Busy weekend and Water Babies!

Mary Jo and Barry were in town this weekend and we had a birthday party for them up in NH on Saturday. Then yesterday Jeff's cousin Jamie came over and we went downtown for lunch. We were supposed to go to the aquarium as well, but the line was wayyy too long and we didn't have time to wait around. It was a super-busy weekend. Between going to New Orleans and this past weekend, Cleo has been quite the trooper. We've tried to maintain her schedule as best as possible, but have not been able to get her to bed on time consistently and I think it is effecting all of us. We are collectively exhausted!

We had our first water babies class on Saturday morning. Cleo did really well, although we arrived a couple minutes late and I felt a little lost for a bit. But soon we were getting the hang of things. We sang songs, performed different maneuvers with the babies to get them used to being in the water (flip from belly to back, float on back/belly, sit on the wall and "jump" into the water, get water sprinkled over your head, play with toys, etc) and generally had a good time. They packed a lot into the 30 minute class, but I think it is going to be a fun way to start our busy summer weekends for the next 7 weeks. Although, we'll miss one class while we're on vacation in late July and there is no class this week because of the holiday. Many of the babies cried, but Cleo seems to really really enjoy the water and isn't afraid at all.

Baby Annabelle

I almost forgot! Cleo got a cousin earlier this month. Annabelle was 2 weeks early and barely gave her Mom a chance to even get to the hospital! It took all of 2 hours for Amy to have her. She looks exactly like Doug and has lots of extra skin that she needs to grow into. She is sooo tiny and as of this past weekend was finally back to her birth weight. She is just the smallest little thing ever. Here are some pictures of her just a few hours old...







And a few more funny ones of Cleo...here she is trying to steal Uncky Doug's cake on Mother's Day a couple of weekends ago (Her face is so serious, as if she is calmly and sternly saying "You will give me your cake now."

New car

We spent Saturday at a Honda dealership buying a new (used) car. We have been in the market for a new car for quite some time, but we finally decided it was a good time to take the plunge and purchase. Jeff's car had been paid off for about 3 years and it was needing more repair work than it was worth and wouldn't have passed inspection. Plus we are getting ready to pay off the Audi.

We got a 2007 Honda Pilot that was a great deal and pretty much in mint condition. It's bigger than we wanted (we were thinking about getting a "crossover") but is a low-emission vehicle and gets better gas mileage than our Audi. It has all the amenities we like and even a DVD player for Cleo in the back.

We left the house pretty early and were at dealerships for about 5 or 6 hours. We didn't get back home until about 5 or 6pm. Cleo did so great! Which makes me think that traveling next week won't be as big of a nightmare as I'm anticipating.

Yesterday morning was beautiful and we were up at the crack of dawn and itching to get out of the house and drive around in our new (to us) car! We drove all over the south shore and ended up at the beach for a little while. It was fun to watch everyone trying to surf. We didn't stay too long though because we weren't really dressed for the beach and didn't have sunscreen. Cleo didn't seem to notice the water much, but was fascinated with the sand.