Our trip to Marco Island, Florida

So we went on a free trip to Marco Island, Florida because Tracy qualified for President's Club. It's for the top performers in the company. If you qualify they send you on an all expense paid trip. This year it was to Marco Island, Florida. In the past it has been in Jamaica, Hawaii, Cancun, Arizona etc....The best one ever was the one to Hawaii. That rocked. We decided to "opt out" of the Jamaica trip back in 2002 and took the money instead. Arizona was the trip when I was pregnant. Anyone who knows how great my pregnancy went will pretty much know how that trip went. This was our first time going with Xander. What a totally different experience to go on a vacation with a toddler. By the first couple of hours on the island, we were thinking we wanted to take a vacation from this vacation. Xander is at the stage now where he wants to go go go and it is always in the wrong direction. And if we try to steer him into the right direction, a tantrum will erupt. Or if we pick him up and try to carry him back to where we need him to be, a tantrum erupts. So we have renamed Marco Island and now it is lovingly known as Tantrum Island. So anyway, here are some pictures of our trip.

Here is Superman....er...Xander at the airport checking out the airplanes and trucks through the window. We had a little bit of a wait to board our airplane but Xander didn't mind at all. We had to wake him up to go to the airport so he is in his jammies. Lots of people on the plane were very happy to see that Superman was on our flight. LOL




There was a dinner that night outside by the beach. We were chasing Xander around the whole time so we didn't get any pictures. Chasing Xander around ended up being the theme of the whole vacation. After a night of no sleep...for any of us...we went on a shelling excursion. We took a catamaran ride out to Romano Island to collect sea shells.

Here are some pictures of Xander and Daddy on the beach...waiting for the catamaran to pull up to shore.




Here are some pictures of Xander sporting his life vest. (just in case there are any Florida law officials checking out my blog. See? He wore the vest the whole time he was on the boat!)





We were able to see pods of dolphins while we were on our way to and from the island. This was the coolest part. It was so cool to see them in their natural habitat as opposed to dolphins at Sea World- which is also very cool...just different-cool. It was mating season and the Captain told us the day before he actually saw dolphins mating. Apparently, we were not on the dolphin porno tour. Thankfully. But we did get to see some dolphins racing the boat...it was neat. The Captain said males will do that during mating season since they are extra frisky.






Xander didn't have any interest in picking up sea shells- which were more abundant than the actual sand on the shore of Romano Island. But he did like the water coming up and covering his feet. Oh, and he also liked to wash his bus in the water.





The next day we took him swimming in the heated splash pool. He really liked it. Of course, this was the best picture I got. It was kinda raining and the lens of the camera fogged up and I didn't realize the problem until it was too late. UGH!


Then we spent some time on the balcony of our hotel room.



Then we got ready for the black and white gala. It was the awards dinner where Tracy got his award for being awesome.
This is what Xander wore. He was the hit of the evening.



Then back in the room and ready for bed. He played on the floor (which I am sure is just so clean and sanitary...I don't even want to think about the crap that was on that floor!) while we packed to leave in the morning.


It was a fun and exhausting trip. It was fun to see all the stuff the way Xander was seeing it- for the first time. But it was exhausting for the same reason. I don't know how he has so much energy! :)

It's just not FAIR!!!!

So we took Xander to the State Fair of Texas on Friday. Tracy took the day off from work so we could go. He got to feed some goats and see a giraffe and some ostriches and a pig with her baby piglets and some kangaroos and zebras and emus and bunnies. Ya, I didn't get any pictures of any of those things. The camera was in my bag but since we couldn't bring in the stroller, he was "free" to run and dash anywhere. It was so crowded so it was all we could do to keep track of him and keep him from being trampled. I had no time to even search for the camera in my bag let alone take pictures. So no pictures of that. But we took him on his first rides; on a train and a roller coaster. We did get pictures of those things.


Here he is waiting in line with Daddy.


On the roller coaster...he had to sit on the inside so I couldn't get a good picture of him.


Coming off the roller coaster.


Mommy and Xander on the train.


Still on the train...the train went around like 10 times....I was wondering if it was ever going to end.


Coming off the train....finally!



On our way over to see the animals Xander saw something he liked so we stopped to see all the tractors.







He had to touch every tractor.


He was running from one tractor to the next tractor. So funny to watch.




Then he had to shop for some tractors.


The part that wasn't fair was the prices. Sheesh! We dropped one hundred freakin' dollars at the fair! Between admission, drinks, food and the rides.....but I got to have deep fried S'mores so I chalked it up to basic collateral damage. Whatever it takes to get s'more of those s'mores.....I am all over it! YUMMY! I guess I will have to wait another year to get them. It was LOTS better than the deep fried Coke they had last year. That was a CROCK! The lamest fair food ever.
Well, it was definitely a different experience to go to the fair with a toddler. I can totally understand why some parents use those leash things for their kids. I remember before I had a child I would look at the "poor little kids that had to be walked around on a leash like a dog" and I would say "what kind of parents would do that?" Well, I am seriously considering getting one of those. So, now I know...parents like me do that! Parents that have a toddler that runs at any given chance and hates to be in a stroller and parents that don't want to be running full speed after their toddler all day. Sign me up!

Happy Birthday to Mommy!

So for my birthday we took Xander to a birthday party for one of his friends from Little Gym....Brady. He turned one...on MY birthday! (OK, so I guess it is HIS birthday, too. Fine. I will share.) How cool! Well, we were minding our own business, having fun at the birthday party when he decides to jump off my lap and it caught me off guard. He face planted into their coffee table. I picked him up and he was crying and I went to look at the damage and there was lots of blood. From what we could see through the blood, his teeth went through his bottom lip....it was bleeding from both sides. Since it was his mouth, we wanted to make sure he was ok and didn't need stitches or anything so we took him over to the ER...just down the road from the birthday party. It was the new Presby Rockwall hospital. Once we figured out how to get to the ER area, we took him in and oh my gosh...this hospital was TINY! And of course we were the only ones there. They HAD to be bored beyond comprehension. So we checked in and went through triage. He got a band around his ankle which he was not happy about. He didn't want to do anything until it was off. They put it there because the nurse said kids will usually forget about it if it is on the ankle rather than the wrist. Well, leave it to Xander to defy the odds.
The Dr. checked him out....she was really nice. She said the inside of his bottom lip got two bottom teeth and the outside of his lip got it from the top teeth. The punctures didn't go all the way through....which is what we thought was the case. So no stitches! YAY! Just a fat lip. His teeth appeared to be fine, too. We were lucky. His first trip to the ER was fairly painless. I think Tracy and I were feeling more pain than he was. That is a scary thing for your first baby....but we lived through it. We were pretty pleased with the fact that we made the nurses and Drs. day more exciting. Then as we were leaving, a cop pulled up to the ER with a guy in hand cuffs. OK, never mind. That was probably what was going to make their day exciting. We kinda wanted to stay to see the excitement but figured we should get Xander home...he had a long day.
Here are some pictures of Xander in the ER...they were taken on Tracy's cell phone so they aren't the greatest but at least we have something to put in his baby book....that I haven't even written anything in yet. UGH!

I got tagged!

I was tagged! Six weird and random things about me!

The rules are:

* Link to the person who tagged you (JW)
* Post the rules on your blog
* Write six random things/unspectacular quirks about yourself
* Tag six people at the end of your post and link to them
* Let each person you have tagged know by leaving a comment on their blog
* Let the tagger know when your entry is posted

So, here they are...

1. I have to match Xander's sippy cups with the correct lids.....the ones that they came with from the store (even if other lids fit or are the same brand or whatever....they have to have the lids that originally came with the cup. I did the same thing with Xander's Playtex bottles- they had to have the right ring and cap) This drives Tracy CRAZY!
2. I pick the skin off my right thumb. I can't not do it.
3. I weight myself about 60 times a day. My weight hasn't changed for months and months and it is so depressing but I still do it.
4. I have Cinemarkalepsy. I fall asleep in EVERY movie. Every. Single. One.
5. I can never mail anyone a present on time. I absolutely HATE the post office or any other mailing place. So unless someone else mails it for me, you aren't getting it on time. Or sometimes only when you come and get it from me.
6. I like to fake online shop. I put things I want into my "shopping bag or cart" and then exit the website. I get my shopping fun but I don't spend any money. Hey. It works for me. Don't knock it.


I tag


Stephanie
Jamie
Erica
Tammy
Laura
Gayleen

Shot in the arm.

OK, so if you ever need to get a shot from an injection pen. DO NOT....I repeat....DO NOT do it in the arm. I can't even begin to describe the pain that comes from this. Note to self. No more shotty in army. The end.

*Shot was Humira for AS. I have to get them done every other week. I make Tracy give them to me. I still can't do it on myself. I just can't make myself push the button.
:)