Camping and other updates

It was just as rainy and soggy and wet as was forecasted. In fact is was so wet on Saturday night, that many of the campers had to abandon their tents and headed to Rob's sister's house in Huntsville for the night.

We were in an older tent, and perhaps on slightly higher ground, so while soggy, we weren't entirely rained out and decided to stay. Yes. We are troopers.

Overall the trip was lots of fun, lots of kids playing, enjoying themselves in spite of the crap weather. The bugs were pretty terrible - but we had a net for Maddie, so she pretty much lived in her monkeywrap, attached to me, with a mosquito net over her. Sounds ridiculous? Well, she's the only one of us to come back with nary a bug bite on her, so I guess it worked.

The food was fantastic, the company was fantastic, it was just mother nature that didn't want to cooperate. I decided that camping wasn't all that enjoyable with an (almost) 9 month old - she couldn't crawl around and therefore was frustrated much of the time. Oh, and she refused to sleep in her playpen. So we are now officially cottage people, with the potential to go camping again when she's 3 yrs old (and as long as it's in a tent trailer).

Life since getting back has been hectic - but here's a synopsis...

• Tuesday was spent in our backyard enjoying the sun and warmth as much as possible. We had Greg and Liz over for a bbq and Maddie tried out her pool for the first time. We have it on video - will post soon.
• Wednesday was Maddie's 9 month check up - she's doing well, hitting all her developmental milestones on time, but she dropped in height and weight down to the 10th percentile (from the 25th) ... nothing the doctor is worried about, but we just have to make sure she's eating until she's full every time she eats. Which now means I feel like if she's not sleeping, she's eating.
• Wednesday also saw us do the last of the 2 daycare interviews ... I think we found 'the one'. We'll see when I call her on Monday.
• Thursday brought Grandma and Grandpa Vallier to visit for a few days - they just left this morning to go to a family reunion of sorts near London, and will be stopping back in on their way back to Kingston tomorrow. Somehow they restrained themselves and only brought one toy for Maddie with them this time, it's shocking.
• Last night we went to G&L's for dinner - and to check out their new outdoor fireplace/pit-type-thing. Fun, except Miss Maddie was grumpy so we had to leave earlier than anticipated.
• Maddie is now eating Cheerios. She loves picking them up and feeding them to herself thankyouverymuch. No, she doesn't need help. No, she doesn't want help. She's a big girl now, you see...
• I have finally uploaded all of our Ireland pics to Flickr, and written descriptions for everything so it makes a bit more sense. Click here to take a look...
  

Well, lunch is being made for me, and the weather beckons, so I'm off. Have a good weekend!

xxoo.S