Back from the beach!

And we had a great time. I'm not exaggerating when I say that Madeleine was perfect the entire time. I cannot believe how good she was. We had to wake her up really really early on Friday morning and she didn't even mind. She slept perfectly well for naps in the car, the plane, her stroller and in her pack and play, and even slept 12 hours both nights! We had a great time with our friends and Madeleine loved them. I think everyone knows "Baby Beluga" by heart now that we sang it so many times over the weekend. That kid is obsessed with that song. And the book "Good Night Gorilla."
Of course, there WERE some things that went wrong. For example, we missed our first flight, which was supposed to be at 6:10. The good thing is that we made it on a 7am flight and still made it to Florida before noon. We learned without any shadow of a doubt that an Evenflo convertible carseat does NOT fit in a bulkhead row of a plane. The rest of the 150 passengers learned it as well when we singlehandedly caused the plane to leave at least 10 minutes late. After 20 minutes of finagling with that thing, including scrapes and bruises on our forearms, a seatbelt extender, everyone on the plane staring at us, and flight attendants standing around looking helpless, the entire row behind us offered to switch us seats. Voila! It's MUCH easier to get the carseat in when it's forward facing AND you can lift the armrests - who knew?

The rest of the trip went extremely well. Madeleine LOVED the ocean, as you can tell from this picture. Whenever the waves hit her legs, she yelled "MORE!" When we tried to leave, she crawled back toward the ocean. She didn't even mind the cold water.

She loved the sand too, and was more than content to play in it for a long period of time. Lucky for us, we had SPF 60 sunscreen - no rays were getting through that stuff! She didn't mind getting sticky, dirty, or sandy one bit.
But she did enjoy her baths in the sink very much! We also had a whirlpool tub in our room and she took a bath in there with me once. She LOVED it and cried when Ken took her out.
Her hair was extra curly down there with all the humidity - it was very cute!!

This was her church dress - we went to mass on Saturday night. Right after the opening prayer and everyone said "Amen," Madeleine waited until everyone sat down and was quiet, and said, "AMEN!" really loudly! That was the first time I've heard her say that. Everyone around us laughed, so she kept repeating it until we had to take her back to the cry room. Of course she was a perfect, quiet angel back there.

We had some GREAT food, including lobster and steak and great salad the first night, and sushi and teriyaki chicken the second night. We went out for ice cream and Madeleine was perfectly content to have her "pop" (lollipop) for dessert that night. We got home last night and she went right to bed. She was really SO good the whole time, just went with the flow. I just love that baby :)

D and P, we had a great time with you - thank you so much for being so patient and working around us and our schedule, for the great dinner, for helping us with everything, and for reading and singing to Madeleine. She really loves you guys - she has said your names several times today and has been looking for you!

I guess I really didn't need to worry so much about travelling. It was a great trip but I am very glad to be home again!