A Vacation is Just Doing Something You Don't Normally Do

So I got to spend the last two weeks in Maine on "vacation." My vacation was actually a lot of fun. I got to spend it with Jacob and Heather helping them with their new baby girl and two other girls. Definitely stressful at times, especially when it's the end of the day. You're tired and they're tired, and it becomes a battle of the wills. However, it's always nice to "experiment" parenting on other people's kids. Sure, that's what anyone really does, even with their own kids, but it's nice to sort of get an idea of what to expect, even if it's vague at best.

I did do a lot of reading, they were mostly kids books though and the same few books over and over again because they were the favorites, which isn't a problem until you've read the same book ten times in one day. Even two to three times in ten minutes is pushing it. When I did try to read a grown-up book, I got told by Liliana to stop reading that book and read to her; either that she would try to negotiate telling me that I could read that book when Mommy woke up and I could play a game with her now. The nice thing is that she can now read and so I could sometimes get her to read to me!

The one thing that I really came to appreciate though is quiet time/nap time. Although I didn't usually take a nap, it was a time that everything was quiet. It would be just Liliana and me awake so, while Liliana would watch a movie, I could go check my email, read, or just relax with Liliana and watch whatever movie she had picked out. I now know why quiet time is so essential to mothers.

Jacob and Heather were nice enough to plan a trip down to Farmington to see more family, so I got to see more of my family while I was there. It was great to see everyone, even if it wasn't for very long. It's so hard to spend enough time with everyone to make it last until the next time I get to see.

As always, I took lots and lots of pictures. It's a good thing my camera can hold a lot of pictures because I definitely went overboard this time by taking over 300 pictures. Yeah, I might have an addiction or something. The truly hard thing about taking this many pictures is that so many of them are keepers and over an extended period of time that it makes choosing a few wicked hard. So, I'm going to pick a few of each of the girls.

Liliana loves posing for the camera.
She did more poses for me, but this is my favorite.

Being silly with her cousins.

Such a great big sister.

Mattie actually let me do her hair in pigtails this day.
They didn't stay in very long, but oh well!

Mattie chasing me.

Bumpa and Grammy bought Liliana and Mattie these cute little backpacks. Mattie loved hers.

My newest little niece Jane.

Here she is awake.

Chilling in the pool.

Eating popsicles after painting themselves.