First Bites!

We are still having a hard time getting Hailey to sleep through the night. We're close, but not quite there, so we decided to go ahead and give rice cereal a try. She's just over 5 months, which is about 2 weeks earlier than we tried Sav, but, like I said, I need some sleep!!

Hailey is such a happy girl. She opened up for the food and pushed it back out. Not really any big deal to her. I'm not sure how much she actually swallowed. Most ended up on her bib, but for a first try, she did great!

I guess we'll see if it fills her up any better. It's hard to believe she's already eating solids, but I won't go on and on about how quickly my babies are growing up. I'll start to cry. So, how about more pictures instead?

This post is supposed to be all about Hailey, but I just have to add that even though Hailey did not have much of a reaction to her first taste of food, Savannah did! Oh my goodness! I told you all about how she gags when Hailey spits up. Well, this was that reaction times ten! Cole and I were laughing so hard! Sav wanted to be a part of it. She sat on my lap while I fed Hailey. She even used the spoon to feed her a few bites herself, but the whole time she was gagging! And I mean the whole time. Heaving, tongue out, loud gagging sounds! After a few minutes she would walk away and then come back to watch some more and would start gagging all over again. I think what's even funnier is that she doesn't act like anything unusual is going on. She just keeps feeding Hailey while trying to keep her food down. So hilarious! We got some of it on video, so I'll try to post it.

Margaritaville and the Pavillion

We had a blast at Margaritaville. They had a man on stilts walking around making balloon animals or hats for everyone. Savannah got a monkey and Hailey got a poodle (guess who ended up with them both). It's a loud, fun restaurant perfect for kids and the food was pretty good too!

We also got some tickets for Savannah to ride the rides again this year. She LOVED it! I remember her riding these rides a year ago! So hard to believe she did this as a one year old. But she enjoyed them even more this year. The carousel is still one of her favorites, but top of her list were the little boats that went around in a circle. Hailey was a trooper hanging out in the stroller while her sister rode ride after ride. I took so many pictures of Hailey smiling it was hard to pick just one for the blog. She is such a happy little girl!!

Here's our confident little boat rider. The woman who ran the ride fell in love with Savi. Sav said thank you to hear every time she opened the gate or lifted her into the boat without being told and the woman was so impressed (and we were so proud, of course!).

After her second or third ride, the woman lifted her into the boat and then leaned over to buckle her in and Savannah reached down to take the buckle from her hands and said to the woman, "I've got this." She then buckled herself with no problem. The sweet lady come over laughing to tell us what she had just said. She is so funny!

She searched for you out at sea Abby, Jeff and John, but we must have missed you!

Ripley's Aquarium

While in Myrtle Beach, we always make sure to stop at Ripley's Aquarium. This is the third year we've taken Savannah. The first year, I wore her around in the Baby Bjorn. A lot changes in 2 years- and the aquarium gets more fun :)

Savannah loved looking at all the fish! They had a little fish slide that was her favorite thing (or course!) but she liked discovering all the different creatures. While we were there, she wasn't looking where she was going and ran right into a railing and got a big bump on her head. Just thought I'd mention it, because that's typical Savi- like father, like daughter :)

Oh, the wonders of childhood!

I loved holding Hailey and watching Savannah explore with her daddy. Being a parent is so amazing- such a gift! She's soaking up so much every day. They really are little sponges!

More Fun in Myrtle Beach

Cole's parents' place is right across from Broadway at the Beach- such a fun place to walk around! We spent lots of time there. We took Savannah to Johnny Rockets and then walked around while I enjoyed some Moby time with Hailey.

We stumbled across the fountains and Savannah jumped right in. She even started to attract a little crowd of people who stopped to laugh at her- she ended up getting soaked by the end of it. It was too cute!

By the end of our first evening their I think the ducks had all gotten word to steer clear of the girl in the green dress. She had them on the run!

We also discovered that Savannah is a natural swimmer- with no fear! We picked up some water wings for her and after about 30 seconds she was ready for Cole to let her go! She swam all over the pool and woke up begging for more time in the pool (or "bath").

Vacation!!

We got to spend an incredible week in Myrtle Beach together- just Cole, the girls and me! It was amazing and SO needed! What a gift to have time with just our family. A huge thank you goes out to my in-laws who let us stay at their beach condo!!

Here are just a few pictures of our girls from our time there. I'll share more details of what we did later.

Hailey rolled over for the first time while we were in Myrtle Beach and Savannah was so proud! The girls took turns rolling over while we cheered- we got it on video and had lots of fun, but Hailey decided that was enough and took a 2 week break before trying it again. She still prefers to just lay where you place her and smile :)

We only headed to the beach a few times and usually in the evenings so the girls wouldn't get too much sun. Plus, it was either over cast or too hot most of the days. It made great weather for the pool and our other activities and the evenings were really perfect for our little ones on the beach.

We built sand castles, played in the waves (but only a little because Savannah thought it was "too cold!"), and we brought a tent one night for Hailey to hang out in which worked great. Cole even let Savannah and I bury him in the sand one day. What a good sport! We had so much fun we're planning to go back in a couple weeks!!