Back From the Cape

Our time at home didn't last long -- less than 24 hours. Friday morning we got up early and headed up to Cape Cod to visit Bob, Irina and Tavi. Bob was there helping out with a course for graduate students/post-docs at the Marine Biological Laboratories. I would elaborate more, but it's all pretty much over my head -- very prestigious and geeky though :). They were on the last weekend of their 2 week stay, so we were happy we were able to squeak in a quick trip to see them before they headed back to Chicago. Tavi is 11 months old and we hadn't met him yet!

Millie had SO much fun at the cottage. The living room was nice and big and sparse so she was able to pretty much have free reign and scootch where ever she wanted to go. She certainly managed to cover every inch of the floor many times over in her explorations. She loved playing with Tavi's toys and watching him walk/run everywhere. Three months sure makes a big difference at this age! Tavi was very much a little boy :). Very adventurous and sweet. Millie was the most independent we have seen her throughout all of our travels. I don't think she really cared too much that either Scott or I were there. She was happy to just play on the floor and went to Bob and Irina as if she had known them all her life. She was full of smiles and had lots to say :).

Friday afternoon we all headed to the beach for a while. Millie was okay with the sand, but was not so keen on the water. This was the one time during the trip when she was not going to let go of mama! She gave out a loud shriek when I put her feet in the water. I think the waves freaked her out -- they weren't anything big, but something new. Tavi on the other hand LOVED the water. He was splashing about and having a grand time with Bob. We spent the rest of the night and all of Saturday morning just hanging out at the cottage -- it was the best place for the babies to be able to play unrestricted and gave the grown-ups time to just sit and talk and enjoy each other. Friday night Millie and Tavi both had TONS of energy and stayed up pretty late. When we finally got Millie to bed she laid and nursed for a bit. I was certain she was drifting off to sleep finally, but then she unlatched and just started jabbering about her day! She talked for about 5 minutes, then turned back to me, nursed some more and fell asleep. I'm pretty sure she was telling us what a great time she was having and how much she wanted to be a big kid like Tavi :). Bob had to work off and on, but he managed to squeeze us in when he could. We definitely appreciated him making the effort seeing how hard he was working! Here are some highlights from our trip.

Bob is going to be teaching at this summer program for the next 5 years, so hopefully we will be able to make this an annual trip and hopefully we'll be able to spend more time with them next time. Bob and Irina are great friends and we're sad that we don't get to see them very often -- we hadn't seen each other for almost 2 1/2 years! Even after all that time, it was so easy to fall right back into our friendship. It's so nice that Irina and I were able to follow through with our plan to have children at the same time :). Bob and Irina are great parents! Tavi gave us great insight into what we have in store for us in 3 months! It's hard to believe!! We'll definitely have to get these two little ones together again before next June. Hopefully next time Millie will be more interesting to Tavi :).

When we got home, Millie was ready to continue roaming and exploring on her own turf. Only problem was, our living room was not so nice and baby-proofed as the cottage and we had to keep interrupting her play and attempting to re-direct her. It's just not realistic to expect her to stay on her play quilt anymore ;). So, we did some creative rearranging so that she can now pretty much do whatever she wants in the living room without us worrying about her getting hurt or getting a hold of something she shouldn't have. It basically entailed removing everything from the room except her toys :). It's a temporary solution -- we figure since we'll be packing up and moving in a month and a half, there's no sense in trying to keep order in the house. It will be nice to set up the new house entirely with Millie in mind so that we can encourage lots of independent and creative play. I'm already shopping online for new storage :). So, our home won't be winning any awards from "Better Homes and Gardens" for the next couple of months, but I think we'll be well rewarded with the gains Millie will make. In fact, she rewarded us almost instantly by pulling this trick out of her hat:

It's hard to tell from the picture, but there are no knees on the ground there -- she pushed herself all the way up on her feet and was standing holding on to the box!! That was a first! Yeah, we're okay with the furniture arrangement :). You can get a better view of her skills from the video -- she knew she was doing something special, she kept flashing that smile at the camera!

Our vacation is now officially over. Tomorrow it's back to work for everyone. June certainly did fly by. We had a great time seeing so many of our family and friends and we've got a lot of great memories to share with Millie of her first summer :). We have one more quick trip next weekend -- to Philly to visit with our friend Christian and then things will be all work around here as we get ready for our move in August. Good thing Auntie LoLo is coming to help out with Millie for a week in July! We're going to need the extra hands and eyes!