Happy Easter (2.2 years and 7.5 months)

On Easter weekend, we went to an Easter egg hunt at our local park. It was outside. The weather was pretty nice. Sunny and around 50. I just carried Sydney in a wearable carrier. Austin had a basket and was excited to go get eggs. He found Easter eggs at school so he knew exactly what to do. The Easter Bunny arrived by a fire truck. Austin liked the fire truck too. When the egg hunt started, Austin went and found the eggs. It was so cute. We just let him do his thing. He got about a dozen eggs.

 Austin is back in swim class so he goes swimming every Saturday morning too. Austin is a good swimmer. He is starting to use a water noodle. He likes it. It so neat to watch him. I have watched him swim now for a year and half and he has learned and grown so much. He is great at jumping in the pool. He does well with his kicks too. On Easter Sunday, Brian hid some eggs outside. Austin went and found them. Austin really liked it because he put one egg on the basketball hoop so Austin got to climb on the ladder. Austin likes the ladder. Later in the day, Austin and Sydney got their Easter baskets. Austin got some stickers, yard gloves, and chocolate animal crackers. Sydney got some teething toys. Then Meemaw and Papa came over. They had Easter baskets for them too. They got a ton of stuff. Austin got a mickey mouse wagon that he loves. They got some cookies, a fire truck, gold fish crackers, and stamps. Sydney got more baby toys to put in her mouth and a cute pink bunny. They had a really good Easter.

Sydney is crawling backwards but not forwards. She gets herself stuck under things (the bed, the couch, etc) and she can't figure out how to move forwards to escape.  Instead her struggles take her further backwards and more stuck. It is kind of funny. I don't remember Austin ever really crawling backwards. Sydney loves to do it. She is starting to eat some baby food. Nothing significant yet. We have tried giving her baby bottles to play with while eating along with spoons. Distraction does help. Also she does like to be in control so finger foods work better than forcing her to eat baby food.

My work schedule has changed. I now work every other Wednesday, then every Thursday and Friday. It is not ideal but we are making it work. On my three day weeks, I am tired.  I have so much house work to catch up on after working that stretch - lots of laundry and cleaning up. I am amazed how much housework there is when I have a baby and toddler in the house. Austin is always getting into something and making a mess. Sydney has baby bottles that need cleaned and she has lots of poopy explosions so I have to wash them to ensure no stains stay. She usually goes though 2-3 outfits a day. We are excited for spring to be here so we can spend more time outside. We love it outside and our evening walks. We have missed them. Hopefully the weather will be get and stay nice soon.

Austin goes to the Dentist

Austin had his first trip to the dentist. Our pediatrician recommended that at age 2 kids start going to the dentist regularly.  We did not know what to expect with him.  We have a great dentist and the office reassured me that they would only do what he would allow.  We dropped Sydney off at Meemaw's house.  Then Brian, Austin, and I went to the dentist.

They had a bean bag chair for him.  He sat in it while I got my teeth cleaned.  He did not move.  Then it was his turn.  He got up in the dentist chair without any issues.  He let the dentist clean his teeth and kept his mouth open for them.  Austin was so good.  They even flossed his teeth.  Austin is use to flossing with Brian so he liked that.

Austin is such a good boy. He was so good at the dentist office.

On a side note, all the pictures were taken with my cell phone.  I forgot the camera on this very important day.  I am terrible about the camera.  Luckily Brian is much better with the camera.  I am busy worrying about if both kids have food, drink, clothes, and diapers when we leave.  I am suppose to have a camera in my purse but somehow it was not in there.

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.