Day 6 - Caribbean Cruise 2015 - Day at Sea

Ahhhh....A nice relaxing day at sea!  I love days at sea almost as much as I love days as port.  Days at sea = laid back schedules, naps relatively on time, and lots of fun on the boat.

Our day started with room service.  The little individual sized boxed of cereal have been the jackpot with our kids.

Emmalyn watching the ocean with daddy.  She looks little but she looks even more little when she's just in her diaper.

Always so happy in the morning

Enjoying fruit on the balcony

Buddies headed to go make some balloon animals.

It was fun to learn how to make fun things with balloons.  Aunt Aja was a natural!

Maxwell and his two poodles

Sword fight!

Emmalyn did a little coloring with edible crayons (I love that all the art stuff for the babies is edible.  I need to get me some of that!)

Maxwell decorated cupcakes

He had a lot of fun (and I had "fun" keeping Emmalyn happy while he worked)

We took the kids swimming in the little kid pool

Emmalyn liked crawling around

Maxwell splashing

Emmalyn splashing

They had a lot of fun!

Even when on vacation, we can still find a place for timeout when a certain little man isn't making good choices or being a good listened.

Enjoying dinner.  Lola got her face painted at the kids zone (Payton, Jaxton, and Lola all had a great time going to the kids zone).  Maxwell apparently had a chance to get his painted and he didn't want to.

Cheerios!  They keep a baby happy even when it's not breakfast.

Aunt Aja, Jaxton, and Aunt Tawny

Yeah!  Dessert!!  I get all of this?!

I got the molten lava nearly every night.   It's my favorite!

Finishing every last drop of that ice cream.

Boom! Mr. Cool

Video - Maxwell showing off his rock star moves

  

Aja stayed with the baby and we took Maxwell out for a special late night out.  First we went to a show in the theater that was sort of a cirque show.  He thought it was quite cool.

What silly parents

Kisses from Maxwell

Kisses for Maxwell (his face breaks my heart here - what a precious boy)

ready for the show!

After the show we went to the white hot dance party for a little bit of dancing.  Maxwell was still in a loving mood.

Dancing with my favorite little dance partner

It was such a great day filled with so many fun things.  It's so great to spend quality time with the kids!

How fast can YOU climb 52 flights of stairs?

Me, Hayden, and Max's double chin - Ha!

Want to cheer Max up?  Give him some stickers.

Another lunch at Britt's where Max slept the whole time.  Don't you love his socks?

He finally started feeling better last night and that has changed everything.  It's HARD to have a baby who doesn't feel good.  It's hard on them and hard on you.  It's been so nice to have my happy baby back who smiles and laughs instead of cries and screams.

He can now point out eyes, ears, tongue and teeth on pictures of people and some animals.  He said sticker today - I had no idea he knew the word!

I have been taking him to a gym class for toddlers.  Most of the time it has been me pushing him to try things and he hasn't been very interested, adventurous, or independent however this week he finally started to get more engaged.  I look at what some of the kids his same age are doing, and he's just not there yet.

He is starting to be able to pick up some food with a fork.  Mostly scrambled eggs. And can use a spoon when eating something thick like yogurt.

If you bend down and ask for hugs, he will run at you full force with his arms outstretched and then when he reaches you, he will wraps his arms around you.  It's fantastic.  I love it!

You never know what you are going to get when you get kisses though.  Sometimes they are closed mouth kisses, sometimes they are open mouth kisses, and sometimes his tongue is there too.

He really follows directions well, which is nice! 

Silly faces

Everybody smiling!

Max cuddling into his momma

Max on the 23rd of January:

• Even though he's feeling better, Max isn't all just sweetness.  He has started throwing tantrums which include screaming and hitting.  Joy. 
• He calls me Kallie lately more than Mom/Momma/Mommy. 
• He is GREAT at letting me wipe his nose.  It's never an issue and usually he stands there waiting for it to be wiped.
• He has been sleeping until 7:20 am which means he's been sleeping for 11 1/2 - 12 hrs each night.
• I'm not sure if he's going to be left or right handed because he uses both of them frequently.
• He loves eating plain yogurt and also loves Oatmeal Squares cereal.

Don't those pants look so stylish? 

Yeah.  They aren't pants.  They're shorts. 

Being a big kid sitting on the trike.

Sweet boy, boring socks.

Silly!

Not quite sure why he was wanting to eat the furniture.  Teething?

I'm sure you are like, what does any of this have to do with the subject of this post?  It's doesn't other than these were some pics from that week.  NOW...to the fun part of the post.

Peter's work, Ivie, sponsored a race.  However, it's not a 5k race or anything like you are used to.  It's called the Big D Climb.  And it's 52 flights of stairs and 1,040 steps.  You can check out their website here.  It's done downtown in a really pretty skyscraper called Fountain Place.  Peter asked me if I wanted to do it with him but I was chicken.  I've never climbed 52 flights of stairs at once and wondered if I really could.  When we go on cruises we make ourselves take the stairs and if I have to do 7 or 8 flights, I'm huffing and puffing at the top.  How in the world could I do 52?!

So I wussed out but he didn't. 

The day of the race (1/26/13) was cloudy so when you looked up towards the top of the building, it got all cloudy.  In fact when we were driving in, we couldn't even see the top of the building because of the clouds.

Before the climb.  I couldn't get Peter and all of the building in one picture.

The top of the building (yup - he's going all the way to the top!)

We hung out in the crowded lobby waiting for his start time.

Because of tight quarters at the top of the building, you couldn't go meet your racer at the finish line.  You had to meet them back in the lobby.  So while Peter raced, we made him a sign.  We had no idea how long it would take Peter to do this so we came prepared to wait a while.

Peter was back before we knew it!  He finished in 12 min 13 secs!!!!!!

He smashed it!

Way to go, Daddy!

His whole group.  He's in the very top left.

I asked him how it went.  He said it was good until about flight 40.  At that point his legs were pretty weak and he, along with those around him, were using the railing to help pull themselves up.  I think what he did is pretty amazing.  52 flights of stairs!!!!  Nearly 12 minutes!!!  That's less than 15 seconds per flight!

After the race we went to a little cafe for a celebratory breakfast.  Max was a BIG fan of the homemade blueberry muffin.

Good job, Peter!  You are awsome.