Vacation iPhoto Dump

Well our week long vacation in Myrtle Beach came and went. I am still working on editing the photos from my camera but wanted to share the tons of photos I took with my iPhone. I notice a huge difference in the quality of the pics when they go from my phone to the blog but I took too many great ones not to share.
It was nice to get away as a family as Tom is usually so tied up with school. Of course vacation on a beach with a nine month old who still naps twice a day is always interesting but still had a great time. Tom and the kids and I stayed in one condo while my mom and Paul stayed in another. It was nice to spend the week with them and have the extra help. I know Ella loved it.

Stepping foot on the beach for the first time this year. She immediately ran to the water...

Then started to collect every shell she saw.

View from our balcony

We got our suits on and headed down to the beach. She said "this is going to be the best week, I love the beach, I am so excited"

The first full day we had at the beach she was down there from 7am til 430 pm with only a two hour break!

Claire went down to the beach a few times but mostly one of us took shifts with her up in the condo

Ugh I hate how much the quality of the pics changed!!

It was nice to spend Mother's Day as a family and with my mom! We all went to Mother's Day brunch at one of our favorite restaurants, Chestnut Hill

I love that you can see Ella, my mom, and Tom in the background

Sand, Sand, Sand. All she wanted to do was eat sand and got very upset when I tried to prevent her from doing so

The girls went to bed by 7ish every evening. Surprisingly they slept great in the same room. Most evenings Tom and I just sat on the porch and talked or read and enjoyed a beverage. So relaxing.

Sunday night Ella spent the night with my mom in her condo. She was up most of the night not feeling well and ended up with a 102 temp the next day. We took it easy on Monday but I think this little virus affected her a bit for the rest of the trip.

Our condo had an outdoor pool but my mom's condo had a really nice indoor pool and two outdoor pools. One of the pools was only 1.5 feet deep which was perfect for Ella. My mom's condo also had activities such as one day the kids were able to do build a bear.

So I have never been to a Krisy Kreme where the doughnuts are made right there in front of you and you can get a doughnut hot off the belt. Can I just say amazing? A fresh hot doughnut tastes completely different than a cooled doughnut. It just melts in your mouth. Ella had fun watching the doughnuts being made.

The weather was gorgeous and sunny every day. Two days were a bit on the cool side but couldn't have asked for better weather.

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This is a don't eat the sand reaction

Ella's glasses matched mine and I was surprised how much she actually wore sunglasses on this trip

Tom and I took Ella on a date while my mom watched Claire. She played putt putt golf for the first time, or as she called it "pet pet" golf. She LOVED it. The first hole she golfed correctly and literally made it in three shots. After that her swing got a little more crazy but she golfed all the holes and played until she made it in the hole each time. And she wanted to do more after the 18 holes! She never ceases to amaze me at just three years old. Literally the entire rest of the trip she asked if we could go "pet pet" golfing.

She hit it so hard at the beach and pool one day that she passed out on a beach chair. She doesn't even nap anymore and she has never been a child that can just pass out somewhere other than her bed!

Tom and I went for dinner and a few drinks on Wednesday night. Me being the cheap and old lady date ended up ready to go home by 930!

Showing some love for a friend of Tom's that is running for City Council here in Cincinnati

I was up on the balcony watching my mom, Paul, Tom, and Ella walk on the beach. It literally brought a tear to my eye thinking how fast time passes by. I remember sitting on that exact balcony when I was twelve years old ready to tackle the beach. Then this past week I sat there and watched my husband, daughter, and family walk on the beach. Soon I will blink and I will be watching my grandchildren play on the beach.

Build a Bear at the condo. She made a dolphin. Hi name is Mellow

Our last full day we spent part of the time at Barefoot Landing. We all went to dinner, went to the toy store, Ella rode on the carousel, and tried out the bungee trampoline. Perfect ending to our vacation.

Claire insisted on trying the lemon over and over. Even though her face doesn't show it, I'm pretty sure she liked it

Again not allowing her to eat sand

In the past we have always drove through the night with Ella and she slept great. On the way there we left at 6pm and planned to stop around 1 am. Claire only slept 20 min during that whole time then when we got to the hotel for the night she didn't go to sleep til 3 am. So on the way back we chose just to drive during the day. Twelve hour trip is a long trip for two little ones but I have to say they did amazing. Ella had a few moments of complaining but that was it. And that was even with her staying awake that entire time! Claire only took two twenty minute naps and also had just a few minutes of complaining. So proud of my girls. Claire did go on a nursing strike that day as she was way too distracted each time we stopped to nurse. So she literally went from 630 am til 730 that night without nursing.
We stopped at a McDonald's play land for lunch since it was raining. Some nasty little kid trapped Ella up in there and was smacking her in the face and yelling shut up at us each time we tried to tell her just to come down. When I asked the people down below who's child was smacking my daughter and could they tell their son to let her down, no one claimed him. Gotta love those play lands.

Came home to off and on rain/sun/rainbows

And of course the last couple days I have been tackling the never ending vacation laundry mound and putting stuff away. Back to reality

Countdown complete

This was supposed to post last Friday (5/10/13) as we were heading out for vacation. For some reason it posted a week late and when we were heading back from vacation.

Whenever there is an event coming up, Ella will ask for days and weeks how long until its going to occur. This time we decided to make a visual that she could actively participate in counting down. Well all the fingers are colored in and where are we going you ask? We are enroute to Myrtle Beach til next Saturday! All updates will be through iPhotos this week.

Last week in iPhotos

We have been staying super busy and loving that the weather is warming up. Last week included several trips to the park, a couple picnics, a play date w a friend from school, running and weight lifting for me, hosting a Matilda Jane trunk show/party, and ending the week w a trip to grandma Joyce's. 

edit on 5/9/13...just looking at these and not sure if its the collages I chose on my iPhone or what but the quality is awful on these!

9 months.

Yay! 9 months!

Weight: 18lbs 5oz (50th percentile)

Height: 27  1/4 inches (40th percentile)

Head: 44  1/2 cm (50th percentile)

I am two weeks behind on Claire's nine month blog but I wanted to wait until she had her nine month appointment (last week) and I wanted to wait until today when she turned 40 weeks and 3 days. The significance of that? I was pregnant with Claire 40 weeks and 3 days. Today, she has been outside of my womb as long as she spent in my womb. Tomorrow, she will be one step closer to no longer needing my body to sustain her life. Each day she becomes more independent. I love watching her grow, and find her way in this world, but I have to admit it also makes me a bit sad.

This month's post is loaded with pics. I'm sure as you are browsing you will notice this child does not lack personality :)

This child LOVES to eat. And she loves to do it all on her own! Within the last month she has stopped letting me feed her pureed foods, or any foods for that matter. For awhile I switched to the organic pouches, but then about a week ago she stopped letting me feed her those as well. In the last two days she has wanted to do the pouches all on her own. What she loves best is chunks of food. She will eat pretty much anything. Breads, plain pastas, rice,  organic puffs, mum mums, LOVES cooked carrots, LOVES avocado, banana, pear, green beans, peas,cucumber, broccoli, banana, peach, watermelon, honeydew, cantaloupe, plain chicken. She does really great with tiny chunks. She is able to get them with a pincher grasp (amazing pincher grasp, the girl can spot a hair on the floor and pick it up). She also does great mashing the food with her gums and rarely if ever gags.  The last couple days she has started spitting out her water the minute she takes a drink and blowing raspberries. She finds it absolutely hilarious to spit water everywhere. You could see the two top teeth through the gums last week and they just popped out, at the same time, within the last couple days.

Out of the four lovey blankies in her bed she has finally attached to one this last month. And she loves it. She has chosen the hot pink one that my mom made for Ella when she was a baby. Ella had attached to another blankie and never cared for this one. Just like Ella did, Claire finds the corners and sucks them. The second you lay her in her crib she grabs the blankie, starts sucking, and immediately looks calm. All she needs at night is to find it to go back to sleep. She goes to bed around 7 and sleeps til 7 waking one time, sometimes two times a night to eat. She is napping around 930 am for around an hour and then sleeping again around 1 or 130 for one to two hours.

I am pretty sure I have said it every month, but I will say it again. Claire is the happiest child I have ever met. People in public constantly comment on what a happy baby she is. She is so animated and has a million faces that she makes. Her most recent favorite thing is screaming as loud as she can with eyes closed, mouth open, fist clenched just for fun. This girl has some lungs on her. She also gets Ella's attention by yelling. One game they like to play is Claire will yell at some tone, length, pitch and Ella will repeat it. They do it over and over and Claire changes the sound of it each time. While it kills my ears, I love it. It makes me smile. Claire constantly says her name. She has now added "Claire Hi". She loves the song "clap clap clap hello, clap hello to claire". She requests it by saying cla and putting her hands on top of each other and moving her arms up and down. She still loves to play peek a boo. She loves sitting on my lap. Like this child is so content just sitting on my lap hanging out. She is attempting to  imitate lots of words. She can currently say mama, dada, claire, ella, clap, up, go, hi, yay, and lots of other approximations and attempts. She can wave hi and bye.

Just like with Ella, I am pretty sure we are going to have a roller, not a crawler. She has rolled for several months now, but within the last couple weeks is now rolling with purpose. She rolls everywhere. She sees what she wants and rolls to it. She also scoots/bounces places on her butt. Anymore she does not want to spend time sitting but rather will go from sitting down to belly and then rolls. Also if I am on the floor and she is sitting near me she will butt scoot to my lap and try to pull herself up into my lap. She really is my little cuddle bug.

As seen below..taking pics outside of her is impossible. She wants nothing else but to pick and eat grass and flowers.