Mini beach vacation in Mississippi

We decided to go away for a weekend.. for a mini beach vacation in Bay St. Louis! It's on the Gulf of Mexico, and it's only 2h15 away. I read about it online and it sounded like a cute beach town, one of my friends recommended it also, she had been there many times. I found a few rentals online and settled on a cute looking small cottage 2 blocks from the beach.

We left Baton Rouge on friday around 4pm. When we arrived we got to our "house". I say this because when we got to the address, I couldn't believe how big the house looked! It didn't look at all like the pictures I had seen online, it was so much nicer and bigger! The owner said she would leave the door unlocked, so we went to the front door, but it was locked. Then I went to the back to see if there was another entrance, and that's when I realized that the place we were staying in was this TEENY TINY little shack behind this big beautiful house! We found it pretty funny.. It was cute and cozy, but when we walked in, the smell of mildew kind of turned me off, but oh well, what are you gonna do.

It's a small studio "apartment", with a queen size bed, a couch and recliner. There's a bathroom, and also a laundry/utility room. Oh and did I mention it was about 15 feet from a railroad track? Trains went by day and night VERY often, kind of annoying at night, kept us and the babies up the first night.

We went out to dinner friday night. We drove to a place we saw in a little menu brochure, but couldn't find it, so we went to another place. The girls slept almost the whole meal. Got back to our place, and went to bed.

Our second day, we were quite tired when we got up since the girls woke up VERY often that night. The train probably didn't help, but also they might have been cold. The AC was right above them, and you couldn't really set it to a temperature, only high or low. It was on low., but it was still quite cold in the room. And it would be too hot if we turned it off. So that morning, after their first meal around 5am, we all went back to bed, and I slept until about 9am! After that, we had a little bit to eat, fed the babies again, and then walked around Old Bay St. Louis, looking for a breakfast place.

We found a cute little place called Buttercup, and had a nice breakfast. After, we crossed the street to an antique store (Prosanta loves looking at old crap ;). Then, we went back to our place, and got ready to go to the beach! Had to drive around a little to find the beach.. one that wasn't under construction that is! Our place is 2 blocks away, we could've walked to the beach, but that section was closed off due to construction of a sea wall. So we had to drive and did finally find a nice beach near a fishing dock. It wasn't very crowded at all. The sand was nice and fine, the water was so nice and warm! We took turns going in the water. We set up a shade canopy we got just before the trip. Babies hung out mostly in the jogging stroller, Chaya slept in there most of the time we were at the beach. Anjali was awake. I brought snacks for us to eat while there. We had a fun afternoon, the weather was beautiful. The only complaint I have is the biting flies! They were quite annoying.

After the beach, we headed back home, got cleaned up, rested a little.. and then headed out to dinner. After dinner, we walked around town and found a cute café that was still open. We went in there, had a few beverages (I even had a beer after breastfeeding). It was delicious in fact, from a brewery in Mississippi called Lazy Magnolia, I had a Spiced Summer ale, so good! We then headed home and got ready for bed. This time, we covered part of the pack 'n' play that was facing the AC with a blanket, and dressed the babies in pyjamas under their swaddlers, to make sure they wouldn't be cold. Must've done the trick, they slept from 10pm until 6am!

Sunday morning, we got up, I fed the babies, and then we got ready to go to the beach again before heading back to Baton Rouge. It was another beautiful day. I went in the water a while, we even saw about 5 dolphins swim by in the distance, feeding on some fish! It was amazing to see. We also saw about 4 stingrays near the shore. They were so cute.

We had a great weekend getaway. It was nice to be away, have fun, and not have to worry about work and other things... just relax! It was a cute town, but it's pretty small, and even though we had a great time, we probably will explore another area next time we go away. Maybe drive a little further east to Alabama or Florida, where the water isn't so brown.

We're 3 months old!

 No longer considered newborns, our big girls are 3 months old today! They are smiling a lot now, and are generally very good happy babies! We are lucky, they don't cry very often, only when very hungry, sometimes when changing their diapers, and sometimes in the evenings when they're a little fussy. They are taking nice long naps for mommy during the day, allowing her to do things around the house, cook, eat, take showers, and sometimes nap herself! They are waking up only once at night. They usually get their last feeding around 10-10:30pm, and then wake up somewhere between 2-4am for a feeding, and then around 6-7am. Still having weird pooping issues with both.. Chaya poops all the time, and still often has a little blood in it. Anjali only poops every 2 days or so, and her poop is much different. Strange. Guess their insides aren't identical! We are having lots of fun with them, they are observing the world around them a lot more now. They like going for walks in their stroller, they look all around, up at the sky especially. I love when we're walking, and one of them is looking everywhere and makes cute cooing happy noises. Here are some photos taken on the day they turned 3 months old!
Anjali is wearing the purple shirt, Chaya is in the pink.

Gone daddy gone

Day 1:
Prosanta is in Texas for the week, for work. I was a little nervous with him leaving, being all alone with the babies for that long. And also a little sad that he had to leave on our 7th wedding anniversary! But oh well.. it's for work, and he's getting paid well, so can't complain too much.

I have to say my first evening and night alone with them went very well. We drove daddy to the Baton Rouge airport yesterday at 11am. Babies were very good the rest of the day, took lots of naps, mommy even took a nap too. Gave both girls a bath in the afternoon, and took the dogs for a walk after dinner. It wasn't TOO hot out, it was nice. The girls are really enjoying walks in the stroller a lot more now, they love looking at everything. One often falls asleep while the other stays awake.

The girls were a little whiny and needy in the evening, which is normal. They usually are fussy around 7-9pm, and want to be held a lot.. which can be a challenge when alone with both. I did manage, and the night went very well! Fed babies around 10:30pm, and then put them to bed. Anjali woke up around 1am, because she had rolled onto the side of the crib (and so did Chaya!), I put them both back in their spot, and they slept until 4:15! They went 6 hours between feedings, which is a record until now! What good girls. I thought they'd sleep in after that, but they still woke up around 6:30am to be fed.

Holding both girls: Anjali in the sling, Chaya in my arms

Day 2:
The girls took many LONG naps again today.. I didn't even really get to play with them, they slept so much! They've been sleeping a lot during the day, which is really nice, and allows me to get things done around the house! Not to mention, eating and taking showers! ;) Our friends Kim and Richard invited me and the girls over for dinner at their house tonight. They have an adorable 4 month old girl named Phoebe. Looking forward to a little outing, it's nice to get a change of scenery.. plus nice to socialize once in a while! Dinner went well, I got there around 6:45pm, we had dinner, I fed the girls around 8pm, then we all went for a walk, and then I drove back home around 9:15pm.

Fed the girls a little after we got home, around 10:15pm. They woke up around 3:15am for their night time feeding, at the same time again, so I had to breastfeed both at once. Anjali was a little brat and took about an hour to fall asleep after that. Woke up very soon after, at 6:30am to feed them and start the day.

Day 3:
Happy 3 month birthday to the girls! The girls were very good all day again, happy babies! We read some books, had fun on the playmat, and I did a little photo shoot to have some pictures of them turning 3 months... plus I hadn't taken any pictures in a little while. The grandmothers were starting to complain! ;) Got some really good ones of the girls smiling.

Our friend Corinne came over in the evening to keep me company, and help me out with the babies. She also brought dinner, horray! She made some delicious vegetarian bean chili! So good. I had asked her to come in the evening, since they are sometimes fussy around this time. They really weren't that bad, Anjali whined a bit, but it was nice to chat with her, and have her hold one of the girls. We had a nice time. She is also pregnant, so we talked about pregnancy stuff, things to buy for babies, baby showers,..

Fed the girls at 10:15pm, they woke up at 3:15am (at the same time again!), and then 6:45am.

Naked Chaya!

I wanted to take cute artsy naked photos of the girls.. Chaya was awake and in a good mood, so she was first. I laid out a comforter on our bed, got her undressed and laid her down, and started shooting. Some turned out pretty good! What a cute naked baby. She seemed to like posing too! When she was done, Anjali was awake too. So I proceeded to do the same with her, only after laying her down on the comforter and starting to take pictures, I noticed the big puddle of pee between her legs. Guess Anjali's photo shoot will have to be postponed.