20 Month Photo Shoot and Milestones

While we were on the cruise, Ally turned 20 months old. She is closing in on the big 2 and the time, especially the last few months have gone by fast. I haven't done a post on her development in quite a while but honestly I have no idea where to even start. Seems like one day she just woke up running, jumping and carrying on conversations.

Current Obsessions:
Putting on lotion
Buckling her seat belt
Finding Nemo (yes, still)
Sesame Street products- TV show, movies, reading books and coloring books
Fruit snacks
Speaking in the 3rd person
Naming all of the people in the family she knows- grandmas, grandpas, aunts, uncles, cousins...
Repeating and mimicking
Counting - 1,2,3...6
The Alphabet
Reading to herself

With her increased vocabulary has come quite a few funny moments. She is almost using complete sentences and they tend to come out a little bossy. For example, I was sitting on the couch ready to look at a book with her but she wanted to sit on the floor. She grabbed my arm, pointed to the floor and said "sit down here mama". She likes to talk about what people are doing like "daddy cooking dinner" or "Ally read it". She has also started to identify emotions and feelings like happy, sad, excited, hot, cold, dirty, wet, tired, hungry, silly, and funny.

A major milestone that we have been really taken by surprise with has been Ally's interest in the potty. Prior to vacation, we had been going on the potty every time at school. She has now gone a few times on the potty at home but we really aren't pushing. I have been taking her to the potty when she asks and she enjoys trying both at home and at school so we will continue to take it slow and follow her lead. It would be great to scale back the diapers! She doesnt visit the pediatrician until her 2nd birthday but I think he might be surprised to hear about this if it keeps up.

At this age, there are definitely a couple of new habits that Ally has picked up that I am not so fond of. Allyson is very independent and enjoys doing things herself, even things that obviously require help. She gets very upset if you don't let her buckle part of her seat belt, open her snacks, hold her own fork, cut her food, etc... Especially in the mornings when I am trying to get her in the car, she has her own pace and throws an absolute fit if you try to hurry her along. If she wants cheerios you better get the cheerios because a cereal bar isn't going to cut it! Getting dressed has become difficult sometimes and she is also becoming interested in taking off her diaper at random times. Its always been all about Ally but this stage of development requires a different sort of patience and understanding that its important for her to pick out her own clothes, comb her own hair, get the dog a treat, open the door herself, etc... My lesson from the last few weeks is that I better start getting myself going earlier to account for all this so I can make an effort to get to work on time.

Bottom line is that Ally is super fun and entertaining. Well behaved for the most part and loves to be the center of attention. The photos are from one of the nights on the cruise ship where she asked over and over to have her picture taken by one of the professionals. We didn't think she would actually do it but boy were we wrong. She knows how to take over a room already! All eyes were on her and she was loving it. We bought almost every picture they took.

New Orleans Aquarium

We decided to take Ally to the aquarium in New Orleans before we headed to the airport on Sunday. Karl and I had been there before but Ally has this obsession with all things Finding Nemo so we thought she would love it and we were right. She has been particularly interested in alligators and turtles and they had all of it. Some of the tanks were at just the perfect height where she could check them out on her own. After a few hours checking out the fish we stopped for an authentic New Orleans lunch then headed to the airport around 3. Of course Ally fell asleep on the way to the airport so she napped for about a half hour until we got to security then she was awake through the first flight, played in the Dallas airport and then fell asleep about 20 minutes from landing in Peoria. She did fairly well on the flights and passed the time playing on my lap, watching Nemo, snacking and checking other people out. She really did great for only being 20 months old!

Looking back on the trip, it was a lot of fun to take a cruise but I am not sure we would advise someone to take a child as young as Ally unless you have some help. We were happy to have grandma and grandpa along to give us some time to do 'adult' things and to let Ally be entertained by someone else at times when we would get a little frustrated with her. It was a big change from our daily routine but she handled it really well. As first time parents, we tend to over react to little things but when it comes down to it we really do have a great girl. She is just at that independent but still needy stage of toddler development which means that she knows what she wants and wants it now, and you better figure out a way to make it happen because she can only do it halfway on her own. Weather was beautiful, the ship itself had tons to do, rooms was better than we expected, clientele was a little suspect but made for good people watching so if you are looking for a great way to spend some money in the Caribbean in a week, consider it. Special thanks to Grandma Sharon, Grandpa Henry and the Eagins for getting us to do this and for helping out along the way!

Anniversary in Cozumel

Friday we woke up to the bluest and most beautiful water in the port in Cozumel, Mexico. This was by far the most developed stop on our trip and had a lot of shopping and restaurants within walking distance. We took Ally off the boat for a walk around the area near the port before we handed her off to grandma and grandpa. We picked up a few souvenirs at Senior Frogs and enjoyed some chips and salsa at Carlos and Charleys then it was time for Karl and I to head to our dolphin adventure. I have always wanted to swim with dolphins so Karl and I decided that this would be a great way to celebrate our 5th wedding anniversary. We traveled to a dolphin sanctuary about 5 minutes from the ship called Dolphinaris that is home to 19 trained dolphins. Half of them were captured (when that was still legal) and the other half were born and raised in the habitat that includes several big pools where people interact with them in a controlled environment. We got in the water and were able to learn about them up close, touch them as they swam by, give them a hug, get a kiss and dance with them. The real highlight was getting a ride from the dolphin which meant that you swam out to the center of the pool, reached our your left arm to the side while the dolphin swam around you then when the dolphin turned over you grab onto the fins and let them pull you back to the shallow part of the pool. It was so amazing! Our dolphins were Ashin (a-sheen) and Nike (nee-kay) and were two different species but looked very similar. The facility has it organized to the letter and each group of 8-10 people spends about 40 minutes in the water and they do 6 or 7 groups at a time. After our time in the pool we were able to see the videos and photos they take of each group and get some authentic mexican for lunch- along with the diet coke (coke light) that I had been missing all week.


We came back to the ship to find that Ally had a great time with the grandparents and was napping peacefully. She went swimming and had a picnic lunch in the room, very cute. I got to spend some time up by the adult pool and we got everyone cleaned up to get Ally fed and get to the show in the theater. The show was called 'Elements' and included dancers, singers, acrobats, magician and a special presentation of the crew. Ally was very entertained and at one point she thought the dancers costumes made them look like monkeys (they were actually birds) so she then kept saying "bye monkeys" for the rest of the show. We had dinner reservations at the Teppanyaki restaurant on the ship so we put Ally to bed and headed to the asian grill for the special cook-in-front-of-you show. It was fun and the food was really good, and at the end they even brought us a small anniversary cake and sang to us. Even though we were full, that night was the chocolate buffet so after dinner we got in the longest line ever to go through the buffet and fill our plates with different treats. It had been a long day so we ate them poolside then crashed.

Saturday was a sea day sailing back to New Orleans so we took the day to just relax by the pool and organize our bags to leave. We had to be off the ship at 10am on Sunday to pick up our luggage and get through customs. Team Purdue also came away with the progressive trivia championship Saturday night so that was exciting!

Roatan and Belize

The ship set sail from Costa Maya over night and we docked at the port on the island of Roatan off the coast of Honduras. Karl and I had planned for a snuba adventure that day so we had to be off the boat and ready at 8:30am. Ally stayed on the ship and had breakfast and played with grandma and grandpa while we were gone. We boarded a small bus and were driven about 25 minutes from the port to a resort area on a much nicer side of the island. You could tell that the area was specifically designed for cruise ship vacationers as it had a restaurant, bar, fresh water pool, animal habitat and a large beach area for the snorkeling and suba tours. We were interested in snuba because it is as close to actual scuba diving as you can get without going through the long certification process. Instead of each individual wearing a tank, there is one tank per group of 6 that floats on the surface of the water and you have 25 feet of tubing that connects each person. The tank then floats along as you swim so you get more freedom than snorkeling and we could stay under water for 45 minutes. Our group was dropped on the beach for brief instructions then we headed to get equipment-mask, regulator, weight belt and flippers. We walked straight out into the warm water, got hooked in and away we went. There were large coral reefs all around and fish but it definitely wasn't the depths or masses of fish like we had seen on our other snorkeling adventures. Still fun and definitely something I would do again. The down side was that we got attacked by sand flies while getting the quick training session so everyone came out of the water with big red spots all over. We freaked out thinking it was bed bugs or something but once everyone started looking the same way, one of the employees said it was the sand flies on the beach which looked like little gnats everywhere. Relieved but still gross... We got back to the ship in time to join the rest of the family for lunch, nap, and pool time. At night we continued with the trivia and dinner and saw the Second City comedy troupe perform. Ally also got to experience her first kiddie cocktail compliments of one of the bartenders Karl made friends with. We did not get any pictures of our snuba adventure and my camera fogged up from the extreme heat (105) when I tried to take some of the city from the ship so we don't have much to show from this day of the trip.

The next day we woke up in Belize City, the capital of Belize. We all got off the boat after breakfast to catch our 'Calypso Train Tour' of the city. The train was actually more like the little vehicles that you ride in from the parking lots at Disney disguised as a train but still an interesting ride. We learned a little about the city- they gained independence from Britain 30 years ago, they speak English or creole, the US dollar exchange rate is 2:1, seasons are hot or hotter than that, rains a lot, 2nd largest reef in the world is off the coast, people are not poor- they prefer to be called average, and they have to import almost everything. We saw a lot of schools and churches, as education is mandatory but not free and all schools are affiliated with some denomination. Before we got on the train they gave us water and a bag of plantain chips so Ally sat fairly well and ate a ton of chips while we traveled around the city. When we stopped and were let off to get back to the ship, we were immediately attacked by flocks of vendors trying to sell their crafts so we hurried back to the ship for lunch and pool time. Karl and I ventured to the casino after Ally went to bed but didn't have any luck with the black jack. The casino was a very interesting place!

Sea Day and Costa Maya

Our first full day on the ship was a day at sea sailing from New Orleans to Costa Maya, Mexico. The ride was smooth but it was very windy on the decks. We spent a lot of time at the pool and enjoyed both breakfast and lunch at the buffet. It offered the best options for Ally but there were so many people that it was tough for her to focus on eating and not get distracted. Two people immediately were drawn to Ally- the head service guy from Jamaica that would go around talking to people and yelling "wakie, wakie" at everyone during breakfast and the other was one of the servers stationed at the entrance to spray everyone's hands with sanitizer and say "washie, washie". Ally really liked her, she was from Peru and payed special attention to Ally every time we saw her. One of the female bartenders at the bar above the kids play areas also loved to talk to Ally and was sure to say hi each morning when we came out for breakfast. We played, walked around the ship, swam, ate lunch, napped in the afternoon, watched Elmo DVDs or Finding Nemo then got ready for dinner. The first night we tried to have dinner in the fancier dining room (not that you have to be fancy dressed, its just the formal dining room where you order off a nicer menu and sit at smaller tables) but Ally was really not interested in sitting still or eating. The day was a challenge with eating and she was also very clingy to me. She did not want Karl to do anything at all but we sort of attributed that to being in a new place with so many people. We were able to get her to relax in the room by watching her movie and reading books and she fell asleep easily. Since our rooms were connected, we were able to leave her asleep in the room with grandparents next door while Karl and I visited the bar at night to relax a little.

We got off the ship in Costa Maya after breakfast and headed out to explore. We had no idea what to expect and were just hoping to find a beach area. The port was really only set up for the cruise ship and consisted of a small village type area with shops, bars and a giant pool in the middle. The pool was surrounded by sand and beach chairs, a little spray park area, swim up bars and was the perfect place for us to play. Ally loved the water and all of the little fountains in the shallow part. It was treated salt water just like the water on the boat so it was warm and salty but not as salty as straight sea water. She was not too excited about the sand at first and made me carry her everywhere but after a little swimming she figured it out and had some fun with her bucket and shovel. She loved running through the little spray park area. It was the perfect size for her and she thought it was super fun to stick her hair into the water and get sprayed in the face. She was really fun to play with and did great outside all morning. Again, she didn't eat much for lunch but crashed for a long nap and woke up happy. One of her favorite things was to sit outside on the balcony with grandpa and every day after nap and the weather was always hot and sunny so it was perfect.

On the boat they had a progressive trivia contest where teams of 4 would compete each night to answer 20 questions to earn points. Karl, Sharon, Hank and John Eagin decided to compete so Ally, Gail and I either played in the kids area or came along to watch and help out if we could. It was a lot of trivial pursuit type questions but they also had music trivia and a movie trivia that were right up our alley.