Our Easter Weekend

Hope you all had a wonderful Easter weekend! The weather here was amazing...and much cooler than we're used to!

plaid shirt | orange sweater 

The day before was filled with bunny pancakes and Easter egg dying with shaving cream.  The eggs turned out amazing - way better than any eggs I've ever dyed in the past! And, Zoey and I may or may not have been rocking hot-pinkish hands on Easter morning - even after washing our hands with toothpaste and baking soda (which mostly worked and left our hands impossibly soft!).

lolla sippy cup

This was our first big holiday in VB, and our first without any other family around. I gotta say, it was kind of wonderful! (Sorry mom!) We were able to do things on our own schedule, so it was a lazy pj kind of morning. Zoey had two Easter baskets, one from us the Easter Bunny, and one that my mom sent. Lots of Sesame Street and Frozen whatnots, some new art supplies and books, and maybe a taste or two of candy.  But it was the singing Olaf the was the biggest hit - she's been carrying him around ever since!  

pjs | singing olaf | olaf book

We missed the neighborhood egg hunt a couple of Saturdays ago (and desperately wished we were able to beam ourselves to the park in our old neighborhood for the egg hunt there), so we had our own little hunt in the backyard. Zoey was such a cutie, lugging around her big basket and hunting for eggs in our overgrown yard. (A new mower is next on our must-haves list, but the tufts of grass made perfect hiding places.)  

easter basket | tunic (gap-sold out -similar here) | leggings | Chucks

After brunch, cupcakes, and a little Sophia the First, we headed to the beach. Growing up in Florida, more than one Easter was spent with our toes in the warm sand, and although it was a beautiful day, not a cloud in the sky, it was maybe 54 degrees and win-dy at our local beach. I had visions of Z running off her cupcake and Peep sugar rush and playing in the sand, but the poor thing was so cold, she just wanted to be held the whole time. So we went for a walk before heading home. Z, of course, zonked out in the car, so the Hubs and I took the opportunity to explore and went for a drive through the farmland south of our neighborhood. It's crazy that less than a mile from our house and the hustle and bustle of our end of town, there are fields of strawberries and soybeans and who knows what else! Not to mention the Navy airstrip! 

hoodie

Hope you all had a great Easter/Passover! We're still unpacking and getting settled (does it ever end?!), but it was so wonderful to take a couple of days to have fun as a family. 

Easter Recap

Hope you all had a wonderful Easter weekend, filled with lots of fun, family, and chocolate bunnies! Our Easter weekend started on Saturday with a pretty awesome egg hunt in the park at the end of our street.  We woke up to a horrible gully-washer of a thunderstorm, and were feeling lazy and pretty bummed that the rain had spoiled our plans. But after a text that the hunt had been postponed, we hustled to get ourselves dressed and walked over to the park just as the clouds disappeared and the sun (and overwhelming humidity) came out.

Before the event started, Z got to see real bunnies (one of her favorites from her baby animals book), but screeched like a banshee when the Hubs picked her up to actually pet one. She was content to look at the pen of bunnies and coo and giggle with the other toddlers.

Although she didn't quite understand the way an Easter egg hunt works, Z had fun clutching her eggs, wandering around, and watching the other toddlers go after the eggs.

Polka Dot Maxi Dress - H&M 

Our Easter Sunday started out pretty low-key. My brother came to spend the weekend, and while he slept in, the Hubs and I had a little early morning lazy time with Z and Scout.

Last year, Z was still new when Easter rolled around. She pretty much just sat there while we carried on about the goodies in her basket. But this year, well, she really still has no idea about Easter, but seemed pretty jazzed about the basket full of fun stuff.

The grandparents come down for brunch (and cupcakes!), but really just spent most of the day watching Z walk circles around the house and act like a little goofball.

Then we attempted our own Easter egg hunt, which went really well... sorta. She's not a big fan of walking in the grass, even with shoes on, so once she made it to the sidewalk, we had a hard time getting her off.

Striped Maxi Skirt - Gap | Tshirt - JCrew

Striped Sundress - Carters | Sandals - Children's Place Outlet - similar here

After the family left, and Z took a nice long nap, we went out back for some pics and bubble time.

Baby Tuna's First Easter

On Sunday, we celebrated Zoey's first Easter. It was pretty uneventful, given that she is just 6 weeks old. We decked her out in bunny jammies. . . 

. . .and the Easter Bunny even left her a little treat. 

Zoey is so impressed. 

We had a delicious lunch with the grandparents (minus the mimosas I've been craving for months thanks to my breastfeeding. Boo to that!!), and watched a little March Madness. Sadly, my Gators were outplayed by Michigan and we all watched in horror (I will never get this image out of my head) as the Louisville player's leg looked like it fell off. By the end of the day, the Hubs and the bambino were pretty worn out. 

We had a rough week in the Tuna house and I was super happy to see it come to a close. I suppose it began with the babe hitting the "fussy" stage at 5 weeks. Or as I like to call it, " Mommy's Hell." She's been having moments of colic level freak outs and we've been at our wits end. Enter gripe water and things got a little less sucky for her and for us (for now anyways). Just in time for the hot water heater to explode (ok that might be a slight exaggeration) and flood the kitchen and garage. The carpeted garage. Thank god we rent! 

If it hadn't been for my mom, who was visiting on her spring break, getting up to make dinner a little early, who knows how far all that water would have creeped. I had been in the kitchen maybe 20 minutes earlier and it was dry as a bone. The poor Hubs got a panicked phone call from me, and the madness continued. Long story short, the babe, the pooch and I had to "evacuate" to Melbourne Beach to crash at my mom's while the poor Hubs had to stay behind and deal with the clean up. 

After a day of complete and utter "Mommy's Hell", my mom and I managed to throw the Baby Tuna in the carseat and take her on her first shopping trip to Old Navy. This momma needed some new spring post-baby clothes in a big bad way. Seems I'm in that super awesome place where my maternity clothes have been packed away but I'm not quite ready for many of my old tops, thanks to a lingering baby pooch and giant milk boobs. Actually, if it were up to me, and money were no object, I'd love to get a whole new wardrobe. It's funny how crappy all your old favorites can seem after 9 months packed away in the garage.

I follow a few other mommy blogs. Gals with little ones a few months older than ours. And you are always given the impression that this baby-raising business is easy peasy. They never seem to mention the colic, the inconsolable crying jags (from the babe and mommy, too), the horrific gas bubbles that you can feel rumbling inside your sweet babe. Sure I could fill my blog with endless tales of tummy times and loving coos and gurgles. But the truth is that as I write this, our Zoey is crying and fussing, and can only be consoled by me, which is great for the mommy ego for about ten minutes. Then you realize what that really means. It means you are always handed a screaming babe. It means that you can never use the bathroom again. It means that your legs will never get shaved and your hair will go days between washings. It means that your amazing Hubs will most likely feel useless, even though he has done all of the cooking, cleaning, and laundry for the last 6 weeks, on top of working a full day. And if one more person tells you "Hang in there. It gets better", you will cut someone. Duh, it will get better. But right now you are in it and it sucks every ounce out of you. You are exhausted, and not just from the late night feelings. It's actually the days that wear you out the most. You find yourself with endless patience for your munchkin, but short tempered with everyone else. Our situation is far from unique, I just felt, for any new mommies or mommies-to-be who may be reading, it needed to be said. This shit is hard! 

Now, before you go thinking that I'm ready to return my kiddo to Babyland General and have Xavier Roberts send her out with the rest of the Cabbage Patch Kids, let me tell you that it isn't all colic and green poo. Zoey is changing and growing everyday, which is amazing to watch. She is holding her head up for longer and longer periods of time, making tummy time a lot more interesting, even if it only lasts about two minutes.

 And we are this close to getting her to smile on purpose.

Why can't she grin like this when she's awake?!?!

But lately, those moments are overshadowed by the endless crying and fussing, the gas and digestive problems, the sleeping for twenty minutes at a time, and our issues with breastfeeding (the details of which I will spare you all). No one thought this would be easy, but I did think I'd be able to get at least one hour of downtime while she slept peacefully in her crib/bouncer/pack n play/swing. Silly me.

Like I said, it was a rough week. But there were some great moments. So here is the proof!