6 years and counting

We just celebrated our sixth wedding anniversary. We took a long weekend and enjoyed being alone.

We rode all the rides we want to ride when we go to Disney but can't because we've got kids. That was a blast.

On our way to dinner & fireworks at EPCOT.

We relaxed at the spa for several days. Fabulous.

The highlight was dinner at Emeril's at the chef's table. The table was located in the kitchen where we got to watch all the action. The chef cooked a special 6+ course meal designed just for us. It was so incredible. I ate so much that I hurt in the middle of the night.

Brad & me with the chefs.

Milestones

Our little girl is moving along so good, now 7 months old.

We just discovered her third tooth. Now 2 on the bottom, one on top. She's getting ready for steaks in June with Uncle Steve & clan! She's heard her daddy talk about the 'Grill Master' in Illinois and wanted to make sure she got in on the goodies.

She's trying so hard to crawl too (pics below). She can get her knees up under her body and push. But big girl can't hold up her torso at the same time. I find it amazing how she is growing so quickly.

I don't know if I'm the only mom that does this, but I find myself not wanting her to grow so quickly. I remember with William being so anxious for him to go to the next step. He started to drool and I kept checking for teeth. Then he got one, and I kept looking for the second one. Then the third one, etc. Once he started to crawl, I couldn't wait for him to walk. Then I couldn't wait until he was tall enough to ride the kiddie rides at Busch Gardens. Then I couldn't wait until he could talk in full sentences. Then it was carry on a little conversation. I didn't stop to enjoy the stage he was in, I was always looking for the next one.

With Madelyn, I'm totally different. I am slightly disappointed as she moves to the next stage of development, looking back often. I don't know why. It's so odd to me.

Either way, anxious for the next stage or slightly saddened by the new stage, it doesn't seem to stop or hurry along development. My little people are developing at the rate God himself intended.

Here are some pics of Maddie trying her hardest to crawl.

Ahhhh, Home Sweet Home

Have you been away from your bed for a couple nights and when you get back home and sink into your comfy cozy bed, you realize how good home is and how great your bed is? If you pay attention, you might even catch your body saying, "Ahhh. This is good."
Last night was that way for all 4 of us. We were in Miami for 3 nights and Orlando for 2 nights. So by night 6 - we were all so happy to be back in our own beds. So happy that we slept an hour later than usual.
We beached it for 3 days in Miami. Fabulous. It was so nice to be with Brad. We had dinner each night by the pool that overlooked the ocean. Then we packed our bags and headed to Orlando for some Disney park fun. The Flower & Garden show is going on at EPCOT now so we wanted to do that. And William is tall enough to ride Test Track and Thunder Mountain Railroad, so we had a lot to do in 2 days. It was great.

I didn't pack enough clothes to get us through the weekend, but I decided we could find coin laundry. Surely there is coin laundry near the hotel or the parks, I thought! That's a joke! If anyone is interested in a business in Orlando - that's it. Coin laundry close to the theme parks. There's not one within, oh probably, 13 miles of Disney.

Fun times. Though so nice to be home. So nice that I don't think we're leaving the house today. I know your question . . . not even to party for Cinco de Mayo, you ask? No, not even.

EPCOT "FLOWER & GARDEN SHOW" PICTURES:

Brad and William taking time to smell the flowers.

Me and Maddie in front of the giant butterfly made out of flowers. This was at the entrance to the 'Butterfly Garden'.

One of the hundreds of butterflies inside the "Butterfly Garden".

William had said several times, "I'm hungry". So in the middle of the Nemo ride/exhibit he plopped down, popped open his Pringles and ate.

MAGIC KINGDOM PHOTOS:

In front of Cinderella's Castle
(Click on the picture to zoom in)

Family photo shot at the wishing well.

William's FIRST COCA-COLA!!!

This is Brad asking, "Where is my Coke!!!???"

For those of you who have spent time with William know that he and sugar don't mix.
Putting it nicely, he turns psycho. The general rule is . . . If YOU give him sugar, he's yours until after he's crashed. For that reason, he rarely has sugar. Brad let William have a little of his Coke. And the little psycho was quite fond of it.

This is William's answer to Brad, "Right here in my belly."

William's first time on Thunder Mountain Railroad . . .

On the way up the ramp to Thunder Mountain Railroad.

Almost to the train.

Not so excited now that he's on the ride. But we did it anyway.

Miami Pics

Pics from our recent 'spur of the moment' trip. Not so 'spur' for Brad. But 'spur' for the rest of us. The late afternoons/evenings ended up being vacation-esque.

Brad and his babies.

On the South Beach boardwalk. This is not a new hair style for me . . . the wind was blowing pretty hard.

The view in the morning from our room.

William kept entertained in the pool. Whether it was making friends with German girls or playing with buckets - he thoroughly enjoyed the water.

While big brother played, Maddie discovered bubbles.

Ready. Set.

Jump!

The evening air was too cool for me and Maddie so we sat on the deck and watched the boys play in the pool.

South Beach

So here we are in Miami. Brad called yesterday afternoon and said he couldn’t come home until the end of the week. So within an hour and twenty minutes I had me and 2 kids packed and we made the 5-hour trek. We rolled in to South Beach at 11PM.

Let me just tell you, Madelyn cried more on our little road trip than she has cried combined in the last 10 days. Mainly, thanks to her big brother. She would dose off to a pleasant slumber and then he’d ‘boop’ her nose or start singing incredibly loud. All to wake her up. And he succeeded. And she through a fit. This happened no less than 5 times. And, oh my, her protest lasted 20+ minutes EACH time!

Then my little chatter box. For the first 45 minutes he talked incessantly. Talked about his dad. Talked about the hotel (he LOVES hotels). Talked about the time PopPop and MiMi took him and SoSo to the lazy river hotel and he squirted someone with water. Then wanted to know if we were at the hotel yet. Then wanted to know if it was getting dark. Then back to dad. Where was he? Where are we? “I want my daddy.” Yes, buddy, I want your daddy too!

With all the TALKING and crying and 5 hour drive . . . we arrived. It’s so nice to be together as a family. Even if it is in a hotel room. We’re with Brad.

And the day has been so nice. William swam for 3 hours. Never tiring. He sort of made friends with these 2 grade school sisters. I say ‘sort of’ because they didn’t speak English and W doesn’t understand the language concept. I tried explaining how he learns Spanish in school and we speak English. But, you know, he’s 3. The older one kept saying, “I don’t speak English”. It didn’t stop him. He kept talking to them and following them around. Somehow they figured it out. The talking ceased and the copying began. One would jump a certain way in the water. The other would copy. One would do a trick in the water. The other would copy.

Do you know where I got to be (excluding the first 45 minutes)? Sitting in the sun stretched out on a beach chair. Oh, yes. Tanning. It was so nice. Maddie asleep. William capable in the pool and fully occupied. And me, I’ll say it again, tanning. 2 hours of South Beach rays made the 5-hour trek all worth it. I even got some reading done.

Brad got back and we had dinner by the pool with the ocean crashing into the beach behind us. It was beautiful. Then the boys swam and the girls cuddled under a pool towel. Just lovely.

Tomorrow?
Hopefully a repeat of the same.

Young Love

This past week 2 friends announced their engagement to wonderful women. We could not be happier for these guys! One of them was telling us how he proposed and as he recounted the event he was noticeably flighty and shaky yet smiling and excited all at the same time. How wonderful young love is. Not to be confused with their age - I'm not saying that - just that new fresh love. Hearing their love story and their excitement while talking about their future life mates makes me nostalgic.
I think back to when Brad & I met. The butterflies. The nervous sweat. How exciting it was just to talk on the phone with him. The first time we held hands. Our first date. Our engagement and how he 'popped the question'. Our perfect wedding day and incredible honeymoon.
I wouldn't go back. Our life is great. But those were good times that I don't often sit around and daydream about. I went through a bunch of old photos and loved reminiscing. Here are some highlights.

Skiing in CO on a Singles Trip while we were dating.

Magic Kingdom day trip while we were dating. I kept expecting him to propose while at Disney. Thankfully, he didn't. I thought his proposal site was perfect.

Brad proposed on a boat trip in Naples. At sunset.

Our wedding - 6 weeks later.

another wedding pose.

Honeymoon Photos - 5 years and 11 months ago . . .

Trevi Fountain in Roma.

Colosseum in Roma.

Pisa. That would be the leaning tower.

Great times. But nearly 6 years later - we've had even more memorable ones. Just to name a few . . .

2005 - Rockefeller Center, NYC

2006 - our new found friends from cooking school in Tuscany

2006 - Tuscany

2007 - Sunrise at 10K feet above sea level on top of Haleakala in Maui

2007 - Maui

And, of course,





I said I was feeling nostalgic.

To our soon-to-be-wed friends: We wish you many wonderful moments that you too will blog about!!! We can't wait to see what your future holds (though William is praying for 'baby Moses' for the Fall bride & groom. I know, a bit premature. No baby prayers for the Summer couple . . . yet.)!

Blink

I blinked.

What happened? Where did the time go?

My little boy is now telling me where to stand when we're kicking the ball back and forth.
He tries to negotiate and bargain with me to get his way. I'll tell him the plan for the morning is to take a bath, then he can watch TV. He'll respond, "Mom, here's the plan. First we watch TV, then we'll take a bath."
When my dad picks him up to go to dinner, my dad will say - Hey, let's go to Chick-fil-a. William responds with, "No. No. No. I wanna go to Macaroni Grill!" (Where do you think they end up?)
He has full conversations with my parents or Brad on the phone. Often communicating, in no uncertain terms, that they need to return home NOW.

He takes breaks in the bathroom to "catch up" on reading.


This morning he and my dad went to McD for breakfast. My dad said that when they got inside, W shot off into a different direction than he. W apparently hollered over his shoulder, "You get the dinner, I'll get the table." Think he's heard that one before.

Potty training turned bad

W started potty training at 23 months. There were compromises we made to get him trained because he was so young.

We were very motivated b/c the childcare on the cruise we were taking when he would be 25 months was open to potty trained children. At least that was the quote on the website. It ended up not being true - but he was still trained.

So back to the compromises. We would allow William (at the time it was cute - to us) to potty outside if necessary. We'd be on our way somewhere, he'd have the urge - and we'd jerk to the side of the road and let him relieve himself. Well, the down side is . . . 18 months later, he's still doing it.

I'm torn between laughing and being completely embarrassed that my 3.5 year old 'whips it out' in public. The fact that I'm blogging about it must mean I find it more funny than embarrassing.

He's done it at Busch Gardens (though I caught him before he soaked a couple of moms in front of him).
He's done it a MGM on Main Street in front of Tammy & Kent who remind us of the event (I can't remember if we stopped him that time).
He's done it at the spray ground in Hyde Park (I pretended I didn't see him doing it).
He secretly exited at Patrick & Abby's one night because he didn't know where their bathroom was (she caught him on their back porch).

So a couple weeks ago, we had a play date at the park with a bunch of friends. The boys were running wild. The girls weren't. It was fun. Until a friend (William thanks you, Christina) saw the following taking place and captured it for eternity (well, at least until his wedding day).


I'm told it looks like I'm cheering him on. I'M NOT. But what was I supposed to do? By the time I got to him, I couldn't stop him mid-stream!
Hopefully we'll never see the people that were eating lunch just to the left of the basketball hoop again (totally not joking about that).

Fabulous

Can I hear a "Fabulous" from some fellow Floridians????? Was the weather not just perfect this weekend?
The temperature.
The clear sky.
The breeze.
All Fabulous.
We went to the beach again. Just can't resist it when the weather is so perfect.
Brad & W played softball. Maddie & I played in the sand. I can't remember if W liked the sand the first time he got in it - but Maddie sure did. I turned my head for 3 seconds and next thing I know - she had a mouth-full of sand. Now that's nasty.