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Family Cruise

We just returned home from a week long Bahamian Cruise July 20 - July 24. We went with my parents and mother in law. It started off a little rough because Caleb was sick and traveling to get there was long, but once his medicine kicked in and we got a good nights sleep we were good to go.

For the first evening everyone went and played BINGO but Caleb and I, but did not have any success. Then at night after everyone else went to bed both Grandma's hit the casinos. Grandma was once up $2! Now that's a lot of nickles!

Our first stop was CocoCay which is a private island owned by Royal Caribbean. It was a fun little island with a couple small beaches and little shops. They even had a sand wheelchair for my dad to used. For lunch they had hot dogs and hamburgers. I turned around to ask my husband if he wanted me to take his plate and a seagull stole a hot dog right off my plate! It was so funny because people would get up to get something like a drink or napkin and come back confused because their food was missing. After lunch was over Caleb and I went around chasing off the seagulls.



Our second stop was Nassau. Sheri, my sister, had warned me it was a dirty island and after being there I have to agree. When we got off the ship the locals attacked us like hungry car sales men. We decided to take a van to The Atlantis Resort to go to the beach and get away from them. After renting a $25 chair and umbrella for an hour or so it started to pour. So we decided it was time to go so we didn't get struck by lightning. On our taxi ride home the driver goes down this back alley, jumps out of the car like he is peeing in the bushes, does a drug deal and gets back in. I was starting to feel a little guilty for putting my family in that situation but it all turned out ok. When we got back to the ship they had a splash time for toddlers, which ended up being a little lame with a kiddy pool and some squeeze toys, but we had fun still.

For dinner we tried escargot. It tasted like garlic mushroom and wasn't too bad, but the thought of eating snails are gross! Then we watched a juggling show. Caleb enjoyed the juggling, but wanted to run while the juggler tried to be funny. He was a pretty fancy kid drinking out of glassware.
The last day the boat didn't dock so we went rock climbing on the ship and both made it to the TOP! While we were doing it Caleb and Grandma enjoyed splashing in the puddles. Later on in the afternoon we enjoyed the very crowded pool. They say no diapered children allowed, but since there were 3 others already in the pool we decided to break the rules with them on our last day.

(notice that car was really broke, but it was still fun!)

One of Caleb's favorite past times on the ship involved running and climbing stairs.


We also have several pictures of our towel animals but I will only leave you with these 2.

A boy and his dog

Placemat

The toddler thing I am on the lookout for now is a Kiddopotamus place mat. I have checked a few stores but haven't seen it in the stores. It looks great. I has a catcher for all the foot that goes in their lap. Our table wasn't meant for a toddler and I need a protective covering on it. We already have the bib and it's great I love love love it! I bought the bib online, I guess I might have to get the place mat there too.


http://www.kiddopotamus.com/p_tiny.php

Jealousy

Is it bad that I am jealous of all of those people who are loosing their job? There are so many people at my company loosing their job lately, but not me. My engineering group is safe for now. Who knows how long, but we are safe. I long to be able to hang out with Caleb. Though after a weekend like this past one I guess I might go crazy at home too. Our second house is almost sold. Our second car is almost paid off. We would be tight but we could make it on one income. I just feel like I am missing out on so much. And I miss my little man.

I need to figure out how to be grateful I have a great job.

2nd Mother's Day

So my 2nd mother's day was not exactly all I ever hope it'd be. Caleb had been having breathing issues the whole week before but the got worse on Thursday. I took him to the doctor and he had a bad ear infection, which lead to more breathing troubles. The medicine they put him on makes him crazy mean. I dreaded the weekend. And it was just as bad as I was expecting. He was violent, needy, emotional, and cranky. On Sunday night I yell, no I screamed at him. He had dumped his nebulizer treatment twice and I had it. I did not have enough patience left. I left my weekend glad to be back at work. But then I was sitting at work thinking how sad I was that I was not grateful that Caleb can get better and that the medicine can help him. I have a fairly healthy kiddo. Now I just need to find some patience.

Sick Momma

Momma is down for the count. It is not fair for moms to get sick. We are needed! We are the rock of the household. Last night we went out to dinner and my husband said he had a stomach ache. When we got home mine started hurting too. To make matters worse we had 3 of his family members visiting for the night. I spend the night and morning in bed and in the bathroom. With all of the talk of the swine flu I did my research to find out that the swine flu is mostly a respiratory problem, that may also have some gastrointestinal side effects, but those are not the main problem. Glad to know I don't have swine flu. Just hope my little one doesn't come down with it, and if he does I hope I am well to tend to him.

Potty Training Urinal

Peter Potty - Flushable Toddler Urinal

With potty training in our near future I have started looking at options. I came across this, a potty training urinal. I have yet to decide what I truly think of it but it seems to have good reviews from Target's website. At a mere $39.99 it is more than I want to pay for a training toilet. Maybe after we start training and it doesn't work I might break down and give it a try. But not yet.

Pals

It took several months but they have finally became friends. When the baby first came home Buster always left the room. He finally got used to the noise and would stay in the room, but once my son became mobile he wanted nothing to do with him . But lately they are becoming buds. He doesn't even care if Caleb pulls on his tail. I was comforted to find that Buster is so great wit him.

Do you cherish it?

So I finished watching Grey's Anatomy and there was a little girl who was 6 years old. She had an illness of an expected lifetime of 4 years. Her father wanted to do all he could in order to save her, but all she wanted was to have her dad with her. I have no idea what I'd be like if my son were ill but I'd hope I could cherish the moments with him.

Today we were outside playing with bubbles. The wand on the bubbles was pretty fancy, and I could blow 4 bubbles at a time. But that wasn't important to my son. What was important to my son was he could do it himself. At first I was getting frustrated because he was not doing it right. He was eating the wand and blowing it touching his mouth, he dipped the wand but then let it all drip all over the ground. But I took a deep breath and let him play and played along with him. It didn't matter if we got bubble juice all over. And we made one big fun mess.

Do I still need a maid?

I have discovered that my son is obsessed with the sweeper, so I bought a used toy one. He loves it and hates it when you turn it off.

Since having a child I have toyed with the idea of hiring a nanny to help me keep up with the daily tasks at home. I have still yet to make that step and actually do it but I'd love to have someone take care of the cleaning.

One of the hard parts about being a working mom is thinking you can do it all. I have realized I can't but have yet to figure out how to come to terms with it. We have started trying to keep up a little bit every day and that seems to help, the house has been a bit cleaner lately, but how do you keep up with the outdoor stuff now that summer is here? Oh goodness!

Pumping at work

Unless you've seen me on Babycenter you probably do not realize that I have a passion for being a Pumping working mom. It is not something I talk about often with friends or family because there are always such strong opinions on it and I really don't care what the popular opinion is. It was tough work but I am proud of the fact that I provide most of his milk through the first year, but it was hard work. Here is the medal I achieved for 12 months of pumping. You can find them on the Kellymom website.

Pumping at work is an option that lets moms return back to work and still provide valuable breast milk to their babies. Many working moms don't even try breastfeeding because of having to wean when you return back to work. There is little information provided to employees about the benefits to both mother and child.

Check out this website to see what your state laws are:
http://www.mothering.com/resources/laws.pdf

Here is a good resource as well:
http://www.mothering.com/articles/new_baby/breastfeeding/pumping-9-to-5.html

I'm back

I seemed to be neglecting this blog. But I am back now. I had several items on my mind that I wanted to discuss but never got to them. Look for new blogs to come soon.