oh blog i have missed you

It has been forever since I have blogged! I don't even know where to start..our cruise, christmas, izzy update? Too much I feel a little overwhelmed. I think I will do a breif paragraph on each instead of all seperate posts.

The Cruise
Well we survivied! The weather was by far the best part. It was gorgeous everyday. We played at the beach and the pool and loved the weather. I will for sure NEVER cruise again with a toddler and the next time (if there is one) that I cruise I will pay for the balcony room. 110% worth every penny. Our windowless shoebox felt very cramped especially with three of us and Iz sleeping in our bed everynight! Other than the weather, I enjoyed seeing izzy spend time with my younger brother and with her two cousins that we dont' see near as much as we should. Definately not very relaxing but i really did enjoy the weather.

Christmas
Christmas was good this year, all of us were a little under the weather (pick up some germs on the lovely ship) but we made the most of it. I think Izzy enjoyed her gifts although she didn't get super duper excited about anything particular other than the candy in her stocking. She does like playing with her doctor kit and her tea set the most I would say. I really think she does not care much for the "dollie" (which is what she asked for from santa) I got her a super cute bitty baby honestly she could care less...maybe it will grow on her. Her favorite gift my parents brought over just the otehr day and it is her own little music player that came loaded with a bunch of kids songs and you can also load your own with the usb cord. She loves this..she can work it all by herself and seems to enjoy it the most. I loved watching her dance to the music.

Izzy Update
I feel bad i have not dedicated a solo post on what she is up to in her last month of being 2. I really can't beleive she is almost 3!!! Time sure flies and my little baby is growing up. We are thinking about redoing her room for her birthday, new paint, carpet and the twin size bed. We will see if we actually get to doing it in the next month. I am excited because i think it will be super cute, i just don't know if we will have time to pull it off.

The highlights of what is new with izzy are....she has been doing a bit better with the potty, and only wears pull ups at night and even that i think we could stop, she wakes up dry 90% of the time...we still however have serious #2 issues...she still is terrified of pooping and will only poop in a pull up. I would be fine with this if she would do it regularly but even with the mirilax she is holding it because she doesn't want to go. Poor kid was so miserable last night we had to take her to urgent care just to make sure nothing more serious was gonig on because her stomach hurt so much from holding the poop in. They took an xray and you could see the stool and pockets of gas in there ...she did have a bowel movement when we got home and then was like a different child, happy as could be. I really wish she would just let her body do what it needs to do. It is so frustrating because I feel like there is nothing that I can do to help her and I wish she would get past it already!

Sleeping has been better and worse. The process of going to sleep is much improved since we got home. She rarely gets out of bed when we put her down, and other than whining about not closing the door all the way she is really good...until sometime in the middle of the night when she comes down stairs and falls asleep on my floor or screams for me at teh top of the stairs. Some night she doesn't do it until early morning, like 6ish in which case we just put her in our bed...and other nights it is between 2-4 and if we know she has come down to our room we take her back to her bed and she will stay there till 7ish. I must say that the times we put her in bed like this morning and she snuggles with me and falls back asleep i really do enjoy it. I knwo she isn't going to be little forever so I am trying not to make a huge deal out of it. I am sure it is a phase and she will go through it when she is ready...

I have so much more to talk about but this is enough for now. I have a couple cute pictures to post and hopefully will get some of the x-mas eve pictures from my inlaws, our battery died after i took one picture of iz in her dress by the tree and I had forgotten the extra battery.

I don't think I have any more time to blog as I can hear izzy rolling around in her bed. I don't think she is going to nap today because i didn't get down until so late but at least she is enjoying (as am i) some quiet time in her room by herself. That is all I ask for :)

More soon I promise..i just had to get some of it off my chest

Getting ready for the cruise

Well our big family vacation is fast approaching, we leave for Florida a week from Friday and the ship sails a week from Saturday!!!!

I am excited for the weather but still stressed about packing, and how izzy is going to deal. With all the bedtime struggles we are having I can only imagine what is going to happen in that tiny closet of a room on the ship........the bonus though is Nana and Grandpa will be just across the hall and have already stated they plan on doing some babysitting at night. We will be packing the monitor!

Since our cruise has 2 formal nights and 2 smart casual nights I got to do a little dress shopping for miss izzy. I found the prettiest black/white and red dress for her I am so excited. Now we have to purchase some dress shoes, she has none. Even though this cruise is "free" (parents paid for actual cruise, we had airfare and extras on ship) it is going to end up costing us lots of money in new clothes :) DH bought some needed dress pants. I am going to bring 2 dresses i already have, neither of them are really "formal" but in my opinion good enough, i am not buying a formal dress for myself to wear once and never have chance to wear again....I would like to find a cute pair of pants or a skirt to wear with some cute tops i have for the smart casual nights but so far i have struck out. I have never been the most fashion forward so I struggle sometimes in taht department.

I am a bit stressed about packing, with all the extra dress clothes for dinner and stuff to keep izzy busy I think it will be a bit of a challenge to back reasonably...

I am also going to head to target or toy store in next couple days to buy a few new books/little toys to try to entertain busy izzy....thank god for portable dvd players i think that will be our most powerful weapon on teh plane and even at nigth time in the room.

I am excited about the weather, should be in the mid 80's in all the island stops...i am really looking forward to being able to relax at least one afternoon by the pool with my book while someone else chases around the kiddo!

Lets hope all goes well.