This is a quick update of the last month.

Rod is 18 months old. Nursery is A LOT harder for him than it was for Jaxton. Jax has always LOVED nursery from day 1. Rod has a harder time, much harder. Which I hear is more typical of the age...bummer.

Anyway, at his 18m check-up  I got his stats, but left the papers at the office. All I remember is that he is huge; 90% for weight and height or something, the doctor was very impressed with my "skills" (insert my eye-roll) at making such a large child. Ironically, he eats very little, the doctor didn't seem to believe me. The last few months has turned him oober picky. So neither of my huge boys eat. Go figure. Meal time is usually a really challenging time for my family, and it happens at least 3 times a day, yay! And my kids are cranky if they are hungry, but they never eat, and the cycle goes on.

And Rod is still the drama (not nice drama, screaming drama,) of the world, making quite a reputation for himself among friends and family alike. He is, in a word, a terd. But oh the cuteness, you just have no idea. So he survives, I survive, and we really do love each other much. He is actually a lot more "lovey" than Jax ever was at his age. But that isn't saying much because a clingy whinny screaming child (Rod) isn't more fun than a busy, running away child that doesn't give you the time of day (Jax at his age). But I take the loves when I can get them, either way. Usually with an eye roll. :)

He is talking a LOT better now. He can copy basically anything you say. It is very fun and exciting and new. My favorite things he says are: "eddie, set, GO!" and "Whiieeeee!".  I love his little deep voice copying everything his brother says. :)

 I made this Chocolate Cheesecake for Natasha's birthday--Thanksgiving Day this year! Happy birthday Tash!

 We put up our Christmas Tree the day after Thanksgiving, the kids love it. Love to destroy it.

Jax went running to see Santa at the Riverwoods. Like sprinted up to him and jumped on his lap, unprompted. As Justin and I stood back with our mouths wide open.  I'm glad we even attempted, I wasn't going to--I assumed my kids would freak out. I didn't even try Rod, let get real, but I thought Jax might have a chance at not screaming--just a chance. Turns out he loved it. What? Wonderful, so that was a fun thing. 
Jax loves paper chains and so we did one for Christmas. He really likes that.
His teacher at school (Miss Marlene) said that he is very good at coloring "for a boy" and said his fine motor (threading small things) is very good to, (this is recent, he developed gross motor skill so much quicker).  She is mostly impressed with his happy smiling attitude. She asked me "Can that child say anything without smiling??!" And she was serious, and I tried not to scream "He sure can!!". She also said "I could say to all the children, 'lets all sit here and eat cat food' and he would just grin and be excited to do it!" 
It's always fun to hear nice things about your kids. It's definitely one of my favorite things to listen to. :)

Debbie had a birthday, (insert picture of her and her pies--I made a key lime tart and a raspberry chiffon pie which did NOT set up correctly)the 1st Sunday in December. Huraah and Happy Birthday Debbie!

Justin's birthday is next Monday!
Fun!

Cruise!

We ported out of San Juan, Puerto Rico. This is the first day there, we stayed at a hotel before our ship departure.

These are the first day on the ship--we were just exploring. It was nice.

 

This is our room, it was nicer and bigger than we were expecting. We were expecting a closet. Having your room cleaned twice a day is super awesome.

It was late-ish, when we pulled away from San Juan--it was really fun to watch us move away from the lights and land. Fun until I got sea sick. The first day was the rockiest--worst motion sickness day. Thank goodness or I might have been sick the whole time.

The first stop was St. Thomas. SO pretty.

I remember looking out from the ship that first day and thinking, "this isn't real!?". But it was real. And is real. SOO pretty.

We took a taxi to a beach in St. Thomas.

  

 

The next day we were at sea, and they had a formal night...and Justin ate all of his dessert. 

 

Then we stopped in St. Lucia, it was pretty. We actually refused to fork over any more money for a taxi and trekked off by ourselves in a foreign land...I was really freaked out, and SO glad we didn't die.

 

We found this resort in our travels and it was sooo pretty. We went ahead and used their facilities for the afternoon. :) They actually had waves at this place, so that was fun.

 

We found this house (along with MANY other sad little shacks) on our little adventure. I thought it was really pretty. It was really sad to see so much poverty. 

The next day I think was Guadalupe--which looked so ugly and freaky from the ship we decided not to get off. So we played on the ship that day.

We got off on another Island, Antigua, and actually did one of the Cruise excursions. A snorkel excursion and a beach. That was fun-- here are the pictures.

 

 

 

 

 

I got in the water with all my gear, and got right back out again. I'm terrified of everything, including anything that swims or lives in water. So that was a short lived snorkel dive for me. I'm SUCH a baby.

Justin got stung really bad by a jellyfish while he was snorkeling. They were everywhere in the water. The dude is holding one, apparently locals are basically unaffected. I think he thought we were all a bunch of pansies.

 

That was a fun day- the water at this beach was AMAZING and calm and SO pretty. We loved it.

This pool below looks cool, but it's not. It's super dooper small and they chlorinate salt water. It's like acid water.

Us at a show, they had a comedy show that was really funny and clean. That was a fun time.

 

 

Again, the pool is not as cool as it looks... 

But look how cool these ships are!! They parked 3 of them right next to each other!

 The last formal night pictured below.

 

Those are the nice people that we sat with every day at dinner. Justin ate that lobster tail. Not me. I tasted it though, not a fan. I think shell fish really gross me out.

This was the last stop, St. Croix. They port RIGHT at a beach--it was SOO nice!! I thought that is what it would be like the whole cruise, NOT SO. But this place was awesome.

 

 

 

 

The pictures with me in the pink shirt are our last night on the cruise.

 

Justin is super good at rock climbing because of a class he took, he schooled this silly wall!! :)

 

 

This is us back in San Juan, killing time before our flight. We ate the most delicious pastry at this out-door stand, I almost died. It's basically all I remember. :)

  

 

It was a really nice break, it definitely wasn't what I was expecting. The food was a big let down; mainly in the dessert areas. I was constantly craving some good chocolate or ice cream. Loved having a salad bar at my disposal 24/7 though.  

And seriously, it was way more expensive than I was thinking, mainly because it was $20, base, to set foot in a taxi, anywhere. And they don't port near beaches. So it's $40 to go to the beach. And $5 to rent a chair. $3 for a local to draw a weird picture of you on a scrap of postcard. $3 to some other guy that made something out of a leaf, $5 to the pathetic toothless man that almost made me cry...etc...  So $50 a day, to go to a beach--without eating anything, being hassled constantly...meh. And if you want to do something more, like book an excursion, starts at $50, per person.  Of course, you could always swim in the acid water pool on the boat. Which we did do a few times. It just wasn't quite as relaxing as I was picturing. But dude. We AREN'T complaining. Sorry. I'm just being real. We are SOOO happy we were able to go and it is an experience we wont forget!! 

If we do it again, we will be doing a lot of things differently.

PS. I missed my kids SOOOO badly, that was slightly unexpected and really hard to deal with. 9 days is a long time to be away when you have "babies" or when you are a baby. :)

Hooray for Vacations!!