The Lake!

Last weekend, we took a trip to Nana and Pop's friend's lake house. Canaan's cousin Courtney (nine years old and born on the SAME day as Canaan...just nine years later) and the Goodwin family dog (Jenny) were all there. Amongst our many activities (sleeping, eating, pooping, smiling, and the occasional cry), Canaan took her first boat ride! Amazingly enough, this was the EXACT same boat that her DAD took HIS first boat ride on...yes, this boat is 27+ years old and made it's home on a lake in Massachusetts that Tim's grandfather (G-Pop) had a house on. So when Tim was a little tyke, he would fish and swim and row and hunt for frogs on this very same boat.

A little disconcerting seeing as this boat is probably older than me.

And the motor was just as old.

Nevertheless, Pop took me, Canaan, Courtney, Jenny the dog, and Canaan's car seat on an little ride. The car seat was vital to this trip in case we flipped over...I was thinking that maybe the car seat would float and Canaan would be safe.

But I reconsidered that idea and just held Canaan instead, thinking that if the boat flipped I could swim safely to shore with her.

As you can see shore was just 8 feet away or so.

Nothing to be concerned about.

Courtney and Jenny had fun with the tennis ball...Court would throw it, Jenny would run back and forth in the boat to try and get it.

Not fun for me, particularly, because remember, this boat is at least 27 years old and not extremely sturdy. So we quickly had to put a stop to this ball throwing nonsense.

Canaan was just enjoying the ride. Fast asleep, oblivious to the precarious rocking of the boat, oblivious to her mother's constant harping, "Be careful...whoah....I knew I should have brought her life jacket...what was I thinking...watch it...." oblivious to the fact that the dog just leaped across me and landed in her car seat (brilliant move by her mother) getting the stinking thing all muddy.

So finally we got back to shore (not that I don't love boats...next time, I'll feel much safer with a baby life jacket...and a boat that met all the safety regulations of the 21st century), Canaan was definitely pleased.

The Hot Tub

At our cabin in Cleavland, GA, Canaan found a new favorite thing...the hot tub.

Similar to the pink tub, but even better--it's bigger, it's hotter, you don't have to get out when you poop because you have a swim diaper on, AND Mom and Dad can fit in too.

Favorite position #1: floating on Daddy's arm. A baby with big cheeks is very buoyant. A big diaper that's loaded with pee is very buoyant too...who doesn't pee when you get in the nice, hot, warm, cozy hot tub?

Favorite position #2: in the gigantic life jacket. Actually, this life jacket is very special to Canaan--it's the very first gift given to her by her grandpa (Maureen's dad). Some grandparents bestow upon their first grandchild gifts such as a silver spoon, or a christening gown, or a special photo, but not this grandpa. He gives Canaan a life jacket. Specifically for when she starts sailing with Mom and Dad. Unfortunately, this life jacket will fit a little better when she's four years old. So for now, we just rig it up so she can float around.

Favorite position #3: tummy time on the gigantic life jacket. This way, Canaan can look at her Grandma and Grandpa and Uncle Michael and Aunt Lindsay and Uncle John while the jets are swirling her around the hot tub.

Finally, her 4th favorite position, the "dunk position" when her daddy blows in her face, and dunks her in the water. Amazingly, she actually liked it--no crying, only a little surprised about the water that got in her eyes--we'll get goggles for her next hot tub experience!

First Pool Party with My Boyfriend!

Canaan (as indicated in the last blog) LOVES the water, so we filled up a mini baby pool that Tim and I had bought in the summer for her. We invited her boyfriend over for a swim, Andre Clark (our good friends and neighbors' little boy who is TWO DAYS older than her, five pounds heavier, five inches longer, and is a future "Professional Eater"...like the guys who eat 197 hot dogs in three minutes. That's Andre, Canaan's boyfriend. She's proud of him.) So to prepare for her first pool party, I dressed her in her swimsuit.

Or so I thought.

I had assumed babies could be naked in the water without a diaper--that they could mysteriously "hold it" without a diaper there to catch anything. I had assumed a little pee in the water never hurt anybody. So I put her in the pool with her little bloomers on.

You can see by her closed eyes that she's enjoying it. "This is the life," she's thinking.

After some "swimming" (or really, just looking at each other while Bonnie and I desperately tried to hang on to our babies...slippery little suckers), we realized that Canaan's face wasn't one of pure joy (like we had thought), but rather one of the pooping kind. I look down in the water, and there, floating around, was poop. Canaan had pooped at her first pool party and the bloomers didn't hold up to the challenge.

It was time to evacuate the pool. This is a picture of the poop...it almost looks like it's smiling at us. Laughing at a silly mother who thought that babies and bloomers could "hold it."

So after draining the pool so the kids didn't contract E. Coli at their first pool party, Canaan and Andre were ready to snuggle up and talk about their first pool party. Although it was rather embarrassing to poop in the pool, it was kind of fun to just sit there and stare at each other,