The Fun Ship

I guess all Carnival cruises are called the "Fun Ship" but we just got back from a four dayer and it truly was on a "fun ship".
For work, Tyler was going on a cruise to visit Key West and Cozumel so Owen and I decided to tag along so we could see the sights and not miss out on Tyler time at night. I won't bore you with what we did every minute of the cruise because honestly it was mostly filled with the swimming time at the kiddy pool  and napping but I do want to give a few highlights of our favorite things from the cruise.
The first thing I saw when I got off the ship in Key West was this:

What is this?  Also, if you're thinking that is a real guy underneath the sculpture, you're wrong. It's part of the sculpture. Seriously... what is this? It's so weird. I couldn't stop staring at it. Anyway, besides staring at this sculpture, Owen and I walked around, ate some amazing key lime fudge and saw a guy riding his Harley with  no shoes, no shirt, his gray hair all the way down his back and a parakeet standing on his head. I am so sad I didn't get a picture of him. It was awesome.

When we got back from Key West, it was formal night on the ship... Tyler and I had no idea there would be a formal night on a 4 day trip so we didn't pack anything for the dinner. This is what Tyler ended up wearing:

Tyler borrowed some super nice pants from some guy he knew on the ship and then rocked his reebok classics as his formal shoes and his guayabera as his formal shirt. Sexy...

Our next stop was Cozumel. We were really excited to hit Cozumel because although Tyler was going to be working most of the time, he was also going to get to see a lot of his old friends while we were there. While he was in the store, Owen and I walked around in the rain and played with just about every morraca Owen saw (it was his favorite part of Cozumel by far). That night we went to dinner at one of Tyler's favorite restaurants with some of his friends, Oscar, Inair and their kids. It was so fun to be able to hang out with them for a while. Oh... Owen's other favorite thing about Cozumel was guacamole:

The last day of the cruise was the day at sea. All day, we spent at the kids pool and napping. While at the kiddie pool there was a hairiest chest contest going on. There was a guy named Alvin in the contest who had to be like 90 years old. I don't think he had one hair on his chest but he won by a landslide because he was so into it. The ladies were loving him. I'm way sad we didn't get a picture from the front but here is one of him from the back. Also, here is a picture of him in the thick of it with the ladies. You can't even see Alvin, except for his curly gray head in the middle of all of these women dancing up on him...

That night we were able to go to one of the shows on the ship. Second in line to the nude dancing sculpture in Key West, it was the most graphic thing about the trip. I've never seen so many women's butts and crotches in my life. I guess it was in the name of art but Tyler and I just thought it was weird. Owen thought it was hilarious and laughed and clapped throught the whole show.

Oh, remember how I said we did nothing but play at the kiddie pool and nap? I was wrong, we also ate... too much. By the end of the trip, Tyler and I had a combined weight gain of ten pounds. It was fantastic.

Everybody wear your life jackets tomorrow...

I'm a crier. I've always been a crier. The first time I realized this about myself was when I was in first grade and my teacher Mrs. Dickerson sent me home in tears.

I had always loved Mrs. Dickerson, she would hug you when you left for the day and they were the best hugs. Now that I am older and think about her, I can't quite figure out why I loved her, even with the great hugs. She wasn't what you would call a nice woman.  For example... My mom would let me dress myself in first grade and I just HAD to wear my "Brittany" legwarmers with everything. Side note: I call them "Brittany" legwarmers because they were pink and maroon and said Brittany all over them. Anyway, I wore them with jeans, skirts, shorts, you name it. I loved my "Brittany" leg warmers. Once while wearing my favorite leg warmers, Mrs. Dickerson told me that I would be a really pretty girl if I just didn't wear those leg warmers with everything. That's just one example of when Mrs. Dickerson said something mean to me. That wasn't even the time she made me cry. I actually didn't care what she had to say about my leg warmers, I loved them and I thought they went with everything I wore. Kind of like how I feel about hoop earrings now.

I'm sure I've told the few of you that read my blog about the time that Mrs. Dickerson did make me cry. But you're going to have to hear it (or in this case, read it again for the sake of this post).
One day I was in class and I was so happy I couldn't contain myself, I started whisteling. Mrs. Dickerson didn't like it and told me to stop. I was a good girl at that age and I listened to my teachers so I immediately stopped whisteling. Well, the little boy in back of me must have had it out for me for some reason, maybe he hated my "Brittany" leg warmers too, I don't know... anyway, as soon as I stopped whisteling, he started whisteling. Mrs. Dickerson assumed it was me. She told me to go stand in the corner for not obeying her. I tried to plead with her and tell her that it wasn't me that was whisteling but she didn't want to hear it so I went and stood in the corner and cried and cried. At the end of that day when the class was standing in line waiting for the bell to ring Mrs. Dickerson says to the class "Attention everyone. Please bring your life jackets tomorrow because Brittany is going to be crying again." Well obviously this hurt my feelings and I started to cry again. I didn't want to cry, I hated that I cried so easily but I couldn't help it, it was just the way I was made.

It's been 24 years since that day but I'm still just as much of a crier now as I was then. The past two days I've cried three times.  One time it was over Gilmore Girls. There was a sweet moment between Luke and Lorelei and it touched my heart and brought a tear of my eye. Then, yesterday afternoon, I turned on the TV and an old episode of Beverly Hills 90210 (yes, this is one of my guilty pleasures) was on and it was Mother's Day and Clare was looking at a photo book of her mom and that set me off again, just thinking about Mother's and how great they are. Then this morning, Troop Beverly Hills was on the Family channel (How embarassed should I be right now admitting all in one post that I don't change the channel when Gilmore Girls, 90210 or Troop Beverly Hills is on?) anyway, it was the end of the movie and the troop had just won the Wilderness Girls Trophy and Shelley Long's daughters says "I wish Dad were here" and Shelley agrees and then there he is. Guess what happened then? I got choked up. Over Coach and Shelley Long reuniting. Why?

Anyway, fast forward to this afternoon, I was in line at Target and making polite conversation with the lady checking us out when she starts telling me how it's been a really tough couple of weeks and proceeds to tell me that her father passed away last week, that she just got back from his funeral and then yesterday she found out that her step mother passed away. She started crying while she was telling me this. I stood there, my heart breaking for this poor woman and yet I could not will my tears to come.

So I ask you... why is it that when I don't want to cry, the tears come anyway but when I want nothing more than to cry in order to show some sypathy those tear ducts won't cooperate with me?

Note to self...

When you don't hear Owen anymore... something messy is happening.

This morning while Tyler and I were getting ready for church, Owen was in our bathroom busy getting prettied up himself with my makeup. This is the aftermath of a child who found his mommy's MAC paint pot (eyeliner). One might wonder how Owen could figure out how to unscrew the top off of the makeup bottle and the only exlpanation I can come up with is that he is a genius. A messy little genius.

Baby O isn't such a baby anymore...

He turned one today! Can you believe it?
A couple of Warnings: One: You are in for a long read. I just couldn't shorten this post. Sorry! Second: In the text of this post I will be using a lot of clichés. One of them being, I can't believe how time flies! It's true, this past year has gone by way too quickly. Another cliché... It seems like just yesterday he was a little seven pound peanut in our arms in the hospital. In the blink of an eye (yes, another), a year has gone by.
We didn't want to throw a huge party but if you know me at all you know Birthdays are a BIG DEAL! We wanted to make sure and incorporate both sets of family traditions so first thing this morning as soon as Owen woke up we went in to sing Happy Birthday to the little guy and give him a few of his presents. Then thanks to my cute, crafty sis-in-law, we put out the traditional Rhodes Birthday table runner (thanks Darcy!) and he got breakfast on his special red plate (again thanks to Darc).

We headed off to the beach for the afternoon with some friends (Is this more Owen's Birthday wish or mine? Let's be honest, probably mine). But we for sure had a good time in the sun.

For dinner, I decided to make Owen one of his favorite meals, spaghetti (ok, so he never actually said it was one of his favorites but you should see how he downs those noodles when they are in front of him, you'll see proof of that below).

I decided to make Owen his own person Elmo Birthday cake and it turned out to look nothing like Elmo. We had some friends over and one of the boys who was here asked me why the Elmo cake looked nothing like Elmo. So funny. I'm bummed I didn't get a picture so you could tell me if there was another Muppet that you know of that the cake looked more like so I could have acted as though I meant to make the cake look that way. Oh well... Anyway, we let him go to town on the Birthday cake and he was in heaven (Pictured below). As far as first birthdays go, I think it was a success. By the way, I'd like to give a shout out to those who called, sent gifts, cards, etc. Thanks so much for your thoughtfulness!

In honor of Owen's first Birthday, I wanted to write down some of our favorite things about the little guy and what he's doing at this stage in his life...

1. He dances every time he hears music. Whether it's a hymn at church or a song on my IPOD, he starts bouncing up and down and dances along or he reaches for you, grabs your thumb and starts bouncing on your hip until you dance along with him.
2. He sings along to music. He does this cute high pitched singing thing that sounds more like a dog howling than a song but nothing is better than that sound.
3. When you ask him what a fish does, he makes his own version of a fish face. He also makes a quacking sound when you ask what a duck says... cute.
4. He's walking everywhere. If he is walking to you, once he gets to you, he climbs up in your arms, looks around and starts clapping for himself.
5. I've already blogged about this but he loves to push anything he can around.
6. He loves unplugging things and plugging them back in. Dangerous right? Don't worry, if he goes to an actual electrical outlet to unplug something, we pull him away.
7. He is constantly making this face where he scrunches his nose. He does it to be funny, he does it when he fake cries and he does when he is laughing really hard. I can't get enough of it.
8. When Tyler fake laughs at him, he laughs back... really really hard. They can keep this going for seriously twenty minutes without ever getting sick of it.
9. He loves to be chased. He will crawl super fast in front of you and then look back to make sure you're chasing him. He loves even more being caught and tickled.
10. He loves being outside. He's been like this since he was a baby baby. Like if he was fussy when he was little and you couldn't get him to stop, walking outdoors worked immediately to calm him down. Now that he's older, he will go stand at the door and just wait for you to take him outside. Once outside, he wants to eat every rock that gets in his way.
11. We probably won't think this is funny for long but he shakes his head no when he knows he is doing something wrong. Like when he is trying to eat rocks, he knows he shouldn't so he'll put it in his mouth and then look at you and shake his head from side to side to let you know that it's a no no.
12. He loves nothing more than a soft blanket. If there is one anywhere in his vicinity, he will go over to it and roll around in it, mash his face into it or just cuddle with it. While he's cuddling in his soft blanket he loves to have his back tickled. One of my favorite things in the world right now is in the morning when he first wakes up, we go into the living room, get out our big soft blanket and he cuddles up in the blanket while I tickle his back.
My dad and I always joke back and forth about me thinking Owen is the smartest, best looking, most perfect child that has ever been born. I realize that he probably isn't really the smartest, best looking or most perfect child ever, but to me and Tyler, he is. I wish we could bottle up this time, or stop time just as it is right now, or... ok, enough clichés for now. Seriously though, I can't imagine that Owen could be more fun than he is right now. I'm sure I'll be saying this with every stage of his life but right now, this is my favorite stage. Oh, we love this kid... Happy Birthday baby boy!