9 Month Well Check-up

Yesterday Danny had his 9 month well check-up - here are his official stats! The boy has got quite a head on him...

For the first 30 mins we waited, Danny was hamming it up - jabbering away, reading books, pulling himself up, standing and dancing (read: bouncing).

Once the doctor finally got to us, however, Danny was mute and limp with exhaustion and boredom, so the doctor just had to take my word on his advanced development. In the end, she clarified what we already knew - he's just perfect.

Cheese

I love when Danny just sits there and poses for me.

Unfortunately, from a photography standpoint, I'm afraid those days are numbered...

Puss in Boots

Danny's admirers often note his big, brown eyes. On a recent trip to Walmart, a check-out gal compared him to Puss in Boots. What do you think? See the resemblance?

Just Jeans & Vans

I love when Danny rocks his jeans and Vans socks. So darn cute...

Thumb in his mouth as always

Danny at 9 Months

9 Months

Oh my, I almost forgot - it's Danny's 9 month birthday! Jimmy is out of town on business right now, so it's just me and the little man. Though we miss daddy very much, we're still having fun. He has become so silly and full of personality. He's crawling all over me right now as I type this like, "play with meeee, mommy!" He keeps us on our toes to say the least. We love you so much Danny!

Weight: 17.8lbs

Likes: Being chased, open/closing doors and cabinets, pulling things out of my diaper bag, "petting" Malloy, climbing up people/couch cushions/etc, mimicking mom and dad with sounds and motions, ie. head shakes and, last but not least, dancing

Dislikes: Being told "no" or taken away from something he wants, the end of meals, lying on his back for diaper changes - much prefers we do it "on the fly"

Sleeping: Still consistent on the sleeping. Only the occasional trouble going down or super early wake-up. Sometimes finicky at naps, but, what the heck - he can't be 100% perfect, can he?

Eating: I often offer him puffs and other finger foods, but he still wants nothing to do with them. So for now, I'm still pretty much pureeing everything, except for some finely chopped up banana at breakfast. We share 1 banana a day. It's our thing. 

Teeth: 1

Adorbs

This is a video from a couple weeks ago, but I still watch it on my iPhone often. Just makes me grin ear-to-ear. Danny changes every day. Squealing when he throws the ball is no longer amusing to him. Now it's tickling him by kissing his sweet little neck and mom and dad "wearing" funny things as hats. One thing is for sure, we'll stand on our heads if it makes him laugh like this...

Ripple

Rock-a-bye Baby and Baa Baa Black Sheep? Not for Danny. His favorite (and our most effective) lullaby by far is Ripple by the Grateful Dead. Nana started singing this song and, at times, playing it from her iPhone when he was a newborn and it always worked like a charm. After some delay, I finally learned the words and I now also put Danny down for every nap to these lyrics...

Ripple
If my words did glow with the gold of sunshine 
And my tunes were played on the harp unstrung, 
Would you hear my voice come thru the music, 
Would you hold it near as it were your own? 

It's a hand-me-down, the thoughts are broken, 
Perhaps they're better left unsung. 
I don't know, don't really care 
Let there be songs to fill the air. 

Ripple in still water, 
When there is no pebble tossed, 
Nor wind to blow. 

Reach out your hand if your cup be empty, 
If your cup is full may it be again, 
Let it be known there is a fountain, 
That was not made by the hands of men. 

There is a road, no simple highway, 
Between the dawn and the dark of night, 
And if you go no one may follow, 
That path is for your steps alone. 

Ripple in still water, 
When there is no pebble tossed, 
Nor wind to blow. 

You who choose to lead must follow 
But if you fall you fall alone, 
If you should stand then whos to guide you? 
If I knew the way I would take you home. 

La dee da da da, la da da da da, da da da, da da, da da da da da 
La da da da, la da da, da da, la da da da, la da, da da.

Too Fast

I'm sure I'll say this hundreds and hundreds of times over the years - Danny is growing up WAY too fast. Crawling was a proud milestone, but this???

Assisted standing...

First tooth...

Sorry! Crying was the only way I could an "inside" shot

Full on cupboard exploring...

Happy Valentine's Day!

What a lucky woman am I? I have not one, but two handsome Valentines. Happy day of love, everyone we love!

Eat your heart out ladies!

Tortola: Part 2

Continued from here...

Wednesday, Feb. 6th
First thing Wednesday morning, Jimmy got a couple awesome hours in at Apple Bay. It was a little rainy for the first little bit, so I was designated photographer from the window of big red.

Then we were both starving, so we headed back to Quitos where we had an amazing burger topped with grilled pineapple and fried plantains and stuffed with roasted red peppers...oh, and an "umbrella" drink. With full bellies, we waded into the water at Cane Garden Bay, also at the steps of Quitos.

To commemorate our last night on the west end of the island, we made reservations at BananaKeet for dinner - a restaurant known for their good food, inventive drinks and panoramic sunset views.

Thursday, Feb. 7th
Thursday we packed up and checked out and headed to Soper's Hole to return Jimmy's board and get one more delicious breakfast sandwich from D' Best Cup. With breakfast to-go, we took the same (flat) coastline road to Road Town where we were staying our last night on Tortola.

We immediately booked tickets on Speedy's Ferry to visit the famous Baths at Virgin Gorda, supposedly the inspiration for Louis Stevenson's Treasure Island. At one point, we had all of Devil's Bay beach to ourselves. I read and Jimmy snorkeled - it was pure bliss.

That's me at 8 o'clock

Me reading in a natural pool = heaven

Next, we checked in to our hotel for the night, which was nothing to write home about, cleaned up and then whipped out our computers to take advantage of the much faster urban internet speed. We did FaceTime with Aunt Ali and Danny (aww) and then set out on a walk around town, with our final destination being The Dove restaurant. Though I didn't like the overall city feel of Road Town as much as the little "towns" located in each bay, The Dove was by far our favorite restaurant. It was sort of like La Residence in the islands - very quaint and homey, excellent service and amazing food. Man, what I'd do to eat dinner there again right now.

View from our hotel balcony

Stuffed at The Dove

Friday, Feb. 8th
Friday we woke up before our alarms went off, which we were later very grateful for, because the Beef Island airport was definitely on "island time". Took us (and maybe a total of 10 other people) a good 1.5 hours to get our tickets and through security. Our travel day was otherwise VERY uneventful. Spent hours and hours waiting for our connecting flight in San Juan, which we luckily got changed to Charlotte (from Philly), since the Northeast was getting buried in snow!

Danny, who has been sleeping through the night for months now, woke up at 2:30am and just wouldn't go back to sleep. I happily "rescued" him and put him back down. Needless to say, I crawled back into bed about 3am feeling more "me" than I had in almost a week and happier than I even thought possible...

LIFE IS GOOD

In sum, in case you're interested in ever going to Tortola, here's our final two cents...

• Food was really good, but pretty expensive. I've never been to foodie spots like St. Barts as a comparison, but food was definitely better than other islands I've been to
• All the bread served at restaurants is homemade (read: yummy!)
• Natives are extremely friendly to tourists - construction workers literally climbed down off roofs to help us navigate our way
• The island definitely has an "island" feel - more rustic than fancy - but infrastructure is actually really sound and we felt 100% safe the entire time
• If you rent a car, you can find consistently good and, at times, awesome surf. Locals are very friendly and waves are not too crowded.
• You must rent a car! The island is spread out and taxis are expensive.

Tortola: Part 1

We got back from our wonderful vacation in Tortola, BVIs late Friday night and we've since been soaking up as much QT with Danny boy as possible. It was beyond traumatic (esp. for me) to leave him and we both missed him like crazy, so we've really enjoyed this past weekend. Without further adieu, a recap of our adventures...

Sunday, Feb. 3rd
As we went through security at ILM, we realized that my passport still says my maiden name (we don't travel much) and Jimmy booked my ticket into Beef Island, Tortola (a foreign country) with my married name. Neither one of us ever thought to look for any discrepancies. Jimmy had already checked us in online for all our flights. Upon talking to the US Airways attendants at our terminal, without a marriage certificate (do I even still have that somewhere?), we would not be able to get past customs in Puerto Rico (connecting flight to Tortola). ILM doesn't have American Airlines, so we had to call them to see if there was anything they could do to help us. After multiple calls and the threat of just "tossing" my current ticket and buying a whole new one outright, Jimmy finally convinced a nice lady to just illegally change my name on my current ticket...with literally seconds to spare before the door to our gate was closed. Phew!

ILM to Charlotte was a short flight and then it was Charlotte to San Juan, Puerto Rico and finally San Juan to Beef Island, Tortola. Luckily, our San Juan American Airlines attendant didn't really ask any questions about the recent name change on my ticket and the Queen admitted me to her beautiful island without any trouble.

The last leg of our trip was a 50 min cab ride to Long Bay Beach Resort. Unfortunately, we got to Tortola at night, so we couldn't really see our surroundings, but boy did we get acquainted with the topography rather quickly. Tortola roads are extremely STEEP. Between that and the whole driving on the left, with no lanes or road signs, that first ride was pretty scary for this mother hen. Complimentary rum punch upon our arrival definitely helped though...

Monday, Feb. 4th
Monday morning we woke up to these views from our balcony. Not too shabby!

We then took care of some business and rented "big red" and went to Soper's Hole Marina to scoop up a surfboard rental from a local shaper.

With board in hand, we headed down the dirt road to beautiful Josiah's Bay where Jimmy got his first surf session of the trip. That night we decided to stay a little closer to "home" and have dinner and drinks just one bay over in the Apple Bay area. First up was drinks at the famous Bomba Shack, where we did NOT sample their wacky mushroom tea or mushroom gravy, and then it was dinner at The Sugarmill.

Long Bay in the background - on our way to Apple Bay

Looking at random people's knickers at Bomba Shack

Tuesday, Feb. 5th
Tuesday we headed back to Soper's Hole Marina for breakfast at a great little coffee shop called D' Best Cup. From there we seemingly got lost on a private, extremely steep dirt road on our way to Smuggler's Cove beach, but Jimmy was on point! Too bad we were almost immediately shut out by a freak, heavy rainstorm!

We then headed back to Josiah's Bay for another session, this time with cash in hand, so this lady could get a rum drink and some island eats from Natalie's Little Secret restaurant/bar shack on the beach.

We then decided to take a less hilly route home, which snaked us along the coastline and through Road Town, the biggest city in all the BVIs. Highways, intersections and roundabouts on the left - so glad Jimmy was driving and not me!

Dinner that night was Quitos where we were serenaded by none other than Quito Rhymer, the island's most famous recording artist.