Johnson Baby Update: Kylie May's First Beach Day (67)

Natalie here... where do I begin? I had an amazing first Mother's Day. I was already awake and up when Craig got home from work. He didn't say "good morning" or "hi" when he saw me, he just said "what are you doing up? go back to bed you are ruining everything." So, with my hair and makeup already done, I climbed back in bed. For the next 10 minutes I heard Craig rushing around, in the kitchen, back to the living room, to the bathroom and back to the kitchen. What was he doing? When he was done, Craig came in the room and handed me a little card that told me Kylie had left notes about why she loves her mommy. So I got up I walked into the living room and was surprised to see little cards taped all around the room. As it turns out there were about 35 taped all around the house. Each card read "Why I love my mommy" on the top and wonderful statements about how I take care of her, how I talk to her, feed her, change her, and on and on. I was in tears as I continued to find the little notes and read all the wonderful reasons Kylie loves me. This gift was so special because it really showed me how much Craig appreciates what I do for our little girl. He put in SO much effort to make all the little cards. They were cut out cute, with stickers and everything, but the truly amazing part was the wonderful words that were inside. I am planning to make a little book out of them with photos, I want to make sure I can always have his wonderful words to encourage me.

Once Kylie woke up we went and had a delicious brunch at my parents house with my Grandma and Grandpa. It is always wonderful to spend time with my family and so fun to celebrate Mother's Day with my mom and grandma.

Next we were off on our adventure, Craig surprised me with a little "stay-cation" (what we call vacations that are only a day or two and close to home). He had made reservations at the Hyatt in Newport. We had a wonderful time walking around Balboa Island and enjoying the beautiful evening. It was Kylie's first night in a hotel and she loved it (probably because we got a king size bed so she had more room to spread out). Neither Craig nor I got very much sleep the night before, so we proudly went to bed with Kylie at 9:30pm, can't remember the last time I went to bed so early, probably elementary school :o)

This morning we enjoyed sleeping in and some good play time with Kylie. She had started to notice her hands more and more. This morning she spend about 20 min looking at her right hand while she opened and closed it. She even worked hard and grabbed her passy when we held it in front of her. It is so amazing to see her develop.

We then headed down to the beach. The sky was blue and the sun was shining, but it was a little on the windy side. Kylie stayed bundled and didn't get to play in the sand or water. We stayed for about 2 hours before heading back home, it was a wonderful and relaxing day. Craig and I love that fact that we can drive 1.5 hours and stay one night and actually feel like we got away and had a little stay-cation. Kylie was such a trooper, we can't wait for Johnson Beach Week in July, it will be so fun!

This evening Kylie and I walked to my parents for dinner and rearranging their furniture, while Craig went to work another night shift. He hopefully has the next two days off so we will get some more family time in then.
More to come soon,
Natalie