Mornings…

I am not a morning person but Keith is. Since we’ve had Sophia mornings have always been a special time for daddy and daughter. He gets her up, fixes her milk and they hang out and read a book or two, catch up on Sports Center, play with toys, whatever fits. Their time in turn gives me a few extra minutes to sleep before getting ready for the day.

Mornings are still Daddy time but the for the last week or two Sophia has decided that I shouldn’t miss out on their fun and runs into our room mid-way into their time. “Mama GET up –GET UP!” LOL its pretty irresistible especially when she adds her killer smile but wow that kid is bossy and knows what she wants! I have a feeling I won’t have long slow mornings much longer…

Love

With the tropical storm out there, so far a non-event here, we had a quiet indoor day today. I was lucky enough to catch this.

How much does Soph love her Mickey?

Important step in any tropical storm preparedness plan

Go to the Zoo!

We had another busy weekend here.  Friday Sophia and I went up to meet Audrey, Christy and Christy’s mom Connie at the Playmobil Fun Park.  The girls had an absolute blast trying out all the different play areas.  I’d love to say we got tons of cute pictures but honestly they were so busy trying everything out it was hard to catch them!

Saturday came word of Tropical Storm Fay…well word that we would have to deal with it anyway.  It passed by the Virgin Islands just dropping lots of much needed rain and filling up our cistern!  Funny how you start to look at rain when water is such a commodity!   School starts here on in South Florida on Monday (or was scheduled to but thats been delayed a couple of days)  as a result the stores were PACKED.  I managed to get the basics, lots of water, another flashlight and some sterno and figured there were worse things than living off of fruit and chips if things got tough.  No, no we have more than that, don’t worry, seriously

We went to the mall in Boca that afternoon where Sophia got her new favorite hat , showing off the only team Mommy and Daddy agree on (and with football season fast approaching we need all the neutrality we can get!)  Go Sox!

Since it looks like we’ll mostly be drenched for the next couple of days, we decided our best plan of action was to wear out the troops–so we went with Sophia to the Zoo ;-)  I’m not typically a fan of zoo’s–animals in restricted environments and all but I have to admit the Miami Zoo is fantastic. 

We got to feed giraffe’s, check out this guys’ tongue!

After a final trip to the park for the boys and to the pool with Sophia we ready for a couple days of rain.  Of course now its heading West…..

Here we go, again!

We have a new date for pack out and shipping of our things to the Virgin Islands. We’ve been here before but then got detoured to this 3 month stint in the Ft. Lauderdale area. Sophia and I will be going back in mid Sept to get things packed and shipped out with hopes that our things will arrive approximately when we do!

It’s starting to feel real again, I’m again having thoughts of “what do we need on a deserted island” Ok, so its not really deserted but shopping can be a challenge and online shopping (and shipping) can take awhile. Our month there gave me some ideas but I’m eager to start putting a home together again, and most importantly to see my kitchen gadgets–ohhh All Clad pots how I miss you, and how come EVERY recipe look at now requires a food processor. Never mind, I’ll have one again soon enough.

I’m trying to figure out what to do with this strange office/bedroom that we have on our first level…. with a laptop now I’m not sure we need a full “office set up” but we need somewhere to put papers and things…. still working that out.

In the meantime you can find me drooling over “light” quilts and stocking up on bathing suits, toddler clothes and other assorted sundries…

I love the Olympics yes I do!

Its an excuse to remain glued to the television for two weeks - no one even questions it. I love hearing all the human interest stories about the players and learning all sorts of trivia about sports I knew little about. I may not remember it in two weeks but now its really important. For example, did you know that beach volleyball player Kerry Walsh covered her engagement band with a flesh covered band-aid after losing it in the sand in the first days of play? Ick all I can think of is peeling all that sticky off your wedding band…but whats important is important….and they did win so more power to them!

Ahh and then there is Micheal Phelps….dreamy, strong and just set a record of the most medals ever Even if you only watch swimming every four years its truly inspirational. I used to dream of being an Olympic ice-skater, I would be amazing. The fact that I wasn’t very good was of no consequence to me — I LOVED it, I practiced for hours each week and after all its all about the DREAM right?

Here’s a cheat sheet to keep track of the medal count if your one of those competitive types.

Go USA, and Germany and an extra special good luck to the Virgin Islanders that are there! And if you are so inclined let me know YOUR Olympic dream was–you know you had one!I

Pirates!

Well one pirate anyway. While I went to the grocery store last night K and Soph had some fun with stickers. The other day they were stickering the dogs (well Soph was, the dogs didn’t seem to happy apparently…..). Last night they stickered Sophia. Appropriately you can see she has a Pirates Chest on her Chest….whatever

Doesn’t it make you want to say AAAAArgh!

My “leisure” injury

Since we’ve been in Ft. Lauderdale I’ve woken up each day to progressively a stiffer and stiffer feeling in my heals each morning making it hard to take the first few steps of the day. It seems to get better after a few minutes but the first steps, OUCH. After about 10 days or so of dealing with this I finally did some research on the internet. Found out by searching for Achilles pain that what I have is most commonly found in marathon runners (or by people who aren’t wearing proper footwear). I deducted that since my current exercise consists primarily of chasing after a toddler and two furry beasts that I must be suffering from excessive wearing of flip flops.

This DOES NOT MAKE ME HAPPY. We are moving to the St. Thomas in two months (well 9 weeks ……. not that I’m counting….. ) you don’t wear SHOES in the islands…..

But alas Friday night my left achiles was definitely swollen and my darling husband hooked me up with an ice pack which helped alot. I decided to enquire what my workers comp options were as the stay at home mother that I now I am and Keith told me that I should go get shoes. Most women would love this but he was talking about tennis shoes, heavy shoes that are not known for being easy to slip in and out of when chasing previously mentioned toddler and dogs. The next morning I braved the crazy crowds at the Sawgrass Outlet mall (not a parking space to be found and its August NOT December….) and admitting to the salesman my precarious injury, and was hooked up with new pair and insoles that are designed to support heels. So far so good, though I won’t wear them all the time its nice to know this was a fairly easily solved issue.

Potty “training” day one

She was GREAT. We have 6 stickers to prove it! She went consistently in the potty, tried it a couple of times when she didn’t need to go but was pretty much 100%. I’m still amazed. Definitely know that it won’t always be this easy but happy that we are where we are.

I guess I shouldn’t be too surprised. This is the same kid who started crawling late, at 10 months. But the day she did refused any and all baby food from then on, it was “real” food or nothing. With walking, again it was late-ish at 14 months but when she started, it wasn’t a step here or there, she walked across a room and then did it again.

Thats my girl, if you’re going to do it, do it right!

WOW and weee here we go!!!

To set the scene…. the other day Sophia was squirming when I changed her diaper…I told her if she didn’t like it she’d have to learn to pee pee in the potty.

What do you know, today we come back from the pool and she says “potty”…walks up and sits on down–and a second or two later music starts to play!!!! We were both shocked–I got her the Fischer Price potty that make music when liquid hits it You guessed it, yeah thats right, she did it.  She went pee pee in the potty!!! Ha! After congratulating her we decided to get dressed and go play. Play included a trip to Target where we got pull ups, stickers and jelly beans–I know NOTHING for potty training, if you do know something please help me!  I’m willing to listen to any and all advice.

Tonight after dinner, same deal. We were putting on “jammies” to go to bed. I sat her on the potty, thinking the first time might have been a fluke. When she got up, I first thought nothing had happened, then we noticed a certain “odor” and realized she pooped in the potty! Out came the jelly beans and a sticker—woohoo!

Ok she taught herself. I guess, we’ll see how this goes. I was originally thinking we would wait and get “settled” back in St. Thomas before we took this on but apparently the fun starts now.

I alternate between amazement and fear, if you have any advice please let me know!

Butterflies, butterflies and more butterflies

Sunday we went to Butterfly World and oh what fun! Sophia was off and running from the moment we got out of the car–they had piped in music–the Nutcracker, which I thought was funny in July but it definitely made her dance! The butterflies were amazing, then they had an area for passion flowers, another for birds and finally outside a playground. Definitely a winner all around

After that we headed to the park, and then down to check out Davie beach and pier and finally to Islamorada Fish Resteraunt. I had been begging K to take me to a “fish joint” and with good food and an aquarium to entertain Sophia it fit the bill.  It also happened to be connected to Bass Pro Shops AND in the same parking lot as the FISHING HALL OF FAME–teehee who would have ever thought — though I can think of more than a few people that would LOVE it.   We did check out the pro shops and will definitely have to come here and stock up before our departure back to St. Thomas, but didn’t get alas didn’t find time to make it to the fishing hall of fame…something for another day I guess.