Robert's week with Grandma!

While I was gone in the Bahamas Robert spent most of the time in Red Wing with my mom. He had a great time and got to do lots of fun things. His favorite memories include going to the chipmunk movie, singing at church, pancakes, playing with the Otteson girls who babysat him, and helping Grandma. My mom also enjoyed having him there and was really sad to give him back. We're also not sure if it was the week away, getting spoiled by santa, or just getting a little older but his tantrums have definitely decreased and he is becoming our sweet little boy again. He loves helping, sharing his love with lots of hugs~kisses~giggles, and is even being a nice big brother!!

Here are some pictures from his time in Red Wing!

Tracing/coloring fun! As you can see he still likes to use both his right and left hand to write. His right hand is definitely better though!
Pancakes!!! Made the cereal we give him most mornings not very exciting.

His own tent in the kitchen!

My trip was good as well. The first few days we were there weren't the best due to cold, windy weather and having to train in a pool that didn't have a working heater. Low 70 degree water temps mixed with high 60, but windy, air temps did not make for happy swimmers! Luckily the cold front passed and we moved to a different pool so the rest of the trip was a lot a better. We were on Paradise Island, near the Atlantis resort, and enjoyed walking to the shopping area for gifts and ice cream. I was able to keep in touch with the family through skype. The first time skyping with both kids was hard because they were both very sad and had a hard time understanding why I wasn't with them. Luckily after that they enjoyed seeing me and had lots to share with me. I have to leave again this weekend (Thursday-Saturday) for a meet in Iowa so hopefully that goes okay and that Eric doesn't completely lose his mind. :)

This weekend we celebrated my mom's birthday on Friday with Nick & Tori and had a great time. We all stayed up way too late but had a good time talking and hopefully not scaring Tori too much with stories about our family. On Saturday my mom and Robert came with me to a Wildcat Hockey game and Robert had a lot of fun watching the game and the Zamboni!

And to not leave Izzy out of this post here is a picture of her in her new high chair/booster seat. She is on her 3rd one...she broke the one we used for Robert, could get out of her straps in the new one I bought her a few months ago, and so Eric had enough while I was gone and got her a top end model that should keep her in. She loves it so all is good so far! She is at a fussy stage right now so it wasn't the easiest of weeks on dad. It helped that she didn't have her brother around for most of it to pester her but she now knows what she wants but can't always communicate with us so that she can get it...or when we do figure out what she's asking for and it's something she can't have she doesn't like being told NO. We're hoping this is a quick stage and are happy to see her vocab progressing so that she can tell and/or show us what she needs.