1st Day of Pre-School

Finally.  The long awaited for day has arrived.  And I think Grace was underwhelmed by it.  I know I was.

We literally had a 15 appointment with the teacher for the first day.  That's it.  At 1pm.  Very inconvenient!!  And I think it just ended up confusing Grace.  We went to the school on Sunday for "New Family" day, and there were no kids and no teacher in her classroom.  We go today, and we have a teacher, but no kids.  She goes tomorrow and Friday, and there will only be half the kids there.  Next week, she only goes mornings.  Her real schedule of full days Monday, Tuesday, Thursday and half days on Wednesday and Friday will go into effect on September 10th.

I'm all for easing them in, but this seems a little overkill to me.

But here is the obligatory First Day of School picture.

Yep, a bus driver and a mom!  My heart melted.  :)

And a few other pictures from this morning while we were killing time waiting for our appointment.....

Our 2012 visit to Fernandina Beach

On Friday the 20th (of July) we left the hot, hot, hot mid-west and headed to warm and humid Florida.

Our trip to Florida was also full of family, friends, and shopping....but also the beach!!


The girls loved the beach!

I don't think they could get enough.  And it was especially nice to share the beach with their cousins, Megan and Josh, who just moved to Atlanta, and came down to spend a few days with us.

Doesn't this just scream FUN!

We also took a cruise to view Cumberland Island, GA, which is visible from the north end of Amelia Island.  Cumberland Island is a National Park today, but was once the vacation 'island' of the Carnegie family.  But it has a few inhabitants; the most popular are the wild horses.

It's such a beautiful place. It's also where John F. Kennedy, Jr. married Caroline Bessette.

We had a wonderful visit, albeit hot, to Florida.  Here is an album of all of our pictures:  FB 2012

Our 2012 Visit to Quincy

Before we moved to Brussels, we tried to go to Quincy twice a year.  But now that we're here, we will only travel back to the US once a year and split our time between Quincy and Florida.  And maybe Atlanta, next time.

After our brief stop over in St. Louis, we drove to Quincy.  It had been almost a year since we had seen everyone, so we were really looking forward to our visit.


Carol, Taylor and Megan also came up from St. Louis to stay with us for a few days; the girls stayed the week.  Mark drove up from Arkansas, and the Ley family were with us for a good part of the week, less Brandon, who was playing summer baseball in Hickory, NC.


It was soooooooo hot in Quincy. 106!!!  That's hot under normal circumstances, but coming from chilly Europe, it was a shock to our systems.  The girls were up super early due to the time change, which worked out well, since they could actually play outside in the mornings while it wasn't too warm and the bugs weren't so bad.

Grace loved playing in the sprinkler.

Audrey....not so much.

During the week, in between playdoh ice cream cones and running through the sprinkler, we visited with family and friends, did quite a bit of shopping, celebrated Matt's birthday, and the girls both got their first hair cuts.

Matt's grandfather was a barber, and his cousin Tina has her own salon.  As you walk in, she has a tribute to Grandpa.  His scissors, pipe, and an article in the local paper.

Grace did very well for her very first hair cut.  She sat very still.  Tina is a trained professional.  She knew the trick was to put a DVD on for her to fixate on.

Doesn't she look so grown up?  We love the cut!!

Audrey was not a fan of sitting still or getting her hair cut.  Tina was able to do a little bit of shaping up, though.

We had such a great visit!  The girls really enjoyed spending time with their cousins!  

Thank you to Grandma, Grandpa, Taylor, Megan, Kelsey, Amanda, and everyone else that helped make this such a special trip for all of us!

Here is a link to all of our pictures from Quincy:  Quincy 2012

Back in the Blogospere .... AGAIN!

17 days ago I broke my elbow, and I'm finally feeling up to blogging again...

I broke my elbow falling down the stairs holding Audrey.  So not to fall on her, I kept her upright, and landed on my other side.  A direct hit to the inside ball of my right elbow.  We had workmen in the house replacing our boiler.  They had thrown a bunch of scraps out front, and some guy was at the front door gesturing like he wanted to take the metal.  Our boiler is on the 4th floor, so I had run all the way up there to grab one of the guys, and was running all the way back down.  I slipped on the second or third step from the bottom right outside our kitchen, and landed on the ceramic tile.

At first I thought I had just hit my funny bone.  But the pain was insane.  It hurt to move at all, even if I thought I was keeping my arm still.  And it just continued to intensify.  Matt rushed home from work, and we had our friend Maureen come over to stay with the girls, so we could go to the hospital.  I would by lying if I didn't say I had several minor freak outs on the way to the hospital.  I was almost certain I was going to need surgery, they were going to have to put me under and I didn't even say good bye to the girls.  Poor Matt having to listen to me and drive.....

We had never been to the hospital in Brussels before, but had heard some positive stories of experiences others have had.  Matt dropped me off at the emergency room, and went to park the car.  I walked in and found my way to the check in.  Once Matt got there, we were immediately taken back to be examined.  Two different people looked me over - I don't know if they were doctors or nurses, but I have to guess doctors, as you don't see very many nurses here.  I was having a hard time with the pain and describing where it was exactly.  They took me to have xrays, and twisted me every which way and took at least 5 different pictures.  We waited about 5 minutes, and they had the results and whisked me to the casting room.  Casting was uncomfortable, to say the least.  At one point, I told someone in the room that the pain was worse then child birth.  When they were done, I argued with them about the state of my cast.  It was only plaster on the bottom, and just gauze on top.  I was like...'uh, where's the rest?'  I thought we were having language issues.  But eventually another doctor confirmed that it was right.  I wasn't convinced.

So we were sent home, with the weakest pain pill prescription EVER.  Ibuprofen 400!  WHAT?  I at least got 800 when I had the girls!!  Anyway.....  Katie and India hightailed it over from London the next day.  We were not sure how the pain was going to be, so they hung out with us for the weekend, and then we loaded up 3 small children and a weeks worth of 'stuff' into a Prius and made the drive to London on Sunday.  It was really an easy drive, all things considered, and really cool to take the car train across the Chunnel.

What a blessing to have Katie so close.  She was a life saver!  For all of us.  Matt is so busy with work right now, and the last thing he needed was to play nurse maid.  We had planned on being in London towards the end of the week anyway because he had meetings, so it worked out well.  We were all able to travel back to Brussels the following Sunday on the Eurostar.

So now to continue catching up....

Up next, our visit to Quincy.

Then we'll do Florida, London/Windsor, and the Brussels 2012 Flower Carpet.  All before the first day of school on Wednesday!!!  Lots of catching up to do!!  Thank God I can use my right hand/arm again.  Mostly.  The cast came off last Monday, and every day it gets a little bit better.  I go back in a week for another examination of how I'm healing.  Turns out the cast was only needed to control the pain and really not to aide in healing.  Only time can heal. 

Audrey is 15 months!

We interrupt this trip update with an important milestone.  Our little mini is 15 months old!!!

We couldn't get an appointment until 9/10 for her check-up, so I'll be back then with some stats, etc.   But here are 15 things I wanted to jot down about our little miss.

1.  Tiny!  Someone at the airport on our way back to Brussels asked me if my almost 15 month old was 6 months old!!  I put her down on the ground and let her walk off to demonstrate how advanced my 6 month old is.  :)  Seriously though.  I strongly believe that if we were in the US, the pedi would have her on those weight gain shakes.  We'll see how her pedi feels at her appointment next month.  She's a fairly good eater.  Things have been somewhat rough this week with a stomach bug and pesky molars coming in, but usually she eats more then you can imagine someone of her size could put away.  So that's good.

2.  Wearing 12-18 month clothes.  But look at how this bathing suit hangs off her, and gapes at the back....

It's a 6-12 months size!!  She'll be wearing India's hand me downs before we all know it!!

3.  She no longer walks.  She runs.  NON STOP.  It is CRAZY.  I need to also get a video of this.  She loves to chase you!  This is complete payback for all the worrying I used to do about Grace not walking.

4.  10 teeth.  2 bottom molars TRYING to break through.

5.  Speaking of teeth.....she demonstrated their capabilities today with a bite to her sisters thigh.  Poor Grace.  Remembering what we taught her when she was the victim of daycare bites, she looked Audrey squarely in the eye and said, 'No Ma'am, Audrey.  No Ma'am.'  Ugh.  I just do not know what to do about it except redirect.  Any tips appreciated.  It seems that when she gets frustrated and mad, she just goes in for the bite.

6.  Speaking of mad....this girl already has full blown temper tantrums.  Beyond anything we have ever seen with Grace.  ALREADY.

7.  From one extreme to another, this girl is a lover.  She will kiss just about anyone.  And she gives big hugs.

8.  Not too many words.  She definitely makes a G sounds for Grace.  But Grace is hard.  She says bear and owl.  She also says Dada, and sometimes Mama and baby.  I think I've heard ball and bubble.  We've heard cheese and shoes.  She does quite a few animal sounds.  Moo for Cow, a buzz sound for Bee, hoo for Owl.  She pants like a dog.  I heard her meow once or twice for cat. 

9.  Shakes her head yes.  It is so cute.  Video to come on this.  And she shakes her finger at you for No.  She gets that a lot.

10.  Does a few signs.  More, Thanks You, Please, All Done, and Cat.

11.  Points to her nose and ears.  And her belly, sometimes.  She also demonstrates washing her hands and her hair.

12.  Refuses to let you feed her.  She is really good already with a spoon.  She is definitely much more advanced then Grace was at this.  I guess from watching big Sis.  But she makes the BIGGEST mess EVER.  I am so sick of cleaning the floor I may break down and get a dog.  And when she's done and/or mad if you've tried to feed her, she just swipes everything onto the floor.

13.  She prays.  We say the blessing before dinner each night, and when we're all seated, she puts her hands together to say the blessing.

14.  Loves dogs and horses.  We'll be strolling along in her stroller, and if she sees either, she launches herself forward.

15.  Still doing 2 naps a day.  But can survive with just one.  We're going to be working on taking one nap away soon....we have a lot of changes/adjustments coming up once Grace starts school......an added thing......she is going to miss miss miss Grace so much.  I can already tell.

Fly me to St. Louis

We started our trip on Friday the 13th at 8:30am (1:30am STL time), with the girls very first taxi ride to the airport.  Audrey was strapped into her seat, since we were bringing it for the plane, but I had to hold onto Grace.  Luckily, it's a really short drive to the airport.

We got to the airport with plenty of time to spare.

The only flying issue we encountered on the entire trip was installing Audrey's car seat in first class.  The Delta planes to Belgium have been updated to allow the first class cabin to have the fully reclining bed like seats.  Apparently the seat belts for these seats have air bags in them.   When we checked in we told them we'd be installing the car seat.  No problem.  When we got on the plane, we told them we'd be installing the car seat.  No problem. Mr. 'Head of Delta in Belgium' even waited with the girls and I on the jetway while Matt installed the seat.  Noooooooo problem.  We all get on, get settled....Mommy even has a complimentary glass of Champagne.  We were sitting for almost 20 minutes, and at least 3 different attendants pass by, say hello, talk to the girls, etc.  when all of a sudden, the attendant passing out the US customs declarations forms comes by and says...."she can't sit here in that seat.  You'll need to hold her."  Wwwwwhhhhhhhhatttt?   Ummmm, we are NOT holding her for a 9 hour flight, THANK YOU VERY MUCH, that's why we brought her seat.  Sorry.  No can do.  Mommy's head starts spinning around at this point.  We go back and forth with the attendant for a few minutes, and she says she'll start looking for seats for us in the back of the plane, to which we inform her she better start looking for a quite large refund check, as well.  Meanwhile, one of the other attendants overhears what is going on and breaks out the plane manual.  She finds the page with the June revision that details how to install a car seat with the new configuration.  You have to bypass the airbag seat belt and use the seat belt extender.  Voila.  At least someone was paying attention when the revisions came out.  I wish we had gotten her name so we could write a personal thank you to her.  She was extremely helpful and patient.  Especially patient, as we were about to lose it.  Once that was resolved, we all settled in for a day of flying through the sky.....

Grace did not nap a wink, and thoroughly enjoyed her onboard entertainment and ice cream sundae.  Audrey slept a tiny bit, but really not enough.....  and by the last 2 hours, was beyond her limit.  I spent most of the rest of the time walking the aisles with her.  Thankfully everyone in the first class cabin were good sports and not too annoyed by her antics.

Arriving via JFK was quite an experience.  What an OLD airport.  We had quite a bit of difficulty maneuvering around with strollers, as we could not find an elevator and had to go down the escalators.  At one particular escalator, our flight crew had to help us all down..... that's how long it took us to get anywhere!  The whole plane had disembarked (and remember, we got off almost first since we were in first class!!!), and the flight crew was making their way out.  One awesome thing.....  even though we were physically the last people to get to the customs and immigrations lines, we were ushered straight to the front.  I guess because of our strollers!?  But we zipped right past all our buddies from first class.  They were not happy. 

When we finally got to our gate for our St. Louis flight, I think we were all about to collapse.  But we let the girls run around and snack, while Mommy and Daddy recharged on our first Starbucks in well over a year.  (We never drank it in Atlanta either, so who knows how long it had been since we had had one.)  Our gate for our St. Louis flight was a disaster.  They were running every single regional jet out of the same gate.  Once you went through the gate, there were other gates, but there were literally 500 people at the gate waiting for their flight.  RIDICULOUS! 

Yes, so that's right....our next flight was a regional jet.  Doesn't that sound like fun for 3 hours with 2 tiny ones?  But we really lucked out.  Both girls crashed hard for the flight, and Mommy and Daddy got to nap a bit, too.  Of course when we landed, we had to wait almost an hour on the plane for them to find us a gate (which is just humorous if you are familiar with the STL airport, as it is nearly half abandoned since the departure of TWA and American).....but we survived.

When we finally got to the Dailings house, we were zombies, but really looking forward to our Chikfila FEAST!  And it did not disappoint!!!!

Saturday morning the jet lag set in and we were up bright and early!  After a wonderful breakfast, we were off to start our 2 week shopping extravaganza at the St. Louis Galleria and to meet our good friends the Hill's.  So glad we got to see them on our trip!

Up next......God's Country.....Quincy, Illinois!

Back in the Blogosphere!

We're back!  We've been back from vacation for a little over a week, but we're finally all unpacked, mostly put away, and back on a schedule.

Jet lag was rough this time on both girls, and subsequently us.  We thought it was bad last time when it really only affected Grace.  Audrey was so little last time, and only sleeping in 3-5 hour intervals anyway, so it didn't seem to phase her as much.  Grace went to bed at 8pm, and was back up at 10pm for 4 hours.  And this time was no different, except add Audrey to the mix, AND they were both hungry at midnight, as if it was mealtime (since their bodies were telling them it was dinner time on the east coast).    They finally went to bed between 12 and 2am.  And then we made the big mistake of all sleeping till after 11am Sunday morning.  It felt great to sleep, but trying to get back on a schedule and get the girls to bed at normal time was no easy feat.  We kept them up as late as possible Sunday night, and they did sleep all night, but since we were so tired, after Matt left for work, I fell back asleep until after 9am.  When I realized what time it was I jumped out of bed to wake Grace and Audrey up so we could keep trying to move bed time up. 

Things in the sleep department slowly got better all week.  On Wednesday Grace had camp, so we were forced to get up before 8am to eat breakfast and get ready so we could get there by 9am.  I think this really helped us get over the sleep hump.  But the eating issues persisted all week.  They were not hungry for breakfast.  I guess their bodies were still telling them it was the middle of the night when they should have been eating breakfast.  But by lunch time they were ravenous.  When they wanted to eat and when they should be eating took the whole week to straighten out.  And then on top of it all..... they both got a stomach bug!  So they are finally eating, but a modified version of the BRAT diet.  One thing after another! 

Next up....Fun time in St. Louis and Quincy!