Rosalie Maggie.. Rounding the 21 Month Mark

It occurred to me this morning that the reason this blog was originally created was for Rosalie updates and here it has been months since I've blogged her growing status!

Weight: She has plateaued around 28lbs, thank goodness. Her doctor was concerned because since she was born, her weight hasn't slowed, which has nothing to do with her eating because she's a TERRIBLE eater. He said he wanted to see her back when she turned 2 to make sure her weight was starting to plateau. She's been hanging around 28lbs since her 18 month check up! Woot! She's actually starting to look like she's thinning out since she's getting so tall and her weight's staying the same!

Height: 33".. yeah, she's tall lol.

Teeth: Since she got her first 4 molars in, we haven't gotten any teeth since. She's still at 16. We think she's trying to get her 2 year molars in because this past week was pretty rough with all of Rosalie's usually teething symptoms: no sleep, nonstop explosive pooping, chewing, biting, whining, ect.

Words: Rosalie's talking isn't at where I'd like it to be. She has developed a language of her own (Scary, I know) and she knows what she's saying, but we unfortunately don't lol. She talks A LOT, but we just don't know what she's talking about. She does say... Dad, Mom, Mama, Papa, Nana, Pappap, Hi, Baby, What's That (although it sounds like "Wass that), Wow (Everything is OH WOW), Thank you in Chinese, Yeah, Dora, Sass (We think she picked that up because I'm always telling her she's sassy lol).. That's really about the extent of the words she uses on a daily basis. We're really working with her, but she won't repeat. She's so stubborn. I truly believe she could talk more if she wanted to, but everything is always on her terms.

Sleeping...

Since we transitioned to the toddler bed it has been pure HEAVEN! (Except for this past week!) Rosalie goes to bed around 7:30 (Well, always 7:30 on the dot..but there have been times she doesn't go up til 8, like this week because Kevin has been on 12s and doesn't get home from work til 6:3o). She gets up around 5:30 and gets a fresh diaper and will go back to bed til 6. Some mornings I have gotten lucky enough that she'll sleep straight til 6 or 7. I've haven't known this kind of sleeping since she was a newborn! She LOVES her big girl bed!

Behavior...

Rosalie's behavior is finally getting better. She's out of the destructive stage (THANK GOODNESS!) She will stop doing something if she gets yelled at (Although she still uses her selective hearing sometimes lol... but what kid doesn't). She now knows right from wrong. If she gets busted doing something she shouldn't be doing, she covers her eyes and just grins this big ole grin lol. It's the cutest thing I've ever seen.

Learning and Playing

She loves peek-a-boo still and learning her body parts. She knows her tongue and nose and we're working on hands right now. Her new favorite game is throwing food up for Kevin to catch it in his mouth lol. She loves to color, do puzzles, and READ READ READ. Her nose is constantly in a book. She has books upstairs and downstairs. She loves getting books and getting in her bed and reading. She would spend all day outside if we let her. She love being in the pool or sandbox or even just running around the back yard. She loves going for rides in her car, but the weather has been absolutely crappy lately so we haven't gotten much time outside. All it has done here the past few weeks is RAIN.

Mealtime..

Is a nightmare. Rosalie is the world's worst eater. She is EXTREMELY picky and it's so hard to get her to try new things. She only has a few cereals that she'll eat and the only breakfast foods that she will eat are toast or pancakes. Those are the only 2 forms of bread that we can get her to eat! She will NOT eat meat. at all. period. We've tried and tried and have given up. She even boycotts hotdogs now. She eats chicken and that's it. She'll eat every form of chicken, but no other meats. Scratch that. She will eat lunch meat. She'll eat ham and turkey lunch meat, but will not eat real ham or turkey lol. She's a big cheese eater, so we do a lot of grilled cheeses in this house. She likes every form of potatoes. She likes strawberries, blueberries, and grapes, but will not even look at a banana. The only veggie she'll eat is green beans. We've just got her to start eating pasta, The only way she'll eat it is if it's lightly sauced. My dad suggested just giving her butter noodles and seeing how she likes it.. I may have to try that. She doesn't eat junk food.. she's not a chocolate eater or a candy eater.

Potty Training..

Kevin and I decided we're not going to full blown try potty training until after our 2 vacations in August, but I do believe Rosalie is ready. The past 2 days she has pooped in the potty!

Before we know it, Birthday Number Two will be right around the corner!!!

Ireland

I know.. a month past and I am just now getting to the update.

Day 1

I woke up around 4 to get ready and finish packing. I got Kevin and Rosalie up around 5 because we had to leave around 6. She actually woke up happy. We had pre-bought our suitcase because it's so much cheaper payin in advance than paying at the airport. Well when Kevin weighed it it was like 20 lbs over. So last minute we're taking stuff out and putting it in another bag that we had to get checked. Not a good start to the morning. lol

We hit the road and headed to Venice to catch our flight. It was here we hit ANOTHER stressful road bump. Over here you can pay to have things shrink wrapped. Well we decided not to pay to have Rosalie's car seat done... we figured it would be fine. We had to check it because we rented a car in Ireland. We got to the counter to check our bags and they told us that we had to take it to the oversized baggage at security since it wasn't wrapped. We get up to security and the guy was new and had no clue what we were suppose to do with it, so he told us to take it to the gate. We get to the gate and RyanAir doesn't do assigned seating. Well we managed to get towards the front of the line to get on the plane, but ended up being held almost last because of the carseat. Someone had to come get it from us and physically put it on the plane. Such a pain. We ended up getting good seats anyways!

We arrived in Dublin in the afternoon. We had to go get our rental car. What an experience. Not only was the steering wheel on the right hand side of the car, but we drove on the left side of the road. We left the airport and drove around the country side for about 2 hours. We then headed to Dun Laoghaire, which is where we were staying. (Pronounced Dun Leary)

We checked in and went and got a bite to eat... then headed to the Dun Laoghaire Harbor. It was breathtaking. At that moment, any stresses from the day of traveling just disappeared. After walking for an hour it started to get pretty chilly so we headed back to our room and called it a night.

DAY 2

We woke up bright and early and headed to breakfast. It was here Rosalie proceeded to SCREAM her head off. We had to leave and went back to the room to get her Tylenol. She's been trying to get her 2 year molars in. After she got Tylenol and was calmed, we headed out. At this point Kevin and I were at our wits ends. We walked down the street and caught the DART train. We were only on the train for a few minutes before Rosalie crashed. We rode the train for about an hour to north of Dublin to a town called Howth. (Pronounced Ho-th) We LOVED it there. We could have spent the entire day there. It was this cute little harbor town. The best part was that Rosalie woke up and was soooo happy. We hopped back on the DART and headed to Dublin.

It was about half an hour ride to Dublin. We started by walking around Trinity College. From Trinity College we headed to the Dublin Castle. From the Dublin Castle we went and saw some churches.. we first went to Christ Church and then to St. Pat's Cathedral. Our last stop was the Guinness Storehouse. We spent most of the afternoon there and ate lunch at the Guinness Restaurant.

As we were leaving the Guinness Storehouse, it starts downpouring. We had an hour walk back to the train station. We managed to score some umbrellas from this shady shop near the Storehouse. We power walked and turned the hour walk into about 30-40 minutes. We were soaked and cold and miserable by the time we hit the train station.

We headed back to the hotel and got dry. We walked around Dun Laoghaire the rest of the night because they were having some type of festival. We grabbed Subway (yes, SUBWAY) and went back to the room.

We woke up around 2:30am to return the car and head to the airport.

Words can't even describe how BEAUTIFUL Ireland is.. you'll just have to look at my pictures and see for yourself!

Click here to view this photo book larger

Ladybug Creations

I have tons of new bows listed in my etsy store and new things to come! Check it out for those who don't have Facebook!!!

Ladybug Creations

Also... I'm having an online Scentsy party for anyone interested! I'm new to Scentsy... I just made my first purchase last weekend and am in LOVE. I bought this ADORABLE warmer for Rosalie's room. If you don't know anything about Scentsy, it is a safe alternative to a candle. It gives off an amazing aroma, without the use of a flame and the liquid isn't hot! Right now I have Jumpin' Jellybeans in Rosalie's room and it smells so sweet in there. I had a ton of people ask me where I got her warmer so I decided to do an online party. If you're interested in ordering or even just browsing the catalog, please send me e-mail so I can send you the link! mandeejhollis@gmail.com

This is the warmer that I just purchased for Rosalie's room. Isn't it cute?!?! It's the warmer of the month so right now it's discounted!

Let Freedom Ring!

It wouldn't have been 4th of July here in Italia without rain. This was our 3rd Independence Day spent in Italia and all three were ruined with rain. This year we made absolutely no plans. We didn't even attempt to go to the base to watch the fireworks because it was down pouring. The day before Independence Day we went and took some family photos. Nothing professional, just some pics that Kevin and I took in a vineyard near our house. I just wanted to show you a quick preview! I will upload more at a later date, but we leave for Germany in a week and have a TON to do.