A Baby in Salem: The last days of summer

We apologize that it has been so long between posts. We have been caught up in house hunting and the stress of teething. As of our last post, we were putting in an offer on a house in Beverly, but we were unable to get our offer in on time. Since then, we were bidding back and forth on a house in Salem, but we walked away from that negotiation because we realized the perfect house isn't perfect if you have to sacrifice everything else to live there. So, the hunt continues.

Labor Day weekend we enjoyed the nice weather and spent the day in Newburyport, where there was an outdoor music festival happening. We also were able to get some Christmas shopping done.

David and Avonlea Jane in front of the Newburyport Coast Guard Museum (Newburyport is the birthplace of the USCG.)

Avonlea Jane is rarely in pink or purple, as she is here. And, if that combo didn't scream "girly," the bow certainly does. (It also screams "cute.")

On Labor Day, we spent the day on the Common playing croquet and bocce ball. Throughout the blog, there have been lots of photos of Avonlea Jane with her best buddy Joe. Whenever we get together, they are joined at the hip, and Labor Day was no exception. Here they are enjoying the game of croquet.

Last week in addition to spending our time entrenched in real estate mayhem, Avonlea Jane started swim lessons. She has already shown a love of the water and was thrilled to get in the pool with both Mommy and Daddy. There were two much older little girls in her class, but she was the most comfortable in the water out of the group. This first week we focused on getting acclimated to the pool, and we are excited for the rest of our fall lessons.

This weekend we took advantage of the last days of summer in Gloucester and Rockport. We had planned on walking around Rockport but stopped for lunch in Gloucester on the way up. We ate in a very small restaurant and we were slightly concerned that other diners would be bothered by our babe who was being very loud in her babbling. However, she was the lady of the hour, and all of the tables around us wanted to interact with her.

Above, Avonlea Jane is enjoying a snack she snagged off of Mommy's plate. To date, she's enjoyed banana, pear, avocado, peach, apple, sweet potato, and pickle. That is a pickle in her hand. It was not the food we would have chosen for her to try next, but Avonlea Jane is becoming remarkably autonomous. She absolutely loved the pickle and only squinched up her face once.

After making this face, we assumed she didn't want the pickle anymore, but we assumed wrong. She happily sucked on the pickle until we left, and even then, was quite upset about leaving it.