Baby Camden Arrives (2.30 years and 8.90 months)

A few weekends ago, Nana and Great Grandma came up for the weekend.  They came to get a bunch of baby stuff that I was giving to Melissa.  We gave Melissa the car seat, breast pump, and a ton of clothes.  It was bittersweet getting rid of these things.  I haven't pumped for over a month now and I am totally okay with it.  But at first it was really hard to give up.  The baby car seat was sad to see go but we are looking forward to not having to carry around that heavy thing.

A few weekends ago, it was Mother's Day.  It was nice because I worked the weekend before so I had Friday off.  I was able to go to Muffins with Mom at the kid's school.  I asked Austin if he wanted Sydney to be there too and he did.  It was cute so I brought Sydney into Austin's room and we all ate muffins and juice together.  Austin was sad when I left.  He is now in the "Get Set" room which is the older toddler room.  He is the youngest in the class.  Ever since he switched rooms, he cries when we drop him off.  Hopefully he will get use to it again and will not cry when we leave.  Brian usually drops hi off, but I got to experience it today.

On Mother's Day, my parents came over.  I baked lasagna and a cake.  Austin helped decorate the cake.  We also went and looked for playgrounds for ideas.  Brian is building a playground in our back yard.  I am super excited about that.  For mother's day I got a picture with me and the kids and a photo book with lots of pictures of us in it.  I love the photo books.  They are really nice and Austin loves us to read them to him.  He enjoys looking at pictures of himself and his family.  It was a nice mother's day.

We are getting ready to leave for Myrtle Beach.  Melissa had her baby on May 18.  She had a boy and his name is Camden.  We are very excited for them.  It will be awesome for them to be parents.  We are looking forward to meeting him.  We are driving my parents car down there because our car is not big enough.  I'm not looking forward to the drive down there but once we get there it will be fun.  Hopefully I will be able to spend some time with Melissa and Camden.

Sydney went to the doctor for her 9 month check up.  Austin went with me.  He is a very good helper.  Sydney weighed 17 pounds and 14 ounces.  That is 49th percentile for weight.  She is 28 inches long.  She is in the 57th percentile for height.  She is following her growth chart perfectly.  When Austin was 9 months he was 24 pounds 3 ounces and 30 inches long.  It is interesting to see how much bigger Austin was at the same age.  We are so happy that Sydney is finally eating.  She will eat anything.  She loves table food and usually eats more than Austin every night.  She loves her vegetables - especially peas!

Austin gets a Toddler Bed (2.29 years and 8.25 months)

A few weekends ago, we had the consignment sale and prom.  We went to the consignment sale on Friday night.  We were excited to go but it did not turn out liked we would of liked.  Austin kept running away.  So Brian was not able to look at any toys. He spent most of the time exploring the hallways of the high school with Austin.  He even ended up taking him to the gym to see a basketball tournament being played.  Sydney got heavy and fussy after a while so it was difficult for me to look at clothes.  There were not many good big toys either.  We were a little disappointed.  But I did get a lot of desperately needed clothes for Sydney.

Saturday morning I went back to the consignment sale with my friend Mara.  She had never been there before so it was good to go with her.  I helped her pick up some things.  Mara's daughter, Alexa, is 2.5 months older than Sydney.

Then I came home and got ready to go back to the consignment sale to work.  To be able to sell at the sale you must work a three hour shift.  I worked 11-2.  I was placing stickers in the book.  It was a little intense for about an hour but then it was fine.


After the consignment sale, I came home and got ready for the Prom.  I have been working with Austin's and Sydney's school on their Prom.  So I needed to get there early to set up.  Brian stayed at home and got the kids dressed.  Then they came up.

Again Prom was not exactly what we expected.  It was fun, but Austin ran around the entire time.  We have to understand the he is a toddler and likes to run around but we really wanted him to sit for a few minutes to at least eat.  It was nice to see everyone dressed up.  Lauren, Brian's cousin, made cupcakes for it.  They were delicious.  It was an adventurous night out as a family.

Then on Sunday, we decided to change Austin into a toddler bed.  Brian and Austin took apart his bed before nap.  They put up his toddler rail.  Austin loves doing projects with his daddy.   Austin loved it because he knew he could get out whenever he wanted.  It took Brian and I 1.5 hours to get him to finally go to sleep in his toddler bed.  This was going to be a challenge.  That night it took us about 45 minutes to get him to sleep.

Every nap time and bed time is a challenge.  Before the toddler bed, we would put Austin in his crib, he would play and put himself to sleep.  Now he continues to get out of his bed.  He also wants us in the room while he falls asleep.  We are hoping it will get better with time.  He usually goes to sleep in about 30 minutes.  Austin now falls out of bed a lot too.  Brian then puts him back to bed.  Austin doesn't really wake up when this happens.  We are looking into a larger toddler rail. It is hard to believe that Austin is no longer in a crib.  Time went by so fast.

Brian took this photo of Sydney outside.  He really loves it because if you zoom in on her eye, you can clearly see him, the camera, and the stroller all in its reflection.  It is pretty cool.

 

Sydney continues to crawl everywhere.  She loves to stand up now too.  She will stand up in her crib within minutes   When we are on the floor, she will crawl all over us and stand up next to us.  She has two bottom teeth.   Her top teeth are starting to come in too.  It seems like she was just born and now she is becoming a big girl too.

We realized this summer Austin will be 2.5 years old and Sydney will be 1.  That seems unbelievable   I no longer have a lot of baby stuff.  It is kind of sad but it's also exciting because as they get older we can do more and more fun things.  The weather was be beautiful.  We have been walking every night.  Austin plays outside a lot.  He got a cozy coupe car and bike. Austin helped Brian put the cozy coupe together.  Brian is making plans to build a swing set in the backyard.  I am super excited about that.  I think Austin is going to love it!  Austin talks about it a lot and always wants to go in the backyard to look.  He keeps telling dad to build the swingset as though it would take 5 minutes and he'd have one.

 

You can see Sydney's bottom teeth now as this photo shows.  This explains why she had been a little fussy recently.  She was fussy for unexplainable reasons again this week for a couple of nights.  We now can see at least 1 of her top teeth just starting to break through the surface too.  Soon she'll be ready to eat foods like Austin!

Sydney Crawling (2.25 years and 8 months)

Sydney started crawling forwards last week! And as soon as she learned to crawl forwards she has not stopped. She wants to be on the go all the time. She is also very determined to be standing up. I think she really wants to walk too. Now we are in trouble. With Sydney crawling everywhere I can't leave her alone even for a minute. She can crawl fast too. I turn my head for a second and she is off getting into something. We now have the blankets down by our living room step so if she does go off of it she won't hit her head. Soon it will be time for baby gates again. Austin is not going to be happy about that.

Sydney also started eating food last week finally. It is so exciting because she opens her mouth and loves it. It is so easy to feed her now. She eats 3 meals a day with us. I am so happy. I was worried something was wrong. Brian said he knew everything was fine and she was just not ready yet. She also likes to fed herself foods. She eats puffs, cheerios, pancakes, and peas. It is so much fun to watch her eat. She loves her baby food too. She even ate some green beans. She likes vegetables a lot. It is such a relief for me.

Sydney is developing a schedule now too. She eats around 5 am and goes back to sleep until around 8 am. Then she will have breakfast at the table. Breakfast is usually baby cereal and either pancakes or cheerios. Then she will take about a 2 hour morning nap. Around noon we will eat lunch where she eats a fruit or vegetable baby food.

Austin usually eats left overs from dinner or a sandwich. He likes peanut butter and cheese sandwiches. He always has a fruit and yogurt. Austin goes down for nap around 1 pm. Sydney usually goes to nap around 2 pm. Then we eat dinner around 5:30 pm once Brian get home from work. When it is nice outside we go for a walk around 6:30 pm. Austin goes to sleep around 8:15-8:30 pm. Sydney goes to bed around 9 pm. We are loving the weather now that it is getting nice out. We really enjoy our time outside and our walks. Austin likes it too. He enjoys his snack in the stroller and tells us what he sees. He talks in 4-5 words sentences now. We can understand almost everything he says. Something funny he says is "In the chicken". He means "in the kitchen" but for whatever reason he calls the kitchen the chicken. It is cute.

 

Sydney says baba, mama, and duh duh. I stopped pumping at work last week too. It was sad for me. I can't believe how well breast feeding is going. But I told Melissa I would give her my pump so I need to stop. Plus I am busy at work so not pumping at work will be better for me. My breasts were uncomfortable but not as bad as when I stopped with Austin. With Austin I was pumping way more than I needed. The hard part is when I am home with her she really doesn't want a bottle from me. I don't know if its because she is teething or what but she has been cranky the past few days. I need to make sure I produce less milk during the day because on the days I work if I don't pump I will be miserable. I am really trying not to breast feed her during the day but I have given in a few times because I can't listen to her scream. For the most part though she gets formula.

 I have no idea when and how I am going to stop nursing her. I am worried about that. It will probably be really ugly. I am hoping that she will just no longer want to do it but I am not so sure. When she is around a year old I am going to have to stop. I think that is an appropriate time to give it up. She falls asleep on me every night and I put her in her crib. I need to stop that but I am just not there yet. Again I don't like listening to her scream. I know that Sydney is my last baby and I am cherishing all the baby time I can get. They grow up way too fast.

 I can't believe how big and independent Austin is already. It makes me sad. Our next big thing is we are going to move Austin into a toddler bed. He is growing up and needs to be in a toddler bed. We will be doing that in the next few weeks. It is sad because after that Austin will never be in a crib again. Brian and I were talking about all the things he will never do again like drink a bottle or be in a crib. Soon he will never were diapers. It is amazing how fast time goes by with kids. I will never pump again and before I know it I will never breastfeed again.

 As I am writing this I am so sad. I am so grateful that we were blessed with two little perfect angels. They are our world and we enjoy every second of it because before we know it they will be adults themselves. Brian is really great at taking pictures and videos of them. Brian just finished making our cruise video.  It was only 1 month ago, but the kids have already changed since then noticeably. I am so grateful that Brian does that and is good at it. This weekend is the consignment sale and Prom for our daycare. I am also sad I am getting rid of all my baby stuff. I am either selling it or giving it to Melissa. But I am looking forward to all the exciting things to come with Austin and Sydney. I know its going to be a fun adventure.

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: