Cruisin' Through 10 Years of Marriage, March Madness, and Good Times with Grandparents

 

To celebrate our 10th wedding anniversary, Chris and I decided to splurge and treat ourselves to a cruise. Neither one of us have ever been on one and we found a pretty reasonable deal from Carnival Cruise Line that departed from Charleston to the Bahamas. Chris' parents were able to come down and take care of the kids for the majority of our trip that we decided to take over Spring Break. We got a room with a view (even though I was expecting an inside guaranteed room). We had to put up with a lot of construction noise each morning starting at 7 am (and would continue for most of the day), but Guest Services ended up crediting our account for the inconvenience. We had two "Days at Sea" and we visited Freeport and Nassau while we were in port the other 2 days. On our Freeport day, we took a taxi to the Bahamian Brewery and got to meet and hang out with the tour guide, Chrissy, for a few hours as we sampled full-size beers in the upstairs lounge. We stopped in at Senor Frogs and then made our way back onto the boat.  The 3rd full day we visited Nassau and did a little souvenir shopping and checked out a small strip of a beach. The highlight of our cruise was the food, for sure! Chris' favorite activity was to check out the dinner menu after we finished breakfast at the Celebration Dining Room. Each night, we'd each order an appetizer, entrée, and dessert and in several instances more than one of each. The Formal Dining night, for example, Chris couldn't decide between lobster tail or prime rib, so he asked for them both! We got to sample all kinds of unique appetizers as well such as duck, alligator bites, frog legs, cerviche, gazpacho, and suishi. The Warm Chocolate Cake with vanilla icecream was one of our favorite desserts (it was like a molten chocolate lava cake) and it makes my mouth water right now just thinking about it! Aside from the food, we went to a comedy show and 2 Broadway-type singing shows called "Motown" and "The Brits", checked out the casino (where I managed to lose my $20 and Chris luckily doubled his $20 in the hour that we played), completed a half round of miniature golf, soaked in an adults-only hot tub, and
got to spend time talking and enjoying the beautiful outdoors. Overall, it was a great vacation and one that I'm really thankful we were able to experience together!

March has been full of memorable moments a few exasperating ones as well. Little Mags is showing her tenacious side and digging in her heels to try and get her way quite frequently around here. So we've seen a lot of her mad side, but she'll figure it out soon enough and this stage too shall pass (at least that's what I keep telling myself). Here are some more of the positive highlights from this month:

• While praying, Maggie says, "Dear God, help us do good deeds, be servant of all, not be mad or frustrated. Amen" Wow...out of the mouth of babes.
• I asked Riley the other day how long he thought it would take the bulbs we planted by the mailbox and sidewalk to the gate to grow. He responded with 25 years and then revised his answer to 55 seconds. Love it!
• Both kids are fascinated with pretending things are invisible these days. Recently, they went the whole day pretending "Invisible Dad" was with us doing things.
• Their imaginations continue to amuse us as we are riding in the car and they like to tell us that a purple bear is following us and that we've got to hurry and get away from it.
• Maggie's phrase-of-the-month-"Huh?" She says it constantly to get you to repeat what you are saying even though most of the time she heard exactly what you said and she's just trying to stall.
• My little "Queen of Excuses" came up with a really good one a few weeks ago when I asked her to clean up her room. She said, "The bear will do it. I locked him in there and I will go back and check on him."
• When I ask Riley to help clean up a mess in the living room, his reply was, "Well, it was Maggie that was 'costing' all the trouble and got all these out."
• Riley and Callie have really been enjoying hanging out together lately and one of their favorite activities is to go to their "hideout" by the swings. Riley made the remark one day as we were walking the park together as a family that he wanted to "build a hideout on this fresh warm day."
• Riley's preschool teacher sends home a calendar each month of what they will be learning. I noticed that they'd be talking about raptors and so I asked him if he knew what those were. He answered, "Yeah, they're birds that eat meat. That would be a hawk, eagle, and falcon, right?" I think his love of the TV show Wild Kratts and his fascination with animals has made a strong impression on him! :)
• Riley is himself still a creature of habit and continues to eat one food at a time and then he'll even break down his foods into their individual parts. Tonight at supper for example, he asked for ketchup and mustard on his hot dog and then proceeded to eat the bun first, lick the condiments off, and then finally devour the hot dog. He even likes to dictate Maggie's order of eating at breakfast and lunch in particular. She's gotten so used to his rules and preferences that she will often ask him, "Riles, can we eat now?" or "Can we eat our blackberries now?" Poor girl--she is getting bossed around by every member of the household. No wonder she likes to try and boss younger kids like John Parker and Mallory every chance she gets.
• Maggie weighs about 28 pounds now and Riley weighs about 47. The other morning when Maggie was on the scale and we told her how much she weighs, she commented, "I'm getting grower and grower."

  While Mom and Dad were cruising away along the coast of Florida and the Bahamas, Riley and Maggie enjoyed some action-packed days with Nan and Pap. They got to go to the movies and see Big Hero 6, bounce at Baxter's Bunch Playhouse, eat lots of cheeseburgers and chicken nuggets, swim in the pool at the Aquatics Center, go to Cherry Park and hike along the trail (and almost walk to Charlotte, according to Riley), make some cupcakes, dye Easter eggs, and go shopping at Target for some special toys.  Needless to say, the kids didn't miss Mom and Dad much at all...they were too busy having fun! :) We got to hang out with them a little ourselves on Thursday and Friday when we got back home and went bowling at the new Revolutions sports center that opened somewhat recently in Rock Hill. What a blessing it is to have two sets of grandparents that love on and care for our little darlings in so many special ways!

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

Fun in February

 Check out the sweet Valentine cards that Riley made for Chris and me this year! So precious!

For Valentine's Day this year the kids each celebrated with a party at preschool. I got to help in Riley's class again this time. Parents brought in food for a Sweetheart Breakfast (heart-shaped pink pancakes and bacon, heart cinnamon rolls, strawberries, sausage) and we played several games in rotating stations (like Musical Hearts where the kids had to walk on hearts on the floor and do the activity listed when the music stopped, Heart Cup Relay, Cupid's Arrow Practice which required shooting Q-tips through straws at cut-out hearts, candy heart pattern practice sheets, heart hopscotch, and a candy heart dice rolling game).  On actual Valentine's Day, the kids opened their little treats and cards from Mom and Dad. Other highlights included getting to go to Target to pick out a toy and getting to eat at McDonald's courtesy of the Valentine gifts from grandparents. Later that day, we went over to the Davis' house for a QCP gathering. The kids had a blast playing, decorating Valentine boxes and doing a few other crafts planned by our sweet friend, Alice. We ate a delicious Chicken Bog dinner together and munched on lots of sweet treats!

Winter weather in the South is always a big production at the first falling of a few flakes. This month we had our first flurries, some extremely cold temperatures, a little ice, and 2 separate days of snowfall with less than an inch accumulation. Preschool was cancelled for the entire week following President's Day holiday because of these crazy weather situations and Chris got to enjoy several delays and 2 surprise days off from school. The kids didn't really get to go sledding or make snow angels or snow icecream like I was hoping, but we did manage to at least make a miniature "Olaf" (snowman from Frozen).

And here is this month's round-up of Funny February sayings/antics:

• While watching Chris get ready one morning, Riley inquired, "Daddy, is this your Yoda?" (pointing to the deodorant). And then later, he put on Chris' shoes and was walking around. Chris cautioned him to be careful. To which Riley replied, "I know. I'll be careful. I don't want to get splinters." We think he meant blisters because he wasn't wearing any socks. 
• Meanwhile, Maggie is obsessed with watching me floss in the mornings. I use little floss pics and one night Maggie had some chicken stuck between her bottom two teeth, so I took her upstairs and used one on her. Now every time she sees me using one, she makes the claim: "I've got chicken in my teeth" and asks to use one on herself!
• Maggie's new phrase for the month has been: "Otherwise." And she just randomly tacks it on to the ends of her conversations. She'll be telling you about her day at school and then just end with this word that she stretches out the ending to. She has also been saying, "Aw, buddy" every so often to Riley and Irving as well.
• I love that Maggie is fully potty-trained (even at night). She still needs help being wiped though (which I'll take any day over having to change a messy diaper). The other day Chris was helping her with this process and she told him, "Hold your nose up" (implying that it was pretty stinky in the bathroom). 
• Riley has taken an interest in Spanish lately and likes to say, "Adios, amigo." His Spanish hello is what cracks me up though. Instead of "hola" (with the long o sound), he says "oola" (with the oo sound as in school). 
• Maggie has been working hard to learn the months of the year song at school and now she can't stop singing it. It is a Dr. Jean song that is put to the motions of the Macarena. We love watching her perform it for us and especially get tickled at her pronunciation of February ("Every-wherey") and September ("Atember"). 
• This isn't the only song that Maggie goes around belting out though. We're on our 4th or 5th month straight of hearing the infamous song lyrics from the Frozen movie called "Let It Go". This sweet girl loves to sing along with the Elsa doll she got for Christmas or belt it out acapella whenever the mood strikes (and believe me, it strikes OFTEN!) :) 
• Riley shocked me a week or so ago when I was trying to find some new numbers to put up on the Learning Board for him to focus on. We'd been working on mostly numbers in the 20's and 30's, and had talked about a few other numbers here and there. However, when I went through the most of the deck of number cards from 0-100, he only got stumped on a few: 90 (he called nine-zero), 87, and 45. I couldn't believe he was able to read so many other numbers.

January Wrap-Up

To prevent months of blogging from piling up, I'm going to make it a goal to blog at least once a month. So here's a quick recap of January and our Funny Family Moments:

• Maggie loves rubbing Chris' chin and then almost every single time after tells him, "You need to wash off those whiskers."
• Speaking of whiskers, looks like Riley grew a few in this picture! 

I sure do love Riley's sweet-natured spirit. He loves to make cards and notes for people now. The other day, I got this one out of the blue. I love the crafty touches added to the sides! And Chris got a googly-eyed note with a message on the back that said "Thanks for taking me to the circus. Love, Riley".

•  We have a magician in the house! Watch out for The Great Rile-lini. He's been doing some amazing disappearing magic tricks using his blanket and a basket and some not-so-subtle hiding moves. Our favorite part is hearing him announce, "Abracadabra...Wally-Kazam!"
• Maggie has a phrase that she has picked up somewhere as well. And I guess it's somewhat endearing in a Valley-girl kind of way. She'll be talking about something and then all of the sudden add in, "I mean...whatever!" Where does she get this stuff?? 
• Our Learning Board has exploded this month! Riley's popcorn words are popping up all over one corner (his teacher complimented him on how well he knows these words) and his love of maps and countries has really grown as well. We are working on serving without being asked by taking initiative to see what we might be able to help with around the house. I tried to make this as kid-friendly as possible by connecting our memory verse this month (Mark 9:35 "If anyone wants to be first, he must be the very last and servant of all.") to us having helping hands (hence the colored handprints). Then Riley and I sat down at the computer and brainstormed some different ways we could serve others in our family, school, and community and found some clipart images to represent these. I cut these images out and taped them right below the "Helping Hands". When I catch one of the kids volunteering to help me clean or asking to make dad's coffee in the morning or offering to get someone's shoes for them than we move the image up to the handprint and celebrate the moment. We've also added 2 Christmas cards to our board each month to remind us to pray for certain families and ask God's blessing on them. 

•  We started a new behavior modification program today. Instead of our usual Obedience/Disobedience Little Character Charts that we've been using to keep track of good and bad choices, I decided to try a more hands-on approach. I'm trying to talk to the kids about how good choices can earn us rewards (both on earth and in heaven) and at the same time, poor choices can lead to consequences. So we've got 2 different jars-the "Uh-Oh Spaghetti-O Consequence Jar" and the "Pickle A Privilege Jar". I asked for the kid's and Chris' input on what to write on the slips and then implemented the system today. The rules are simple. When I see one of the kids showing a behavior that I want to reinforce such as kindness, a servant attitude, obeying right away, etc. then I'll tell them to go pick a pickle. They can't ask for one though or they are guaranteed not to get one. Some of the privileges are to get to stay up later at bedtime, earn a prize from Dollar Tree, do a craft or science experiment, call Nan or Pap to tell them what they did so special, etc. On the flip side, when I catch them doing something they shouldn't like hitting, arguing, or not obeying then they end up with a consequence slip. I tried to differentiate these between small consequences (written on half piece of an index card like a short time-out, go to bed 10 min. early, lose 15 minutes of playtime and read instead) and large consequences (written on the full-size index card with things like a longer time-out, go to bed 20 min. early, lose 30 minutes of playtime) to help fit the severity of the crime a little better. That way it's also easy to look inside the jar and know which one to grab. I am working on trying to use more natural and logical consequence as well and requiring a positive action at the end of a consequence. For example, Riley has been having a lot of trouble keeping his hands to himself when he gets upset with Maggie. So he's had to have several time-outs by himself or not been allowed to play with Maggie for a certain time period and then he's been asked to do some kind actions for her that he helps come up (hug, kiss, draw her a picture, play a game she wants to play, etc.). So my plan is to use a mix of consequences that help teach correct behavior such as repeating a request without whining (Riley) or in a demanding angry way (Maggie). We'll see how it goes! I think it's fun to mix things up and try new things to keep shaping behavior in different ways. 

•  Maggie's self-care skills have taken off recently. She's been very motivated to dress herself. We first noticed it with pajamas and then were surprised to see that she wanted to try and attempt to button her flannel pjs. After persevering for quite awhile, she managed to do all three buttons by herself! She now refuses help getting dressed in the morning and just today decided that she needed a mid-day costume change, so at naptime she changed back into her pjs. Here she is tonight laid back and ready for "Pizza and Movie Night."
• We've been keeping a humidifier on in Maggie's room at night. She recently had a nosebleed that we think was caused by the dry air and warm temperature in her room. Maggie has gotten particularly attached to it and if we forget to turn it on for some reason, we'll hear her calling from her room, "Mom, I need my 'human-fire' on!" 
• Riley is pretty particular about his foods. He doesn't like them to touch (with the exception of peanut butter and jelly sandwiches). He eats one thing at a time and he really doesn't like his foods mixed up (casseroles are his worst enemy, so I often put the ingredients separately on his plate). He has now decided that he doesn't like cooked vegetables...he likes them raw! 
• The other day, Riley was taking down a toy tent and said, "Hey Mags, Mind giving me a little hand over here?" To which, Maggie promptly went over to him and extended her right hand and said, "Here you go!"
• Maggie loves to ask who things belong to. But instead of saying "Are those yours?", she says, "Are those -urs?" Guess she can't quite make the "y" sound yet. 
• Riley sure has been enjoying his toy bow and arrow that he received for Christmas from Uncle Tim, Aunt Jeni, and Anderson. And now he likes to tell hunting stories. A few weeks ago, he got very detailed into one story and described how he was going to skin the fur off an animal. The funniest part was that he said he was going to do it with an apple peeler! 
• I got to spend the past 2 weekends with some pretty fabulous friends and family! January 24th I attended a surprise party for Sara's 35th birthday. My college CSTALCK girls were all able to make it as well and we had a great time celebrating Sara, having an old-fashioned spend the night party at Carrie's, and meeting for a delicious brunch at Fish Market the next day. 

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   Then just this past weekend, I got the opportunity to celebrate with my dear sister-in-law, Amanda, as she turned 30! I met her down in Charleston for a fun-filled weekend of food and fun. We ate at a great restaurant called Starz. I stayed up much too late (but sometimes that just has to happen when you're kid-free and you haven't seen each other in 6 months). I sure do love this gal and miss her and Edward and the boys tremendously, but am so glad that they are doing well in Seatlle and I'm already looking forward to our next visit!