Second week of March 2015

Back to "normal" life! Here's what we were up to the second week in March...

Painting at Aunt Brittany's

The kids at Maxwell's school were so excited to see him when I took him to school for the first time after the cruise.  That made me really happy.  They were all like "yeah! Maxwell's back!"

So big

Lil Miss Climber

I took Maxwell's favorite "stuffed animal" - a puppet -  with me to work and took a picture so that he could see that I had him with me

For work, I took my team to a Dallas Maverick's game in the CROSSMARK Suite.  They had a fun time...  I just missed being home with my family and putting my kids to bed.  

Brittany and her workout buddy

The night after the Maverick's game, I went to my dear friend Tida's grand opening of her retail shop.  There were so many delicious sweets!

Look at the gorgeous set up and sweets everywhere!

Jason and Tida

So excited for her to have opened her own shop!!!

That night was the second night I had missed putting Maxwell to bed and he asked Peter to leave the light on in his closet so I could give him a goodnight kiss when I got home and turn it off.  I love that sweet boy.

Emmalyn was not feeling well and I could tell she was sick so I took her to the pediatrician.  While it seemed she might just have a cold, I wanted to be sure since we had just been out of the country.

Cheese

There we go, closer to a real smile.

Maxwell was well behaved at the pediatrician with me.

Emmalyn is sick with a fever that got up to 101.9.  She weighed 15 lb 11.5 oz at the doctor.  They said that she probably has a virus and didn't give me anything for her.

I've given her more medicine (tylenol) than ever.  She's just so sick.  She can't sleep which means we can't sleep.  So sad in her eyes.  Coughs and whimpers.  Awful..

Sick girl snuggling on the bed

Sad sick eyes

She still looks sick but at least she's smiling

(I love the story the next few pictures show...)

Talking to each other...

Max reaches out to touch Emmalyn...

She's happy...

She now reaches out to touch him...

And he holds her hand...

I love watching when they love each other!

She's just so sick and sad!!!  I hate that she feels so awful.  :(

Emmalyn says ma ma!  She's now 11 months old.  Only one more month and she's a year old!  Holy crap.

Pumping is stressful.  I am pumping 4 times a day to get a total of 4.5 - 5 oz but I'm still hanging in there.  It's so frustrating to only get that but it's still enough that I am not ready to stop or give up.  It means too much to me.  MUST KEEP GOING.  (I'm doing so much to try and increase/hang onto the production I've got - - - mother's milk tea, lactation cookies, fenugreek pills, lots of water...)

She's really chatty now and standing on her own, often for 5 seconds.
She loves music and claps to it.
She's a cuddler.
She sleeps now on a pillow in her crib.
I turned around and all of a sudden she was 6 stairs up the staircase.  Time to put the baby gate up!

Day 8 - Caribbean Cruise 2015 - Time to go home

I wanted to capture how great the bathroom was because it's not very likely we'll be in a room with such a great bathroom any time soon.

Look - a separate space for a toilet!

The sink

Show WITH WITH WITH a bathtub!!!

Here's the curtain that separated the bed from the couch area where the kids slept each night.  It was a fantastic set up.  I guess I will have to watch the cruise deals to find another sweet deal on a suite.  (get it?)

This is how the kids slept - - with Emmalyn's bed pushed up against the couch where Maxwell slept.  When I took this pic I thought it was sweet how they were sleeping as close to each other as they could get.

The last meal on the boat before it was time to go.  It was so much fun  - fun to spend time with my husband, fun to spend time with my kids, fun to spend time with my sisters-in-law and my niece and nephews.  I love cruising!!!

He thought the little milk cartons were pretty cool

We all had breakfast together - - this is how Max and Jaxton were sitting (note Lola's hand on Max's back).  It's a perfect visual for the close bond that developed between Maxwell and his cousins.  We normally only get to see them for hours at a time over a couple days, so to be able to spend a whole week together really created some special bonds.  Wish we could do this more often!

All the kids

Silly faces

(Emmalyn's thought "what is this silly kid doing?")

(Emmalyn's thought "this silly kid is doing it too!")

My kids and Aunt Tawny, Lola, Jaxton, and Payton - - - Love you guys!

Waiting for Dad to bring the car to pick us up with all our luggage.  Notice the jackets are back.  It was just as cold in Houston as it was when we left!  (When we got home we learned we had missed another big snow storm, too.)

We took Aunt Aja to the airport in Houston and then headed home.  The drive went really well and it was certainly nice to get home relatively quickly compared to sitting at an airport for a few hours waiting for a flight, then flying home, then getting your luggage, and then driving home.

Hello, Dallas!

Day 4 - Caribbean Cruise 2015 - Belize

Today was a nice, easy day.   We knew that we weren't going to go do anything in Belize other than get off the boat and hit the shops on the pier.  We had been told that Belize wasn't a place you wanted to go explore on your own unless you were going on a guided excursion.  It's very much a third world country that is very undeveloped.  So, since none of the excursions would work well with the kids, we spent most of the time at port enjoying the empty ship.  (Tawny told us that she had taken the kids outside of the gates at the pier to go to a park that one of the locals had told her about but after she got outside the gates she felt uneasy almost immediately about the surroundings and they came back inside the guarded gates.)

Maxwell enjoying his morning time on the iPad

We enjoyed time out on the balcony looking at the gorgeous view

It's fun to have Maxwell old enough to take some decent pics (although from a pretty low perspective).  :)

Happy girl was having a great time

She is so short the feet of her PJs just hang off her legs...

Here's a view of our suite.  This was an upgraded "suite" and certainly was the most roomy we've ever had (which according to cruise standards is still very tiny).  There was a curtain that divided the tv/couch area and the bed.  It was perfect because whoever was stuck in the room with the kid(s) during nap time or bedtime could just shut that curtain and still have the light on by the bed without disturbing the kids.  They could also go sit out on the balcony too.

Since we weren't hurrying anywhere, we went to a restaurant for breakfast instead of the buffet and enjoyed a leisurely breakfast.

How can you beat the view of that gorgeous water for breakfast?

Video - Emmalyn had honeydew for the first time on this cruise (it was consistently a good soft texture for her to eat) and loved it.  Lately she has been spitting out nearly every bite of food after she puts it into her mouth and then will put it back into her mouth.  It makes a messy meal into an even messier meal.

Perfection.  I adore this picture.

He really enjoyed watching what was going on

Of course Emmalyn is too focused on food to look up for a picture.  That girl loves to eat.

The ship had a great little room full of toys for children under 2 (since they couldn't participate in the kids zone).  The room was open most of the time and they would rotate the toys so you could come in later in the day and find a totally different group of toys.  It was such a great space and I appreciated it was so available regardless of what was going on in the kids zone.  

We dropped Maxwell off at the kids zone to play for awhile and then we went to the toddler room with Emmalyn. 

Her outfit showed those darling baby legs.

Eventually we got off the boat and took a tender to shore

It was super hot and humid so we didn't spend much time shopping.  The fam rested while I went into a shop for something I wanted.  Peter sure had Emmalyn giggling...

We spent the time on port just as a family.  Aja went on an excursion on her own to some ruins and Tawny and her kids hung out on the dock while Jaxton danced to earn some money.  He did a pretty good job of drawing a crowd.  He's got some really cool moves.

On the way back to the boat this time the crew had another welcome aboard party.  They gave out drinks, had cold wet towels, and frozen juice popsicles. What a treat!  (and no embarrassing incident this time)

Our balcony was right over the place where the tenders met up with the boat.  I was fascinated to watch the process and also watched them pack everything up and close up the boat again when it was time to leave.

Oh no, Emmalyn has my hair.  

Poor girl is doomed to a life of curl and frizz and poof when she's in the humidity.  Sorry, Emmalyn!!!!