First Parade

Katie went to her first parade yesterday and did great. Every Memorial Day weekend Bellingham has this race called Ski to Sea which is like a triathlon except for more legs. It starts out up at Mt. Baker ski area with a downhill ski portion and ends in Bellingham Bay with competitors kayaking to the finish line. In between there is cross country skiing, mountain biking, running, and canoeing It is a big deal around here and there is always a big parade to start the festivities off. Katie enjoyed watching the bands, floats and just all of the people and wasn't scared by any of the noises, even the horns and sirens of the firetrucks. She even fell asleep in her stroller with the marching bands going right by her...it was pretty darn cute.



After that we went to lunch at Red Robin where she also did really well. By the time we got home we had a very tired baby on our hands who didn't want to take a nap. Needless to say she was exhausted by bedtime was sound asleep by 7:30 last night.

And speaking of sleep...we are still struggling in that department. I am happy to report we have weaned her off of the swaddle during nap times but she still will only sleep for about 30 minutes. I think I just have to accept that she is a catnaper and maybe someday when she is older she will sleep longer. I also have found that if I put her down about 90 minutes from when she last woke up, she does really well falling asleep on her own. If I wait until I actually see signs of her getting sleepy (ie. rubbing her eyes, yawning, fussing, etc.) it is too late and she cries a lot before finally settling down. At night we are still getting up twice and eating twice. I am trying to eliminate the second feeding because I don't think she is really that hungy but instead just used to being fed wheneven she wakes up. We are also still swaddling at night but am working on a plan to wean her off of that. We will probably do some more formal sleep training after my grandparents visit but we don't want to have a crying baby while we have company :)

Not much else happening here this weekend except for some beautiful sunshine that we are all soaking in. Happy long weekend to everyone!