One of many agreements that Brian and I came to prior to even thinking about having a baby was that we would not alter our lives significantly by having a baby. Now, I know what you are thinking… how can we not alter our lives significantly by having a baby? Well, what we really mean is that we will not cater our schedule around nap times, meal times, and bed time.
So before you think, well that this idea is just silly… let me tell you that we haven’t altered our lives significantly with the addition of Gwyn.
We still run errands on a Saturday afternoon if we have errands to run. If we want to go out to eat dinner, we take her along and feed her dinner with us. If we want to go watch one of Ryan’s soccer games at 7:30 pm, Gwyn comes along with us and enjoys the game too! For the most part, she has adapted to our lives. Now, yes… if she is napping, we let her nap. If she is already in bed for the night and we feel like going out to eat, we pass, but for the most part we have done really well to just take Gwyn with us.
Why is this important? Well it is because we like to go places and we hope she does too! For Labor Day weekend we went to visit our friends, Ken and Karin, In Louisville, KY. It was a 10 hour drive with the dogs and Gwyn, but we made it in one piece. For the most part, Gwyn was content riding along and laughing at the dogs. I couldn’t imagine living our lives with Gwyn and not going to see our friends and family.
With Brian and I as parents, we hope that Gwyn will get to see many places in the United States, and maybe even outside the US, at some point in her life. So far, Gwyn has been on two trips involving a plane. The first trip was to Pennsylvania when she was only 6 weeks old. Gwyn and I flew together alone while Brian stayed home with the dogs and cats. The second trip was also to PA to see Gwyn’s Uncle DJ graduate from high school. This time we went with our Aunt Bonnie and she was 7 months old.
Gwyn has been on a long car ride prior to our KY trip when we went to Ohio to see Brian’s Granny back in May. She did very well then and we wrote all about it in an earlier post. We have been to see friends in Charlotte where she even had her first overnight stay without Mom and Dad while we attended a concert and picked her up the next day.
I’m so glad that we started early with Gwyn so that maybe we can always just pick up and go… and she will adapt. I’m thankful for having such a good baby.
Before I end this post, I thought I would also write about all the little silly things that Gwyn has started doing. Gwyn loves to shake her head no but loves to say “yeah”. Not necessarily at the same time yet still funny that she likes to say one thing but gesture the opposite. She is also doing the silliest face I’ve ever seen a baby do… she sticks her lips out and makes something that resembles a pig sound while crinkling her nose. We have got to capture this face on camera. And lastly, she has been learning to kiss her baby doll; however, she just giggles and puts her forehead to the baby doll’s forehead. (Brian tells me that they do this on Star Trek, but I choose to ignore him)
Something new that is not so cute and breaks my heart is that she is developing separation anxiety. She is not anxious about me leaving if she is with her Dad, but seems to have it more at nap time and bed time. It is exhausting and I wonder if we aren’t just fools giving in. However, I can say that she still can put herself to sleep on occasion so I know it is not gone forever.
So until next week… when it is supposed to be Brian’s turn to post… here is a picture I took of Gwyn when I took out the camera and told her to smile.
Leave a comment