Hello From Canouan Island

April showers bring May flowers, and May flowers bring Arcsight Club trips! This year our trip destination was Canouan Island, part of St. Vincent and the Grenadines. Monday night we stayed down on South Beach (it was hip-hop wknd, whoooo!) and we flew out of MIA Tuesday morning. We had a 4 hour layover in Barbados before we boarded our small turbo-prop plane for our 40 minute flight to Canouan. Our plane may have been small, but several people in our group were on the TINY 7 person plane. Yikes! Tuesday night we had a reception dinner on the beach. Yesterday was a group snorkel. We went out on a catamarran to Tobago Cay where we were supposed to see turtles (only a lucky few actually saw any). After that they had set up a big BBQ lunch on the beach, then we all went swimming. Once we got back to the hotel, we all jumped in the pool (inclusive of a pool bar) and swam again! Today, Chadd is playing golf, I am getting a "four hand massage" (2 masseuses at once!!) at the spa. This evening is dinner and the casino. Tomorrow is Deep Sea Fishing.... here fishy fishy fishy.......

Pictures above are 1) our plane landing in Canouan 2) the Canouan Island airport 3) on the catamarran, the island in the background is where they filmed some of Pirates of the Caribbean

Day at the Dog Park

This morning Me, Grandma, Claire, Clarice, Starling and Hannah Belle met my friend Amanda and her chocolate Lab, Charley, at the dog park. The dogs had a blast, they came home dirty (especially Hannah), wet and exhausted! Claire hung out in the shade with Grandma and watched all the dog chasing. View her pictures on the May picture page!

I also added some new videos. Daddy was making Baby giggle!

Pretend Mother's Day

Whew! What a long day for Miss Claire Bear. We got up early, dropped off dry cleaning, went to two Publixes, Smoothie King, JCPenney, Basilico's for lunch, Wal-Mart, and Toys R Us. Then we had about an hour at home before we had to leave for our "pretend Mother's Day" dinner at The Melting Pot with Grandma, Kristen, Gary and TJ. She was tired, and a little cranky on and off, but she did good. Once Thomas came over and oogooly-googled at her, she was all smiles. She just loves him. Today we are going grocery shopping to pick some new foods for The Bear. She did excellent this morning with her cereal, I think she's getting the hang of it!

Adventures in Rice Cereal

So, yesterday The Bear tried Rice Cereal. What a blah excuse for food that is! (I tried some!) I don't know if she actully swallowed any, but she smushed it around in her mouth a good bit. Once she got tired of playing with her food, which didn't take long, she wanted the real stuff and she got her bottle chaser. You can see the relief on her face if you check out her pics on the May page. She, however, is on her way to accomplishing her goal of getting used to tastes, textures and eating off of a spoon. When Chadd gets home on Saturday, he'll probably try to get her to master chopsticks! Sometimes you have to rein him in :) So, we keep trying, twice a day to practice real eating. Once we move past the cereals we can venture into fruits and veggies, perhaps they will taste like something other than wet cardboard!

New and Test Driving

Well, I've stolen another idea. After continously checking out Ivy Bolus' and Baby Jack's blog, I've decided to try my hand at my own. Claire has a new adventure every day, even if it's just "kick kicking" in her new bathtub, and it's fun to share them with friends and family. So, let's start with her story of "El Cinco De Mayo", no she did not have a margarita. Today was Claire's 4 month Dr. appointment. She is in the 85th % percentile for weight, 95th % for height (from where? who knows!) and 90th % for head. So, Dr. Rahman said that makes her "tall, skinny and smart", and that she's "growing beautifully". I accept! We also discussed first foods, so tomorrow she gets to try rice cereal for the first time. I'll make sure I get some pictures. Then came the sad part, the nurse (wearing camouflage scrubs, was she hoping Claire wouldn't see her and those mean mean needles?) came in and poked 4 new holes in Claire's chubby thighs. It definitely hurt me more than her, but she was a trouper (got that from her Daddy). She screamed, turned very red, then forgot it ever happened. What's on the agenda for tomorrow you ask?...Well, after working the last 7 out of 8 days I plan on not crossing the property line of my house. I'm not sure if I have enough food to make it through the day, but isn't that why my mom lives next door?