Freedom of the Seas

We had such a fantastic time on the cruise! Pictures to come next week, but for now, here were the highlights:

We went with my family: my mom, Anju, Anjay, Avani, Aria, and Arjun. Ryan had SO much fun hanging out with his cousins, and was really sad to see them leave yesterday.

The ship - Royal Caribbean, Freedom of the Seas. I think we had 4300 passengers or something crazy like that. Anju and Anjay did the rock climbing wall, the kids enjoyed the H20 zone and we had fun watching people wipe out on the FlowRider. Amazing amenities on the ship. Royal Caribbean definitely does well with the entertainment and activities. There was never a boring moment, never a time when there wasn't something fun to do, and the production quality with the shows was pretty amazing for a cruise ship.

Our rooms: We were in the VIP suite at the very back of the ship (yes I know it's aft Justin) which basically meant we had a huge balcony that looked out over the water. Totally awesome. We also got special seating at all the shows, and access to the super secret concierge lounge where they handed out free drinks from 5-8 every evening. We all took advantage of the lounge but the boys especially did it up, making friends with Patrick, the bartender. VIP status didn't mean as much as we thought it would, (I never saw a butler), but it was nice to have some extra perks. And the balcony alone was worth it.

Embarkation day: I got food poisoning. Not a good way to start.

Day 1 - At sea - Had fun getting dressed up for the formal evening and singing karaoke.

Day 2 - Labadee, Haiti - It's a private Royal Caribbean island, so the crew basically takes all the food and drink from the ship and makes a "picnic" for the guests. Justin and I did a kayak tour while Ryan hung out at the beach with the rest of the family.

Day 3 - Ocho Rios, Jamaica - It was pouring in Jamaica. At the time we were hoping they would cancel the excursions, but thankfully they didn't. Justin and Arjun did the ATV tour while Anju, Anjay, and I went ziplining through the trees. We had lots of fun although our clothes may not have survived the rain and mud. Ryan, Avani, and Aria hung out with Nani on the ship running around the balcony.

Day 4 - Grand Cayman - Our underwater observatory tour was canceled but we did get a tour of the island and trip to the turtle farm. Justin, Ryan and I spent the afternoon at the beach where Ryan kept tasting the water and saying "salty". Genius I tell you. In the evening we did more formal wear and more karaoke (this time the classic "I Will Survive"). And saw a great ice show.

Day 5 - Cozumel, Mexico - Lots of shopping. In the evening we hit up the nightclub and I danced like a crazy woman in front of people I would never see again. Fun!

Day 6 - At sea - It was a little chilly (probably around 70) so we did some indoor activities like bingo, trivia, etc. This day went by way too fast. Ryan enjoyed the water park even though it was freezing out. I defrosted him a bit by putting him in the hot tub for a couple of seconds.

Yesterday we spent about 10 hours in the Orlando airport (and we were the lucky ones able to get home at all). Ryan didn't seem to mind being stranded, he was a huge fan of the moving walkway and we must have gone on about 50 rides. He was way too excited to nap, so we figured he would conk out on the plane. Nope. He was definitely tired, but wouldn't lie down, and just kept getting more and more exhausted. He finally fell asleep around 10 to be woken suddenly at 10:45 for landing. Overtired + possible ear pain due to cold + possible nightmare about a dog = MAJOR MELTDOWN. He writhed and screamed for what felt like an hour but was probably just 15 minutes. And I'm usually one of those really apologetic parents, but I was myself in danger of a meltdown and instead of apologizing, I was silently daring my fellow passengers to say anything.

All in all, loved the cruise. We had so much fun playing blackjack at the casino, participating in all the activities on board, enjoying the ports and excursions, and eating like it was going out of style. I'm still full. It was especially fun with a kid since we got a chance to visit a bunch of ports without having to pack and move. This comes in really handy with a toddler.

That's all I can remember for now, but I'll post pictures soon.

Best. Day. Ever.

About a month ago we took a trip to West Chester, PA to visit our friends Randy and Bethany and their 2 adorable girls, Kylie (5) and Sophie (2). The trip down was uneventful. We drove for a couple of hours, stopped for dinner, and then Ryan fell asleep precisely at his bedtime.

The theme for the weekend seemed to be: do what you will and Mother Nature will follow. Each day the forecast threatened to ruin all of our plans. Each day we decided to risk it and do it anyway. And each day was perfect! On Saturday we went to Longwood Gardens, a beautiful 1000+ acre mecca of gardens, fountains, and meadows. Ryan and Kylie walked hand in hand throughout the Gardens taking in all of the beautiful plant life.

Afterwards, we had a nice swim in the Hechingers' pool and followed it up with a yummy dinner and blizzards at Dairy Queen.

Despite the fun time we had on Saturday, it was nothing compared to Sunday which Justin and I think is the best day of Ryan's life to date. It started off with a bowl of Cheerios, any toddler's favorite breakfast. We then hopped in the car and went to Sesame Place. Now for those of you like me who had never heard of Sesame Place, it's like a Disneyworld with Sesame Street characters, geared for little children, and not as big. It's also probably 75% water rides/fountain areas. The first thing we did is ride the Lazy River. Then we went to Ernie's Waterworks where there were tons of cascading fountains and spraying water. Ryan was in heaven: running through the fountains, getting big buckets of water dumped on his head (why is this a problem in the bath, but not here?) and chasing his daddy around. He was disappointed to leave this area, but the promise of what was to come next made him leave peacefully.

(We had so much fun we forgot to take a single picture. Sigh.)

After lunch, we went to a showing of Elmo's World Live. It's basically a "live taping" of an Elmo's World segment on Sesame Street. Dorothy the fish is there, Mr. Noodle, and a life-size Elmo running around and doing his show. Ryan was sitting on my lap when Elmo came out, and the pure, unadulterated joy on his face almost brought me to tears. He was so ecstatic he couldn't sit still. He kept jumping back and forth between me and Justin, hugging us over and over, and pointing at Elmo with wonder in eyes. It was awesome. After Sesame Place, we went back to the Hechingers for another swim. The day was then capped off with Ryan's favorite dinner, pasta and meatballs, and some singing, dancing, and general silliness around the living room. A perfect day for Ryan.

For the ride home, we decided to casually make our way back to Boston. We stopped for lunch for about an hour, stopped at the Ikea in New Haven to check out some storage units and let Ryan run around, and stopped for an hour at Rein's Deli in Ct, one of our favorite road trip restaurants. We got stuck in about an hour of traffic on the way to Ikea which Ryan did NOT appreciate, and the whole trip took about 9.5 hours, but all in all it went fine.

Thanks to the Hechingers for a great weekend! We forgot our camera, so credit Bethany for all the photos. Click here for additional ones.

Wade Reunion in Vermont

We just got back on Saturday from a weeklong vacation in Vermont with Justin's family. Surprisingly, we've already downloaded the pictures and are ready to post!

Ryan had a great time visiting with his cousins (Jack 8, Alicia 7, Allie 6, Sarah 5, and Erica 3). They all played on the swing, sang Ring Around the Rosie and made smores. We went swimming and fishing, and had bonfires and played games - everything you could ask for on a lakehouse vacation.

Ryan learned a lot from his cousins over the week and he returned the favor by teaching them some phrases in Spanish. It was so fun watching the kids run up to their parents and say "Mom, 'mas' means 'more' in Spanish!" Ryan loved hanging out with the family and constantly hugged everyone and "pounded fists". It was clear when we got home that Ryan missed everyone terribly asking for his cousins by name.

In non-Ryan news, Justin and I had a great time hanging out with Wades from around the country, making fires and even beer bowling. Can't wait to do it again!

Click here for pictures from the trip.

Bahamas

A couple of weeks ago we spent a week in the Bahamas with the Summerses. We had a great time playing on the beach, swimming in the pool, and generally enjoying the awesome Bahamian weather. The only problems we encountered were due to what we called "Island Time". The people of the Bahamas generally adhere to 2 speeds: slow and stop. When you are just adults hanging out on the beach with no schedule, it's pretty nice. It was a tad more complicated with the kiddos. For instance, the poolside restaurant opened at 12:00 everyday which really meant 12:30. Not a big deal for us, but not great for Ryan who was starving and generally unhappy by the time we got food an hour later. We learned pretty quickly though and got groceries so we could feed the kids on our schedule and not on Island Time. Oh, and a tip to anyone traveling to the Bahamas with young kids - bring your own crib. Our resort not only didn't have them for us the first night as promised, but when we complained they actually told us to just put them on the sofa: "They're 1? What are they doing in a crib anyway?"

But despite any minor setbacks, we had a great time. At one point I was sitting in the hottub watching Ryan and Justin playing together at the pool with a view of the ocean behind them. All I could think was "Life is good".

Click here for additional pictures from our vacation!

Terrible Ones?

We took Ryan to Chicago for the long weekend to visit my family. The last time we were there was in October, but wow what a difference 6 months makes! Ryan was pretty good on the flight there - he just didn't want to sit still. He went back and forth from my lap to Justin's and wanted nothing more than to run around in the aisle. He didn't cry or anything, but he did try to get away at least a dozen times.

Once we arrived, it became clear that our easy-going baby was now a terrified toddler with MAJOR stranger anxiety. Ryan wouldn't go near anyone and pretty much clung to me the entire trip. The only way he would play with his cousins was if Justin or I played too. And forget going to my family members. He pretty much shunned everyone. The only person he went to was Vikram but I think that's because we were outside and Vikram was offering to take him to a playground. Being outside seems to trump stranger anxiety.

We had a bbq on Saturday since the weather was so nice. Aunt Beth came over to spend some time with Ryan (albeit from afar). On Sunday we had brunch with Ziggy, Heather, and Max and Ryan was pretty well behaved during that outing. I guess mornings make a big difference.

On Sunday night we all went out to a nice steakhouse for Vikram's birthday. Luckily they put us in a private room since chaos pretty much ensued when we got there. Ryan got bored within seconds of being put in the high chair and decided to throw all his toys. The only way we could get him to stop was to let him play with a cup of water and a straw. Which of course leads to him flicking water at me with the straw. So then we take the water away and he has a fit. We manage to distract him with some dinner rolls for a little while and I sigh in relief when I see the food coming thinking that will distract him too. Instead, Ryan decides now is the time he doesn't want to sit in the high chair anymore. I put him in my lap and give him some green beans. Ryan loves green beans so I figure I'm good. Nope. Ryan gets a little overzealous with the green beans, shoves them in too far, and starts choking on them. And then there's vomit. All over his pants and a little on me too. And of course this happens to be the ONE TIME I forget to put his spare clothes in the diaper bag. So off come the pants. Ryan thinks this is hysterical and starts running around the room in his onesie and sweater. We decide to close the door to the room and just let him run as we finish our meal. I so miss the days when we would put a sleeping Ryan in his infant seat next to the table. I think it's going to be take out for us for a while...

Ryan threw several fits on Monday and at this point I think he was getting frustrated at being away from home. On the flight home, we were given the bulkhead row so Ryan could run around in the extra space. It was much easier for us, although he started throwing his toys. I think part of the problem is that we encourage him to throw a ball and he doesn't yet understand the difference. He looks up at us for approval when he throws something and is then confused and frustrated when we don't give it to him.

I'm having a love/hate relationship with this age. He's old enough to be more fun. He loves playing games and when he laughs it just warms my heart. But he's also old enough to be manipulative and young enough not to understand reason. Which just makes leaving the house challenging. We're going to the Bahamas in a couple of weeks for vacation, wish us luck!

Ryan's 2nd Christmas... Technically

I've finally gotten around to downloading and organizing pictures from Christmas! This year the festivities started at our house for our annual ChristmaKwaNukkahWali SolstEid party. We had to skip hosting the party last year for obvious reasons, but were happy to resume the tradition this year. Our party is a winter holiday celebration with food, music, and decorations representing Christmas, Kwanzaa, Hanukkah, Diwali, Eid, and the Winter Solstice. We try to be all inclusive although admittedly we have no Kwanzaa of Eid food at the party. Maybe next year!


We spent Christmas this year in Austin visiting Ryan's relatives on his dad's side. Ryan had a great time meeting 6 cousins, 2 aunts, 2 uncles, and 2 grandparents! Here we try to get all 7 kids to sit still for a picture:

After opening gifts over several days in Austin, we made it back for one final Christmas celebration at home.

Click here for additional pictures from Christmas and I promise we'll try to take more pictures soon.

Family Time

In October, we went to Chicago to visit my family and the meet the newest addition, Aria. We learned during our trip that Ryan is a big fan of dancing and Avani is quite the talker. Click here for pictures from our trip.

Ryan's First Wedding

As promised, here are pictures from Ashley and Jake's wedding. Ryan attended the rehearsal, rehearsal dinner, and ceremony and as far as we can tell enjoyed himself. One of my sorority sisters was an angel and watched Ryan at our hotel during the reception. While it would have been nice to get him all dressed up and show him off, it was REALLY nice to go out as adults and not parents. We had a great time hanging out with our friends from college and for once not talking about babies.

On Sunday, we went to brunch with a bunch of friends and took Ryan to CMU for the first time. I was really bummed that the store was closed and I couldn't buy all sorts of cute CMU clothes for him, but we had fun showing him the campus anyway. CMU class of 2029?

For pictures of the wedding and our visit to CMU, click here.

Vacation

It's been a busy couple of weeks, but we've finally gone through all the photos on our camera. Last month we went on vacation with the Summerses to Arizona. We spent a couple of days hanging out at the pool, went on several hikes, and had great visits to Sedona and the Grand Canyon. All I can say about the Grand Canyon is it's well named. I'm not much of a nature girl and even I was completely in awe. Here I am with Ryan at the Canyon:



For more pics of our family vacation, click here.

Ocean City

Last week we took our first family vacation to Ocean City, NJ! We've been on weekend trips with Ryan, but this was the first time we went away for an entire week. We rented a place on the boardwalk and it was a full house - a total of 9 adults and 5 kids ranging from 7 months to 5 years old. Ryan had a great time watching all the other kids play and got to do a number of things for the first time: first time at the beach, first dip in the ocean, first ferris wheel ride, first birthday party, first water park, and first lazy river. It was a jam packed week!

Going on vacation with a 7 month old wasn't as bad as I thought it would be. We drove down to Ocean City and Ryan was great in the car. And eventhough we had to be back at the house in the afternoons for his nap (he doesn't nap well if he's not in a crib or pack n play) it was kinda nice. It gave us a chance to unwind and get out of the sun during the really hot part of the day. The only thing that was hard was that we got a lot less sleep than we're used to. We all shared a room and Ryan woke up more during the night than he normally does, probably because he could hear me snoring. Plus Ryan STILL does not understand the concept of sleeping in! So we would go to bed late after hanging out and he would insist on waking up at 7:00 (or earlier).

But all in all, it was great getting to do all these fun things with Ryan and made us excited for when he's older and can really enjoy places like the beach and waterparks.

Click here for more photos from our trip!

Road Trip!

Ryan had his first road trip this weekend to my brother Arjun's high school graduation in Lakeville, Connecticut. A two hour drive each way is apparently perfect for a 6 month old as he slept pretty much the entire time both ways. He gets a solid A (even Daddy the hard grader agrees) for the car rides. He didn't fair as well at the graduation festivities which included a dinner and awards ceremony that lasted about 4 hours during fussy time, but that was to be expected. (Changing Ryan's diaper in the girl's locker room was apparently HILARIOUS to the giggly high school girls that walked in. I can only imagine their reaction had they seen me breastfeeding minutes earlier. I walked around a bit looking for a changing table only to realize that there wouldn't be one in a high school gym cause that would send the wrong message.)

The trip was short, but we did get to spend some time with my parents and brothers and Ryan got to stay in his first hotel - the Holiday Inn (way to travel in style buddy!). Here's Ryan sitting on the ginormous hotel bed.

An interesting factoid of the trip is that we were served dinner at the awards ceremony by a sophomore with the last name of Ford. As in Henry Ford, Model T Ford, family owns the Detroit Lions Ford. Apparently if you watch the Lions Thanksgiving football game, and they show the owner's box, you will see our little teenaged server sitting there enjoying the game.