David, Lisa, Kayla & Isaac

For Kayla's birthday this year we celebrated just the 3 of us. We took her to PJ Hoffmaster Beach and she LOVED it. The water wasn't too warm, but she didn't care. She ran in with no fear! We built structures (not so much castles really) on the sand, went for a walk on the beach and in the water, we had a picnic lunch and we climbed the sand dunes. The weather was just beautiful and the beach was hardly occupied. It was SO much fun. We headed home in the mid-afternoon, giving Kayla a chance to take a nap in the car (which ended up being a very short nap!).

We then took her out to dinner at Red Robin. She was too hyped up from her lack of sleep to really eat, but they did sing Happy Birthday to her and gave her a sundae and she loved both of those things!

Then we went home and opened some presents and ate a yummy carrot cake that I had made. It was a great day and we had a lot of fun as a family!!

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The week following her birthday my parents came out for a visit. She got to open some new birthday presents and got to spend some quality time with grandma and grandpa.

My dad has some antique banks, and Kayla loved them so much the last time we were in MA that my dad decided to bring a few out for her to play with while they were here. Every day, multiple times a day she would ask to "do banks" with grandpa. It was so cute! She would sit for a LONG time and watch him, try to do them herself, or just play with the pennies!! She was just fascinated by them.

While out here, my parents helped us work on some projects that just needed to get done but we could never seem to find time to do. My dad worked on our upstairs bathroom. That was the first room in the house that we redid, however, we never really finished it. It needed to be repainted (after some old paint was scraped), one of the baseboards needed to be replaced, some nail/screw holes need to be patched, and my dad took care of all of those things for us! My mom was motivated to help us organize... organize storage areas mostly. She helped reorganize our pantry, our storage units in the basement, and all of the boxes where I'm storing clothes for Kayla (both clothes she's outgrown and ones she hasn't grown into yet). We did a lot of shopping and a lot of working! I feel so bad that they spent their vacation working instead of just relaxing, but we are sure thankful for everything they got done!

We also spend one afternoon at Meijer Garden and Kayla showed them all of her favorite things to do!

Also, my mom gave me huge breaks from Kayla, changing all her diapers, putting her down for naps and bed, and entertaining her. Considering how horrible I was feeling during the days, it was a huge blessing that I could basically sit on the couch and do nothing. I was sad to see them leave :)

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The Taylor's had planned to come to MI for Kayla's actual birthday, but dad Taylor had a business trip and would only have been able to be there for 24 hours. Plus the Taylor's had done so many road trips this summer that it was just poor timing. So instead, we decided to meet in Indianapolis for Labor Day instead. We were going to be there for Phil and Amber's baby shower, and decided to make a long weekend out of it.

One day while there we went to the Indianapolis Zoo. It was such a fun zoo - so large and so many animals. While there she got to see the dolphin show, ride on a pony, and play in the water park! We stayed until Kayla and I both were about to drop. But we just had a blast!

Another day we went to the Children's Museum. This was also such a large museum and so much fun! We had a great time there.

And of course mom Taylor and I went to the baby shower. It was great to see Phil and Amber that weekend, even though it was for only a short time. We treasure that friendship..

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I feel as though I could and maybe even should say more about all of those events... but I'm quite behind on blogging, clearly, so I hope I better just move on!

Posted by Lisa at 10:05 PM | Permalink

These last few months have been a joy to watch Kayla grow. She is growing and maturing so quickly right now and her personality is coming out more and more each day.

She continues to grow in her speech. She typically talks in 4-5 word sentences, but is capable of many more. I often hear her saying things that I say to her. The other day I was trying to do something on my computer and she takes my face in her hands and said, "Look at me. Don't touch the computer!" I laughed so hard! And I apparently often end my sentences with "baby" (as in, "it's ok, baby", or "here you go, baby") because she imitates me and often hands me things and says, "here you go, baby!" Too funny!

Some other cute things she's said:
"I love you so much fun!" (I say "I love you", and "you're so much fun", and I think she's combined the two!!)
"I'm so sorry I'm so cranky"
"You need to listen to me or you sit in time out"
"I can't get it, I'm too tired"
"I want to snuggie" (instead of snuggle!)
"I want a flamingo" (aka dried mango)
"I want to go to the beach and go swimming... just a little bit"
"I want to go to parties. I like parties"

She also is very interested in imitating actions. She likes to help me prepare bfast/lunch/dinner and likes to help by stirring. The other day when we were taking a bath/shower together and she put her leg up on the side of the tub and used her hand to imitate me shaving my legs! If we are anywhere that there is an upset child, she runs to their side and tries to hug them or rub their back (which comforts her, although not always other kids, some that don't even know who she is!).

She is now extremely interested in the stop lights as we drive. She gets so excited each time she sees one and then exclaims, "it's a green light!" or whatever. When we haven't seen one for awhile, she'll ask for more lights!

She is rather insistent on having music playing in both the house and in the car. In the car it's always "Psalty!" At the end of some songs she'll say, "I liked that song", or sometimes when a song comes on that she (apparently at the moment) doesn't like she'll say, "I no like this song. Different song please!" It's funny to me how opinionated she is about these kinds of things!

After coming back from Italy, I have been back to a full-time stay-at-home-mom. While it has been an adjustment, I am enjoying having Kayla with me all the time again. But I do find myself struggling with patience sometimes. One of those specific times is when I'm putting her down for naps/bed. She's gotten quite good with stalling techniques and having a long morning, and then after a long day, I sometimes just couldn't handle properly her requests for 1 more book, 1 more song, 1 more time putting on her blankets, 1 more time finding all of her animals, 1 more minute of rubbing her back, etc. As a result, I started requesting David start to contribute to part of this, and over the course of the last month or so, he has totally taken over putting her to bed. Sometimes I miss that time with her - she is really precious when she says her prayers and sings her songs and snuggles into us. But I am so grateful to have that time to myself now, and also thankful that David gets some of that 1-on-1 time. I think he enjoys spending that time with her, but I do think he misses that time he used to have alone. But, I put her to bed for almost 2 years, so I can't say I'm too sympathetic to that!

Her eating is hit or miss some days. Her appetite certainly has changed and slowed down significantly. She rarely eats more than a bite or two for dinner. But she typically eats a really good bfast and lunch, so I won't complain.

I've found out that she has a competitive streak in her (not at all shocking considering her genes). Sometimes, if she doesn't want to do something, you can get her to do it by making it a competition. I really noticed this when my parents were in town. If we said something like, it's time to go upstairs, but she doesn't want to, we could say something like, well grandpa will go upstairs instead of Kayla and she would go running for the stairs! I don't know if it's competitiveness or just a desire not to be left out, either way, it's an interesting tool that we sometimes use to our advantage.

At her 2 year check-up apt she weighed in at 27lbs and 4 oz (50%), and was approximately 35 inches (90%). I say approximately because she was rather scared of standing up against the wall to get a measurement done, so it might not be the most accurate representation. She was very good for me at the Dr. She was hesitant about him checking out her ears and eyes and such, but I had prepped her saying that he wanted to look and see her pretty eyes and see her pretty teeth and such. When he walked in the room she immediately started pointing out body parts that I had mentioned and was calling them out! She played with toys almost the whole time while we talked, arranging and re-arranging about 50 little animals. We talked about how he previously had recommended me waiting until Kayla was 3 to re-introduce peanut butter. I had expressed a desire to add it back in now, since she had it prior to the allergic reaction and had no problems. He said he was fine with me trying it. So, I've been giving her exposure here and there and we seem to be doing alright - so that is VERY exciting to me! Other than that, there are no major concerns. Her bowels continue to be on and off solid and then not so much. But the number of times she has them a day has significantly decreased, to a level that doesn't concern him at all. So, all good news to hear. He always tells me how bright she seems and brags about her, and I'm always happy to hear it! :)

There are a few other milestones to note. She can now jump up and down quite well! She also now goes up and down stairs standing up. She can do both of those without holding on to things, but I prefer she does! Also, she often alternates feet when going upstairs. She can also do summersaults!

She continues to be a joy to us. We are truly enjoying watching her grow. She has a very strong will and is testing limits and our patience, but the good so far outweighs our frustrations. We often talk about how much we love her and can't imagine life without her.

Posted by Lisa at 03:48 PM | Permalink

We arrived in Venice in the late afternoon. The city is surrounded by water, so the only way to get around is to either walk or take a boat. There are public transportation boats, and we took one from where we parked the cars to our hotel. There were some amazing sights on the way!

After settling into our (tiny!!) hotel room, we met up and ate dinner. Kayla had been cooped up in the car for most of the day and was ready to run. David let her run around by the water (which made me EXTREMELY nervous.... the water made the ground very slippery and it would have been easy for her to fall into the yucky water, not to mention that it was deep water. David did not seem too concerned. She did not fall in, however, and she was having a blast!). As soon as our food came we enjoyed dinner right on the water!

After dinner we walked to St. Mark's Square. This was one of my favorite things in Venice. At night time all of the restaurants have musicians playing outside and Kayla loved to dance (read: run in circles) to the music. The lighting was pretty terrible to take pictures, but you can get the idea!

The next day began at our own pace. We went back to St. Mark's Square to see it in the day time.

Then we headed to the famous Rialto Bridge. It's a beautiful bridge and has a beautiful view of the city along the water. There are also tons of shops on the bridge, although Kayla was not in a mood to let us go shopping! :) We went and found like a farmer's market area, where they were selling fresh fruits, veggies and seafood. Kayla saw blackberries and raspberries and we bought multiple containers and she ate it all up! She didn't get a whole lot of fresh fruit on this trip, and she was so excited to have some!

At 1pm we met up with the Taylor's, and they offered to take Kayla for a few hours. This was really the first time we'd been without Kayla the whole trip and we were excited to get some alone time! We decided to do some walking and get out seeing as much of Venice as we could (without having to carry a stroller up and down stairs every 2 minutes!).

We walked all the way to the end point of one part of Venice and we sat down on the edge and put our feet over the side where the waves would splash water on them. We sat for a long time, just taking in the beauty of the city and enjoying silence as well as some conversation. This was actually one of the highlights of the trip for me. I really enjoyed the peacefulness of it (in part because we didn't have Kayla with us, and in part because of the beauty).

We also ate lunch as just the two of us and it was so relaxing. It was so nice to not be concerned about anyone but ourselves and take our time and enjoy the food. And you better believe we enjoyed every last drop of the 6 Euro each sodas we bought! Drinks were quiet expensive here... but so worth it!

At 5 we were meeting back up with the Taylor's at the Jewish Ghetto area of Venice. While there Kayla made some friends and the mother of the kids gave Kayla one of the beach balls that they had. She LOVED it and enjoyed running around and kicking and throwing it!

We met back up in one of the hotel suites and had some cheese and wine and chatted. Then David, Kayla and I headed out again to eat a small dinner and take some last looks at Venice. We also found some live bands and Kayla enjoyed dancing with me!

The next morning we got up early and took a boat to our car and began the 6-7 hour drive back to Rome. Linda left Venice by train to visit family instead of heading back to Rome with us. She was such an awesome tour guide and we are so thankful for everything she did to make the trip so enjoyable for us.

Kayla did pretty well in the car, considering the length of the drive. She was happy to be out of the car seat and able to run around our hotel back in Rome. We packed everything up and had time to take Kayla out to the garden area/lawn at the hotel and just run around! Then we all went out to dinner at a yummy pizzeria and then we got some delicious dessert treats to take home!

The next day began our extremely long trip home. There was the 11 hour plane ride, the 5 hour layover in Atlanta, and then our delayed flight into GR. We left the hotel about 7am and didn't get into our house in GR until about 11:30pm.... so considering the 6 hour time difference, that's about 23 hours of travel - yikes! The plane ride wasn't too bad. Kayla feel asleep during dinner... we had just got our dinner trays (did I mention how tough it is to eat dinner with a child on your lap and a tray that flips easily if that child decides she's unhappy about something) and she was eating a cracker and she laid down on my lap, and honestly just closed her eyes and fell asleep! She is not the type of kid to ever do this (she's never fallen asleep in her high chair or anything close to that) but the intensity of the day and the long days/short nights on the trip really just knocked her out! And after she woke up, different family members took her for a little bit here and there, so the 11 hours wasn't too bad. And the layover wasn't terrible either. But once our flight got delayed she was SO exhausted and was just screaming so David took her for a walk in the Ergo and she eventually fell asleep. She didn't really wake up until the next morning, despite all of the transfers.

Overall we had an unbelievable, once-in-a-lifetime trip. It was exhausting, we knew it would be. It would have been exhausting without a toddler, but that part added in even more exhaustion and a bit of stress. In some ways it would have been nice to leave her in the states. We probably would have enjoyed Italy more. However, we wouldn't have enjoyed OUR family in Italy. She is such a part of our lives, and even the extra stress she added was worth it to see the joy she experienced. Plus I've never spent a night away from her, so the thought of spending more than a week away is a bit daunting. So... in the end we are glad we took her (plus I think the Taylor's would have been sad to not get to see her). The memories of this trip will last forever. I think I said this before, but we said before we bought plane tickets that we knew we'd regret it if we didn't go. We just hoped that we didn't decide to go and then regret it. And we don't regret it, not one single bit!

Posted by Lisa at 02:39 PM | Permalink

This post isn't as long as the others, but if you'd like to just look at pictures, click here!

The next morning we got up early from our hotel in Rome and left for Florence. We were able to store some of our luggage at the hotel so we didn't have to cart it all over, since we would be back at that hotel for one more night before we left Italy. We loaded the luggage into a small bus/van that took us to the car rental place at the airport. We rented 2 cars for traveling to the other cities we were visiting on our trip. That whole process didn't take too long and we were shortly on the road to Florence (we estimated about a 3-4 hour drive). I brought some fun new toys/books/etc for Kayla, but she was most interested in listening to a CD we made with Psalty songs. Our car had Dad, Brian, David, Kayla and I in it, so poor Dad and Brian got to listen to "Psalty the Singing Songbook and the Kids Praise & Worship Band" for HOURS. However, she didn't cry or fuss much at all (on this or any of our long car rides) so that was a blessing. Brian was also really good at entertaining her! Along this ride and many others, we were blessed with beautiful scenery. Italy has so many sunflower fields to make sunflower oil and the result is just massive areas of bright yellow. It was beautiful to view.

When we got to Florence and had found and checked into our hotel, we headed out for a tour of the town. Thankfully Florence is a much smaller city than Rome and there were fewer things to see, so we didn't need to go at a break-neck pace like we did in Rome. The first stop was the Florence Cathedral (Duomo). As soon as we got there we split up to eat lunch. We stopped at McD's to get Kayla something to eat and then David and I got some pizza. We brought it back and ate it on the steps in front of the Cathedral.

After eating lunch we went inside the church, where Kayla resumed her love of running in circles!

We then headed to the Palazzo Vecchio, where there is a copy of Michelangelo's David statue.

There were also lots of statues of lions and Kayla was enthralled! There were also lots of policemen walking around and every time Kayla saw one she would get all excited and point to them and say "policeman"!! So, we asked to take a picture with them. Yeah, we clearly stuck out as tourists!

Then we walked and viewed a few other churches before going to the Ponte Vecchio.

By now it was about dinnertime. We had picked out an adorable outside eating area to dine at, however David and I decided it would be better for our family to head off by ourselves. It would have been a bit more of an expensive meal than we wanted and it was a bit fancier than what we felt Kayla was capable of handling. If she had a meltdown, we didn't want to have to shelter other guests from her tantrums and end up not enjoying the meal ourselves. So instead we walked around and ventured into a small diner to eat dinner. Then we did what I would consider the highlight of Kayla's day - stopped to listen to some musicians (and of course what good is music without Kayla running in circles)! We were really happy that we had chosen to spend some time as just the three of us (up until this point of the trip we hadn't really done that at all, it had always been the larger group) and also to be able to give Kayla some freedom that she was so desperately craving.

After we'd put Kayla to bed that night, we had mom keep an ear out for her (our group took up the entire floor of the small hotel, so she would have easily been able to hear Kayla if she was crying) and David and I went on a walk to get some gelato. This was the first time on the trip that we had gotten away from Kayla, and even though it was for only like 30 minutes, it was nice to be able to debrief on things from our trip and to not have to worry about her.

The next morning we were able to sleep in a little bit and then headed to the open air market that was just 2 blocks from our hotel. We shopped for an hour or so, most of which Kayla (thankfully) slept. We bargained our way into some great deals on souvenirs!

After shopping we quickly grabbed lunch and headed back to the cars to drive to Venice.

Posted by Lisa at 02:15 PM | Permalink