Our Vacation

We went on vacation for a week in June, down south to Louisiana and Florida to visit relatives. It was a fun trip, although trips to LA always seem to be a whirlwind of trying to fit in seeing relatives and friends. It was wonderful to see so many people, though, and it was so cute seeing Ariella interact with her cousins. I wish she had more interaction with younger kids. We're doing the MyGym classes, but that's only once a week. I need to find more socialization time for her.

The Florida part of the vacation was more relaxed. We did more touristy types of things, including taking Ariella to the beach for the first time and going to the Gulfarium. The beach was beautiful. We lucked out on the weather. It was overcast the day we went (actually started raining as we were ready to leave), so it wasn't so brutally hot. It was still exhausting for me, taking her out into the water, but she got such a kick out of it! She laughed and laughed as the waves rushed onto her feet. And, on the beach, she loved digging her hands in the sand and lifting it up over her head. She's such a sweet kid.

On our trip, she made some pretty big developmental leaps. She started taking steps on her own, up to 4 in a row. And, she said "mamamama" 2 days in a row. In coming back home, though, her progress has slowed. I wonder if it's because I work all day, and then by the time the weekend comes, I'm so drained that it's hard to do much besides catching up on housework and cooking, etc.

I need to start expecting more from her - get her working towards eating with a spoon on her own, getting her to communicate verbally through methods other than crying, get her to pick up her toys to put them away, etc. I want to get a big toy chest to help with the toys part. Maybe I should see if I could send her to daycare one day a week. I wonder if that would help jump start her development. I really don't like that she's so far behind other babies her age. I wonder how much daycare once a week would even cost.