Beach Trip (lots of photos!)

We just got back from Tybee Island yesterday afternoon. I'll try and get back to post more details about it later, but I'm a bit overwhelmed with schoolwork at the moment. The highlights included lots of beach time, yummy seafood, a day trip to Savannah, and a boat tour to look for dolphins. It was a wonderful, relaxing trip. Roxanne had an absolute ball at the beach. She loved the sand, and swimming with me and Justin and getting "knocked by a wave." I hope we can make beach visits a yearly thing. It's so rejuvenating. Oh, and for some weird reason (by weird I mean stupid, since I am of the opinion that blogger's photo capabilities are ridiculously non-user-friendly) the photos are in reverse chronological order. So the top are the most recent, and the bottom are from the first part of our trip. Sorry.
Here we are squeezing into the self-made family portrait we are so fond of... On the boat.
I had to include at least one dolphin shot... It was SO neat watching them, both on the boat and from the beach near our studio. There were so many of them!
On the lookout! Roxanne was just as excited to point out the billions of jellyfish as she was to see the dolphins. She loves jellyfish because of SpongeBob Squarepants. She was crestfallen when Justin told her people don't go jellyfishing. Only SpongeBob and Patrick do.
Me and Roxanne on the boat.
She had to wear a life vest on the boat. She didn't complain once! This was from our last morning there. Captain Mike's Dolphin tour. It was lovely, and very cheap.
Doesn't she look crazy??? She was so happy on the beach.
She loved this foam.
vWe took a walk on the beach after dinner one night before getting gelato downtown. Roxanne flitted around like a little bird. Look at her fingers here... So cute.
From the roof of our studio (facing away from the water). We were VERY close to the lighthouse.
Roxanne worrying that the hermit crab would "pinch" me.
She held a hermit crab for about a second, then dropped it. This was in a little gallery/science center thing right downtown in Tybee. They had some really neat fish, turtles, alligators, and this area where you could touch some sea life. It was little, but really neat. And they had a one month old baby loggerhead sea turtle that was hatched at Tybee. It was so tiny and cute!
I can't believe she's old enough to pose like this...
Tybee has these painted turtles all over town.
Our new car! This was right outside our little studio.
Collecting shells for her "shell garden."
On the tour bus in Savannah.
Savannah. Justin squatted down to take a picture with Roxanne, but she insisted on copying his pose and not standing next to him.
Savannah. She was more interested in the Hello Kitty candy necklace than sightseeing. Thank goodness for touristy candy shops in Savannah.
In the studio. The lighting was perfect.
In the studio. She's probably trying to talk me into something here.
She loved loved loved building sand castles with Justin.
She's probably demanding something of Justin here.
The aged, but charming rooftop patio of our studio. The building was attached to what seemed to be a "battery" from the mid-1800's. We think it probably was originally part of that battery and then eventually got converted into living space. It was really neat looking.
The other view from the studio roof.
Here's Roxanne and Justin in front of the door of our little beach studio. It was about twenty minutes after we arrived. She was SO excited to get on the beach ASAP.

Some Roxanne-isms

I am kind of overwhelmed lately with house, school, job, etc. etc. Sorry. But I'm absolutely loving school, and Justin has been great keeping Roxanne for me while I go to class. The two of them are so cute together. In that vein, I wanted to share some of my favorite things that they do. :)

*Justin is in charge of Roxanne's bed time. Always. Every once in a while, I take over, but I know it's not the same for her. Justin does this very specific sequence of things with her every night, and she loves it. They start out with the nightgown, then with a potty trip, followed by tooth brushing (she has a Hello Kitty toothbrush these days; she is smitten), face and hand washing. She has to have a dollop of lotion after she washes her hands. As some of you know, this is a Justin things. I let my hands crack and bleed before I put lotion on them, but Justin uses it EVERY time he washes his hands. They are smooth like baby skin. Roxanne is now incapable of getting to bed without her lotion. After that part, she comes and tells me goodnight, and gives me a kiss. Sometimes that includes discreetly wiping any excess lotion off onto me. Or onto whatever surface I'm sitting on or near. Sigh. After this, they read stories, usually two, although Roxanne lately has been angling for more. Then they go to her globe on her dresser, and point out different places. I think sometimes they spin it, but she always asks to see Georgia, Colorado, and Mexico (the last one I'm not sure why she is so interested in). She also asks for Italy a lot, in part because of a Wonder Pets book she has that takes place there. She can point to all of them on the globe on her own and name them most of the time. It's so cute. After that, they turn on her nightlight and radio (she listens to classical music on her sound machine all night) and then she turns out the light. Once Justin tucks her in, she gives him a kiss. If it's not somehow quite right, she makes him give her another one, leaning up and going "mmmmmmm!!!!" Most nights, that is all. But some nights, like tonight, she gets back up, opens her door and makes an elaborate excuse as to why she can't sleep. Tonight she told us, "I laid in my bed, and my arm was asleep and in my bed my poo poo hurt and then I needed to poo poo in the potty but I need to sleep in the big bed." Sigh.

In other news, she is more and more interested in going to "school." Ben and Locke both started, and now she asks about it. We plan to look into it for next year. In the mean time, my new schedule means we have Mondays and Fridays until noon to hang out with just the two of us. This morning, we ran some errands, and went to see the animals at the pet shop. They had TONS of kittens. I wanted to put them all in the car and take them home. Roxanne parrots me when we leave: "Bye bye kittens! I hope you all find a nice home!"

I'm off again to do some school work. Nathaniel Hawthorne and William Carlos Williams. But not at the same time...

The Chattanooga Trip

On Saturday morning, I got home from running some errands and Justin said we needed to get out of town. I immediately said "Chattanooga?" and Justin said "Sure!" So I got on Trip Advisor and looked up cheap places to stay. I called and booked a room at a super cute and reasonable B&B called Sky Harbor, and we packed and left. All of this took about an hour... I think we have just been stir crazy. We had such a great little getaway, and it honestly felt much longer than one afternoon and part of the next day. We got up there around 3, and after checking in, we headed to the Incline Railroad. It was cheesy, but fun. Lots of lovely views. After that, we wandered for a while, then headed downtown to find something cheap for dinner. We ended up at a little restaurant in a super cute part of town called (I think) the North Shore. It's just a small street that we were on, but it was right by the river, and we found an adorable little restaurant that makes quirky hot dogs. And yummy salads. After that, we all had frozen yogurt at another shop before heading back to our room for some swimming. The pool was teensy, but it overlooked the river and Chattanooga itself, since the B&B was at the lower part of Lookout Mountain and had a lovely lovely view. In the morning, we headed out for breakfast, followed by check-out, Ruby Falls and Rock City. We left around 3pm, and we were home by around 6 (with a dinner stop at Bojangles. High class). Restful and lovely! So here are some photos from our "vacation."
Roxanne napped on the ride down. With her new Wonder Pets "flyboat" in her lap the whole way. I found this for her for $2.50 at a consignment sale before we left. She loves Wonder Pets.
The sign for the B&B we stayed in. Although, honestly, it wasn't really much like a B&B in terms of the breakfast. They put out some horrific donut holes and coffee in the morning. No worries. It was still a cute little place with a gorgeous view, and the price was right. :) Oh, and there was a litter of kittens for me and Roxanne to stare at. Sadly, they weren't very people-friendly, but we had fun looking at them.
The view between two of the B&B buildings.
Roxanne liked running laps up and down the room. The wood paneling lent itself well to echoes.
Our little back porch had amazing views. And rocking chairs!
Family portrait on the Incline Railroad.
I took this as we were going back up.
That's the glass ceiling. Not as cool as a Wonka elevator, but still pretty neat for Roxanne to stare up at.
As Justin was putting Roxanne to bed, I was reading for school out on the porch. I thought I heard thunder and then realized that the baseball stadium across town was shooting off fireworks. We could see them from our porch, so Roxanne and Justin came out to watch. They were far enough out that the booms were very distant and infrequent, but we felt special to get to watch them.
We forgot to pack a bedtime story for Roxanne. Fortunately, Justin's iPad came with a Winnie the Pooh story on it. She seemed to get a kick out of reading her story on there. He let her "turn the pages," which she definitely enjoyed. I'm getting a Kindle sometime in the next couple of weeks courtesy of Josh's parents' parting gift (how lucky I am!) so I might try and get some kid's books on mine.

Ruby Falls!
Down in the cave. It was quite a walk from the elevator to the actual Falls. Roxanne insisted on being carried the whole way there, because Hello Kitty was scared. P.S. Don't let your toddler bring their Hello Kitty stuffed animal into cave tours. She's a fraidy cat.
Ruby Falls. They really were beautiful. The colored lights were a little cheesy, but they were pretty.
Trying to get a shot of Roxanne's reaction to the Falls. She went from "wow!" to crying because she was getting dripped on.
In order to get her to walk on the way out of the Falls (as she is officially too heavy for me and Justin to carry for extended periods like that) I bribed her with candy. Yeah, I know. But seriously, shouldn't all kids get Rock Candy while in Chattanooga? Isn't it like a law or something?
Here she is at Rock City. I swear there are photos of me and my sister on this same stone bench here. And I'm about Roxanne's age. Can you see how deliriously tired she is? Whew.
Taking a pause at Rock City. These swings were so beautiful. Someone build us one!
Lover's Leap.
Yeah, I was having trouble photographing anything up here because I was busy having mini panic attacks every four seconds. I never realized how much of a non-fan I am of heights. Ugh.
One view of the "seven states." It was stunning.
I liked this sign. Everything at Rock City is so charmingly touristy and fairy-taled out. So many gnomes...
Another angle of the view. This is making me dizzy just looking at it. Yikes.

Photo Post!

Pink poodle costume from Nana! So cute!
She folded herself up into her easel box. Cozy.
I love the ears. :)
Don't you love the pink sheen?
She loves this outfit. She kept acting like a puppy. Adorable.
Look at the tail!
I think her posing here makes her look really old. She's really getting hammy.
The cousins. Roxanne adores them.
She's in heaven. :)
She picked out this headband from Baby Gap. She's been asking me to get her a flower for her hair, but I totally didn't think she'd actually wear one. I figured it was just a by-product of Kai Lan and Hello Kitty. But I couldn't resist this one. :)
She is not a fan of dirty hands...
Oh, right! She got a haircut last weekend with Miss Lisa. Justin took her without me, and I'm so sad I missed it. He said she loved every second of it. He told her we wanted to try and grow it out, but that it wouldn't work in the bob shape. This is adorable.
Roxanne and BooBoo. A one-sided love affair. :)
She's a patient kitty.
Again with the dirty hands...
The flower is felt. So cute!
On a mission...
Here's the fake smile. She calls it her "happy face." Haha.
She loves Hello Kitty right now. Scratch that, she's OBSESSED with Hello Kitty right now. I got her this necklace at Urban Outfitters, and she loves it.

Music Time Video

These were both taken in Roxanne's room, in her "big girl bed." We took the side off altogether so she can get in and out. Scary, but after about a week of her getting up fifty times in the hour or two after bedtime, she has settled in nicely. It's still funny to hear her get up in the morning and open her own door and see her pad down the hall in her nightgown. She's really really into closing herself in her room, or any room for that matter. I'm not sure what the fascination is, but she apparently needs privacy these days. It made me very nervous at first, but she isn't doing anything bad with the door closed (yeah, so maybe I stand at the door with my ear jammed to it sometimes), usually reading or singing. She is still very much in love with books (yay!) and spends a lot of time reading to herself. She has some favorites that are more or less memorized, and it's fun to listen to her "read" them to herself. I think my very favorite part is that Justin always tells her the name of the author when he reads her a book so she always says the title of the book and "by [insert author name]" when she's reading to herself. So you'll hear "Skippy Jon Jones in Mummy Trouble by Judith Shachner" coming from her room, although it's a little more muddled. And adorable. We hope she'll continue to be a reader. She certainly loves it for now.

Sleep drama...Again

We are making a return to the sleep-deprived cranky toddler. We took the side off of her crib completely to make it a "big girl bed" and with her newly discovered independence, Roxanne is in a sleep deficit. She gets up and turns the light on, picks up books, walks around, etc., but we still feel like this is just what's next. She's been doing really well with her potty training, so we want to make it so that she can get up to go potty if we go down that route in the next few months. Or year. And really, it just felt like it was time. She seems to LOVE the "big girl bed" and talks about it a lot, but it's definitely an adjustment. I've been reading horror stories of kids being up and down all night during this transition, and it certainly hasn't been that bad, but missing one or two hours of sleep at this age still has an impact on her. In any case, this new transition has brought on some very funny (after the fact) moments. Here's my favorites:

*As I said, she likes to turn the light on, but she can't reach it. At first, she was putting her chair under the switch and climbing on it to reach. After I caught on around 10pm the other night, I moved the chair out of her room. Twenty minutes later, she walked out of her room crying, and telling me that I needed to put the chair back and she wouldn't stand on it again. When I refused, she figured out how to pull her laundry basket (with dirty clothes in it) to the switch, and stand in that to turn the light on. So I put that basket on the glider in her room. She pulled it down, and turned the light on. When I went in to turn it back off and put her back to bed, I put the basket in the playroom. She had a meltdown, and told me that the laundry basket had to stay in her chair (the glider). I told her no, and that it was going to stay in the playroom. She kept on and on, and since it was 11 by this point, I just put the basket back on the chair. But apparently, this was not enough. She insisted on finding Justin and telling him that the basket was to stay on the chair. After that, she stayed in her bed and fell asleep.

*A couple of nights ago, she came out of her room crying and asking for me. When I went to her, I brought her back to her room and put her in her bed, but she kept crying and saying something I couldn't understand. When I finally got her to calm down, I could understand her, and she was asking me to "get that scary crocodile out" of her room. So we talked about it and decided there indeed was no scary crocodile. An hour later, we had a repeat, except this time, she wanted me to get the eyeballs out of her bed. Seriously. How gross is that???? I finally decided that she was talking about the dot pattern on her sheets, since they do sort of look like cartoon eyeballs in the dark. But they are dots with hearts and flowers in them! Talk about backfiring...

Today, we had an unexpected day off. So we ran lots of unnecessary errands (i.e. window shopping and buying little things here and there) and just generally had a nice day. We came home to nap, and Roxanne was just really not having it. At one point, she snuck out of her room, went in the playroom and closed the door behind her. But she totally got herself caught by immediately picking up her Muno guitar. I could hear her playing the Foofa song, so I came in and put her back to bed. Let's hope she doesn't figure out any new sneaky techniques. I'm apparently not very intimidating when it comes to these situations...