Sorry this took so long. I tried posting yesterday, but the internet was giving me problems...

We are back from our Ohio Road Trip, and I’m happy to say it was a success. My sister graciously gave up much control over her home so we could keep Kayla as safe as possible from dairy. Dinners were dairy-free and we gated off the kitchen at all times. The big kids were wonderful with eating carefully and washing their hands and faces after eating. It was of course, stressful for me, but it was as stress-free as it possibly could have been.

Both girls were wonderful on the ride there and back. Alysa was miserable and cried off and on, but you can’t expect any less from a 1 year old. Now Kayla was truly amazing. She barely complained at all. Granted, she was spoiled by TV a lot, but it wasn’t on the entire ride either.

All 5 kids played amazingly well together. There were no fights or melt-downs. I expected some from Kayla and Maddy since they are 2 years apart and 2 years is a lot at 2 and 4. I did notice that Maddy was telling Kayla how to play with some toys. I found this hysterical b/c that is exactly what Kayla does to Alysa. And like Alysa, Kayla just ignored her. :)

We had a delicious dairy-free Thanksgiving meal that both my girls slept through. Let me explain that my girls took marathon naps (since they got hardly any sleep Wed night – we didn’t arrive until 11:30pm) and the turkey was ready 1.5 hours EARLY. Burt don’t worry, they were both awake for dessert.

It did not work out with Kayla sleeping in Maddy’s bed. We tried it Wednesday night. I slept in the same room as Alysa (she was in the crib), but J had to bring Kayla down to me twice and the 2nd time I tried to get her to sleep with me. But she got giddy (at 2am, mind you) so I had to take her back upstairs b4 she woke up Alysa (who slept like a log). J ended up sleeping on the floor in Maddy’s room with Kayla. So she slept from 2:30-5:30 in the bed and then from 5:30-7 on the floor with her Daddy. As usual, J was a wonderful Dad b/c he never came down to ask me to sleep up there, he just did what his daughter needed. So from then on, Kayla got the crib and Alysa slept in the pack n play.

While we were there, we took advantage of all 5 kids being together and we had their Portraits taken. After being there for about 5-10 minutes, if you had told me or my Sister that we would have left with a picture, let alone a good one, we would have laughed. Kayla was a terror. She wouldn’t leave my side w/o crying. She wanted nothing to do with sitting with her cousins or her sister. Even bribing her with food and Dora didn’t work. My sister was ready to give up and I was at the end of my rope. Finally, all the kids were sitting so nicely and the photographer put a stool behind the kids. Out of pure frustration, I just plopped her down on the stool. Would you know, the girl smiled perfectly for the camera? Then, the girl suggested bringing out the train prop. Well, that was it – Kayla was SO excited about the train that she sat perfectly and smiled beautifully. We got 2 amazing shots of them in 2 different poses. I will have to scan the train one in tonight and post it the best I can. We were all very happy with the outcome.
As much as they loved playing with their cousins, they were both thrilled to be home. Yesterday during breakfast, Kayla kept saying to me “We’re home”. And I think she missed her Dora Toys the most, b/c that is what she had to play with Sunday night and most of Monday morning. Alysa was just happy all around to be home.

Had I had more forethought, I would have taken pics of my disastrous house and used the unpacking and organization for a Tackle It Tuesday.

I’ll be back a bit later today with some pictures of our trip.