Mini Vacation to Gigi's and the Beach

Nico, Natalee and I have arrived home safely today. From where you ask?  We were at Gigi's house and then we headed to Galveston to a couple of day of beach fun! It was a wonderful and fun experience for all even though we had a few hangups in starting our day off right, including finding the perfect spot on the beach for ourselves, misplacing the car keys and Nico getting some serious jellyfish stings. However, we found a great beach spot to hunker down for the day, we located the keys and Nico, despite his jellyfish incident, came bouncing back ready to play again.  This little guy surprised me with how brave he was.  The minute we hit the sand, Nico ran for the water! He loved splashing, diving, karate chopping, jumping, and running into the waves!  Mr. "I Think I Am All Grown Up," had to be reminded that he can not go into the water by himself and had to wait for either Mommy or Gigi.  I couldn't believe how independent he was, but I was certainly proud of him and his confidence even after the painful jellyfish.

Natalee, being that this was her first beach experience, thoroughly enjoyed laying on the beach.  She loved the wind blowing on her, so much so that she took a nap on the beach in her tent...I mean who wouldn't want to take a nap on the beach?  Natalee also found the sand interesting, but it was the water which got her attention and brought out the most smiles.

My bathing beauty enjoying the sun and wind.

Nico and Gigi building castles in the sand!

All smiles!

Nico was turning into a beach fish!  He had so much fun in the waves.

Mommy and Nico having so much fun trying to "catch" the waves.

Taking a break from the water...now time for more sand fun!

Staying in the shade in her very own beach cabana!

Nico was determined to catch one of these guys!

Mommy and her mini me relaxing on the beach!

Mommy and her beach babies.

Snow cones on the beach!

Heading back out to face those waves with Gigi this time.

Mr. Independent....Yikes!  I love this boy!

So handsome!

So happy and precious!

"What's this?  Sand..."

Beautiful girl!

"Aw, taking a break from the hard life."

"I really needed a vacation."

Aren't they adorable?!

Mommy and little man at dinner at Fisherman's Wharf.

Gigi and Natalee at dinner.  Such pretty girls!

Aw!  I love it when Natalee does this....just looks up at you with those huge blue eyes.

Hanging out on The Strand.

All of us on The Historic Strand.

End of the day...swimming at the hotel.

The next day we woke up early, got ourselves organized and ready to hit the beach again...then we opened the door to the hotel and saw the rain coming down.  Well, that certainly threw a kink into our plans.  We went ahead and ate breakfast and drove to the beach hoping the rain would die down.  Since the sprinkling of rain kept on coming down, we decided to head back over to the harbor and try to take a dolphin sightseeing tour.  They do tours rain or shine!  This was a fantastic idea and of course we were lucky enough that is stopped raining when our boat left the dock. Nico was fascinated with being on the boat and was wide eyed and amazed seeing the dolphins jumping near the boat and a far.

Here is Gigi and Natalee on the dolphin sightseeing tour boat.

Didn't get too much of a smile from Nico here. He was too distracted and wanted to be looking for dolphins.





Sitting at the head of the boat looking for our fish friends (I know..they are not fish).

This is the best picture I got of the dolphins while on the tour.  It was pretty cool to see them jumping so close.

Thank you Captain of the dolphin sight seeing tour boat for taking our picture!

After the boat tour around the harbor, we headed back to the beach since the rain had stopped.  However, someone had turned the wind on high so we did not stay nearly as long as we wanted to before heading back to Sugar Land.

So much to look at when on the beach!

Loving the beach even in the wind and on a cloudy day!

The weather was not going to stop this kid from having an absolute blast!



Checking out the water and wet sand. 

Can you tell how windy it is?  My hair is crazy and the wind made you cold after having gotten wet.

Natalee, unlike the rest of the us loved the winda long with the water.

Smiles!  She loves the water!!!  Can't wait to get back to the beach in a few weeks.

Playdate at the Mall

Another great thing about summer time is we have lots of play dates! A couple of weeks ago we met up with at the mall for a playdate with a fellow IF friend of mine, her son who is 4 years old and her baby girl who is just two weeks younger than Natalee. The boys had fun playing on the mechanical rides, taking a spin on the carousel, playing in the play area and just walking around the mall. I snapped a few pictures and thought I would share them on here.

Nico always chooses to ride on this spinning thing instead of the horses...who wants to ride a horse that barely moves when you can spin yourself silly?

  Natalee's first ride on the carousel! She wasn't sure what to think...and I was just glad it didn't make up her throw up!

Weekend Fun with Pops

This morning the kids and I dropped off Pops at the airport after having a nice and fun weekend together. He almost wasn't able to make up due to Mops being sick, but thankfully was able to make the trip and a certain 3 1/2 year old and 33 year old were terribly disappointed.

After arriving Saturday morning we spent the day on the east side of the DWF metroplex. First we ventured out and went the Dallas World Aquarium. I have read nothing but wonderful reviews about this place and what a great attraction it is; however Pops and I beg to differ. It was over crowded with small spaces to move around, they overcharged for admission and there was actually very little sea life. The term aquarium was used loosely here. Anyway, it was something I wanted to do with Nico before we potentially move away from the area, and I can cross that off my list and never go back. All in all, although it did not meet our expectations, Nico still enjoyed himself and had fun, so I guess that is what really matters.

There seemed to have been more jungle areas with monkies, birds and other creatures than fish at the Dallas World Aquarium!

"Look at my feet!"

"I am being a penguin."

You gotta love Nico's fake smile....

And there's that fake smile again.  We need to work on that.

After our narrow escape from the aquarium, we drove around Dallas a bit and wandered into the Grapevine area, so we stopped at the Rainforest Cafe for late lunch. Nico did not remember ever having been there in the past, so it was like a new experience for him. He was in awe of the mechanical animals moving around and growling every few minutes. The food was great as usual and the atmosphere is so much fun for kids. I often forget that the Rainforest Cafe is so close by, and I am thinking we should go more often.

Excuse the blurry picture. I was changing settings on the camera since the RFC was a little dark.

Intensely watching the gorillas.

Someone had a lot of fun at RFC!

Waiting outside of the RFC as Pops went to the bookstore.

Do you like Pops' new hat?  Looks pretty heavy.

The next day, we took a ride on the Forest Park Miniature Train, which we hadn't done since last November. This train ride was Natalee's first time, and she enjoyed it while sitting laid back in my lap and looking at everything passing by her. The rest of the day consisted of running a few errands and relaxing/playing at home. It was a good visit and this time we were able to say "Bye Pops, see you in a month!"

"Look at my crazy Momma! She is so funny!"

Sitting back relaxing on the train ride.

Now these smiles look good!

5 months already!

5 months...wow! I can hardly believe it; Natalee is already 5 months old. She is absolutely so sweet and incredibly beautiful! I am amazed at how much more gorgeous she gets every day. I think Ed and I are going to be in a lot of trouble later on when Natalee gets older. She is definitely keeping those baby blues God blessed her with and then there is that gorgeous smile and her beautiful head of hair! But besides being such a pretty girl, Natalee also has such a wonderful personality. She is such a happy baby. Natalee loves being talked to and getting that one on one attention and especially likes being sung to. She seems to like all songs such as Twinkle Twinkle Little Star, The Wheels on the Bus, and Row Row Row Your Boat, but her all-time favorite is the sweet song her Daddy thought of...the Natalee song.

Natalee has become such a rolly polly. No matter where I lay her down, she is trying to roll around and over. This is becoming a bit of an issue as she is rolling over in her crib at night now. Once the Little Miss rolls onto her tummy, she becomes distressed and after a few minutes she lets everyone know. Natalee is also trying very hard to sit up! I am excited for her, and while this milestone could make life a bit more convenient, I want her to slow down. She can balance herself to sit up for a few seconds and then waivers forward or sometimes to her side, tipping over. I think she may be sitting up by the time I write her six month blog!

Since Natalee came down with the nasty upper respiratory infection, she has not been sleeping through the night, which has been wearing on poor Mommy. However, the good news is that her cough has finally subsided, so I am hoping some solid sleep is in our near future. Finally, Natalee must have had a growth spurt because she has outgrown a lot of her 0-3 months clothes and is comfortably wearing 3-6 months now. This might contribute to the increase of food she has been eating. In addition, to eating solids once a day, Natalee is eating 5-6 oz in almost all of her feedings. Who's a big girl?!  I guess before I know it, we will be doing 6 month pictures...gesh, where is time going!
  

I have to brag...

About my precious Nico. His heart is so big it he demonstrates his loving nature very often and frequently towards the littlest one. Typically, Natalee will take two longer naps and a short one thorughout the day; however the other day, she must have been protesting. I could not for the life of me, get this sweet baby to sleep in the late afternoon as I am able to. Since I had 150 million other things going on, such as cooking dinner, cleanning, catering to my dear 3 year old, and monitoring my crazy online students (at least they were crazy that day), I decided to try a bit of CIO with Natalee for the first time. Silly baby girl was extremely tired, but would not cooperate with what she needed to do, so I laid her down in her crib and let her fuss and cry some.

Nico, was so concerened and did not understand why in the world I was not running in to get Natalee! He kept coming into the kitchen saying, "Mommy, go. Natalee is crying." After multiple attemots of him trying to get me to go get Natalee, he realized I was not budging for the time being. So this big hearted brother took matter into his own hands and went on into Natalee's room. He climbed up on the crib and stood there talking to her, making her smile and laugh. Nico would then leave the room once he thought Natalee was happy again, but before he knew it, he heard crying coming from the nursery! So he turned right back around and would run quickly into the room to continue to make his little sister happy....and he did this for a good 20 minutes.




My sweet boy continued to go out of his way to make his little sister happy. He easily could have ignored the crying and instead watched one of this favorites, "Super Why" or "Caliou," colored, or played on his Nook or laptop. However, he put his sister first; he cared about someone more than himself even at the mere age of three, and showed how big his heart is. What a gift from God this precious boy is!

Beautiful, Beautiful Girl

I must pat myself on the back for the frequent blogging I have been doing. I guess I have a little extra time when I am not working full time! I have also have a bit of extra time on my hands to get some great shots of our baby girl. It has been a while since she has had a photo shoot or two! So in case you forgot jusy how beautiful our angel is...here you go!

Going Bananas!

Yesterday was a big milestone for baby girl Natalee!  She had her first try at solid food.  I decided to start with bananas because I figured..."all babies love bananas!"  Right? Well, I am not so sure, and Natalee was not too sure either. She did a great job of opening her mouth to take the spoon in and gave very good indications when she was done eating by keep her lips tightly locked. I am not necessarily saying Natalee did not like the bananas, but she just was not sure what it was or what was happening. Unlike Nico with his first bit of food, Natalee was hard to read, but over the next two feedings she seemed to have gained an understanding of what the name of the game is when I have a spoon coming to her mouth.  I am excited to try sweet potatoes and avocados with Natalee in next couple of weeks, which are already in the freezer made by with love by her very own Mommy. 

Video of Natalee's first bites of bananas!

Pictures of Natalee taking in her first food!

Growing up in Videos

Nico is already 3 AND A HALF years old, but we finally just got around to putting together Nico's 3rd Year video. I have posted it here, but also along with the other two that have been made for him all on a separate page here on the blog. Just like on the page titled, "Nico, Growing Up in Videos." Enjoy watching my precious boy grow up in pictures!   And don't worry grandparents, your very own copy is comng your way.

Nico's 3rd Year