"Vacation--All I Ever Wanted"

Violet, Shawn, and I had our first family vacation last week. The Murphys were generous enough to let us stay at their adorable house on Fish Lake near the Michigan-Indiana border. Thanks, Murphys!!! An added perk is that Fish Lake is about 6 minutes away from Shawn's parent's house so Violet go to spend some time with Grandma and Grandpa Pierce as well as her aunts, uncle, and 3 cousins. Not that she let any of them get too close, mind you, she is still very weary of anyone she deems to be a stranger. Grandma Pierce is usually a baby-pro, but Vi would barely let poor Trish touch her without screaming. Sheesh!

Having been on the receiving end of that kind of treatment from friend's babies in the past, I know it becomes almost insulting! Prior to having Violet, I thought kids were kind of like dogs in the way they could sense whether or not you were a good person. So when a baby wailed when passed to me, I worried that everyone else in the room thought she was some sort of divining rod, exposing me for the true, rotten person I was. Maybe the baby could see dark parts of me that I didn't even know existed.

Now I'm realizing that while babies are like dogs in many ways--the drooling, the howling, their disregard for personal property--they can't sense anything deeper about a person's character than "You are my mom; you are OK," or "You are not my mom; GET YOUR DAMN HANDS OFF OF ME!!!" At least, that's the extent of Baby Violet's perception.

Violet did seem to realize that vacations are a good time for napping, however, as she swung her way to a 3+ hour snooze almost everyday we were there. Papasan swing is the baby product of the year for the Pierce family!