itsy bitsy pigtails

I'm off to Milwaukee this coming week so I thought I'd show you all a monumental picture before I leave. Meredith doesn't have much hair. There is some there but it's so light that you can't see it. It has finally gotten long enough that I can put two little pigtails in. Yes, they look kind of silly but I have been waiting SO long for some hair to grow.

Off to Kid's Hair we go now.

What happens when your child drinks too much tequila?

They pass out with their maracas! Apparently Meredith is feeling like she's still in Mexico. I'm a couple weeks late adding this to the blog but it's too cute to not share. Thanks for the Christmas gift Scott!

my latest bargain

I think most of my readers know that I love to shop at thrift stores, consignment shops, etc. for both myself and Meredith. It's actually a hobby of mine and it's a thrill to find a great bargain. In fact, today I'm wearing a very cute sweater from The Limited that I got at Goodwill for $3. Ironically I have it paired up with a $99 pair of Seven for All Mankind jeans. That totally defeats the purpose having expensive jeans and all, but I justify it because I used the money I made on Ebay when I sold my wedding gown so it's all good, right?



On Tuesday, one of my co-workers (actually, I'll call her my friend) and I went to a thrift store that was new to me called Unique and it's located over by the Burnsville mall. It's very organized compared to Goodwill but I think the prices are slightly higher. Anyway I came across this:
It's the Radio Flyer Classic Red Dual Deck Tricycle. It retails at Toys R Us for around $70. It was in great condition and I bought it for $19.95. I was so proud of myself. It's going to be a while before Meredith is old enough to use it but I'm just giddy with excitement about it!

a very long vacation - part 2

When we got off the ship, Rich and Mary picked us up in Tampa and drove us to The Villages. This was our new home away from home for the next five days. Meredith wasted no time hamming it up with Grandma Carlson.



She was dishing out the kisses!



We went over to David and Elaine's (Greg's aunt & uncle) house and Meredith loved Elaine's teddy bear.

This one is just a random cute picture.

And of course, a nice family picture.

One of her gifts from Mom and Dad was Elmo Live. I think she really likes it. She still gets big grins whenever Elmo 'talks' to her.

This is such a cute picture of Meredith snuggling with her Daddy.

David and Elaine came over for Christmas dinner - everything was fabulous. Thanks Rich and Mary!

Once the gifts were opened, the lanai became Meredith's own playroom.

This picture is worth a mention because Rich and Mary have the best neighbors down in The Villages. They all loved Meredith and welcomed her with wide open arms. They were giving her things right and left and this lovely singing reindeer came from the neighbor who likes QVC.

Finally, I snapped a picture of Meredith on the plane as we were heading home. We were fortunate enough to have some empty seats on the plane and it was just us in our row. She seemed to be behaving so well at first. Just know that this picture was taken pre-meltdown. It wasn't pretty and she refused to sleep. Of course she fell asleep right away in her stroller as we were waiting for our luggage.

a very long vacation! part 1

We will call this part 1 of the very long vacation. Part 2 will be in the next blog entry. Watch for it in the next couple of days.

Greg and I have been looking forward to this vacation since we booked it last February. We took a 7-day Caribbean cruise on the Carnival Legend with the whole Schwake family. We took off on Saturday, December 13 and flew down to Tampa. Both Greg and I were mildly sick in the days leading up to our departure. Greg had a sinus infection and I even stopped at Minute Clinic the day we left to make sure I didn't have strep throat. Meredith had her 15-month well baby check-up two days earlier so all looked good with her. The day before we left, she developed really bad diarrhea. I was terrified to bring her on the plane because she was going through eight poopy diapers before we even left for the airport. How the heck do you change a diarrhea blowout(s) on the plane?!? All was well though - her diarrhea miraculously stopped long enough for us to get to Tampa! Then it started up again and didn't go away for the next two days. We ended up making an emergency trip to Publix to buy more diapers!

The vacation was great overall but it wasn't relaxing at all - even though I had a lot of help! It was somewhat difficult having such a small child on the ship and our activities on and off the ship were extremely limited. I have yet to decided whether cruising is for me or not. I am experiencing prolonged 'land sickness' which is when your body doesn't adjust to being on land. It's been almost two weeks now since I've been off the ship and my world just won't quit rocking. I'm dizzy a lot, the walls move, and I have a lot of trouble keeping my balance. I can't stand up straight as it feels like there is a force pushing me in another direction. I am a bit sick and my ears are messed up so I'm **hoping** that when I get over this illness, I will be better. I have read online that this can continue for months and years in some people but they say it's rare.

We had perfect weather. It was sunny and hot each and every day!

That is our ship on the left, docked at Cozumel. The ship was gorgeous - state of the art!

There must have been six other ships docked the day we were there.

Here is another picture of the ship - taken from one of the pool decks.

This is Meredith, Aunt Jennifer and Grandpa Schwake at the buffet.

Meredith got her $300 worth of food, that's for sure. If there was one easy thing about being on a ship with a toddler, eating would be it! Finding food for her never posed a problem no matter what time of day it was.

This is one of the towel animals we found in our room after dinner.

Here is another. It's a walrus and we loved this one because we call Meredith a walrus sometimes when she has double snot trails coming out of her nose.

Meredith didn't have much room in our stateroom but she did play a little. She loves her phones nowdays. "Hello, Hello - can you hear me?"

"Wah! No one wants to talk to me!"

My absolute favorite picture from the trip!

Stop #1 - Grand Cayman Island

This was the view from our balcony.

Do you like the picturesque cranes in the background?

We took a boat out to Stingray City Sandbar. It's a sandbar where the water is about waist deep and the stingrays come to feed there.

This was taken from our boat. As you can see, the waters are vey shallow and they swim right up to you!

That's me in the middle of this picture holding on to a stingray! I even kissed it. You can see another one in the bottome right corner of the picture. It's the dark spot. They just swim right up to you and brush your legs.

Stop #2 - Cozumel

I really liked Cozumel and wish I had some more time there. We took a cab to Chankanaab Park. It's kind of an eco-park with a great beach area, nature preserve, and they also do the dolphin discovery there.

There were all sorts of shops on the pier but I didn't get much of a chance to shop because we had to get Meredith back on the ship for a late lunch and nap.

This is Meredith, Uncle Chris, Grandma Schwake and Aunt Jennifer looking over the dolphin dicovery area.

Meredith took a nose dive on the concrete and gave herself one heck of a fat lip!

This is the lagoon at the park.

The view of the ocean from the lagoon.

We relaxed at the beach for a while.






These creatures were everywhere around the lagoon. This particular one was hissing as people walked by.



Meredith got sleepy as we were heading back to the ship and fell asleep on uncle Chris.




Stop #3 - Belize City


Belize didn't offer too many baby friendly activities so our choices here were very limited. The rest of the family went on trips to visit ancient Mayan ruins but they were long trips that required lots of walking and we just couldn't do that with the kiddo. So, we opted to do a beach day. We spent the day on Bannister Island relaxing. I really wanted to see the ruins and am disappointed that I had to miss out on that.






It was a little foggy the morning we docked in Belize but here is a rainbow I saw from our balcony. You can barely see it, but that is the mainland and Belize City in the background. Because of all the reefs, the cruise ships have to dock about five miles offshore and be tendered in. Those are tender boats coming to take people to shore.



Here we are at Bannister Island!

Meredth was kind of afraid to walk in the sand.

Sorry to subject you to this picture of me, but I really like this picture. Meredith wouldn't walk in the sand unless she was holding my hand. And she's not a hand holder.



She loved this swing.





And last but not least, she fell asleep - yet again.



Stop #4 - Isla Roatan (Bay Islands, Honduras)
I think this was my favorite stop. It was beautiful and was not commercial at all! We took an excursion on one of those boats where you sit about 5 feet below the water and you can look out at the reefs.

This was the view from our balcony. It's a little dark - it was about 8:00 a.m.




Another view from our balcony. If it were a little later in the day, you would be able to see all the reefs that go right to the shore. Don't ask me how they get the ship so close to shore.



Meredith loves fish so she enjoyed looking out the window.



This is the view you see from the windows.




After the boat ride, we stopped at a popular dive village called West End.



Another picture in West End.

We walked around for a bit and visited some shops. If you think the potholes are bad in Minnesota, think again. We drove through biggest potholes I've ever seen - on a bus!

On the way back, we stopped at this cameo factory which is the last one left in the Americas. They had some beautiful handcrafted jewelry made of pearls, shells, and coral. I **almost** bought something but then decided not to. I'm kicking myself now. It was a turquoise blue necklace with matching earrings made of some sort of shell.

Meredith, of course, fell asleep at the cameo factory.

But then came to life once we went outside to get back on the bus.

And finally, one last view of the ship from the cameo factory.