Leah Strolling

So, if you were to ask me "what is Leah's favorite thing to do?," I'd say number 1 is Mommy taking her in the stroller, and then number 2 is Leah taking her friends in her new stroller. We recently bought Leah this stroller and she is testing its limits everyday. Today she has crammed Mini Mouse, a sippy cup, a baby doll, and two stuffed kittens in the pink stroller. Not only that, but I think this stroller already has a couple of miles on it.

Leah's 18 Months

Our baby is turning into a toddler, she is exactly 18 months today. This change doesn't happen overnight, so she's still a baby in many ways, but the toddler is erupting. I guess the biggest event in her life right now is her use of the potty. She knows what to do on it and is still learning, but we are very proud of her poops and pees.

Leah has also taken up singing and dancing. She loves to sing "Happy Birthday," we're not sure why she sings it, but it is very cute when she does. Every day the words get more and more clearer.

Listening is one of Leah's strong skills. When it's time to get shoes in the morning for school, she is the first to get her shoes on (she has some little croc like shoes that she can put on herself). She'll even get the boys' shoes and hand them to the boys. At bed time, she wants her toothbrush and will brush her teeth. Leah also knows a little sign language, so understanding her is pretty easy. She's got the pointer finger and the word "no" down.

Another new development for Leah is running, well she sort of skips around the house keeping up with the boys and chasing the cats.

Most of the time it is fun to have this growing toddler in our house and our first girl, so there are some differences in her development. One change is early tantrums. Even though they are more funny than anything else, we are trying hard to ignore these outburst.

She is in the second year of life, which means terrible 2's. The pediatrician said that she is fully capable of understanding time outs. So far, we give time outs when Leah hits. Oh yes, she is a big hitter and she thinks it is hilarious.

All in all we have a delightful firecracker and we are having so much fun with her. The boys love her and truly show their empathy. Zachary was upset when she got shots at the doctors. Avery couldn't stop wailing when Leah fell on the bunk bed and was bleeding. I'm in love with all our beautiful and sensitive kids.

Leah's stats are as follows:
weight: 21 lbs 9 oz
height: 30 1/2 inches

Sunset Cruise

Noodle floating with Leah.
Leah loves to put stuff on her head.
Here's an easy way to get toasted. Go on a sunset cruise where they keep serving you all you can drink rum punch.

Today was fabulous and we are sad that it is our last day at the resort. We spent the day at the pool and the beach. Eli and I got to spend the evening sans kids on a sunset cruise and dinner out. The cruise was fun. There was a captain and his mate who served drinks and hors d'oeuvres, shrimp, veggies, meatballs, cheese. The scenery was beautiful with islands all around.

While we were out, our kids took a nap. Nani took GG and Sam to the pool to play bingo. They had dinner and watched a movie. Even Leah watched the movie straight through and ate popcorn like the rest of the kids. When she is around older girls she likes to emulate them. She sat next to GG and copied her every move down to eating one kernal at a time versus slamming as much as she can fit in her mouth.

Megan's Bay

I have to say that this is the best beach I've ever been to. It is clear and calm, warm, and perfect for a young family. There are even lifeguards on duty. To top it off, it was a short drive from the resort to here. Also, there was no cruise ships in today, so hardly anyone was there. Gorgeous!

Shopping

These guys were everywhere. The highlight of our trip, my favorite, iguanas.
We're shopping for jewelery. We actually we're on a scavenger hunt looking for the free stuff, and when I say we, I mean Mom and I. The kids enjoyed the stop for ice cream though.
Is there wind in there?

We went shopping today after going to the pool this morning. My parents bought me a ring, which is an early birthday present. Thank you Mom and Dad. The prices on jewelery were great. Everything else, normal or higher than usual. The taxi drivers kept yelling at us again. They wanted to take us back to our cruise ships. Although, I don't feel too bad, because my swim aerobics instructor, who is a St. Thomas native, says she gets nagged by the taxi drivers too.

After shopping, my parents go on a Sunset Cruise, remember free cruise for listening to the time share spiel. We take the kids to the pool for some drinks (for Eli and I) and rum bingo. Yeah! I won, some guava Cruzan rum. Our neighbors, gave us beer. They're leaving the next day, so they are trying to get rid of it. Fun Fun Fun...

Visiting St. John

This is how the car ferry loads the cars on the boat. Every car goes up in reverse because it isn't a through ferry. It takes about 30 minutes to load everyone aboard and another 20 minutes to cross the ocean, 10 to unload. Not too bad for going to another island.
There is St. Johns.
Well today was an "I did that" kind of day. We went to St. Johns, but it wasn't the greatest times. When we got off the ferry we went the wrong way to get to the beach we were headed to. We wounded going up very steep hills that are rental could barely climb only to realize that we were going in the complete wrong direction. We wanted beach, not Mountain ;). It was a pretty drive, anyhow.

So, we got to the beach and we have no drinks for the adults. Eli waits in line to get drinks. Everyone else goes to sit down for our lunch. The kids are hungry and eat and drink, we brought juice boxes for the kids. Eli was taking a long time and we're all hungry so my parents eat too and I nibble hoping to eat lunch with Eli. Dad checks on Eli who says to go to the other side to pick out a place. Dad doesn't really communicate that, so we put lotion on the kids, meanwhile Eli finally gets bottled water and starts to look for us. We finish up and go see why it is taking Eli so long. He isn't there, but the beach isn't too big, so we find him walking toward us. Of course, he is not hungry, so no lunch.

As soon as we get to the beach and the kids get in the water, Sam throws sand in Avery's eyes. He is very sensitive when it comes to his eyes. So, poor Avery cried for 20 or 30 minutes because his eyes hurt. We finally get him to nap on the beach. Eli fell asleep with Avery. Leah played in the sand because the surf was too harsh. Zachary, on the other hand, had a blast just laying in the surf, letting the waves take him in and out.

We are going to rethink going to St. Johns next year. It wasn't really worth waiting 2 hours by Ferry when half the family was miserable. But, we can say, we've been to St. Johns :).

Our New Home

Here it is, Frenchman's Cove at the Marriott. As you can see they are still building it. Plans say it will be done in 2012. They are going to have a kids play ground and an adult only swim area. All rooms have beach views. The room that we got is only on the top floors and there are 13 total when the Cove is completed. The picture is taking from the Hotel at Frechman's Reef. Also as owners we can use the Hotel pool and beach, which we haven't done yet. There are many restaurants, an Adventure Center for many planned activities, as well as a Kidz Club, which the kids have enjoyed painting, making plaster sand art and much more. When Leah is older we can put the kids in their day care for half or full day or bring a babysitter along, anyone?
At Frenchman's Reef waiting to go to dinner.
At Coco Joe's.
Zach-a-boo.

Today we hung out at the pool and beach area again. At 3 we had our time share talk for a free Sunset Cruise. Eli and I never talked to each other about a time share before going in, we just listened and both thought it would be a good time to buy. We have a habit of buying things very quickly... like our houses. We've always had a good outcome, so we thought, why not, and we are having such a good time here. So, we bought a 3 bedroom and it is our home 1/52 of the year, yeah! Not that I have to legitimize our purchase, but everyone we talked to thought it was a good purchase and the place to be. So, we are very excited about our new home. We also have a long list of potential inhabitants... :)

After our long meeting, (we esentially were buying a property, so we had to sign numerous documents) we went to Coco Joe's at the Reef. The kids were tired and not very hungry because they had a ton of soda and snacks at the office, but we still pushed through dinner, another long wait. We also had a bad smell near us that they finally took care of after we moved our table further from it and could see something on the ground making the foul smell. The food was very good, but we were kind of put off by the smell and the service. We're going to be making our own meals for the rest of the stay at the Cove.