Sydney's first cruise (2.16 years and 6.75 months)

The week before we left on the cruise, Sydney developed bilateral ear infection.  Luckily we caught it early and she was started on antibiotics.  She started to get better quickly.  We had to give her the antibiotics though half the cruise but that was fine.  It's better than happening while we are away.

The Saturday before we left Austin got sick.  He had a cough and cold symptoms.  It made me really nervous.  What if he developed wheezing and shortness of breathe while we were gone?  Because they are treating him for potential asthma I have all the medication he would need except for oxygen.  Brian and I talked and decided to still go on the cruise and hope for the best.  Luckily he started to get better as the week went by except he did develop an ear infection Thursday night while on the ship.  He woke up from nap and told us his ear hurt.  We looked and it was showing signs of preliminary draining.  So we started the ear drops right away.  Later that day the draining got worse and confirmed our diagnosis.  He was better by morning, so it wasn't a big deal (thanks again to his ear tubes!).

We left Sunday morning around 2:45 am and drove to New York City.  The drive went extremely well.  Austin stayed awake for a while but finally did fall back to sleep for a little bit.  Sydney slept most of the trip. We got into NYC around 11:30 am.  We had to stop twice during the drive but we thought that was excellent.  We packed up the car and went to check into "the big boat" as Austin called it.  The ship was the Norwegian Jewel.  Check in went smoothly as well and there was no wait to get on the ship.  Once we were on board we went directly to our room.  It was fabulous.

We booked a mini suite this time since we had the kids.  It was definitely bigger and for the price it was worth it.  Austin got to sleep on the pull out sofa bed.  The room steward made his bed so there were pillows and blankets around it.  This prevented him from falling out.  It took Austin a little bit of getting use to it but then he liked it.  Brian would lay in bed with him at first until he got comfortable.  Then Austin would say "Daddy Out".  It's great how much Austin can talk.

It was cold in New York so we did not take both kids out on deck when leaving port.  We stayed in our room and watched from our balcony.  Brian took some pictures of all of us with the New York sky line passed us by in the background.  I think they turned out well.  Austin liked it too because Brian let him push the camera button (the remote control).

NCL does a great job with featured children's programs.  All cruise ships have something, but they also have something for babies too.  They now have the splash program and kids under 3 are together with their parents (Splash Academy Guppies).  That worked out great because Austin and Sydney were in the same program.  They had two classes a day on sea days and one class a day on port days.  We went to all of them except one.  The teachers really loved Sydney.  They liked Austin a lot too.  The classes involved painting, coloring, music, dancing, and reading.  We all had fun.

In Port Canaveral, Florida we took a shuttle bus to Coco Beach.  We used our new compact double umbrella stroller and walked around.  I loved my single umbrella stroller.  We got the double one for this trip.  I don't love it like my single one, but it works okay for an umbrella stroller.  A shade cover for it cost just as much as the stroller so we decided not to get it.  Brian made his own shade cover with an umbrella that worked just as well.  The kids were so tired they took a nap in the stroller.   Brian and I stopped for some ice cream while the kids napped.  Then they woke up.  We saved a few bites of ice cream for Austin so he was happy.  We walked around some stores and then took the shuttle bus back to the port.  During the ride the bus driver told us that  NASA was launching a rocket this evening.  Since our ship was so close the the NASA space station we would get to see it very well.  Brian was so excited.  He always wanted to see one.  The timing was perfect and we got to see the rocket lift off into space.

 

The next day we were at NCL's private island - Great Stirrup Cay.  We tried to reserve a shade cover but they were sold out.  I was not very happy.  We had to have a shade cover with the kids.  So I went down to the desk and talked to the women.  She said if we took the first tender and ran over to the place we could probably get one because there were 20 they don't sell ahead of time.  So that was our new plan.

First thing in the morning, Sydney and I stood in line for tender tickets.  We got tender ticket #2 (the second tender boat).  We were hoping for boat #1 but that was what we got.  We were all ready when they started calling the tenders.  As soon as they called 2, we went down.  We actually ended up on the first tender boat.  Because we have been there before and know how the tenders work, I knew where we wanted to sit and that is where we did.  As soon as we got off the tender boat, Brian had Austin on his shoulders and he started running to find these shade covers.  I was behind with Sydney but still near them.  The women from the desk saw me and told me right where to go.  Needless to say, we were the first ones there (even beating the people that sell them - would you expect anything less from us as seasoned travelers?).  I was so happy we got one.

We played at the beach all day.  Sydney slept a lot so one of us was with her in the shade tent while the other was swimming with Austin.  Austin did not like the water at first but he quickly liked it a lot.  He also played in the sand in our shade tent.  When Sydney was awake we took her out to swim too.  It was a good day at the beach.  Austin and Sydney fell asleep on the tender boat back to the ship.  It was pretty cute.

In Nassau, we walked around the city.  We have been there so many times (it was even Austin's 3rd time there!).  We walked around the straw market and got shirts for the kids.  Brian got some Coke to drink back on the ship and that was about it.  We took our family picture there too. We got back on the ship early and went up to the pool.  That worked out great because everyone else was on shore.  Austin and Sydney got to play in the pool by themselves.  We had fun.  Austin really liked the pool.  He went down the water slide at least 50 times.  Sydney liked the water too.

 

On the sea days we had fun with baby classes.  There was always stuff to do.  We also got our family picture taken a lot.  We bought 5 of the pictures that turned out the best.  It is so nice to have the family pictures now.  I think the last family picture we have is when Sydney was just born.  She has changed a lot since then!

One interesting theme of the cruise was people commenting that Sydney looked like a doll.  We heard that from about 8 different people over the week.  They generally commented that she looked so cute, that she didn't look real.  When we were walking around in the stroller with her, someone told us they had to watch her to see if she would blink to figure out if she was real or not.  Sydney is just too cute!

Debarkation of the ship went extremely well too.  We were in our car at 8:15 am!  We walked off the ship with our luggage which we knew we wanted to do.  Brian had the two big suitcases and I had the stroller with bags on the stroller.  The kids did great.  The drive home went well too.  We were home at 4:30 pm.  We had to stop an extra time because Sydney would not eat when we wanted her too.  Now if something is going on she won't eat because she gets preoccupied watching everything around her.  She wants to see what is going on.

We had an excellent family vacation.  It was nice to spend quality time together with no internet or anything.  The kids would wear us out at times.  We were always happy when they went to sleep at night.  Brian and I would have a snack on our balcony if the weather was nice.  We cherished the time with them because they are growing so quickly.  We did this same cruise last year and Austin has changed so much.  It's crazy to think what they will be doing a year from now!

Click below to watch a video summary of our vacation:

Easter Bunny

The Saturday before leaving for New York for our cruise, my local community mother's club had Easter crafts for the kids.  We took both Sydney and Austin.  They had tables of crafts and eggs for the kids.  The Easter Bunny was there too, so we got their pictures with him.  It was fun.

After we left there, we rushed home and got ready for swim class.  Then we got Austin down for nap so we could finish packing and go to bed early to leave for our trip in the middle of the night.

Sydney's 6 month check up (2.08 years and 6 month)

Sydney went to the doctor for her 6 month check up.  She weighs almost 15 pounds.  She is in the 25th percentile for weight.  She is much smaller than Austin was.  Austin was 15 pounds at 2.5 months.  In fact Sydney is able to wear Austin's "My First St. Patrick's Day" clothes this month (despite being 5 months older than Austin was).  It works out great.  It is so funny.

The doctor said everything looks good.  She is growing well on her growth curve.  She is almost crawling.  She can get up on her hands and knees.  She likes to move backwards.  She rolls all over the place.  If she wants something she will find a way to get it.  She is not babbling yet though.  She will laugh and coo but no babbling yet.  Hopefully that will come soon.

Sydney is not a big fan of eating.  We have tried giving her rice cereal on Valentine's Day.  She did not care for it.  We have also tried giving her bananas and pears.  Still not a fan yet either.  The doctor said that the muscles that are used to swallow somethings need more time to develop and she may not be ready yet.  He said don't force it.  She will get there.  So we have her join us every night for dinner at the table and try and little bit.  We do a happy song and dance every time she takes a bite.  Austin gets excited about it too.  Austin also buckles Sydney in her chair every night.  He enjoys doing that.  It's funny because he says "Watch your fingers sister" as he does it.  Austin is a great helper.

We have also started to give Sydney formula.  My goal was to make it to 6 months and I did that.  But because of the cruise I am going to continue to breast feed a little bit longer.  I want to be done pumping though.  I hope to continue to nurse in the mornings and evenings but daytime feeding will be formula.  Sydney is not a fan of formula either.  My mom tried it the first time and it did not go well.  She screamed.  Daycare has been giving her 1/2 and 1/2 bottles and that went a little better.  Brian tried all formula too and again it did not go well either.  Hopefully she will learn to like it soon.

Austin is saying more and more sentences.  It is so awesome that he can talk and tell exactly what he wants.  There are less tantrums this way.  He was just trying to open his milk cup and he did it himself and he said "Austin opened it".

Austin kind of knows that we are going on a cruise.  I have Austin telling everyone "Big Boat 2 weeks".  This weekend I need to change it to "Big Boat 1 week".  I would love to know what he thinks it is.  Brian let him watch a video of a cruise ship on the kindle and Austin ended up clicking on another video which was an episode of Undercover Boss where the CEO was doing work undercover on a cruise ship.  They were doing lots of manual labor and Austin liked the tools.  If you ask him what's he's going to do on the boat, he says "Tools", so he thinks we got him a job working there (and is excited about that).  I hope that we all have fun on vacation and everyone is healthy.  I have been working on packing this week.  I have never started packing so early but packing for 4 is a lot of work.  Plus I don't want to forget anything important.

Sydney got her passport already.  Like with Austin, we did a photo shoot to commemorate her first big trip.  Some of the photos are posted here.  Brian took these at home.  We temporarily bought a special pink suitcase for it (and then returned it hours later because it was too small to be useful for anything else).  The weather was nice too earlier in March, so Brian did a photo shoot outside too.  He shot photos for a wedding announcement for someone, so he bought a special portrait lens and he's been using it to get some great pictures of the kids.

It's going to be a fun and busy week ahead.  We are looking forward to it. 

Melissa's Baby Shower (2 years 1 month and 6 months)

This past weekend was Melissa's baby shower.  I have been planning that for over 2 months now.  It seemed like any free moment was spent working on that.  It was worth it though.  It turned out beautifully.  Melissa enjoyed it so that is all that matters.

Melissa, my mother in law, and Jonathan's mom came up Friday night.  Carol stayed with us so she could see the kids.  They got in Friday around 7 pm.  In the morning, we all went down to set up for the shower.  Brian was nice and stayed though the shower so he could take pictures of it.  Sydney also stayed though the entire shower too.  Austin was there in the beginning.  He helped setup.  He liked throwing trash away for us which was helpful.  Then after we ate he went with Papa to McDonald's and played.  Austin and Sydney were so good during the shower.  I was so happy.

Sydney got a little fussy because she was tired.  Brian had her face the wall in her car seat and she fell asleep within minutes.  It was impressive.  Brian got a lot of good pictures.  I was so happy everything turned out nicely.  We had breakfast.  Then we played some games.  We played word scramble.  Then Melissa's best friend and her mom set up a Customize for Camden station.  People could make onesies and bibs for him.  It was so cool.  Then we made babies out of play doh.  People seemed to enjoy the games we had.  Melissa got a lot of really nice things too.  Overall it was great.

Brian caught Melissa making a funny face that made it look like she was crying.  He sent it to Jonathan and said that Melissa was holding up good until we starting opening up gifts.  Since pregnancy has her a bit emotional, it was believable that a breakdown may have occurred.  It didn't though, but Brian had Jonathan thinking it had.

Austin has chosen names for both of his grandmas now.  Austin can't say "G" words yet.  So he calls my mom Meemaw and Brian's mom Nana.  Nana got to spend some time with Austin and Sydney.  Austin enjoyed having Nana read to him.  Austin is really into his books right now.  It's cute because he knows the stories so well he can basically read them too.  Last night, he read Goodnight Gorillia to us.  He leaves out a lot of words, but you can tell that he's still thinking them even though he can't articulate all of them.  It was so sweet.     Before story time, we do circle time like they do in school.  There is a little song they sing which is  "You have a name, I have a name, now tell me what is your name?"  Austin can say his first and last name.  He really likes doing that. We also often go around patting our knees and saying, "Me, me, me, me, me, me, Mommy!"  Austin does it with his name when it's his turn.  They do that at school too.

Austin is a talking machine now.  His communication skills are great.  It is so much fun to talk with him.  He can tell us what he wants.  He doesn't always get what he wants but he can definitely tell us.  One thing he says is "pushy" which means come here.  He also still loves to say "Upies"  which is "up please".  He can now tell us what what hurts.  Like today he fell off his step ladder while I was changing Sydney.  I did not see what happened and after he was done crying I asked him what hurt and he said his back.  I was impressed with that.  He was okay after his fall too.

I have settled into a good routine.  I believe as time goes by things get easier.  Early on some days I could not wait for nap time   Now it seems to get here so quickly.  I enjoy playing with them and all the time I have with them.  They are so precious.  Right now Austin loves to play with his play doh.  We can easily spend 30-45 minutes playing with that.  That is a long time for a toddler.  Austin also enjoys playing with his bus while Sydney plays with the little people plane.  They play very well together.  Almost everyday Sydney and I watch Austin make baskets downstairs.  For the wintertime, we brought in his basketball hoop.  He really likes playing basketball and he's good at it.  That reminds me I need to take a video of that.

We have lots of videos of the kids.  Pictures and videos are really important to us.  They will only be this little for a short period of time and we want to cherish all these memories and be able to look back on them.  I am lucky that Brian is so good with the camera.  He has two really nice cameras.  He takes all the kids pictures. We realized early on that its not worth going to the photo studio.  Brian can take way better pictures at home and on the kids schedule.  Sometimes they don't want their pictures taken and I couldn't imagine trying to schedule a photo shoot at a studio around their happy times.  Austin will say "cheese" if he wants his picture taken or he will say "no pictures" if he doesn't.  It's so cute.

I can't believe Sydney will be 6 months tomorrow.  The time has went by so fast.  She can sit up now.  She really doesn't even fall over unless Austin pushes her over.  She is working on crawling but hasn't yet.  It will be soon though.  She can stand on her feet too with assistance for balance.  She weighs 15 pounds.  When Austin was 6 months he weighed 21 pounds.  I find that interesting.  It is nice because she did not go though her clothes as quickly as Austin did.

At school, Austin and Sydney had a valentine's day party.  Both Brian and I left work early so we could attend.  There was a flurry of activity in Austin's room since all the kids are mobile.  We spent some time in Sydney's room too, but eventually just brought her to Austin's room.  Some of the older kids really liked her and started playing with her there too for the party.  Austin and Sydney both had a lot of fun.  It's really nice to get to see them at daycare like this.  Normally we just see them briefly during drop off and pick up, so spending more time in their room with their teachers and friends is nice.

I joined the preschool parents club in our community.  They have a consignment sale every year and I really wanted to sell our baby things this year.  Plus it is nice to meet new people and have activities for the kids to do.  Last week, they had a field trip to Chick-fil-A.  So Austin and I went.  It was a lot of fun.  We toured the place with about 12 other moms and kids.  Austin got to color pictures.  He got a balloon and made an ice cream cone.  It was a fun morning out with him.  I really enjoyed my morning with Austin.

In 3 weeks, we will be on a cruise.  I am excited and nervous about it.  I am interested to see how Sydney travels.  Austin we know is a good traveler.  I hope Sydney is too.  She is an easy going baby but we are hoping for no illnesses or any issues.  It will be excellent family time and that is what I am looking forward too.  Now I just need to get everything organized for it.

Austin locks himself in bathroom (2.0 years and 5 months)

The weather was really warm for a few days.  We took advantage of that.  Austin loves it outside so anytime we can be outside we are.  Brian and I enjoy our evening walks.  When the weather is nice, we walk every night.  Austin sits in his stroller and chills out too.  It is wonderful.  We got to go on two evening walks last week.

Last Tuesday night, Austin was getting ready for bed.  We had been busy playing outside and it was a little past his bedtime.  Austin was upstairs with Brian getting ready for bed.  Brian went into Austin's room to get his stool when Austin ran into the bathroom and closed the door behind him.  We think Austin thought he was not going to get to brush his teeth, so he made sure he was in the bathroom.  Brian went to open the door and the door was blocked so we could not get in.  There are drawers next to the door and one the the drawers was left opened.  Austin must have bumped it to open it even more and it blocked the door from opening at all.  There were no lights on in the bathroom either since Austin had just ran in there suddenly on his own.  I started to freak out inside.  Sydney started crying so I went downstairs and got her.  Brian was extremely calm and kept asking Austin to close the drawer.  Austin was not talking for the first 20-30 seconds so Brian was nervous what Austin was doing.  Then Austin started talking.  He was probably in there for about 4-5 minutes before we finally got in.  Somehow Austin bumped or closed the drawer just enough for Brian to get the door past it and we made it in there.  It was so scary!  Austin started to cry towards the end too.  But he really did a great job.  Austin thought Brian had locked him in there so he was mad at him for a little bit.  After some tender loving care, all was better.

Things have been going well.  Austin is a talking machine.  He will repeat anything you say so we are careful what we say.  He is full of energy and always getting into something.  He really like Play Doh.  We will play with that for an hour or so on my days off.  He pretends to make pasta and "Daddy" sandwiches (Brian has a sandwich for lunch every day and Austin will sometimes help me make it).  It is cute.  He is also good at making baskets with the basketball.  Austin knows all of his colors.  He is starting to count.  He really knows 7,8,9 in that order.  His favorite number is 2.  He loves saying that whether or not it works to his advantage (Do you want five cookies?  No, two!)

Sydney is rolling all over the place.  She loves to grab things now.  Brian had the camera taking pictures and she was holding on the the flash.  When she gets her diaper changed she doesn't like to sit still anymore either.  She doesn't move like Austin but she can definitely squirm around.  She loves her chew book and play ball.  She spends a lot of time in her exersaucer and with her activity mats.  She also enjoys playing kitchen with Austin.   They play together very well.

Since Austin has reached toddler hood he likes to really test the limits.  Brian and I are usually laid back but he knows how to push our buttons at times.  We went to the library and got some books on communication and discipline.  Rising a child is so important.  We want to do the very best we can so we are educating ourselves on it.  Hopefully it will work.  I don't like all is his whining and tantrums   I know it's part of growing up but perhaps we can minimize them.  If so, I will be very happy.

I am surprised how well breastfeeding is going for me.  I would have never thought it would go as well as it is.  I am not sure what I am going to do coming up.  Sydney will start eating solids soon.  My goal was to make it until 6 months and I did that.  Breastfeeding is so much easier than bottles though.  There is no washing of bottles or wasting any milk.  It's perfect.  I hate washing all the bottles!  Especially the Avent ones!  They seem so much harder than the Medela ones to wash.  Plus because I pump with Medela ones I have twice as many bottles to wash.  I don't like pumping and I am considering giving up pumping at work.  That would mean she would get formula during the days.  I would still hope to nurse in the morning and nights.  I guess we will see how it goes.  When Sydney starts cereal though, she will get it mixed with formula.  I am not going to pump extra for her cereal.

Austin is now up from nap.  It is playtime!