Cayman Trip

Sadly, our two-week stint as Caymanians is over. We had a wonderful time with the entire side of Honey's family: Claire loved playing in the sand and ocean with some friends from Seattle, Madeleine decided to grow two teeth, Daddy went on a lot of dives with Aunt Lou, and Mommy actually finished a book! Here's a link to our Walgreens album of the fantastic trip:

Crabs, Conch, and SPF 60.....Week 1

Our first week down in the Caymans has been wonderful! Lots of playing in the sand, swimming in the ocean, reading and relaxation......nothing better than this!

Madeleine is Seven Months Old!

OK, I'm having a bit of a hard time accepting that M's seven months old now. Six months I could handle, but seven? That's really close to 12, and that's just not possible. Time is just flying by.

There haven't been too many changes in Moodle's little world over the last month. She's eating more (mangoes and peaches are favorites) and trying and trying to get herself to move. She can scoot around on her bottom now, and can slither backwards on her tummy, but crawling just isn't there yet. I predict it will happen by next month, though.

As you read this, we're on Miss Magoodle's very first international flight--heading down to the Caymans for some R&R the next couple of weeks. I'll leave you with some pictures of the seven-month old....

Botanical Gardens

Since we've been having such a fun time swimming, I decided to take the girls over to Great! Grandma B's pool for a little swim. Unfortunately, something broke in the pool pump the night we were supposed to go over, so we had to change plans. The Botanical Gardens are a favorite place of Claire's (and mine, too--it's where J and I had our rehearsal dinner), so we headed over for a little field trip.


The exhibit at the garden right now is Playhouses, and there were lots of different types of forts and houses designed and decorated with certain themes for the kids to explore. We visited the water area, the senses, and the imagination zone. Claire liked the water area the best because there was a mini water wheel and watering cans available to water the plants. And Madeleine and Great! Grandma enjoyed themselves on the swing.

We strolled the gardens for a couple of hours, sniffing and examining the foliage, then decided that is was just too hot and headed back to Great! Grandma's for lunch.

Swimming

We took over Honey and H's pool while they were cheering on Ghana and Germany at the World Cup (Claire is now a professional vuvuzela player) and had so much fun! C loved playing in her little boat or "swimming" around with me, and Madeleine was a natural at frog kicking with Daddy across the pool. We're all set to have a great time on our vacation starting in only 3 days!!!!

Madeleine + Eggs = Issues

So I discovered this morning that Miss Moo has an egg allergy. She's eaten them before, but something changed with breakfast. She had one little bite and immediately started scratching at her ears and eyes. She took another little bite and started scratching all over her face and head. And by the third little bite, I decided that something was going on and took breakfast away. In the amount of time it took me to carry her high chair tray to the sink, this is what happened:
Everywhere she had touched the egg to her face had turned into a big, red welt. I called the nurse line at our pediatrician, who said it sounded like just a mild allergic reaction and (of course) to not give her anymore eggs. The welts lasted about an hour, but she still has a little inflamed spot under an eye where she rubbed the most. Poor Moodle!