Eight months already?! I’m pretty much starting to think about Lily’s first birthday, now that I’ve realized just how fast this first year is flying by.

Crawling is the biggest challenge this month. Not so much for Tim and I, but definitely for Lily! She wants to crawl SO bad and gets very frustrated that she just can’t reach THAT toy RIGHT THERE by herself! She is so so close. Close enough that we started putting cabinet locks on the doors in the kitchen because I know she is going to get into everything the second she figures it out. She gets up on all fours and rocks back and forth and will reach her little arms out and then belly flops and lets out a mad little growl.

Oh yes, she growls. It’s hilarious! I’ll have to catch it on video and share it for you guys! Sometimes ill get a growl in my Instagram stories, if you follow those.

Other than crawling and growling, she also thinks it’s funny to spit her food out all over herself when shes done eating and makes a huge mess. Normal baby stuff, I know, but she likes to trick me into thinking she’s not done eating and will say “Mama!” so I give her another bite and she just spits it right back out and smiles 🙂 I’m not going to lie…It’s pretty cute.

Other than that, she is obsessed with her books and will stare at the book shelves on the wall in her room; letting me know she wants me to read one or let her look at it. She also likes to try to eat them, so I have to take the soggy board book away from her after a few minutes.

Last weekend we also hit a milestone! Tim (my husband) was on Daddy duty for 3 days while I was at the beach for my best friends bachelorette party! He did have help from my parents when he needed it, but he did a great job!! I know it was hard at times, but he definitely had fun and by the time I got home Lily was reaching for her Daddy more than Mommy <3

Next month, Lily has her 9 month doctor check up appointment. I’m guessing right now we are getting close to 18 pounds, definitely growing out of her 9 month clothes quickly! I did manage to snag a few deals on 12 month clothes during Amazon Prime days earlier this week, but they look SO big!! So, I think we are stuck in the ‘in-between sizes’ stage for now.

<3 Katie Ryan

Beach pictures with your infant are adorable, and the pictures of them sleeping on the beach are even cuter; but, what does it take to get there? Stress, preparation, and a lot of *stuff* to carry.

Last week, we were on our family vacation in Bethany Beach. I LOVE Bethany. Its a perfect family friendly beach town.

We went to the beach twice and at the end of both days I thought..”was all of that worth it with an infant?” Honestly,  probably not. I loved being by the ocean, but I think I only actually looked at it like twice while I was sitting on the beach. It’s exhausting by the end of it and then, you have to pack it all back up and get the baby home for a bath.

Packing to prepare to head to the beach, I would suggest creating a list of items that you will need and keep in mind, you might not last longer than 2 hours with a little one, and that is not a bad thing.

The first day we went to the beach we had a really nice beach tent, but it lasted all of 5 minutes once it was set up because Bethany Beach doesn’t allow tents anymore, unless they’re 38 inches high. Just big enough for a little baby to sit under. So definitely check before you lug one out there like we did!

In addition to our beach chairs, umbrella, beach mat, beach bag with everything that Tim and I needed, coolers full of drinks, baby bottles, baby food, snacks, towels, toys for the baby, a baby pool, we had her diaper bag full of stuff, and a pack-n-play. The pack-n-play might sound like the most “extra” thing to bring, but it was probably the best thing we had for the babies. With three infants on the beach it was nice to get a few minutes to sit them in the pack-n-play so they can stretch out and play with toys…not in the sand.

Luckily, Lily isn’t crawling yet, so I was able to sit her down and keep her relatively in one place while I needed to. It’s definitely harder if your baby is on the move and trying to shovel sand into their mouths every chance they get!

I don’t know how we did it but the first day at the beach we were out there 9AM -4PM…a SUPER long day. I think I slept great that night after it all. Lily really liked sleeping on the beach that day, I just laid down a clean towel under the shade and put her sound machine next to her, gave her a pacifier and she was out. That wasn’t the case the second day…she decided she only wanted to sleep in my arms. It was hot, but I didn’t mind 😉

In the end, I am so glad we had a great trip spent with family and Lily got to experience the beach for the first time. The pictures of her playing in the sand are adorable (Check out my instagram for more! @KatieRyan5234), But I think taking her to the beach as she gets older will be much easier!

<3 Katie Ryan