Barcelona and Setting Sail- Maycation at Last!

On May 29th, we flew out of Saudi and headed toward Barcelona via Amsterdam.  Our first plane was supposed to take off at 12:20am, but that's when the adventure began.  As our flight was leaving the terminal, the crew discovered that a passenger who had boarded the plane was missing and couldn't be found.  We ended up having to go back to the airport, only to discover that the missing man had moved seats and was chatting with a friend the entire time.  After an hour delay, we were finally off.  Let's just say that traveling with Savannah is a whole new game now that she is moving so much!  We'd put her to bed at 8 before we left, and she had slept for two hours before we left- just enough time for a full reboot.  She was ready to play, and didn't fall asleep until about 3:30 am!  She just didn't want to miss any of the excitement, but needless to say, we were exhausted!  :) 

Our second flight proved to be an adventure as well.  When we boarded the plane, we realized that we were on the very last row with the seats that wouldn't recline, ugh!  The fun really began when we took turns going to the bathroom.  When it was Brent's turn to go to the bathroom, he had an unexpected surprise.  The door to the lavatory broke- literally- locking him inside.  Since we were sitting on the back row, I was standing by the door and noticed that he was trying to open it.  After trying for a few minutes, I went and got a flight attendant and she had to literally take the door of the hinges to get Brent out!  It did make us feel better when she told us that the door had been broken, but that they thought they had fixed it while the plane was on the ground.  Savannah was again in fine form, ready to play the entire flight, and finally fell asleep while we were landing.  Brent and I had a good laugh about it all!

Once we landed in  Barcelona we headed to the hotel and then immediately got outside and headed toward the famous "Ramblas."

The very beginning of the Ramblas.

Square at the top of the Ramblas.

Like Daddy, like daughter?

Daddy and Savy- she loved the water!

Mommy and Savy- love that tongue!

We loved the atmosphere and feel of this area and ended up spending most of our time there! Next, we hopped on the subway and headed to the famous Sagrada Familia.  It is a Catholic cathedral that was started by Gaudi over 100 years ago and is still under construction.  It is definitely one of a kind and unlike any other cathedral we've been to.

Waiting for the metro to arrive.

Keeping busy with her book.

Partial view of the Sagrada Familia.

Inside

Gaudi Facade of the Sagrada Familia

Mommy and Savy.

Daddy and Savy.

You can't tell from the picture, but these are actually the huge doors at the future main entrance.
The inscription is a line from the Lords prayer in many different languages.

Massive organ pipes.

After viewing spending a few hours at Sagrada, we headed back to the Ramblas and spent the rest of the afternoon wandering down the little streets and taking in the sights and sounds. We found a wonderful little quad of buildings and ate dinner watching the people walk by. It was enchanting!

Charming square we ate lunch in.

Beautiful side street.

During our stroll, we ended up stumbling upon the Barcelona cathedral which we were planning to visit the next day. It was everything you'd imagine an old cathedral to be, and it had the most beautiful garden cloister!  It was our favorite site of the city!

Barcelona Cathedral

Ceiling inside.

Garden Cloister

Cutie pie!

Looking at the geese in the cloister.

The next day was boarding day, but we didn't have to be on the ship util 2 pm, so we went back to the Ramblas and continued meandering down its marvelous streets.  We ended up finding another very tiny Catholic church and a beautiful fountain.

Mommy and Savy

Daddy and Savy

Standing at the fountain.

She likes it!

She wanted to jump right on in!

Sweet pea!

After a wonderful afternoon, it was time to head to the port and begin the cruise!

Off we go!

Next stop Cannes, France!

Look Whooo's Turning One!

Before I write several posts on our vacation, I wanted to go ahead and get a post about Savannah's first birthday party here in Saudi!  This past Thursday, we had a wonderful party to celebrate our sweetie's first birthday.  Now, she won't be one until July 1; however,  so many of our friends are leaving for the summer, we decided to have her party early so they could be here to celebrate.

We chose a "Look whooo's one" party theme with owls and lots of pink, green, and white!  Very girlie!  Party decorations are hard to come by, so I decided to make everything myself using my handy dandy Silhouette (you should check it out).   I also entertained the idea of doing a pool party since Savannah loves the water, but with the 115+ degree temperatures we've been having, I quickly decided to keep it inside the air conditioning.  I should also say, prepare yourself for lots of pictures!

Happy family!

The cake made by our friend Lindsey Perry.

Savannah's smash cake.

The Spread

Party Favors 

Front Door

We wanted it to be fairly low key, so we kept it to several of Savannah's little friends and our close friends- and I must say that was perfect for us!  The kids had such a good time playing together. We are blessed by all of our friendships over here!

Our Neighbor Doug 

Sweet Cherie 

Uncle Dan

Savannah and Tucker 

Birthday girl!

Brent with the newest addition to the Saudi crew-  6 day old Jacob Sperling.

Lindsey and Brooklyn

The guys.

One of her favorite things to do!

Ian and Savannah 

Verna, Stephanie, and Jacob

Playing!

Mrs. Cindy and Savannah

Uncle Dan, Aunt Heather, and Savannah

Stephanie and Jacob with Savannah and I

Then the time came for cake and presents!  Our good friend Lindsey Perry did the beautiful cake for Savannah's party, and it turned out amazing!  She also created a little smash cake just for Savannah; it was precious!  While we took pictures by the cake Savannah could not take her eyes of of it, she looked like she was ready to dive right in.  When we presented the smash cake to the birthday girl, she surprised us all and wasn't quite sure what to do.  She stuck a few fingers in, and immediately decided that she didn't like her hands being dirty!  Don't know where she gets that from (finger pointing directly at me)?  No matter how much encouragement we gave her, we couldn't get her to voluntarily stick her hands in the cake.  I finally pulled out a fork and started feeding it to her and that did the trick.  It was hilarious, and fit her personality so appropriately!  It will be something we always laugh about!

The cakes

Family picture 

Blowing out the candle.

Birthday girl!

Eyeing the cake!

Sticking her fingers in.

Not quite sure what to think about it. 

Mommy trying to give a little encouragement.

Picking up a small piece and having a bite!

We had several of Savannah's friends help her open presents while she sat on Daddy's lap.  She loved watching everything, and she loves all of her presents!  As I'm typing she's playing with one that plays music and she's dancing to it (the dancing is a whole other blog post).

Presents! 

This picture just makes me smile!

Present table.

We had such a wonderful time together with our friends!  Thank you all for helping celebrate our little princess!  Savannah, we love you so much and are so proud of you!  You are a blessing to us, and we are so happy to be your parents!  Happy birthday sweet pea!

The next day we took a few pictures of Savannah in her fancy birthday dress that is on loan from our friend Sarah in the States.  We love you Savannah!

Daddy and Savannah!

Maycation!!!

It has been weeks since I've posted, and I promise, I have a good reason!  We went on our "Maycation" cruise and just got back a few days ago.  It's gonna take me a good long while to get posts written on the different places we went to, but I am hoping to get around to it over the next week.

I'll just say this- our cruise was AMAZING and we had a wonderful time!!!  More to come soon!  :)

At the top of Mt. Vesuvius- you know, that volcano that buried Pompeii!

Adios Acid Reflux! Hello Criss-Cross Crawling!!!!

Those of you who know us well know that the first three months of Savannah's life were VERY difficult.     Our bundle of joy was perfect and we loved her immediately, but she had some medical problems that all started the third week of life.  We had everything from conjunctivitis of the eye, an allergic reaction to something (we still don't know what) that covered half of her body, and a cephalahematoma of the head (which can be dangerous) that came back TWICE lasting a total of about seven weeks.  

Side view of her cephalohematoma

Poor little pumpkin!

All of these were traumatic for new parents and of course a new baby; however, NOTHING could compare to GERD- gastroesophageal reflux disease.  GERD is commonly referred to as acid reflux.  During the midst of all of these medical problems that arose at the same time, Savannah started crying (really it was more like screaming) ALL day and night.  I am not exaggerating- I literally mean for HOURS!  Being new parents, we just thought that babies cry and that ours cried a lot.  Then we started thinking, this can't be normal.  For the first few weeks we thought it was a combination of colic and her other illnesses, but then we began to notice certain patterns.  Feeding was an issue from the beginning, and instead of being content after a meal she would scream for at least an hour.  She would arch her back and become as stiff as a board, and there were very few things that would comfort her.  One of the funny things she found comforting was the 110+ outside temperature- luckily she was born in the prime of the Saudi heat.  She also started spitting up frequently.  Then frequently turned into constantly- at least 55-65 times a day (and again, no I'm not exaggerating). She started losing weight and we couldn't figure out how to get her gaining again.  It was, in all seriousness, one of the most trying times of our lives to watch our child suffering and feel totally helpless and unable to do anything about it.  This was all made worse by the fact that we were far from family in Saudi and were totally exhausted.  At this point we were pretty sure that she had reflux, but it took us three different doctors here in Saudi and finally a doctor in the States to get her diagnosed and properly medicated.  Her poor little esophagus was raw and every time she ate or spit up it was irritated again and again.  THANK GOD FOR ZANTAC!  Seriously!  Within two weeks of getting her on the proper dosage it was like we had a totally different baby. She started smiling all of the time and playing.  It was wonderful and we were so thankful that she was no longer suffering! Praise God! Unfortunately, the spitting up was still a part of our lives, but we were totally okay with it as long she wasn't hurting.  It just became our new normal.  Ten bibs a day, 5 or 6 burp cloths, 3 or 4 changes of clothes was our daily routine. She was the happiest little spitter in the compound, and we didn't go anywhere without extras of everything.  :) In addition to zantac we also began "positioning" which is basically making sure your baby is constantly in a position to keep the reflux down.  This involved keeping Savannah elevated at a thirty degree angle or more while she slept, keeping her propped up in an upright position for at least thirty minutes after every feeding, and keeping her upright as much as possible during the day.  We did this until her little esophagus healed and she could tolerate different positions.

Around eight months we noticed that Savannah's spitting up seemed to be drastically improving, dropping to around 20-30 times a day. When she turned nine months it dropped to around 10 times a day. We are THRILLED to report that since she has turned ten months it is virtually gone!  She is still "silently" refluxing because we can hear it and she chokes on it from time to time, but we no longer see it because it isn't coming completely up and out.  We are hoping and praying that her little esophageal flap will continue to develop and that the "silent" reflux will completely be gone in the next few months.  We are so thankful that even though she had a rough start, she is one of the happiest and now healthiest babies!  Adios acid reflux!

Now, all of that explanation to get to another point.  Savannah got almost no tummy time during the first three months of life because it would induce a reflux episode.  Once we were finally able to start tummy time she absolutely hated it!  As a result her gross motor skills were delayed; for instance, she was sitting up on her own before she was rolling over both ways.  Not to worry, the doctor explained that this is very common in reflux babies and she would catch up.  Her fine motor skills are actually ahead for her age. We accepted that Savannah would follow her own timeline for reaching milestones, but we have done everything in our power to encourage her with each next step.

Slowly but surely, tummy time got more bearable, and Savannah's reflux continued to get better.  While we were at home for Savannah's surgery, she started army crawling.  It's rather funny to watch because it looks like she is swimming across the floor.  :)  We were expecting Savannah to start "traditional" criss-cross crawling next, but since Savannah does things in her own order, she decided it was time to start pulling up instead.  After that came cruising from furniture pieces and wanting to walk ALL THE TIME (I think my back will be stuck in the hunched position for a while).  We love it!  With all of this cruising, we were kind of expecting Savannah to just skip criss-cross crawling and just start walking in a few months, but again she decided to surprise us.

This afternoon she and I skyped with my parents, and after we hung up she started inching her way forward!  I called Brent over because I was pretty sure she was about to crawl, and sure enough off she went.  You could see it click in her brain- "This way is much faster!"- and the rest has been history! Of course, I had to grab my camera and get a few shots.  Yay, Savannah!

We are proud of our little sweetheart and so excited to watch her grow and learn everyday!  We love you Savannah, and the wonderful moments as well as the times of struggle have been totally worth it!