Cruise

Last week Nonna and Poppy took us on a cruise. Papa is now Poppy to you because that is what you call him. We call him Papa and out of your mouth comes, Poppy.

You were very good! Each night we had dinner in a "nice" restaurant. In other words, kids aren't exactly supposed to be there, I don't think, but we would roll all our strollers in there and let you kids sit and eat a tad, and you would watch a DVD of WallE. I only had to leave twice out of 7 nights to take you to bed. And out of those 2 times, I only missed dessert once. Which - I could stand to do, I ate so much on that cruise

You loved sleeping in the stateroom because you go to sleep next to Dada each night. You also grew very fond of your blue moose that you call Mook. You want to take Mook with you everywhere.

We took you to a beach at the St Thomas port. St Thomas was very pretty, and had a horsehoe beach. With hills/mountains that roll into the sea. You love for Dada or me to carry you into the deep water. You think you can just swim away, so sometimes we have to hold on tight to you, you little wiggle worm.

Everyday you would say "ava charlieeee". You had a blast playing with your cousins. When we got on the airplane I told you you were going to play with Bella and Betty the next day (from daycare) and you said "no-no! Ava Charlieeee." It's amazing to me what you understand now. There was a kiddie pool up on the top deck of the ship that you swam in for 2 hours one morning. Tom and I left you with Nonna and Britty to go and swim in the adult pool for 20 minutes of peace and when I came back Britt said you were sitting my the edge of the pool, barely able to stand, crying. She picked you up and held you and you fell asleep right on her chest within a minute or two. That is what we call partying until we drop, JUDE!


On the cruise, each night before dinner we would meet in the Promenade, and there would be a man playing a tropical drum. You and Ava and Charly would dance around on a little tile dance floor, and people would all watch you. Who wouldn't want to watch you, you looks so dapper these days! Leslie bought you a suit, and you look so grown up in it. For Thanksgiving you wore the pinstripe top, and the picture above is a t-shirt i put under the sports coat- you are so cool, I can't stand it.

You learned the word boogers. In English and Romanian. You try to take all the chocolate out of all the days of the advent calendar. You KNOW you are only supposed to do one pocket a day but you wheel and deal to try to get more. You want juice all the time now- milk doesn't interest you this week. When we brought our Christmas tree into the house you looked at DADA like "what the hell are you doing, bringing a tree into our house?"


You like letters a lot now. You see neon signs at night when we drive in the car and yells "oooooohhh!!! lewwers!" and then you say "eijq" and try to name a few letters. I spell them out for you. You also love it when I sing the ABCs. You sing along with certain letters that start or end a note, and sometimes you like to throw the word yellow in like it is a letter. So endearing...

Everything is yellow. You used to know what blue red and yellow were, and could point to each one, until you became obsessed with yellow. Now everything is yellow. Until 2 days ago when I was putting you to bed and you pointed to your quilt and said "colors" you point to each color and have me tell you which color it is.

Nonna and Papa taught you and Charly how to "scare" people by saing "rgghg!" like a pirate or a lion. You two do it on and off, and you sounds like a couple of tazmanian devils.