Boy oh boy oh boy…I said this blog was going to be my personal blog and that I was going to have more aspects of my life on here, but I didn’t expect to have such a crazy first week or two to blog about! It’s been absolutely awesome to have the vacation time and see our family as well as watch our sweet boy play with all of his cousins, but getting back to the grind this past week has been hard. You know how sometimes you need a vacation from your vacation? That’s how I feel. Our vacation was one big rollercoaster!
The one thing that I love about visiting my In-Laws is that they have a large family (my husband has two sisters, one brother and a total of 3 aunts, 4 uncles and all of there children as well) and most of the family live within an hour radius. It is a very close knit family, much more so than my own family. That usually means that we get to see majority of the family when we are in town and typically it is at one time. This year it was at a party that my Mother and Father In Law hosted at their home. It was a blast to just relax and have some good ole fun. Once it got dark we got a campfire going and got to catch up with everyone.
The other thing a large family means is noise! This vacation we were back in town, along with one of my Sister-In-Law (the only other child that doesn’t live in town) which led to all of the siblings and children being together again at one time. In case you are wondering, for this trip, that meant a total of 6 young children and 6 adults living in the house at the same time with an additional 2 adults and 2 children visiting several times. Let me tell you, that is a lot of people in one house! If you are anything like me, noise can be a trigger. I can handle being in a social situation and being around a large number of people (even longer when it is family), but there always comes a time when it becomes overwhelming and I really need some quiet peaceful time. Thankfully I was able to get this time in different ways throughout our vacation so I did completely become overwhelmed.
Several things happened with our sweet little man while we were there, the first being his first time in the pool! He really enjoys being in the water and was all smiles once he got adjusted to it. I’m thinking that for next summer we will have a little paddling pool for him to splash around in or go to a neighborhood pool so he can continue to be in and around the water. Of course, we will also hopefully be doing some fishing and boating so he can enjoy it that way as well. another big thing was interacting and playing with other children close to his own age. He has an 11 month old cousin, a 6.5 month old cousin, and an almost 2 year old cousin (there are several more, but these are the three that he gravitated toward the most). He really enjoyed not only playing with them, but playing with there toys!
I truly realized that this sweet little boy is working his way further and further away from being “my little baby”. I knew I would start to feel this when he started crawling (at 5.5 months!!), but I didn’t realize how hard it would really hit me this trip. Watching him sit and play with toys that he was going to start being able to play with in just a few short months the whole concept of him growing up hit me like a ton of bricks. He’s starting to get away from real babyhood (he’s got a while before that truly happens) and into more toddlerhood and little “man-ness”. He also got his third tooth with a fourth starting to come in, has eaten a couple more finger foods, and has mentally developed quite a bit. He’s also been ever so snuggly this week (thank you teething and a small cold), so that has not been helping my emotional moments! I’ve been savoring those moments as he is such an on-the-go little guy.
All that aside, it has been so hard re adjusting to being in our routine and getting back to work! A lot is going on and I’ve got a lot of catching up to do. Like the title says, I haven’t had enough tea for this return from vacation fun! I’ve been putting my nose to the grind this whole week and feel like I’ve just been spinning my wheels and getting nowhere fast. It’s not a comforting feeling at all. I’m trying to trudge through it all and not get overwhelmed, but I’m glad that it will be a longer holiday weekend this weekend.
I know this was kind of long, praises for you and for anyone who got all the way to the end of this post! If you’re reading this, thank you! I’d love to hear from you! Have you gone on any vacations recently? Do you have any plans for the holiday weekend?