It Warms My Heart So

Ever since we had a name/diagnosis for the gross motor delays (low muscle tone), I’ve struggled with one little thing. I could get past the delay in crawling, and I really don’t stress too much about him not walking for awhile. But, there was always a part of my heart that sunk a little when I saw other babies standing. It may seem somewhat silly, but I couldn't wait to see my little boy stand up.

So over the past few days, he has figured out how to pull up to a stand. It’s still pretty shaky and wobbly, but it makes me so happy and so proud of him.

And as you can see, he’s pretty excited about it too.

We’re So Proud!

I’m speaking on behalf of the whole family here to say that we are so proud of my Mom! She just accomplished something pretty impressive…but here’s some background first.

Most people are surprised to learn that she dropped out of high school during the last semester of her senior year. She admits it herself…not the best decision-making going on there. She was 17, in love (my Dad was supposedly the cool college guy at the time), and a little (ha!) on the rebellious side.

So after achieving an impressive 30+ year career in the title industry, she went back to school.

She’s been studying like crazy and just got word that no only did she pass the GED exam (which is really 7 exams), but her scores were in the top 10% of her class!

At 53 years old, most other grandmothers wouldn’t have been able to swallow their pride enough to sit in a classroom with a bunch of 20-somethings, but she did and was one of the star students.

We knew you could do it Mom and are SO proud of you! Dad will have to clear some space on the mantle for your diploma…and who knows…maybe an associate’s degree next??

Top 10

I admit it, I'm addicted to American Idol. I don't know what it is about this show, but I'm hooked every season. So now that it's down to the top 10 and really getting good, I thought I'd start the AI discussion and see what everyone else's thoughts were. You know you watch it too!

The best of the night:

The Billie Jean rendition was pretty impressive and just cool. I also loved the Lionel Richie rendition he did a few weeks ago. I think he's great and very talented, but I wonder if America will really vote for a true rocker to win???

The cheesiest performance:

I'm sorry. I know it's completely unpatriotic to say anything bad about God Bless the USA, but that was SO cheesy. I'm sure she'll stay on, though. There are thousands out there watching, standing up and singing with a tear in their eye (I know you did Mom!) and will vote their hearts out for her.

The strangest song:

I had never heard of that song and thought it was quite strange. The kid is obviously a great singer, but he's starting to bug a little. And, I'm quite sad at how old I feel since he was born in 1990!

Your thoughts?

2.3 Minutes That Felt Like 100

I just had a simple little moment that I hope I can savor and remember forever.

During some playtime at the house, I started to crawl toward Tate like I was going to chase him. I fell to the ground, and he fell right beside me. We stayed there on the ground side by side, sang some songs (I sang in English, he sang in Tateish), I brushed his hair, he played with my hands, and occasionally he'd look over at me and smile.

It probably only lasted about 2.3 minutes, but it felt to me like 100. If you could bottle that sweet feeling, I'd be its newest addict.

2008 Strzinek Family Vacation

So here it is, the long-awaited vacation journal. I know it’s not near as interesting to hear about or see pictures from someone else’s vacation, but humor me. If you remember to way back in July, our full Strzinek family vacation to Hawaii was altered a little. So as we re-scheduled, it worked out that we would instead take a cruise. We were on the Celebrity Millennium ship and took the 7-night Eastern Caribbean cruise.

Going into the trip, I started to get pretty nervous as to how it would all work out. Wade and I had never been on a cruise to begin with and didn’t know what to expect, and life with a 15-month-old is hard enough on land. How in the world would it work in the middle of an ocean on a boat? I have to say, though, I’m now on the cruise bandwagon and am a big fan (with some parameters).

So I decided to go ahead and cover each day, but in random-talking-out-loud-synopsis form. Bear with me because I know it's a lot, but I’ve got to get this trip documented before I forget.

The Day Before – Saturday, March 8

24 hours before we leave, Tate has horrible congestion and a cough. Beautiful. I almost get us all killed as I’m driving away from our 37th run to Target, talking on the cell phone, and not paying attention. Good one, Kelly. This creates some wonderful husband/wife tension on an already stressful day. My goal was to be done packing before dinner, so we could get a good night’s sleep. Ha! So at 10:00 p.m., Wade makes a Wal-Mart run because we can’t fit everything into two bags. At midnight, I’m about to fall over and MUST go to sleep. At 3:00 a.m., I wake up to hear Tate coughing for 45 minutes straight. Why go back to sleep then when the alarm is supposed to go off at 4;30 a.m.? Oh, yeah we also lost an hour that day for daylight savings. Good times ahead.

Day 1 - March 9

We make it to the airport at 6:45 a.m. with all (now three) of our bags, stroller, Pack & Play, toys, passports, snacks, valium (not quite, but I thought I might need it at times) in tow.

I’m sure all of those sitting by us on the plane to Ft. Lauderdale were sure they had been infected with SARS from the hacking coughs of both me and Tate (I was still recovering from a previous sinus infection). The flight wasn’t pretty, but he eventually fell asleep. We take this brief moment to relax.



Although the first day was definitely the hardest, we soon realized that there are some perks to traveling with a little one. We got to pass up all of the long lines and go through the handicap line because of the stroller. I’ll take any perk possible.


We got on the boat early, headed to the room, and met our super-cool butler, Arvin. Now, it’s lunchtime. Mr. Picky Eater who doesn’t feel good and is also very tired doesn’t want to eat anything. But he somehow musters up the effort when Daddy offers some chocolate ice cream. Even through the tears, he got some down.

And finally, we were off. I quickly realized that my vision of streamers, champagne, and people waving and cheering was a little off. A little anti-climatic, but still exciting to be off to sea.

Naptime, followed by a rough dinner…let’s all head to bed! The thoughts of “Are we crazy and what in the world are we doing?” are swirling.

Day 2 - March 10

So, we're not crazy, this is a much better day.

This was one of our at sea days. We spent the morning exploring the boat and making the rounds through each of the 11 floors. Since this is my first cruise, I don’t have much to compare it to, but I was pretty impressed. Everything was very nice and actually pretty spacious. Considering that we would be in our room (Tate’s afternoon nap and early bedtime) more than most cruisers, we upgraded to a bigger room. It was worth every penny. This gave Tate some room to burn off energy and crawl around (oh yeah, two days before we left he started crawling on all fours) when not strapped into a stroller or high chair. This made all three of us happy.

Monday night was the first formal night. I used to wear formal/cocktail dresses several times a year for our AHA galas. I always resented that I got to get dressed up, but had to work and didn’t get to enjoy myself. So this was a nice change.

Here’s the whole Strzinek clan. Wade and I have pretty goofy looks on our faces. That must be from our attempts to smile and pose while trying to coerce a 1-year-old to do the same.

Wade's sister, Tisha; brother-in-law, Ford; cousin, Trip; MoMere/Judy; Poppy/Robert; cousin, Mary Tish; and the three of us.

This picture's a little better, despite Tate's "Hey...What's Up?" face.





Dinner each night was absolutely delicious, but it was also the most difficult part of each day. Something about a two hour, five-course-meal and toddlers don’t mix well. My hopes of using this trip to get Tate to try all kinds of new foods were quickly altered when I realized we just needed him to eat SOMETHING…so every tiny Goldfish cracker we brought on that boat was put to use. We quickly became fans of the looks-just-like-Chick-Fil-A chicken nuggets that the maitre 'd special ordered for Tate. While we enjoyed lobster, steaks, fish, etc., he chowed on milk, Goldfish and nuggets just about each night.


It was helpful having some friendly faces at the dinner table each night to pass Tate around to and help keep him happy. Here he is with MoMere and cousin, Trip.





This was also the night that we learned Tate is quite the dancer and likes to get down. Sure his version of dancing is crawling, rolling, and bouncing, but he LOVED the dance floor and listening to the jazz band. He and the female lead singer had some serious flirting going on each night. It even worked to my advantage to get Wade out on the dance floor for one round of a family slow dance...all three of us!

Day 3 - March 11

The next day was a port in San Juan, Puerto Rico. We arrived at 1:00 p.m., so I was able to watch the boat pull into the pier. That is pretty amazing. I’m sure it must all be computer generated these days, but the accuracy and ease was incredible.



We let Tate get a good nap on the boat and then headed out for a couple of hours in the city. I loved San Juan and wished we had more time there. The cobblestone streets gave a lot of character to a pretty decent-sized city. We just walked around on our own and didn’t know most of what we were looking at, but I loved the look and old world feel of the city.

Good thing the city wasn’t too old world, though. I found a Walgreens and was able to buy some more baby wipes. Who knew that two packages wouldn’t be enough?

Our most entertaining part of the day was when Wade and Tate were attacked by about 200 pigeons. We walked up to show Tate the birds, and some man hands Wade something. Little did Wade know, it was pigeon food. The swarming attack begins. It was pretty funny to watch. We used many antibacterial wipes after that.

Day 4 - March 12

The next day was a port in St. Thomas, U.S. Virgin Islands. The weather this day was absolutely GORGEOUS. Just about 75ish, sunny, and a touch of a breeze. I was in heaven.






We started with the Coral Land & Sea excursion. We went on a semi-automatic partial submarine. Huh? Basically it was a boat with a big section that you could sit underneath and look out windows that were underwater. It was pretty interesting to see the ocean floor, since the water is so clear. Tate only lasted about 10 minutes down there, so we spent the rest of that tour on top of the boat finagling him as he threw a nice tantrum because he wanted to crawl around…which would’ve meant crawling off the boat.

But then he enjoyed himself a little more when we went to the Coral Land Aquarium. We didn’t quite tell him that it’s nothing compared to Sea World, but it still had some sights to see…sharks, stingrays, lots of fish, and iguanas. This little green iguana got out of his habitat and was desperately trying to get back in.






After that, we found Gladys’s Cafe and had a yummy lunch of jerk chicken. We had a great day in St. Thomas and wore the little guy out. I think his favorite part of the day was the open-air bus/taxi ride.

Day 5 - March 13

The next day was a port in Casa de Campo, Dominican Republic. The guys went and played golf at Teeth of the Dog. Doesn’t that sound appealing? Actually, they said it was pretty incredible as several of the holes are alongside the ocean.

The girls and the kids headed to a little village for a walking tour and lunch. The architecture was beautiful. I think I might make a series of framed pictures for our house from several of the buildings there.

Then we headed onto a big barge boat ride down a river. Sorry…can’t remember what river. I heard that several movies have been filmed there, including Jurassic Park. When looking around, it really did have that feel. No dinosaurs in sight, though.



About five minutes into the boat ride, the little guy crashed hard. I got lots of sleepy snuggle time with him on this trip, which was nice. That doesn’t happen much during our regular days.

That about did it for the Dominican Republic. Here are some pictures of how we entertained ourselves in the room. The big mirror on the wall and glass table kept Tate very occupied. Who needs toys? And he loved climbing up the step into the bathroom, which is where he also discovered the joys of playing with toilet paper.

Day 6 - March 14

The last port was at the cruise line’s private island, Labadee, in Haiti. This was one of our favorite days. The beaches were really pretty, and the weather was great.



Several family members were quite the snorkelers and saw barracudas, sea urchins, and all kinds of marine life.

I wasn’t sure how Tate would do on the beach. Last summer he had a blast anytime we went swimming, but a beach is pretty different. I was just waiting for that moment of rubbing the sand and salt water in his eyes. It never happened. He was over-the-moon, ecstatic, excited on the beach. It was hilarious to watch. Throughout the entire day, the only time he fussed was when we were taking him out of the water.

He played in the sand, crawled in the sand, and even ate the sand. We’ve watched this video about 100 times since the trip, and you’ll hear screams and screeches. Those are screams of pure joy. Too funny.





They also had a little kid water/fountain park. He LOVED crawling around and on top of the big water fountains. I wasn’t a fan of picking him up and having a surprise fountain of water in the face.



This trip also provided a sad realization of becoming older. I used to be quite the sun-bather back in my younger years. My desire to ward off more sun spots and wrinkles has drastically changed that…hence the hat in just about every outside picture.

It really was such a fun day for us all. We can’t wait to take Tate to another beach soon.

Day 7 - March 15

So the last full day was a day at sea…and my birthday! 32…hard to believe! It was a great day, and I appreciated so much everyone helping to make it special. First thing in the morning, I got to head down to the spa for a massage (thank you Wade!), where I was informed that I carry all of my stress in my shoulders. Um, I think it’s more like I carry around a 20+ pound boy every day, but thanks.

I headed down to breakfast (which by the way was delicious every day as well), we walked around, and then I got to head back to the spa for a pedicure (thank you Tisha & Ford!).

After lunch, we headed back to the room and were greeted a room decorated with Happy Birthday banners and fresh roses, thanks to our super-cool butler, Arvin.




That night Tate headed to dinner with the rest of the family, and Wade and I got to have a birthday date night. We went to the ship’s specialty restaurant, The Olympic. This was probably the finest of fine dining that we have experienced (lots of utensils, several courses, food to clear your palette, etc.). We probably lacked some maturity as we laughed at ourselves and our lack of sophistication, but the dinner was pretty incredible. I’m not sure it’s the kind of dinner I would want to pay full land retail for, but for $30 on the ship, it was well worth it.

I was very impressed with Wade as I talked him into venturing out and trying a few different things on the menu…lobster bisque, salmon soufflé, goat cheese soufflé, French cheeses, and even a glass of champagne with dessert.

And the dessert was yum---meee! I had a chocolate mousse, and they made a special crepe suzette for Wade.

One of the most impressive things about this dinner (and really all week long) was the level of service. Or maybe I’m just getting too used to Double Dave’s pizza on Saturday nights. The service was amazing…at dinner I asked which of two appetizers our waiter preferred. He said, “Here there are no problems, just solutions. I’ll bring you small portions of both.” Well, thanks!

It was a great night and great birthday. I got to spend the day relaxing, had some time getting kisses from my sweet little boy, and had a romantic night out with my husband. And, there was this incredible sunset…birthdays don’t get much better than that!

The Last Day - March 16

So I have no pictures from the last day. It was a LOOOOOOONG day. I won’t bore you (more than you’re already bored) with the gory details, but it involved waking up at 6:30 a.m., disembarking for 1 ½ hours with a kid in a stroller who didn’t want to be in a stroller, a wild goose chase and 3-mile walk alongside the hot, sunny beach in Ft. Lauderdale, and being stuck in the airport for 5+ hours from airline delays. Despite all of that, I was shocked at how well Tate did that day. It could have been a nightmare, but I was so proud of what a trooper he was.

We finally got home at about 11:00 p.m. The trip really was pretty fun. It was hard at times and not always relaxing, but we had a great time spending time with family and visiting some beautiful places. So after almost three years in the making, the Strzinek family vacation was a success.

Happy St. Patty's!

We got home LAAAAAATE last night after a 7-night cruise and family vacation. I'm recovering in mounds of laundry, e-mails, and lack of groceries. But have no fear, I'll soon be one of those obnoxious people to bore you with my vacation stories and pictures.

Until then, Happy St. Patrick's Day! I do have quite a bit of Irish blood in me, so today is always a fun one. Although, I'm not quite sure what we're celebrating or why, but I love the color green, so why not. :)

I'm still amazed at how much my little leprechaun has changed this past year.

St. Patrick's Day 2007:

St. Patrick's Day 2008:

Let It Snow!

Only in Texas can you start your week off on Monday shopping for beach vacation clothes while it snows outside, followed by two days of warm, short-sleeved weather, and concluded with six inches of snow!

We started by watching the snow out the window. So far, so good.

Then we began the bundling up process. Since I was already bundled up in my ski jacket (which hadn't seen real snow in about five years) and hat, Tate's suspicion of something shady began. He was quite perplexed by the doubling and tripling of clothing layers, plus the gloves, plus the silly hat.

And alas, the introduction to snow for the first time in his life. The verdict is...

NO THANKS!

At least Macy enjoyed herself.

It was quite peaceful and beautiful. Just in time for...spring?

Book Review: Identical Strangers

I figured I would try to post my book reviews after I read the book rather than at the end of the year when my 30-something memory displays its diminishing abilities.

So the first book of 2008 for me was Identical Strangers by Paula Bernstein and Elyse Schein. I love true stories, and this one was fascinating. The identical twin sisters were placed for adoption at just a few months of age. The adoption agency was secretly taking part of a scientific study to see the true test of nature vs. nurture, so they separated the twins (and several other sets of multiples) and placed them in different adoptive families. So hard to believe that would really happen!

The book is written in a journal format alternating between each of the twin’s perspectives. In between their narratives is really interesting research on identical twins.

The book covers several years of the twins meeting each other, getting to know each other and their respective families, and the process of searching for their biological mother.

To me one of the most intriguing parts of their story and journey is that at one moment they feel connected to this person that shares the same DNA, and the next moment, they resent any sense of similarity. It speaks a lot to the basic desire to be unique. So what happens to that desire when you meet someone who looks and acts a lot like you?

There are sections of the book that are serious page turners and then there are sections that are pretty slow. Overall, it’s a very interesting story and worth the read.