Tampa

We went to Tampa this past weekend to attend Courtney’s 2^nd birthday party. We had a blast! It was so good to see all my friends and for them to all (finally) meet Addison! We stayed with Chris and Marti over at Scott and Jessica’s. They recently had their 3^rd girl, Sydney. Tracy, Rob and their new baby Gavin were also in town from Atlanta. There were babies and kids everywhere! Good times with my Tampa peeps :) We lucked out on this trip, both kids slept the whole way there and back. 



Courtney - the birthday girl!



Ice pops helped with the heat!



Rob, Tracy, Gavin & Addie



Jen, Tracy, Marti, Tiffany & Stacy



Connor & Chelsea having breakfast



Click here for a few more pictures from our weekend.

Father's Day Weekend

I’m a little behind on my posts…but I have a good excuse! I started back to work last Monday. It was a rough week for me :( Addison seems to have adjusted just fine to daycare. It was a little harder for me. I miss her so much and really enjoyed my time home with her. It was a little easier leaving her this morning and will only get easier from here. You’d think it would have been easier the second time around but it isn’t.

We spent Father’s Day weekend in Waldo visiting my parents (BeBe and Grandpa). We headed up Thursday night. We had hoped the kids would sleep the whole way there (2 hrs) like they did on our trip to Cape Haze. This was not the case. Addison nearly cried the entire way there. Luckily Connor slept through most of it. Not sure if it was his ‘nap’ in the car or being in a different place, but Connor was not easy to go down. I think it was after 1 am before he was asleep. Poor John had to work when we got there and didn’t get to bed until 3 am or so, only to have Connor wake up again at 5:30 :/ Addison did a little better but needless to say we didn’t get a good night’s rest that night. Since I was going to be going back to work Monday morning, we decided we would leave Sunday afternoon instead of evening. Just in case…we didn’t need another repeat of that!

The Marquart family came over on Friday to hang out. We had a great time visiting and watching the kids play in the pool. Jessica’s parents even stopped by for a short bit to meet Addison. Addie loved mama Rhodes, she gave her the biggest smiles! Saturday we celebrated several birthdays. My dad and his twin, Steve, turned the big 6-0! It was also my uncle Dominique’s birthday. We had the whole family over and even had 3 cakes! For Father’s Day we enjoyed a fish-fry before heading back to Orlando. The fish was all caught by my uncle Steve!

I wish I could report our drive home was better than our trip there but I can’t. Addie cried most of the way home. Somehow Connor slept through an hour of it :) We relaxed at home and grilled Steaks for dinner, then I had to get ready for work the next day. This mainly entailed getting Addie ready for daycare and figuring out our morning routine.

I only cried 2 or 3 times Monday. Which I thought was good! Addie’s note from Monday said Connor came to visit her during the day. I talked to her teacher about it and she said Addison was all smiles when he came in and cried when he left. We decided to visit daycare on our lunch break on Tuesday. Connor was at lunch when we got there and just beamed when he saw us. It was so sweet…he turned to the boy next to him and pointed to us and said Mama! Dada! like he was so proud of us :) John asked his teacher who his best friend was (which we knew was Zachary because Connor tells us, but wanted to see what the teacher would say). She surprised us by asking Connor out loud in front of the group, but even more so was when Zachary yelled out, “Me!”. How cute is that? It killed Connor to see us leave. We hadn’t even thought about that. We have never gone to daycare without leaving with him and he did not like that one bit. He cried and cried. We won’t do that again, we felt terrible!

Oh, I have another cute story. Before his bath we have been trying the potty lately. We haven’t had any success but we are trying to get the idea in his head. Well, Monday night Connor went pee pee in the potty. To say he was excited would be an understatement. I had texted our parents with the good news. Grandma called right away and Connor was yelling “I go pee pee potty! I go pee pee potty!” over and over while jumping (on his knees) in the bathtub. I wish I had thought to get the video camera. It hasn’t happened again since but it was still an exciting evening :)

Click here to view our pictures.

Sunday Funday

Our friend Erin invited us over to her place on Sunday. We played at her community pool and then later enjoyed a BBQ of cheeseburgers and hot dogs! Below are some pictures from our day.

Gina was so sweet with Connor. She even held his hand on our walk to the pool! Looks like Connor already knows how to work his magic on the 4 year olds ;)

 


 

Erin and Tim relaxing in the pool

You don't think I can eat this? Watch me!

 

Jessica and Addison

We found our voice!

Addison has discovered her voice! It's so adorable, I could listen to her "talk" all day long....which I do! I have been trying to capture this on video for you but it's hard to do by myself. Unfortunately, she is more chatty in the morning and early afternoon. I don't know if she is just tired or doesn't feel like competing with Connor, but she doesn't talk as much once John gets home. I was able to get a short video clip (below) of her talking to Daddy...but this is nothing compared to what she does all day with me!

Addison is growing up so fast. She holds her head up really well and loves to stand with you supporting her. She is starting to sleep better and has given us a few 4 hour stretches in the last week. I still can't get her to go more than 2 hours without eating during the day. It doesn't matter how much milk I put into her bottles, she stops when she is full which is usually around 3 oz. I just know if I could get her to eat more at one time she could go longer but she isn't having it. She is a dainty little eater. The plus side to that is she hardly ever spits up. Which is the complete opposite of how Connor was. Connor would down as much milk as you would give him in 10 min or less...then (seemingly) spit it all back up moments later. Every baby is different! :)

Connor is still doing good as big brother. Lately he has been trying to involve her with our bedtime story ritual. The other night he read to her and tonight he actually picked out a book for her to read. :) He dropped it into her lap and told her that was her book to read. So cute!  

She is such a happy little baby though. She gives me the biggest smiles when she sees my face and will randomly laugh at things like me yawning. I don't remember Connor being so expressive this early. I keep trying to capture her smile but the second I get the camera out she stops and just stares at it. She absolutely loves her baths. If she is fussy all it takes is the sound of the running water to calm her down and put a smile on her face. You can actually see her getting excited when she knows it's bath time!

 

She doesn't take a pacifier but loves to suck on her fist. We still swaddle her but only when she sleeps at night. I think she could do without it but for now it helps her sleep more soundly. I'll be so happy when we can get out of our house and put her into her own room though. While she is a quiet sleeper I know I'm not sleeping anywhere near as soundly than if she was in another room. The second she starts to make noise I'm up and usually feeding her as I don't want her to wake up John and the dogs. It's not that I am actually worried about the dogs not getting their sleep, LOL, but they make noise (Jackson's loud nails clacking against the floor when he jumps down or flopping his ears) which in turns wakes her up.

 

I go back to work on the 20th of this month. I'm going to miss being home with her all day. I'm sure I'll adjust as I did with Connor but it will still be hard. Click here to see a few more pictures of Addie and some from last weekend. Connor got out the little splash pad Papa got him. The picture on the box made the pad look like it was 10 x 10 as it had 3 kids playing on it. Not so much..... 

Memorial Day Weekend

Pool + Beach + Family & Friends = Great weekend!!!

Well, I can gratefully say that Addison did terrific in the car both to Cape Haze and back home - YAY!!! We thought we had the shots to thank for our trip there but she did just as good on the way home.  She still isn't a fan of her car seat though....don't let this confuse that fact. We had to take a few trips in the car here and there and she verbally let us know she still would rather not be in the car if not completely necessary. I think traveling at night is key, but it also has to be under 3 hours as she still wakes up that often to eat (if not sooner).

We started our weekend off visiting our friends Jeremy and Danielle at their house for a little pool party. Grandma and Papa joined us there as well. Connor had a blast! He loves the pool and only got out to eat the entire time we were there. Jeremy and Danielle are expecting a baby boy in September. It was so much fun to catch up, to see the baby's room and to see Danielle preggo! :) That night after Connor went to bed we left Addie with Grandma and Papa and went out to see Hangover 2.

Sunday we left the kiddos with Grandma and Papa to join our friends on their boat. They have this event called the Redneck Yacht Club on most holiday weekends. It's essentially an excuse to party on your boat. Everyone gathers around a particular island where they have live music performing on a floating stage.  There were several hundred boats there along with people on rafts…basically a giant block party in the middle of the bay. Lots of fun!

 

Monday we took the kids to the beach with Grandma, Papa and uncle Andrew. It was a beautiful afternoon. Why we don't always go to the beach when we're there is beyond me. I guess we're always too busy visiting with one another. The fact we were there for a long weekend gave us a better opportunity I guess. That night we attempted to go out to eat. I say attempted because every single restaurant in Englewood was closed. The only thing open was Denny's. So Denny's it was....I couldn't stop laughing.

Overall we had a fantastic weekend. Connor thoroughly enjoyed his grandparents (as did we!). He helped Grandma in every way he could. He even learned how to set the table! He can't do this at home as our table is too high for him to reach. Papa got to enjoy nap time with him one day :) Below is a fun video of Grandma and Connor doing 'motor boat' in the pool.

Click here to view many more pictures from our fun holiday weekend.