Grandma Jo visits

Paige affectionately calls Ben's mom Grandma Jo, and was ecstatic to find out that Grandma Jo was coming to watch her while we went to the Bahamas. There was a long count down of "sleeps" until she arrived. Paige, I really wasn't worried at all about leaving, but Deacon was a whole different story. I had never been away from him, he wasn't even 7 months old, he is very attached to me, and the big worry...he wouldn't take a bottle. We had tried for over a month to get him to take a bottle. We bought different bottles, warmed up breast milk, tried it cold, fed it from a spoon, tried formula, didn't let him nurse for over a day in hopes he would "get hungry enough", etc, etc. It all just resulted in a lot of screaming and anxiety. So I pumped a lot and then just had to trust that Ben's mom, who has raised 11 kids and can pretty much handle anything, would know what to do and Deacon would survive. And while he only had sips from a bottle, she snuck in milk any way she could, and my baby was just fine.

Luckily Joann came a few days early so we could spend some time with her and show her around NC a little.

Fuqua Friday at Duke

Family nap time

Library

She sent us a lot of updates while we were gone and we were able to facetime twice a day. It was obvious my kids were in great hands. Paige ate much more elaborate food then she ever gets from me, and was getting incredibly creative play time. They did pretend camping, fishing, had a cardboard princess castle, and had more tea parties and viewings of Frozen than I think Joann imagined was possible :)

 And after the first day of a lot of crying, Deacon warmed up (and realized she wasn't going to nurse him) and bonded with his sweet grandma. Joann was seriously a trooper for taking on these two and put so much effort into making it such a fun week for them.

She gave Paige this princess nightgown, which Paige now demands to wear every single night. And she still talks about tea parties and camping with Grandma Jo. It all ended up being the perfect vacation for Ben and I and the perfect bonding time for my kids and their grandma. Thanks so much Joann!