Flashback Three Weeks Ago & Update on a Rough Day

I miss Fort Foster just a little bit. But I'm more excited for fall right now. Still, it is fun to look back at some photos from our two-week trip to New Hampshire and dream about all the fun things we were able to do. Here are a few little gems from that trip that I haven't posted yet. 

The first several photographs are from visiting Boston with my family. The boys (Dalin, Payson, and Donovan) were at Fenway watching a Red Sox game at the time so they aren't in any. I met up with my best friend Megan and we had so much fun just walking around together and catching up for a few hours. 

Megan saying hello to Tenley in person (for the first time since she was two weeks old)

Just chatting and catching up. We look so serious:P

She's a little bit cute.

Trying "lobster tails" from Mike's Pastry in Boston for the first time. I loved the cream, but I'm more of an ice cream kind of person, not as much a pastry person. However, it was good and everyone loved them. 

Modeling the lobster tail I guess.

Hello Boston, and bright city lights

Snuggling with Uncle Donovan at Nana and Grandpa Searle's house

Love this pic of her looking at him

Hello belly! This was 16 weeks. 

I love watching her play. She's so perfect.

She looks reluctant, but she's actually trying to run into the water.

She had no problem going right in. 

We thought it was the cutest thing ever

I love this. She's casting the waves away.

Getting her hands dirty

Her struggle to maintain her balance is always adorable

Our little climber

Check out that strawberry blond hair in the sunlight!

The barnacles didn't phase her one bit

My sweet girl

Silhouettes

Momma and baby smooch

She's trying to take her onesie off (this was at Clark's)

That little beauty...

Riding the bear at Clark's

I hope you enjoyed those as much as I did. Looking at pictures of Tenley and New Hampshire always make me happy:)

This day with Tenley has actually been pretty good with three minor setbacks. For one, Tenley woke up unfortunately early and walked right into our bedroom (the cons of using a toddler bed...) and I lacked the patience I had meant to have with her. I was just really, really tired (she did the same thing the night before, too) and was frustrated that she had interrupted my sleep multiple times. I made some crispy bacon (it has to be super crispy for me to eat it) and hashbrowns (which it turns out are ridiculously easy to make! I just grated a peeled potato and cooked it in the bacon fat and lightly salted them and they were delicious!) for the three of us, then Tenley and I dropped Dalin off at class.

At home, I was super motivated to get a lot accomplished. It being Monday, I wanted to do our laundry for the week so I wouldn't have to think about it. Being pregnant and 5'0" and not very strong, (and our laundry building being quite far away from our building), doing laundry is really a chore. So I planned it all out. I pulled our Jeep stroller (minus the car seat) out of the trunk so I could push our big laundry bin on top instead of carrying it. Then I sat Tenley in the bottom basket so she could come along (otherwise she would have yelled from our balcony the whole time). In the laundry building, I loaded the laundry, repeatedly glancing at Tenley to make sure she was sitting down, when suddenly I heard a "clunk." It is like, the worst sound a mother could hear. I turned and saw Tenley had climbed out of the basket and fell onto the tile floor landing on her forehead. I immediately scooped her up into my arms and hurried to the little bathroom in the laundry building to put some cold water on a paper towel to soothe her head which had already formed a little purple egg. She stopped crying pretty quickly (until I kept putting the cold wet towel on her head) but I still felt horrible and sick inside. As I walked back to the apartment, holding her tight, I started to feel nauseous thinking about the bump on her head. I barely got up to our second floor apartment and as soon as I was inside, I set Tenley down, grabbed some little ice packs and my phone to call my mom. We sat in the rocking chair and I iced her head (she was completely calm and happy because I gave her her sippy cup) and called my mom. As soon as she answered, I began crying. I told her what happened and how awful I felt. Tenley, meanwhile, just looked at me calmly wondering why I was crying.

Check out that bump. It's like the size of a quarter and more purple than red in person. She doesn't even realize it's there. 

After talking to my mom, I felt a lot better. Tenley was behaving normally, I was able to ice her head for about twenty minutes (off and on as she kept moving her head), and she had only cried for about a minute after the fall. I had been scared she could have a concussion, but decided probably not after watching her go completely back to normal back in the apartment. I, on the other hand, cried a lot longer than she did because I felt so terrible. It was only the second or third time this pregnancy that I felt like my hormones took over and I couldn't stop crying. I am pretty sure I cried more often while pregnant with Tenley. Disney movies made me cry--mostly ones that had to do with babies, children, or parents (like when Rapunzel is reunited with her parents...that scene really got me). But my mom made me feel a lot better and I was able to continue with my day.

I made Tenley an extra special lunch and gave her lots of chocolate almond milk. We read and played with toys, and napped in the rocking chair (well Tenley napped...on me), she "helped" me fold laundry, we played outside on the grass and playground, and she took a nice bath out on our back porch before bed (and she played with water toys and splashed for a while).

The third rough thing, was putting Tenley to bed. I am tired of her getting out of bed when she isn't supposed to (and Dalin is tired of listening to me deal with her in the morning), so we decided we need to re-train her to go to bed on her own for a few nights. So she's back in the pack 'n play. And...she wasn't a fan which was really a bummer because we used to put her down and she would immediately roll over and fall asleep. Unfortunately, tonight I had to let her cry it out...this usually lasts like fifteen to twenty minutes, but I swear it had to be like forty minutes tonight. I almost caved and went to get her but I knew I'd regret it. Instead I tried to watch TV to distract me as I paced the floor and she screamed. When she was finally quiet, I went to check on her and I didn't like the location of her face, so I tried to shift her and she woke up. I was like oh no, what have I done...but after rocking her on my shoulder for a few minutes and humming another song to her, I was able to lay her down and she didn't make a peep.

So now I'm just trying to motivate myself to finish folding clothes (remember, Olivia, if you don't do it now, it will sit out all week and Tenley will mess up the piles every chance she gets) and pick up. I made the bed after washing our sheets (who else loves the feeling of clean sheets?) and now our bed looks so inviting, I just want to hop in it.

Anyway, this post has gone on a lot longer than I intended and I really need to finish up some tasks before bed, so...until tomorrow.

Goodnight!