After The Tenth..... When The Fun Really Begins

When its Memorial Day weekend and you are a Florida baby, is there any better way to spend it than on the water? Yesterday, Macy got to enjoy her SECOND Lake Sylvia raft-up in as many weeks. For the land-lubbers in the group, let me explain a raft-up. When a bunch of boat owners and their lucky friends head out for an afternoon of fun and socializing they find a common area and tie a number of vessels together to form a raft-like structure. Once connected, the flotilla becomes one large social event, where people have food and drinks and casually walk from boat to boat and swim in the surrounding area.

For the past two weekends, we've been guests upon Da Hui, Tom's boat, and have joined the fun at Lake Sylvia on the Intracoastal. Last weekend besides introducing Macy to boating, we also introduced her to salt-water. She didn't seem to love it, but I think it was more the uncomfortableness with the life preserver than anything else.

This weekend in honor of the holiday, we broke out some new toys, which went over much better. Here are some photos from both boating trips. Happy Memorial Day to all of our friends and family and all of those brave individuals who have made this country safe and free, and make it possible for us to spend a weekend eating, drinking and boating. (Oh..and especially to our friends with boats!!!)

In case you were wondering...yes, we are a little paranoid about protection from those harmful UV rays.....

So much has happened in Macy's life since I last posted. I'm just not going to be able to find the time to write about all of it, so here's a synopsis of a few of them:

1) Rolling over is now old news; she can whip herself over whenever she wants. In fact, thats her most obvious sign of being tired. She cranks her head back and to the left and then in a blink of an eye, she's on her belly. As soon as you see that head moving back, you know it is nap time. Besides being a sign of impending sleep, it has also become her primary mode of transportation. She can now string together a few rolls and cover some impressive distances. (Baby proofing the house seems to be just around the corner)

2) The food train has continued and we have moved on past ruttabaga and through the yellows. We are now onto oranges and she's loving carrots and yams.

3) As Bon Jovi's tour bus passed through Fort Lauderdale recently, Macy and I had concerns about her mommy hitting the road with her friends Beth & Ginger and following the bus onto its next stop. As it was, daddy and daughter had a fun evening together while the girls enjoyed the concert.

4) Macy recently headed to North Carolina to spend some time with Susie & Kelly and their respective little ones (Liam,Adeliade, Heath & Hannah) I didn't get to make this trip, but Annie toook some really cute photos. Here are some of them now:

4) Shortly after returning from this trip, Macy developed what appeared to be her first cold. Upon further review (and with some doctor input) we learned that its probably either caused by an allergy or from the beginning of teething. (No signs of teeth just yet...but plenty of signs of saliva) It has made this past week or so a liltle challenging as her sleep patterns have been interrupted by her inability to breath through her nose. Annie and I have become masters of the aspirator, but as our comfort level in administering the "snot sucker" has increased, so has Macy' disgust for it. Those of you who have used one of these amazing little devices will get a chuckle over the fact that it took me a number of tries to get used to squeezing it before pointing it at my daughter's face or puttuing it up her nose. I only forget and send a hi-powered puff of air at her occassionlly.

5) Macy actually seems to enjoy bath time, so we recently moved her up to a slightly larger environment and dropped her into a pool. Ok, dropped is a strong word, but here she is with her mommy and her giant hat.(Its all about protection from the sun these days)

I'm in trouble.

I always knew that someday I was going to have to play the "scary father" role. Macy would eventually show an interest in some young boy and I would have to  demonstrate to him how intimidating and unstable I am.  I just didn't realize that I would have to do it so soon; nor did I realize that my first "victim" would be a 5 year old.

We were recently over Tom's house. I had heard a rumor that the last time Macy saw Truman, his five year old, she laughed at everything he did. This time I got to see it with my own two eyes and luckily we caught some of it on video.

This is going to be a long and bumpy ride.....I can feel the agita setting in.