but did not want to go to sleep. We would rock and rock and rock until she finally went to sleep and then she was up every hour throughout the night wanting to be held, or fed, or just awake. Paul was working mostly daylight hours that weeks so I was exhausted to say the least. About night 5 I was so fed up. I told Paul we were going to let her put herself to bed. We let her stay up until she was totally exhausted. Finally around 10:30 she was sound asleep and we were able to lay her in her crib and she only woke up once during the night. It was a miracle. We have done that every night since and we have had a very happy baby since. I've realized that although sleep training is a good thing, you have to roll with the punches when they decide to change their sleeping habits. I did not have the energy to fight with her every single night. She really is one of the happiest little girls I have ever seen. She is still taking 1 long nap during the day and maybe 1 little power nap around 5pm. That schedule works well for us right now since Paul is working until 8 pm for the time being. We take her to see Dr. Hawkes September 10th and I anxious to get her measurements and discuss our food issues with him. Afton does not like most foods. She hates the texture so she is very reluctant to eat anything that is not formula. I don't want my princess to grow up any faster than necessary but I will be so happy when we no longer have to buy formula! Afton's hair is finally starting to come in and it's beautiful. She has this awesome curl on her forehead and I can already tell the rest of it will be quite curly. She is quite blonde with a little hint of red when she is in the sun. With her blue eyes and fair complexion she is going to be so pretty!
Afton and I also spent 10 days in Missouri in July. I loved seeing so many family members!! Especially my aunt and cousin who were here from China. They teach school for an America college in China and are only able to come back for a few weeks in the summer. They brought Afton a beautiful teapot!
I will do a blog post just about our trip when i can fish out the laptop. It's too much to write using my phone keyboard! Lol. I'll post pictures now though :)
Uncle John and Aunt Megan were a huge hit with these two little girls. They loved spending time with them at their house in Moberly. Uncle John is a firefighter and I cannot wait until the girls are old enough to go to his fire house and see the trucks. We spend several days with John and Megan and we are already getting excited about next years trip!
Afton had such a blast swimming in the pool John and Megan got for the girls. They thought the pool they were getting was much smaller but this one was perfect because they were able to get in with the girls and really have a good time!!!!
John wanted to show Afton what gardening was all about. He told her all the plants that were growing and he gave her a fresh green bean to chew on while they were working together. She sat so still on her chair and watched everything he did.
We were given this floaty before Afton was born and it is AMAZING. It allowed Afton to float around the pool and have a little independence while doing so. Lily's floaty popped but we eventually found a replacement for her. Until then, she had to make do with the green ring. She was such a good helper when her and Afton were swimming!
John and Megan bought the girls matching Ninja Turtle shirts and socks! They looked so cute in their matching outfits. I know these girls are not sisters but they are BFF cousins and my sister and I LOVE dressing them in matching outfits. It will be a while before my sister has another baby and a LONGER (if ever) while before I have another one so they will grow up the closest in age... by far.
During our entire trip Lily kept wanting to give Afton kisses, or chew on her toes! Afton did not seem to mind either, lol. I love watching these two girls interact.
Drakes was AMAZING! I had been waiting months for this meal on our trip. I was so happy to be able to spend time with my grandma Becky. Afton had such a great time siting on great-grandmas lap.
Our last day with John and Megan was so sad for me. I hate living so far away from these two. They love these little girls and the girls love them. Saying goodbye after this visit broke my heart. Megan kept saying she was not going to cry... I wont lie, I did when I got in the car.
One of the days of our trip we went to visit some good friends. They have a little dog who is not used to having little girls around. Lily pulled the dogs tail and tried to give it a kiss and the dog ended up biting Lily on her cheek. It could have been a LOT worse but it freaked us out just the same. She was a trooper and after a little loving from mommy and grandma she was back to her spunky self. Mom and Em did take her to the ER since it broke the skin on her nose. Dr. said everything looked good but gave her some antibiotics as a preventative.
Emily, mom and I went to Nauvoo to watch the pageant. It was a beautiful day but HOT. We kept the girls as cool as possible but they ended up throwing in the towel sooner than we would have liked. We made it through the first 30 minutes of the pageant and Lily was D-O-N-E. We made it back to our hotel in Hannibal sometime around midnight and realized maybe it was a blessing she was ready to go home b/c Emily could not stay awake the entire trip home and I was lucky to make it to the hotel without having to pull over. Funny side story: I am not as familiar with the area of Quincy we drive through coming home from Nauvoo since I was living in Kirksville when we would make the monthly trips so I was trying to get directions from Emily. The directions were not making any sense. She kept telling me to take a right when I KNEW I needed to take a left. Finally I realized she was giving me directions in her sleep...... We woke up enough to get us where we needed to go. LOL
A few pix of the girls in Nauvoo.
One of the best days of our trip was going to the STL Cardinals game! It was very hot and we were VERY high up in the stadium but the seats were still amazing and we had a blast. I learned this year that next year I am getting a babysitter, lol!
The day mom and I headed to STL for me to catch my flight early the next day, we went to my Aunt Kate's for a family bbq. It was so wonderful to spend a little more time with the Blessing clan before heading home.
Mom, Afton and I took flowers to Erin's grave. Emily and I spent a long time picking out the perfect flowers for her. September 4 will be 31 years that she has been gone. Its strange to miss someone you have never met (I was born sept 1, 1983 and she died sept 4, 1982) and yet I miss her every day.
My sweet cousin Adria met us in STL at Vivianos for a quick minute before mom and I headed to our hotel in St. Charles. I love her and wish we lived closer. There is the same distance between Adria and I that there will be between Lily and Afton.
I hope this entry found everyone well. Life for us is wonderful. We cant wait to see what the next month is going to bring!
Love,
EQ
