Vacation in Wales

We took our first family vacation last week! We were limited with destination choices since we are still waiting for the little one's passports (US & Italian!) so A found a cute cottage rental in the Brecon Beacons in Wales for a relaxing week off. I think Amélie also knew we were on vacation too because most nights she gave me a little break and slept for 6 hours straight. It was nice to have A around for the entire week since he never had any paternity leave. It gave me a little break during the day from diaper changes and keeping Amélie entertained plus it was just nice to spend time together as a family. 

 ^^Our cottage was called, "The Coach." I loved the stone exterior and the grounds of the cottage. 

 ^^The living room area. 

^^Upstairs bedroom.

 ^^First thing after we arrived - find a supermarket and get everything we needed to grill!

 ^^I need to get Amélie a pair of sunglasses :) 

 ^^Bouncy bouncy with dad. 

 ^^I was going to save the barbecued chicken for the next day, but we ate it all that night with the burgers, oops. 

 ^^I had been saving up the graham crackers my sister brought over from the US and the American marshmallows I found at a local shop plus bought a pack of Reese's from the candy store to finally finally make Reese's s'mores!!

 ^^They were incredible. I had s'mores almost every day. And I tried s'moreos too! 

 ^^The rest of the week we explored a couple of cute towns and mainly just took an easy. Here's baby and dad hanging out at a coffee shop. 

 ^^We grilled some more. 

 ^^Jim & Donna came to visit. Amélie hung out in Baby Bjorn, but she definitely wasn't happy in it at times. We were able to do a long walk with her in it - A and I alternating with carrying her, but I think she just needs to be a tad bigger to be more comfortable in it. 

 ^^We checked out an old castle and it's museum. 

 ^^We found a cute restaurant in Cardigan. 

 ^^Delish sweet potato and butternut squash quiche with some very light and fresh salads. 

 ^^Penryn beach, it was a mission to get to and I wasn't in the mood/prepared for sand so we didn't stay for long, but it's very pretty. 

 ^^We checked out Hay-on-Wye, a very cute town known as the town of books. Tons of cute boutiques, cafes and an ice cream parlour. 

 ^^The evenings were cooler so we made a cozy fire and caught up on Scandal.

 ^^We mainly cooked at the cottage, but this was one from lunch one of the days at a pub near the cottage. I couldn't decide on what to get and wanted to try everything so I ordered three of the starters! This is above is linguine with crab. 

 ^^Thai chicken meatballs with egg noodles. 

 ^^Pork belly, onion ring with slaw and applesauce. 

 ^^A's fish with vegetables.

 ^^I indulged that meal for sure. A did eat most of the pasta though! 

 ^^On one of the last days, we checked out a distillery and went on a tour. I was worried Amélie would be fussy, but she slept in my arms the whole time. 

^^Pretty view driving to the distillery. 

We ended the week by visiting A's parents who were so delighted to see their granddaughter. I took the opportunity to have a few more moments of "me" time even it was just to catch up on Pinterest :) Now we are back in the swing of things at home. I think I needed a vacation from the vacation when I got home because there was tons of laundry/ironing and admin to catch up on, but last night the little one slept for a 7 hour stretch! (that's the longest she's ever done!) I feel amazing after such a long period of uninterrupted sleep. I got so much done this morning and am looking forward to the rest of the weekend. A's sister and bf are in town, plus I finally made myself an appointment to get a haircut and the weather is looking good too! 

Amélie Two Months

This post is a little late since we were on vacation last week (more to come on that later this week), but this little one you see above turned two months old last week. I took her to be weighed this morning and she is right on track at 11 pounds and 9 ounces (5.26 kilos), right in the 50th percentile. Today's fun event was in the few seconds she was on the scale sans diaper, she peed, obviously. 

In the past few weeks, she's started smiling and cooing more and more at us! The first real smiles happened around 6 weeks and were towards the monkey attached to her bouncy chair. (Though she's much more into the penguin these days.) Most days she's a pretty happy girl particularly in the mornings when she is the most smiley. Of course she has her moments with what I like to call "scream crying," but it usually doesn't last very long. She had her first set of vaccines a couple weeks back, which wasn't too fun. Before the appointment, I put her in her bouncy chair and she was very smiley and getting along very well with the monkey. Later on in the day after her injections, she didn't smile once at monkey and kept shooting him evil looks (I think she thought monkey had something to do with those mean injections), it was very cute. 

Other developments - she's officially grown out of all of her newborn clothes and moved on to the 0-3 month sizes. I can't believe how much she's grown in just a few weeks. I'm still solely breastfeeding and it's going well. Rather than every 2 hours, I can sometimes stretch it to more like 3 or 4 hours during the day. She still clenches her fists so tight when she's eating like she'll fight anyone who even dares to try and come near her milk. Also, we've had a bunch of nights where she's slept 5-6 hour stretches, which is awesome for me! The new thing she's done in the past week is munching on her hand when she's hungry. She used to cry, but now that's becoming less and less as I am also learning to read her cues of when she's hungry/tired/cranky, etc. I've always heard you can tell the different cries of a baby, but they also sounded the same to me before I had Amélie. Now I know this to be very true and can tell when she's just pissed off or if something is wrong. 

It's really nice that she is becoming much more alert and interactive. I see this when she's in her play gym and she focuses on certain toys. She also loves looking in the mirror and trying to figure out exactly who that baby in the mirror is :) Other than that, it's been really nice out this past week and we've been going out for walks. We've signed up for a baby sensory class and she'll go to swimming classes on Saturdays with A both starting in September so lots to look forward to. We are just more and more in love with her every day and can't get over how sweet and adorable she is. She really is the best. Happy two months little Amélie. 

^^One of her favorite positions to sleep in.

^^Smiley.

^^The many little faces of Amélie.

^^My fav of this week, a little night time tummy time with bunny. 

Weekend Fun

^^This is my favorite family picture of us so far!

Though there were no 4th of July celebrations here, we still had a fun weekend with A's friend Toby visiting and family day at Rolls-Royce. Luckily the sun was out in between a few clouds and we were able to have a couple delicious meals too. 

 ^^ First we checked out the summer garden party in our neighborhood. A and Toby had some fun with the "soak-a-scout" game. Amélie on the other hand was exhausted. 

^^We had some pre-lunch ice cream while the sun was shining. 

 ^^Amélie was very happy to meet Toby. 

 ^^We had lunch at The White Swan, a pub in a small village called Bosham near us, that we have been wanting to try. It was well worth it and we had a really great meal. We shared this starter with homemade bread and chutneys. 

 ^^Next were salt baked prawns. 

^^For the main, I had the duck breast (yay for being able to eat meat less than well done!) while the boys had lamb. All of it was delicious and perfectly cooked. 

^^Back at home, these two had a little dance party to will.i.am and Miley. 

^^Then after dinner, these guys made us dessert - bread and butter pudding! and it was very good! 

^^The next morning, it was off to our favorite spot for breakfast, Wellies. It's so cute inside with chalkboards, jars, burlap and twine everywhere. 

^^The little one napped while we ate. 

^^The Full English is so good here with just the right amount of food. 

^^Friends since they were little. 

^^Next, we were off to Family Day at Rolls-Royce. 

^^It's very different from Ferrari as it's just one huge building with the officers and manufacturing. 

^^The assembly side of the building. 

^^We checked out some cars, but couldn't go on one of the chauffeured rides because of the little one. We'll have to wait until she's little bit older!

^^Then, we checked out the assembly line.

^^And saw lots of finished cars.

^^It was a beach theme, hence the fake beach and sun chairs. There were bbq stations, ice cream, a giant slide, a puppet show. Lots for the kids. 

^^Amélie decided she was too tired for it all, so we headed home. She did like the leather animal souvenir. 

^^Lastly to end the weekend, a chocolate chip ice cream sandwich, yum. 

Amélie has her immunizations tomorrow so hopefully she won't be in too much pain. Then we're off on our first family vacation to Wales later this week. I have so much to pack. I have a feeling I'm going to end up bringing everything since we are going by car!