Milestones aplenty over the long holiday weekend

By K.J. Cardinal

Anna accomplished many new and exciting things while celebrating America's independence for the first time over the long holiday weekend.

On Thursday evening, Angie, Anna and I headed north to Farmington. The trip alone was the first milestone for Anna as we switched her car seat to forward facing.

Prior to having Anna, I didn't have the slightest idea of what the difference was between the direction a car seat faced (forward facing vs. rear facing). But in a nutshell, when a child is less than 20 pounds they're rear facing and greater than 20 pounds is forward facing (*Please note: This isn't a steadfast rule, so don't take my word here as gospel. It's just a pretty accurate rule of thumb for my idiot kidless friends that read this blog.)

Anyway, having Anna forward facing is really such a treat because as we're driving it's a riot to just watch her. She loves to look out the window and watch the cars go by.

Once we got to Farmington, we spent the night up at Meme & Papa's house before taking off on Friday morning for Anna's first camping trip. We headed about 25 minutes southwest to Crown Point Campground in Strafford.

We were a little unsure how Anna would react to sleeping in a tent, but we figured we'd give it a shot since she rarely seems phased by any of the situations that we throw at her. And, much to our delight she loved to camp.

We clamped her little high-chair right to the picnic table and she was happy as could be. Actually, she slept so well in the tent that she woke up over an hour later than she normally does at home. The fact that Meme and Papa visited us at the campground on Friday night probably helped tucker her out a little bit, but she still slept like an angel.

On Saturday morning, we broke down camp in Strafford and headed to York, Maine for a party. My buddy Mike was throwing a party with his fiancee Sarah at her parents house and we were going to tent there too. But first, we had to stop by Short Sands in York so Anna could dip her toes in the Atlantic Ocean for the first time.

She didn't seem to care too much for the chilly water, but she was definitely intrigued by the mud that collected on her feet. She also got quite the kick out of walking around and people watching as the beach was mobbed.

After the beach we headed to the party at the McAbee's. It was a rather small party, but we had such a blast. The McAbee's house was decked out with an inground pool, volleyball, bocce, croquet and a make-shift three-hole golf course that Cassani mowed out himself. Probably the best time I've had at a Fourth of July party in quite sometime.

Saturday also marked Anna's nine-month birthday. She actually had her nine-month doctor's check-up this morning and I'll post about that tomorrow.

Anyway, on Sunday we headed back to Farmington for another night at my parent's house. Papa actually held Anna's hands as she took six steps. She is crawling for real now, but I feel like she could just up and walk any minute.

Tiff and Pete had us all over on Sunday for dinner, so we got to see Andrew and Natalie too. "Nat Nat" continues to get cuter by the day and Andrew is so freakin' awesome. It's amazing how much he is learning and growing as he seems to be even bigger and smarter than he was while we were at Perkins Pond.

Above are his new favorite jammies. They're too big for him, so as you can see, Pete has to hike his pants up (Steve Urkel-style) for them to fit. The best is how Andrew struts around in them like he's so proud to show them off.

So, it was quite a holiday weekend for us as we got to see family and friends and celebrate many milestones with Anna, which seems to be a daily occurrence these days.