"What's that?" and Tooth #6

"What's that?" is now Natalie's new tagline. I love watching how much she is growing up, learning tons of new things every day!  I just noticed today that Natalie is now pointing to things and asking "What's that?" Most of the time I can figure out what she is pointing to but others I have no idea and just make up something that in the general vicinity. Today, it was a stop sign, a grocery store, and I couldn't make out the other thing while I was driving. She also says "Natalie, happy!" and Natalie, excited!" She hasn't been calling herself 'Nat' as much, but I still here is occasionally. She is also being very imaginative in her play, as well as tending to her sister or hugging her at times. Other than the random outbursts and tantrums, I'm really liking her observant, imaginative, inquisitive side.

Aubrey on the other hand just had her 6th tooth pop up (or down since it's on the top)!  Now she has 2 front top teeth and 4 bottom teeth. She's not any closer to walking at the moment, but we have heard her say the word 'dog.'

Today, we went to the ISU campus in the commons area that has a huge fountain. I didn't even know it existed until this week when the Lovell's (who have Evelyn and Nora) invited us one evening to join them. The girls had so much fun that I decided to go mid-day today and meet up with Abbey (who has Allison and Max). Bobby also met us over there on his lunch break. I didn't anticipate we would be there more than an hour, but we ended up grabbing lunch at the food court and then played some more in the water for 2 hours. It was fun and now the girls are napping, which I could probably take a nap too, but I need to get everything around for decorating Rebekah and Eric's vow renewal this evening.

Just wanted to share some quick pictures of the girls in the fountain today...so fun and FREE!

haha! How can you not get a chuckle out of this one!

Very interesting concept! I used this today because I didn't want to drag the girls out of the car.

Natalie's blood draw

Before we went on vacation, I decided to make a doctor's appointment to request allergy testing for Natalie because of her eczema. I'm thinking it's an environmental allergy vs. a food allergy, but just want to make sure if there is a food allergy, I know about it so I can try to help make her eczema more tolerable, poor thing!

Natalie's stats at almost 2 1/2 years:

Weight: 28.5lb
Height: 3 feet

We saw the nurse practitioner, who we have seen the last couple of times. Last time, she mentioned she didn't usually recommend allergy testing because typically kids outgrow whatever allergies they have. However, today she was more on board with me and admitted she got her son allergy tested when he was young too. She also mentioned how her son had a constant runny nose, was sick often, etc and how he had to get his tonsils removed (as did she) which helped with both of their allergies. I asked her if her son snored and she said yes, and when I told her Natalie does too, she took a closer look at her tonsils too. According to her, Natalie's tonsils are large for her age as well, but said we would just keep an eye on them and that she should grow into them...so we'll see!  I'm guessing a tonsillectomy is in Natalie's future, but don't know when.

The NP wrote an order for RAST testing which required Natalie to go to the lab to get her blood drawn. She was quite the trooper and very brave for the 1st arm. She got to sit on my lap, while one tech took her blood and the other held her arm. She didn't flinch or cry, just watched the whole thing during the 1st arm, but her vein gave out and they still needed more blood (they took almost THREE vials...geez!), so the crying began when they stuck her other arm. However, even though she cried, she sat still for the whole thing. I was so proud of her!

So, now, we wait for the results. We go back to the doctor next Friday to review the results. If everything comes back negative, then we go to a dermatologist for them to scrape her eczema to confirm that it is for sure eczema and then go from there under the dermatologist's care. If something from her blood draw comes back positive, we head to Indy (because of the larger number of doctor's available) to have the prick test on her back I believe to determine what exactly she is allergic to. So more to this story after we get the results.

Later today, we went outside to play in the pool and it was HOT!  The girls were having fun until Natalie accidentally stabbed Aubrey on the bridge of her nose with her fingernail and drew blood!  Everything was well and good once I rocked Aubrey and then she got into the swing. When Bobby got home from work we were back in the pool and Natalie really wanted him to sit next to her in the pool, but he kept telling her he couldn't sit in the water because he didn't have his swimsuit on. A little later, Natalie says "Be right back. Natalie get Daddy's swimsuit." She then walked over to the porch, picked up an imaginary swimsuit and brought it back to Bobby. It was the cutest, funniest thing!  How could Bobby not get into the pool with her after that :) What a good sport!

The water was like bath water, so Aubrey enjoyed it more than usual!

 

 

Aubrey getting Natalie...so fun!

Aubrey likes putting her face in the water

Bobby had a softball game tonight and Natalie very much enjoyed playing in the dirt!  Oh my! She rode home without anything on but a diaper and immediately went into the bath!  She also took a tumble and got a nice scape on the side of her face.

 

A picture from Sunday:

Raccoon Lake and 4-H Fair

We had a very busy Saturday!

11 o'clock Bobby had a make-up softball game

Right after the game, we headed up to Raccoon Lake in Rockville, IN (about 45 minutes away) to go boating with James and Amanda. However, after waiting over 2 hours after our scheduled time, we were told the boat wouldn't be fixed in time, so hopefully we will get to go back with them, and third times a charm because their 1st attempt (without us) landed them stranded in the lake on a broke-down jet ski!

Even though we didn't get to go boating, the girls had fun playing in the sand and Natalie enjoyed the lake. I got in the lake (I hate lakes) even to supervise Natalie. Natalie did great in the water...she's getting way too big!

picnic in the back of the car 

Even though I knew of Raccoon Lake, we have never even thought of going, but may need to return.

After we found out the boat would not be fixed in time, we headed back to Terre Haute to go to the fair for the last day. We looked at some animals/exhibits, ate some fair food, and the girls each got to ride the carousel. Natalie picked the carousel out of all of the rides and then toward the end of her ride, she was ready to get off. Aubrey on the other hand LOVED it and was laughing the entire time...it was so cute! (Thanks Amanda for taking our pictures!)

 

Bobby did a great job capturing the moments on the carousel!

 

 

I couldn't decide if I liked the colored or b&w better...LOVE this picture!

Jamaica 2013

Bobby and I took a kids-free vacation for an early 5th year anniversary trip. TONS of thank you's to my parents for watching the girls the whole time we were gone, Amanda for watching them and transporting them back to Indy, Bobby's parent's for watching them one day, and Matt for being our personal taxi service to and from the airport. We had an amazing time and couldn't have done so if it wasn't for great family! I know the girls had a blast, hopefully everyone wasn't too exhausted after the week was over.

I know the girls were exhausted (as were we) since Friday, no one in my house got up before 1p...yes 1 o'clock in the afternoon...except me who was up at 10 after Aubrey kept me up until 2:15am!  We were very excited to get back to see the girls and even though it was late, were glad they were still up so we could see them and they could see us! However, it was nice to getaway and focus on just us without the daily activities involving work, the girls, and keeping up with the house.  I never really mind the traveling day to get to our destination even if it is long, but the return home traveling is always the worst because you just want it to be over so you can get home!

On our honeymoon, we had always talked about how it would be fun to bring friends along on our trip. Luckily, our friends, Matt and Alison were willing to take the trip with us since they are at the pre-kids stage, so this was kind of their last hooray before possibly starting a family. Unfortunately, Matt's asthma/allergies/etc got the best of him, so he didn't have the best of time, but the rest of us had lots of fun doing all kinds of things...I'm sure I'll leave some out but here are the highlights (I'm sure I'll leave out a few):

Piano bar with Tino (or Tito?!) and Ultimate Chocolate...Bobby and I did this 3 times, while Matt and Alison went back for 1 more trip on the last night...it was a blast!

Our favorite bartender...Adrian 

Alison and I's deadly combination...Bob Marley shot and white wine

 

Nightclub...I loved dancing, Bobby liked taking pictures of me...lucky for me it was too dark in there for any of them to really turn out :)

Yummy restaurants...of course on Lobster night Bobby had 4 lobster tails :)  He also tried Lionfish which was actually really good

 

 

 

Scuba diving...Bobby got his PADI certification so he can go anytime for a lifetime, I went for the one dive that's included without the cert and Alison passed the class, but couldn't get her ears to equalize. Matt had to sit out this one because of his asthma

Snorkeling...1st trip was SCARY! We went while it was raining (no big deal), but then a storm hit and the waves were crazy, plus the watersports guys were kind of panicky too, which I feel made everyone else trying to get back on the boat panicky too!  Bobby says he was fine and was the ONLY one on the boat that wanted to go back out after the storm settled...we didn't go back out that trip. We signed up to go another afternoon, but it stormed again so we didn't go. However, we were able to sign up one morning and got a good trip in and saw so many fish...it was awesome!

Catamaran cruise...at sunset...so much fun! Swam into the caves, went down the slide into the ocean, watched the sunset.

 

 

Bobby's favorite seat on the boat...

 

 

 

He made sure to even keep his drink...haha!

Famous Rick's Cafe 

Walking trail/racquetball/tennis/ping pong/spinning

 

 

Couples massage class...a massage therapist taught a class of about 8 couples how to give a massage, so we had to massage each other for 25 minutes, which seemed like forever, but was worth it!

Nightly entertainment and bonfire...Jamaicans play the drums awesome, whether they are regular, with your hands, or steel drums. They are also crazy dancers...I couldn't even imagine dancing as fast as they do! The bonfire on the beach was nice and relaxing on our last night while on the beach listening to the waves, watching the fire, and listening to someone sing and play guitar.

 

Swimming/floating/soaking up the sun...can't beat floating in the ocean or having a bar within a few feet at all times

Waterskiing/jet skiing...Bobby was determined to get up this time while water skiing and he did...a few times. I was able to capture him skiing on our last day before we left in the morning since the photographers through the resort wanted $15 for 1 image...CRAZY!  Maybe I should move to Jamaica and do photography?! It's a thought :)

Bracelet making...made each of the girls a bracelet with beads.

Peddlers along the beach...compared to our 1st trip to Couples Swept Away, we definitely notices WAY MORE peddlers on the beach selling something. I could describe them all, but it wouldn't make sense to anyone else, so I'll refrain :)

Repeaters dinner for all those that have been to Couples more than once...we got to sit with the COO who was nice and very informative.

Beautiful grounds/flowers/views

 

 

Seagrapes

 

We LOVE Jamaica...Couples Swept Away and would definitely return again and recommend!  After being to a couple Mexican resorts and then Jamaican twice, the best way I can describe the difference between the 2 places is Mexico has the luxurious feel with few activities included and Couples has the true Caribbean feel with lots of activities included.

Glad we had a 2+ hour layover in between our flights from Jamaica to Orlando and Orlando to Indy because we had NO time after the security/customs. Customs was easy to get through but Orlando has to be one of the most disorganized airports other than Denver when it comes to security.  Also, we used the same travel agent from our honeymoon and for some unknown reason we weren't on the same return flight as Matt and Alison...who does that?!  So, regardless of how many times she apologizes, we will probably not use her again or recommend her. Luckily we all made it safely home!

Thanks Matt and Alison for hanging out with us "old" folks!  We had a great time and miss seeing you both every day!  I especially had fun hanging out and talking with Alison!

How do we look 5 years later?!

A MILLION thanks to my parents for keeping the girls all that time!  They had so much fun swimming, going to Candyland, etc!  Hope you aren't too worn out after that weeklong stay!  We noticed that Natalie now says 'Sure,' 'Natalie, happy!' and she is using sentences a lot more. Aubrey now babbles a TON more and only wants to walk ALL the time...however, she can't walk by herself, so that means we have to walk with her everywhere, not with just one hand but both! One step closer to having a walker...ahhh!!!