Escape

As some of you know, we escaped the winter doldrums of Minnesota in January and took a little vacation. We had both managed to get scheduled for time off at the SAME TIME!!! Of course, this followed a month where we were on the same rotation (Family Medicine OB--delivering babies and taking care of the babies in the nursery), and the call schedule was every third night. That meant that Matt would be on call overnight at the hospital one night, then me the next night, then we'd have one evening together, then Matt would be on call, then me, then a night off, and so on and so forth. It was interesting. Sometimes in the mornings when I would be coming on call and Matt would be finishing his shift we would get to hang out for a short while at the hospital, but we didn't see much of each other that month. Anyway, all that to say that a vacation was much-needed to spend some time together. And, we went without Charlotte. She stayed with my parents, whom she adores.

Without further ado, some pictures from our tropical retreat.

All aboard the Navigator of the Seas

Our oceanview stateroom--free upgrade from the interior room we booked!

Lunch in the Windjammer Cafe, looking out over Miami before we set "sail."

Kristi's inspiration for her new hobby, fruit carving.

Other cruise ships waiting to leave the Miami port.

The belly flop contest! Watch the progression of pictures as the guy jumps off the platform on the right!

He's going for it...no fear whatsoever!

SPLASH!!!

Coming in to port at Labadee, Haiti. Yes, just days after the earthquake. Nowhere near Port au Prince. It is a peninsula privately owned by Royal Caribbean. The cruise line decided that they were going to continue to stop there because the income from all the tourists is too important to the economy. A lot of locals are employed by the cruise line on the peninsula, and the rich tourists spend a lot of money there. All of the money spent during our day there was donated to relief work, and the ship brought a lot of supplies like bottled water and non-perishable foods. It still didn't make me feel awesome about vacationing there in light of what was happening on the other side of the island. But on we go.

On the far right, at the top you can see a bit of a tower, sort of like a big power or telephone line. This is their "zip line," a long cable that you could pay a lot of money to be hooked on to and zoom down it over the ocean. We didn't, but we watched a lot of people. Looked like fun.

This is all Royal Caribbean kingdom. Look at that nice blue water!

Matt with his "morning juice," aka coffee. Not a bad view for eating breakfast, huh?

Kristi loving the warm sunny day that is dawning upon us.

And this is what we did for most of the week--sat on the beach or on the boat deck on beach on lounge chairs, reading books. This is the life.

One of the beaches on Labadee. This was probably the best beach of our trip. Not too crowded, calm warm water, soft sand, just the right amount of shade to retreat into occasionally.

Another view of the same beach.

Here's looking back on the boat, docked at the pier. Calling us back to the buffet line...

Some of the relief supplies the ship brought, being unloaded.

There was lots to do on the ship. Like hold big plastic butts (Matt's idea) and rock climb (which we never did).

And bring home the bronze medal in a ping pong tournament! Kristi was proud of his skills.

In order to enter the competition, Matt had to start with a partner. Since Kristi was too afraid to enter the stiff competition, Matt asked a guy standing next to him if he would be willing. "Sure," he said, "I was the ping pong champion in Florida." Then he grinned, showing off a whole mouthful of gold teeth. Excellent choice, Matt.

There was also a mini-golf course!

These were our dinner table mates. We had requested a large table for our dinners, and ended up at a table for 10. Only the six of us above came consistently, but we had a lot of fun. The couple on the right are traveling for the last time before their baby is born (we told them having a kid isn't the end of all fun...just most of it...). The two guys in the middle are friends since the 1st grade and who vacation together to pick up chicks. They had more than a few entertaining stories. As a table, we probably ate more than anyone else on the ship. For those who haven't cruised before, you can pretty much get whatever you want off the menu in multiple quantities. We had some big appetites at our table (us included!). Most nights we stayed long past the end of dinner talking and laughing; sometimes dinner was a 4 hour affair.

This is the main dining room. Fancy, no?

Here's Kristi on formal night in the dining room. Unfortunately we didn't get any pictures of the two of us dressed up.

Here is our second port of call, Ocho Rios Jamaica. We spent a few hours relaxing on the beach, but otherwise didn't do much.

We had the opportunity to do lots of stuff in the evenings since we didn't have a little barnacle named Charlotte with us. Here is a "Broadway Tribute" show in the theater (this particular song and dance was Abba). We also went to an ice skating show (yes, the ship has an ice rink!), a comedy show, The Newly Wed Game, Karaoke night, and a magician. There was also time for some late-night relaxing in the hot tub and listening to live music. We didn't try our hand at the casino, but our table-mate Bobby lost a lot of money there. He told us all kinds of stories about it (like the time his friend told him to bet $100 on red in roulette, so he did and he lost it), as well as the girls he met, and the times he jumped into the pool with all his clothes on after having one (or two) too many drinks.

The second to last night there was a late night deck party with food, dancing, and live music.

And more fruit carvings!

On our last night we listened to live jazz music late into the night. A nice way to end our relaxing cruise in the Caribbean. Good bye warm weather, hello cold Minnesota with the jobs that await us!

Blessing

Just talked to my sister....baby girl didn't end up getting admitted to the hospital yesterday. She seemed to turn the corner and they sent her home on antibiotics. Praise God for watching over her...He loves her more than we ever can.

Pneumonia

Please pray for our new niece in Ethiopia. She was taken to the hospital with pneumonia today.

Charlotte at age two and a half

It's been a while since I've posted anything of length about what Charlotte is up to these days. I like to keep track of these things since I have not really gotten into writing in her baby book. This is my documentation of her "babyhood." Hopefully the internet is not a passing fad that will disappear, and take along all my memories. :)

At two and a half, Charlotte is speaking in full, complete sentences. She is almost completely understandable to us, but also is pretty clear to everyone else too. She has trouble with the sounds for L, th, and some S's. She is formulating her own thoughts, not just repeating things we have said before. She is on the cusp of the "Why?" stage--she is starting to understand the concept of reasoning and so asks a lot of questions. Luckily she is pretty satisfied with simple answers so far! One of our favorite things she asks is "Are you talkin' 'bout me?"

Charlotte loves to sing. She sings all of the time. She sings songs we recognize, and songs we don't recognize. She sings recognizable songs with new words. She makes up her own songs. Grandpa Mark and Grandma Cindy teach her lots of songs at their house, and so we are always being surprised with new songs. "Matt, did you know she knew that song?" "Kristi, did you teach her that?" Some of her favorites are predictable for her age--The Wheels on the Bus, Jesus Loves Me, Mary Had a 'Yitto Yam,' Puff the Magic Dragon, Sesame Street theme song. Others are not so popular with the toddler crowd--Smoke on the Water and Human Wheels (John Mellencamp). She plays a mean air guitar on a badmitton raquet when she sings Smoke on the Water... Just yesterday we were on a long car trip to visit Lisa and Travis in Iowa to celebrate the new baby (we didn't make it due to zero visibility from blowing snow, then they closed I-35), and from the backseat we heard "Dah dah dah, dah dah duh-duh, dah dah dah, duh-duh. Foke (smoke) on the waaaater....fire in the sky." I'm not sure, but she might be the only two and a half year old who sings that. She has also been known to shout "Say 'fire in the sky!'" when listening to the song on CD. She gets impatient waiting for her favorite part, I guess. :)

She is really into playing with stuffed animals right now, particularly with her beanie baby kitties. She has a black one named Chocolate Drop, and white one named Snow White or Peppermint (usually the former), two brown ones named Lollipop and Carmel (these names all came from a book about 4 little kittens who lived in a candy shop), and a gray one named Stripe. She divides her allegiance between Chocolate Drop and Snow White. If she asks you which one is your favorite out of a pile of stuffed animals, don't choose one of those two. You won't get to play with it, but instead will receive a different animal in your hands with the reassurance "No, this one is your favorite!" She particularly likes to put the kitties in glass jars and screw the tops on, then carry them around like that. She also has a new game where she puts the kitties in a bag or box, then gives it to someone as a birthday present. Daddy gets her to laugh hysterically when he pretends there is nothing in there, then turns the bag upside down to look in it and dumps the kitty on his head!

One of her other favorite stuffed animals is a soft lamb, which she has now named Fleece As White As Snow. I almost died laughing when I heard her yelling "Fleece As White As Snow! Fleece As White As Snow! Come here Fleece As White As Snow!" And this morning, she named her beanie baby lamb Fleece As White As Snow also. She calls them Fleece As White As Snow Muhver (mother) and Fleece As White As Snow Baby. So creative, this girl is.

She is starting to outgrow naptime...or at least she thinks she is. She skips her nap several times a week, but she plays nicely in her room with the lights off and the curtains closed for a couple hours even if she doesn't sleep. I think Mama and Daddy need the nap as much as she does sometimes! Today she told me she couldn't sleep because she was scared of the eyes, then pointed to two swirls in the wood on the bookshelf next to her bed that looked like eyes to her. Poor girl! She has actually told me before that she couldn't sleep for the same reason, so I believe that it really does bother her. We taped up a picture of our family over it now, and hopefully that's the last of that.

One other thing she really loves to play with these days is a tea set she got from Auntie Olivia in Austria at Christmas. It is just her size, and the kitties have enjoyed more tea than any other kitties in town. I even taught her to ask her guests about sugar "One lump, or two?" Except she says yump instead of lump...

Germs!

Mama: Charlotte, we can't share milk because yours has your germs on it, and mine has my germs on it.
Charlotte: (getting her cup out of the fridge, picking something off the edge) Mama, is this a germ?
Mama: No Charlotte, that's a piece of cilantro.

She's a girl!

YAY YAY YAY HOORAY!!!!!
Kristi's sister Lisa and brother-in-law Travis received some very exciting news yesterday!!!! They have been waiting and waiting and waiting to move forward in their adoption from Ethiopia....and yesterday they received the name, pictures, and background story of their new beautiful 3 month old daughter! She is a darling, chubby, serious-looking little girl with the biggest dark brown eyes and a few wisps of curly hair on the top of her head. She is perfect and we love her already! We are so excited for Lisa and Travis to be parents. This has been a long journey for them (and this is really only the beginning of the rest of their lives together!)

The next step for them is to wait for a "court date," which is when the court in Ethiopia and the adoption agency get together and go through all the legal paper work. When they "pass court" this little bundle of joy will legally be theirs! Then they will travel to Ethiopia to get her and bring her home. Oh what a happy day that will be!!!!

We're now Uncle Matt and Aunt Kristi! We're new at those roles...I think I'll have to do a little shopping this week! We've been talking with Charlotte about her "new cousin" for a long time now, and she is happy to finally see a picture to go with the concept. We've been praying with Charlotte for this little girl for a long time. Whenever we ask her what she will do with her "new cousin" she always says "I'm gonna kiss her. And hug her. And kiss her. And hold hands. And play with her!" I don't think she quite gets it yet, but we're going to keep talking about her and waiting with eager anticipation.

Stay tuned for some pictures of our recent wanderings away from real life....

New pictures

Here are some new pictures of the small child. They are kind of random, but just little snippets of our lives recently. Enjoy!

Here's a sad one, from when she was sick. We pulled her toddler mattress out into the living room so she could be a part of the activity and watch some movies while still being comfy in her own bed at grandma and grandpa's house.

Luckily she wasn't sick for long!

She won't let me put pigtails in her hair very often... Grandma Cindy got her to sit still for these ones.

Some fun with Grandpa Mark in the snow!

She loves to eat snow. Never eat yellow snow.

Funny little face with the dry, chapped lips. Poor yips.

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!