Heart Moments

I know my baby is growing up. He is much closer to a year than to 6 months. We have been expecting him to crawl for weeks now. And he finally did. He crawled toward a desired toy yesterday morning and again this evening. I was excited. I grabbed the camera to shoot a video. I shared that video with everyone that would watch. I accepted the fact that he was crawling.

But this morning, he did something different. He crawled to me. With an impish grin on his face. With lights dancing in his eyes. With an uncoordinated, unpracticed gait. He crawled to me.

My world stopped for those few seconds. My heart exploded into a million sweet fragments. I thanked God for this precious, amazing gift.

Then, I scooped up Austin for a big hug and asked him when he learned to be so big. And the spell was broken because he had other places to go.

Wake Up, Sleepy Head

Crib Notes - May 23

Even though Daddy was out of town, everything was going along just fine until Wednesday night this week. On Wednesday night I got croup and my 4th tooth. Overall, not my best week.

I woke up about 10:00 and tried to call for Mommy, but I sounded really funny. I sounded like a baby seal crying. Mommy was really worried and called Aunt Shay. Aunt Shay tried to help, but she started laughing too hard. She said I sounded like Tank. I couldn’t help it. I was so, so miserable. Mommy sat with me in a steamy bathroom and then (on the advice of the pediatrician) took me outside. That helped me calm down. It was a long night and my fever spiked in the morning, so we went to the ER at 6:00.  While we were at the hospital, I managed to pull all the tissues out of the box and shred them.  They gave me a steroid and a breathing treatment and sent us home with yet another bottle of Tylenol.   I’m glad because I LOVE Tylenol! I get really excited when Mommy gives it to me.

Mommy and I stayed home on Thursday, and I went to Mrs. Fran’s for a little while on Friday so Mommy could attend a meeting.

I like to share. It’s fun. I share my toys with Mommy and Daddy. I’ve started trying to share my paci. I don’t share KeyKey. And, unfortunately, I shared my croup virus with Mommy. Good for us, Sassy and Mr. Jim came to help out. It was great! Mr. Jim and I hung out on the couch together, and Sassy and I played and played and played! Carly and Reed sure did a good job teaching Sassy how to play. We have FUN! Sassy is good at everything. She makes good food, fun playtime, and she is even good at putting me to bed. What more could a boy want?

New Toys

Look how coordinated I am!  I figured this out all by myself!  Okay...Sassy helped a little bit.

Raise the Roof

When Mr. Jim was here, I learned all sorts of fun things.  We love to "raise the roof" and sing.  I think I'm pretty good at it.  What do you think?

World's Two Cutest Babies Playing

Happy Mother's Day

Austin celebrated Mother’s Day by refusing to take a nap.  I’m sure he wanted to spend as much time as possible with me on that special day.  And while I appreciated the gesture, I think next year I’d prefer to spend quality time with a happy, well rested baby part of the day instead of time with a fussy, cranky, miserable baby all day.  Just a thought.

Special love and thanks to the amazing moms in our family.  I'm only beginning to appreciate the sacrifice, the selflessness, the fatigue, the worry, the prayer, and the joy that you have so willingly poured out into our lives.  We are the children, the spouses, the friends, the Christians we are because of your unfailing commitment.  I love you.

How was Austin...

When you dropped him off at Fran's after being gone for a week?

Response:

He lit up like a Christmas tree when he saw Fran, couldn't stop smiling. Made me jealous.


dB

Fun Day at Sea, May 7

It's our last day on the ship.  With Austin being so young, we didn't take advantage of many (or any) of the ship activities except for a few trivia games, and of course, the food!  I thought perhaps we would put him to sleep in his stroller and go to the shows in the evenings, but the show times didn't really work out for that.  Nevertheless, it was a wonderful week.  I'm glad we took the vacation, and I'm already looking forward to the next one.

Since tomorrow is my first mother's day, Dallas and Austin sent me to the Spa Carnival for a much needed massage.  After lugging my 20 pound son around for a week, I needed it.  The poor little masseuse kept commenting on how tight my back and shoulders were.  She never really did work all the knots out, but it was a wonderful massage using hot stones.

Did I mention that Austin had his own little spa on the verandah?  We had a room with only a shower, so I brought a little blowup swimming pool for his baths.  He has thoroughly enjoyed taking his baths on the verandah with the sun shining, the wind blowing, and the sea spread out before him.

Dallas and I did stealth packing while Austin took his nap.  We have to leave our bags outside the room before going to bed tonight.

It is cold!  The closer we get to Baltimore, the colder it gets.  We won't be sitting on the verandah enjoying the breeze tonight.  There is a storm brewing, and the seas are a little rougher than they have been this entire trip. 

Tomorrow we disembark and head back to reality.  We're already talking about where we want to sail next time!

Day Five, Freeport, May 6

We had a short day in Freeport.  We arrived in the morning and had to be back on board by 1:00.  We also got a late start.  The boys both decided to nap after breakfast.  Once we got started, we had to take a taxi ride 12 miles to the downtown shopping area.  It was another beautiful day, but Freeport was a little disappointing.  The downtown area was built specifically to target people coming from the cruise ships with lots of jewelry stores, t-shirt shops, and restaurants.  We browsed for a bit, had lunch, and headed back to the ship. 

We had a nice afternoon on the ship.  Austin took a nap, Dallas won a few more trivia contests, and we had our second formal dining night.  We dined separately thanks to Austin being a wee bit cranky.  Dallas had to take him to bed while I finished eating.

It's hard to believe that we have already been on board almost a week.  If we had a grandmother traveling with us to help babysit, a week wouldn't be nearly long enough!

Teethies!

I have 3!  I got my front left tooth today at 9 1/2 months old.  Lots of babies don't get their teeth until they are older than I am.  A lady on the cruise knowingly asked mom if I was crawling yet.  She said that babies that get their teeth young start crawling late.  Well, of course!  We are too busy growing important things like teeth to worry about balancing and moving all at the same time.  Heads with teeth in them are heavy! 

Day Four, Nassau, Bahamas, May 5

We cruised into Nassau around 1:00 today.  Nassau is home to the famous Atlantis hotel, where at least one of the premier suites rents for $25,000 per night and where they have a big water park that Dallas wanted to check out.  We headed over to see what all the fuss was about.  Wow.  Just, wow!

The hotel is like a small city, and the grounds are beautiful.  I lost count of how many pools and beaches they have, including a lazy river.  There are pools and tanks and underground viewing rooms for the massive aquarium all throughout the grounds.  They have manna pools, shark pools, turtle pools, fish tanks.  Just beautiful.  And of course there is the water park, complete with the water slide that goes through the tank of sharks.

 

The weather was a perfect, balmy, breezy, sunny 75 degrees. 

After a short tour through a tiny section of the aquarium, Dallas headed to the water park.  I got Austin to sleep and successfully put him in the stroller still asleep.  Austin has never slept in his stroller, so this was a good thing. While he slept, I strolled through the hotel buildings, around the aquariums, and over the grounds.  He slept for over two hours.  Once he awoke, I took him to see some of the fishies, and then he had lunch at an outdoor patio.  This was probably the highlight of Austin's day.  There were BIRDS!  Now, you may not understand just how cool these birds were.  One minute they were walking around cawing, and the next minute, they got really big and started to FLY!  It was fascinating.  Austin got off balance in his high chair a few times trying to see where the birds were going.  I kept having to chase his mouth around to feed him because he was so intrigued by the birds.

Austin and I met Dallas back in town and made it to the Harley Davidson shop for T-shirts before they closed.  Then, we headed back to the ship to get a very fussy little boy to bed.  This took quite a bit of doing since Austin was in the process of getting his 3rd tooth!

Day Three, Port Canaveral, May 4

Austin got us up bright and early for our day in Orlando. After a quick breakfast, we got a rental car and headed to Universal Studios and the new Harry Potter exhibits. Too bad neither of the Florida grandparents could meet us in Orlando. Some excuse about working on a Wednesday. It was nice having our own car and not taking a bus. Austin was able to crash in his familiar carseat on the drive.



It was a really beautiful day in Orlando. A little bit warm when the sun came out and the wind died down, but not Florida summer hot. Overall, the park was not very crowded, but everyone who was there also wanted to visit Hogsmeade and Harry Potter. Dallas went on a roller coaster with only about a 5 minute wait, while Austin proceeded to have something of a meltdown. We got him in the shade and got him cooled down. There was a 30 minute wait to go on the ride through the Hogwarts castle, but that was a must do ride. We learned that some of the rides have child share options. We were able to wait in line together. Then, one parent waits in a room with the child while the other parent rides. Then, you switch up. It isn’t quite as much fun as riding together, but it sure beats spending an hour at a time waiting at the exit to a ride with a hot, fussy baby. It especially helped on the Harry Potter ride because they kept having technical difficulties, and we waited in line nearly an hour. I slipped out of line and waited by an emergency exit in a nice cool shady spot with Austin sound asleep in my arms. The little nap helped his spirits for the rest of the day while Daddy rode on all the scary roller coasters. And he crashed as we drove back to Port Canaveral to board the ship for the Bahamas.

Day Two, Fun Day at Sea, May 2

 

Happy Anniversary!  Can you believe Dallas and I have been married EIGHT years?  And moreover, can you believe we have been blessed with the most precious, wonderful, amazing child?

                   

As we slowly cruise down the East Coast today, it is beautiful, sunny, mild.  Really perfect, perfect weather.

Right on time, Austin woke us up at 6:30.  Doesn’t vacation mean anything to him?  After breakfast, where Austin decided to spit out anything that wasn’t a Cheerio, we toured the ship a little before putting him down for a nap.   

Austin is teaching us the meaning of baby proof.  Dallas put his earplugs on the table this morning.  As I pushed the stroller into the room, Austin somehow swiped them in under a second.  He got one of them to his mouth.  Dallas had to turn him over, force his little mouth open, and swipe the earplug out.  It was scary for us and maddening for Austin, but we have all recovered.  And Mommy and Daddy learned a very important lesson.  NOTHING at his height is safe!  We all slept a little, then back out for more touring.  We strolled around the outside decks, and Austin LOVED the wind in his face.  He squealed and laughed.  Austin seems to have taken it upon himself to charm every person on this ship.  So far, he is doing a great job!

Good news.  The maitre’d promised to have pureed steamed veggies for us every night at dinner.  And they found us a table for 2, so we don’t have to worry about Austin ruining other’s dining experiences.  Last night, we were at a table with two other families.  Austin made conversation a little difficult by trying to talk over all of us!

Right now, I’m sitting in a hallway called the Sunset Garden.  It is a hallway designed to look like an arboretum with lighted arches, terra cotta tiles with suns on them, fake trees, and lemon vines painted on the ceiling.  There are cute little tables and chairs set up next to huge port holes all the way down the hall.  The blue ocean is stretching endlessly outside the window.  The Captain says we are sailing along the coast of North Carolina, but I can’t see it.  Every time I get out here in the ocean like this, I feel so small and am reminded of God’s bigness and greatness.  There is an entire world living below this ship that we can’t see that God created.  I am humbled and grateful and so very blessed.

The boys are napping.  Tonight is our first formal night.  It is fitting for our anniversary that we get to dress up and go to dinner.  Of course, I’ll probably end up with pureed veggies or soggy Cheeries on me before dinner is finished!  Not that I mind a bit.

After naps, Dallas began his habit of beating everyone in trivia.  They have three or four trivia games a day – sports, music, general – and Dallas won 3 of the 4 today.  He only lost the last game because someone cheated and wrote all the answers in at the end.  Good news: he gets bragging rights.  Bad news:  that is all he gets.  They don’t give out T-shirts, hats, fleeces, water bottles on Carnival.  They give out “ships on a stick,” a super cheap little trophy (think little league).

Austin got his first experience in a swimming pool.  He really wasn’t sure why Daddy would put him in a bath with cold water, but he got used to it after a bit.  He enjoyed watching the other kids play.  He did not enjoy wearing a hat.

Dinner was very good , and Austin enjoyed his pureed veggies.  We took a few “elegant photos” since we were dressed and it is our anniversary.  Unfortunately, there is no one close to Rita on the ship taking pictures.

Bon Voyage: May 1

Yay!  We're finally on the boat!

 As we set sail from Baltimore, it was a dreary, rainy, cool day.  We knew we were sailing for sunny waters, so it didn’t bother us one bit.  We arrived at Port Baltimore after a relatively stress-free morning (no plane rides, no deadlines) with a truck FULL of stuff.  Just a little over a year ago, we set sail with one suitcase and a carry-on each.  What a difference a year makes!  We have 3 suitcases, 1 huge duffle, a carry-on, diaper bag, carseat, two strollers (yes, that’s right).  How can one little guy need so much stuff?

                 

I love the bedding in our cabin!

Our room was ready soon after boarding, and Austin was ready for a nap.  While he slept, we unpacked, and unpacked, and unpacked.  He only took a short nap, but we’ll take what we can get.  We headed to dinner specifically because we need to get some double steamed veggies to mash up for Austin.  Apparently, the baby food maker is a danger because it has a blade.  We weren’t allowed to bring it on.  No worries, I came armed with a potato ricer (ever heard of one of those?) and a potato masher.  Unfortunately, the veggies were only about half steamed instead of double steamed, and there was no way they were getting mashed up.  Fortunately, I brought dinner from home.  If the little stinker would only eat canned food…

We were all tired, so we called it a night after I got Austin to sleep at 8:30.  Yes, for all of you fans out there keeping score, that is 90 minutes past his bedtime.