Post-nap play time

FedEx delivery rang the doorbell and woke Katie up early which was annoying since I was desperately trying to grab a 10-minute catnap…but they were so cute I couldn’t be mad. Some of the pics are a little blurry, but I think they show the action well. 🙂

Also, I tried her hair up today…it’s super cute but hard to do since she obviously doesn’t sit still and therefore it’s hard to wrap the teeny bands multiple times.

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Another pool night

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Somewhat dry…

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We couldn’t find his goggles tonight so he was closing his eyes—and having a fit “because I can’t see anything!” 🙂

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Somewhat more wet…

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As with most of his pool toys, the shark was one we bought that he pretty much wanted nothing to do with. Hug it? No. Sit on it? No. Swim with it? No. But give him a week or so and look what he’s doing…

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Katie loves it when we pull her around…and then Owen was pulling her around and singing Row Row Row Your Boat to her. And see what else she does?! 🙂

Skyping…when all hell broke loose.

Subtitled: No our kids aren’t drunk.

It started off innocently enough with Katie crawling up to see what Tom was doing.

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Then she has to sidle up next to him.

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Waiting for Owen’s potty break:

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I definitely see Uncle Rob in these next two pics (she’s definitely a Hudson):

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And just like that, all the fun ended when Katie spit up on me. Katie and Owen had apparently just played and laughed so hard for so long that Katie spit up milk chunks all over me. And not just your run-of-the-mill spit up…but horrid smelling curdled nastiness that required a quick shower to get the stench off my skin.

But overall…a good time!

Katie is a walking fool!

Today she just started walking across rooms like it’s cool. She still drops to crawl a lot, but she can definitely walk if she thinks about it. And it’s terribly cute. 🙂

Of course, I didn’t have my phone on me all the times she did it…so I’ll definitely get a video tomorrow!

Here’s one attempted video where she looked like she might walk…but didn’t. 🙂

Water slide, kids, and cake

We went to a mommy group water slide play date today and Owen was in heaven (which I was glad to see he wasn’t spoiled by the Great Wolf Lodge experience). He got to play in a new pool and on a new water slide…WITH KIDS! 🙂

There was a bit of drama (with six kids from age 2-6 with three of them being girls) but Owen handled himself pretty well. And then by cake time everyone was happy and getting along again.

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And I think Owen was the instigator of the frosting-on-the-face game…but they all were giggling like crazy.

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We have a semi-floater!

Tonight’s project was trying to get him to float better. He could do it a little bit during the completion of his jump…but I wanted him to do it longer. It took quite a while—and daddy finally getting in the pool—before it actually happened.

But first, the prerequisite underwater shot…

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A cool shot that looks like ice…

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And cool new underwater blowing bubbles shots…

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Attempting to float but really just jumping at me…

A cool faux-hawk…

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Making mama happy…

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Floating!

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And on video!

When it was almost time to go in:

Me: Daddy, I think it’s time for I-C-E-C-R-E-A-M. Owen, do you know what that spells?
Owen: I got no idea.
Tom: What does I-C-E sound like?
Owen: Ice!
Me: Yes, so ICE-C?
Owen: Cake!
Me & Tom: [Laughing] Nooo.
Me: ICE-C-R?
Owen: Cracker?
Me & Tom: [Laughing] Nooo.
Tom: ICE CREAM! Doesn’t that sound good?
Owen: Ah, no thanks.

🙂

Road Trip, Day 1

Amazingly we started off on schedule—and if you want to be technical about it, we were actually seven minutes early. And we didn’t think of anything we forgot…

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The barrette lasted a whole hour—which doesn’t seem like much but her previous record was about three seconds.

Things went pretty well until Katie got a little screechy. But Owen was SO awesome—he’d start talking to her, singing the ABCs, playing peek-a-boo (which usually resulted in giggles), and clapping (at which point she’d clap in return). But then it turned into hunger screeches meaning she wanted her bottle—which sounds easy…but isn’t. She can physically hold the bottle—but can’t understand she has to tip it (she wants it to work like a straw cup). We tried putting her formula in the straw cup…and then she doesn’t really want it. And even though it’s attached to a strap so it can’t end up on the floor…it ends up hanging or upside down…dripping milk. Sigh. At this age, Owen was definitely holding his own bottle—great for road trips.

So I tried giving her a no-spill snack cup…which lasted all of five minutes until she a) figured out how to hold one flap open and tip most of it out and then b) got the entire lid off! Joy.

No-spill snack cup: 0
Katie: 1

So we figured our good little eater would snarf down some mac and cheese for lunch. Nah. Not interested today. REALLY?! Also not really interested in any of our foods, including one of her favorite baby foods. GRRR.

The good thing about lunch is that the owner—after chatting with Tom—comped our meal as a thank you for his service. So a nice shout out to Prissy Polly’s BBQ in Kernersville, NC.

Neither kid napped well. Katie got maybe an hour each before and after lunch and Owen got maybe an hour total with his catnaps.

Then there was a sibling sharing game, played with the lid to the snack container. Owen would hand it to Katie, she’d hand it back, lather rinse repeat. Owen kept saying “We’re sharing! We’re talking turns!” 🙂 He’s such an awesome big brother.

When we finally got to the hotel, Owen helped daddy with the cart (it was too bright for a good picture!).

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And Maggie’s bag…which was about half his size.

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Katie was having a blast crawling/zooming across the bed. Of course as soon as I tried to record her, she stopped.

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Then she learned how to get off the bed. Just like that. (Just like she learned how to slide off the couch.) She’s a smart cookie.

Then it was off to dinner. We ate at the hotel just to make life easy. Katie ate seasoned curly fries, regular fries, and beef brisket (in addition to her cheese slices, green beans, and yogurt). Yes, BBQ beef brisket. Owen? The triple-decker PB&J and yogurt we packed from home.

Then it was FINALLY time for the pool—Owen had been asking most of the day but had really started asking when we got to the hotel. He was VERY excited!

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Catching a ride and kicking it with daddy…

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Watching daddy and Owen in the pool:

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Then I took Katie outside for a stroll since it was REALLY warm in the pool area.

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It took a minute to get a smile.

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Then it was back to the pool, where daddy nommed some Katie toes.

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I love when I get an unexpected shot. 🙂

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Back at the room, we turned our backs for a minute…and this happened.

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Yes, she opened the drawer AND got in by herself. And she was SO proud! Of course, she got out by herself, too.

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Unfortunately, there were a few tiny snafus.

I thought I did really well by packing overnight bags so we didn’t have to haul everyone’s suitcases in…but I apparently forgot obvious stuff like jammies and Katie didn’t have her burp cloth.

I rolled the stroller through something in the hotel (they had some construction areas) and tracked it all over our carpet. It looked like putty, and thankfully it was still wet enough to easily wipe up.

Owen picked a scab and bled all over the white sheets. I had no band-aids…either on me or in our med bag. Tom had to get one from the front desk.

I haven’t had reflux in a month…so of course tonight was the night. And I forgot to take my nightly meds before putting Katie to bed, and I really didn’t want to get up because it took her 25 minutes of SCREAMING to fall asleep and hell if I was going to be the one to wake her up.

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Also, the room next door has a bird and a yapping dog. Luckily it didn’t wake Katie up…but it woke me up about 10:30, and them continued to bark randomly until the owners SLAMMED back into their room around midnight.

Oh, we also got the last non-smoking room and it’s…not great. The bathroom smells, the bathroom counter is chipping, the toilet runs, and the sliding bathroom door (handicap accessible) is off the track so it can’t close. But we got a military discount!

Katie’s Kiddie Pool

We finally got out the small pool I had bought for Katie about two months ago. Unfortunately, I didn’t look really closely at what I bought, and it’s not so much a pool as a splash pad—which requires a constantly-running hose to keep the side of the “pool” up and the sprinklers going. (I had just thought we wouldn’t use the hose for the sprinklers part…but if you don’t, the sides don’t fill up to hold the water.) So…we can’t use warm tap water in it so Katie gets chilled pretty quickly—even when it’s 85 degrees out. But, she still liked it. And, of course, Owen LOVES it. He was more enamored with it than his big pool!

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Fun in the dead pool

The top inflated pool ring gave out a few days ago—I was upstairs in the office when I heard GUSHING water so I ran to the window to see that the side of the pool collapsed. I ran downstairs and stopped it, and we decided that it was probably just overfilled (we had been trying to regulate the salt levels) and the pool ring probably had another hole in it or was just not strong enough and gave way—so in the end we opted to just get a new pool (actually the cheapest part of the whole deal). It came today, so we had to get rid of the old one. The fastest and easiest way? Slit the side. It emptied so FAST that Owen barely got in in time to enjoy the last foot of water. When it got down to a few inches, I let Katie splash around as well and they both had a ball.

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Then it was nekkid baby time as it was still plenty warm enough and Tom was getting the new pool set up.

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And do you see what’s in that second to last pic? Tooth number five!

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And last but not least…she loves spending time with her daddy!

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Tennis shoes!

Owen wanted to go outside so I told him he had to get his shoes on. Of course, I expected his Crocs, flip flops, or sandals. I did NOT expect what I saw:

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TENNIS SHOES! Without socks and with the tongue all bunched up…but otherwise completely successful! He was SO proud of himself—as was I, as he usually has a mini meltdown when we ask him to TRY to put them on! Apparently he just needs the proper motivation!