259

That's how many pictures we took on our vacation, 259 pictures in 5 days! We spent 5 wonderful days in the peaceful Upper Peninsula of Michigan.  We stayed in Curtis, Michigan at an awesome cabin with an amazing view.

Ryan, Rylie and I joined my Dad, Stepmom, Brother, Stepsister and her two sons to be 'Yoopers' for the week (Local people who live in the Upper Peninsula call themselves Yoopers).  There is so much to do and see up there, we couldn't fit it all in, but we managed to do quite a bit and had a great time! Rylie was a great little traveler and it was so nice for her to be able to spend some quality time with her Grandma and Grandpa on that side of the family. 

Some of the things that we did while we were up there was visit Kitchi-ti-kipi, a really cool underwater spring. It is so neat to see the sand bubbling up from the bottom, and it is amazingly clear, you can see all the way to the bottom of the 10,000 gallons of water.

We went to Sault Ste. Marie to  purchase our fare share of Mackinac Fudge and Salt Water Taffy (which didn't even make it home : /, definitely not helping get back into pre-prego shape! ) and to see the Soo Locks where we all watched patiently as the boat was raised up.

We spent lots of time in the water and on the boat in Big Manistique Lake.  Rylie was not a fan of her life jacket (which I personally thought was adorable, so I don't understand why she didn't LOVE it)

but she came around once she discovered something to chew on

and when we docked, we took it off while the boys fished and she was a new child

The fish were biting like crazy and we caught tons of perch, and some walleye and bass.  Ryan got to fillet his first perch and we had some delicious fried fish for dinner

We also did plenty of swimming, relaxing around the campfire and on the screened porch, and spent plenty of time in the car since it was over 8 hours of driving each way. 

It was a great trip and I wish it lasted longer.  We didn't get a chance to do a lot of the things we wanted to like Tahquamenon Falls and The Bear Ranch, but we made great memories and got to spend time with family.

  I would love to share the other 248 pictures, but I will spare the space and time :)

Talk about Bed Head

I put Rylie to bed last night after her bath and her hair wasn't quite dry.  This morning she woke up looking like this:

She looked so cute I had to laugh out loud when I walked into her room.  It was also even more sweet because of her innocence about bed head and bad hair days, she had no clue what Ryan and I were laughing at. She just laughed right along with us!

It was nothing a little water and a pretty clip couldn't fix though :)

REAL swim lessons

I read about this the other day at The Momma Maven and I thought it was so cool and such a great idea! We don't have a pool or anything right now, and neither does anyone in our family, but if we ever get one, I really want Rylie to get these lessons.  The video of this in practice is so amazing.



I looked in our area and have not found anyone who teaches this yet.  I thought it was so interesting I shared it at a family dinner and it turns out my stepdad did it for my stepbrother and stepsister when they were Rylie's age.

The theory behind ISR (Infant Swim Resource) is that it teaches your child important survival skills while teaching them to enjoy swimming.  You can read more about it here.

I really like this idea though and I hope it is available in the area when we are ready for it. For now though, we will continue swimming like this:

Mommy instinct, Ear infections and Bleach

Sometimes I just really need to trust my own instincts as a mom.  Rylie gets a cold pretty much every 3 weeks since she has been in school.  While not fun, I have grown to understand the process which her colds will take and how to deal with them as they run their course.
They always start with the sniffles, then congestion followed by cough and sometimes a low grade fever that lasts no more than 24 hours.  Then the cough will linger for almost 2 weeks-ugh. This cold was different, it started out the same, but then a few days into it the fever came.  This time it went up to 102 which is pretty high for Rylie.  Not only was it high but it lasted for three days.  Each daycmy mommy instinct would tell me this wasn't just a cold and I was sure she had an ear infection, but everyone  Ryan and the doctor told me it would pass.
On day four of  fever ( not to mention ear pulling, screaming at bedtime, fussiness and shaking her head) I put my foot down and took her in- Surprise! Mommy was right! An ear infection, so we got Amoxicillin and headed home.

Now my counters look like this as I try to get rid of all the germs....

But at least Rylie is once again our happy little peanut!

Happy 4th of July!

I haven't written a post in a few days  FOREVER (sorry everyone).  I am in the process of writing several new ones, but Rylie wanted to wish everyone a Happy Fourth in the meantime.

Hot Potatoes, Mashed Bananas and more!

When we started to talk about giving Rylie solids I was super excited.  I had coupons for jar food and went out to buy it and then saw how much they actually charge for pureed foods.  I couldn't believe the price when it was mostly just the simple matter of steaming and mashing.  I decided that I would look into making our own purees for Rylie.

My favorite website for information is this one by far.  It has soooo much information.  I started to read about something called baby led weaning (BLW) and thought it was very interesting.  We decided to start with purees though, since Rylie is at school all day and they would be giving her purees first there.  We do some BLW ideas, like giving her large items to hold and bite off pieces on her own, and letting her take the spoon and serve herself.  It is very cool to see a child this young able to already know how to take bites and "chew", especially when she doesn't have any teeth yet!

There are several reasons why I am glad that I chose to make Rylie's food:

• I can save tons of money.....check this out!
• It is super easy, I just take a Sunday and make 2 fruits and 2 veggies and I am set for two months. Or I just mash up what we are having for dinner before I season it with one of these: BabySteps Food Mill by Kidco
• It is actually really fun :)
• I know EXACTLY what Rylie is getting.
• It is much easier to make food combos that she will like.
• Lastly, it looks really cool in the freezer

Oh yeah, and Rylie loves it!

Whoever said white men can't jump....

...never met Rylie! She loves to jump.  We bought her the Baby Einstein Musical Motion Activity Jumper when she was almost four months old and she took to it right away.  At first she just sat in it, but now she has mastered the jump! If we are sitting on the couch next to it, she will push herself over us and try to get to the jumper.
This was her first introduction at four months:

and this is her in it now, usually she is talking and laughing too, but lately she is camera shy: