Disney Magic!

Okay, so I'm finally posting about our Disney World trip. First, I'll say WHEW! What a trip! Totally exhausting, but totally fun and worth it. It rained much of the time, so we were pretty soggy, but it kept us from being too hot, and the lines were shorter! Luckily, our little coyote is pretty durable, so slogging through the rain wasn't a big deal.

I think we chose the perfect time to take M for her first DW visit. Young enough to feel the "magic", and old enough to remember it. Hopefully. My favorite part was watching her with the characters. She was so enchanted with them, especially the princesses. She knew they were just people in costume, but she was delighted all the same. She was very quiet, shy and sweet with them. She looked, listened, hugged... and didn't say a word! Just looked at them adoringly and gave them her sweet smile. So cute! Surprising to us, Eeyore turned out to be one of her favorites. We had no idea.

She was big enough for most of the rides, and was quite brave. Her favorite was Splash Mountain, but she liked all of them. She even liked the Tower of Terror! I wouldn't have expected her to do as well as she did on that one. It basically "free-fall" drops you several stories, brings you back up, and drops you again several times.

One of the biggest hits of all the parks was the "wildlife". There were bunnies and ducks wandering around here and there, and she got very excited about them. "Mom! Dad! Look! A DUCK!!!" Hm. I guess it's the simple things in life. Also, she was particularly impressed with the jello at dinner. Yep. The jello.

Another big hit was getting to play on the various playgrounds scattered around the parks. One was a "Honey, I shrunk the kids" playground, where you could climb around a big net "spiderweb", and go through ant tunnels. Definitely a nice break from all the walking and standing in line.

On Day 4 of our DW trip, M lost her very first tooth. Much excitement! The one next to it is also loose, and should be out soon. We thought it would be gone by her birthday, but it's still hanging in there... just barely and mostly sideways. :o)

The last few days of our vacation we stayed with Jay's Uncle Tom and Aunt Nancy in Titusville (near Cape Canaveral), and got to see some of the area. M was REALLY excited about the beach. She collected "sea treasures", played in the sand, and splashed in the waves. We saw alligators, wild pigs, an armadillo, manatees, dolphins, sea turtles, and lots of crazy birds. Unfortunately, we weren't there during a shuttle launch. I think M would have liked that. Well, there's always next year...

Here are the links to our vacation pictures:

Day 1 - Epcot

Day 2 - Disney Hollywood Studios

Day 3 - Magic Kingdom

Day 4 - Animal Kingdom

Day 5 - Epcot - Too rainy. Didn't take the camera out. But we had fun. Trust us!

Day 6 - Magic Kingdom

Day 7 - Magic Kingdom

Day 8 - Beach

Day 9 - Beach

Like Mother, Like Daughter.

M: I wish I could just start my whole life over!

G: Why? Are you dissatisfied with something in your life?

M: Yes.

G: Well, what would you go back and change?

M: I just wish I didn't ever get these stitches! It's in my head and I can't stop thinking about it.

*sigh* My little girl is a worrier and obsessor... just like her mom. How will I teach her not to dwell in the past? Perhaps we can learn together to be present in the now and not worry about what's already happened.

And yes, I'm quite behind in my blog. I've got tons to post from the last few months, including pics from Disney World... stay tuned.

They grow up so fast... so pay attention!

I finally got around to getting the online album of M's pictures for 2008 put together. What a year it's been! And while I was looking back at the little girl she used to be, and how much she's grown, it occurred to me that she's already a quarter of the way through her childhood. Oh!!! This can't be! It's all going by way too fast. How do we slow this train down? I actually enrolled her last week for Kindergarten in the Fall. Kindergarten! Full day, everyday, public school Kindergarten. She could even ride the bus if I were of a mind to let her. Which I'm not. I'm pretty sure I'm not ready for her to be ready for that.

So, I'm reminding myself again to be present each day, and pay attention to each moment, and not let the day-to-day distract me from the wonder that is all around me every day, in my growing, learning, ever-changing child.

Her latest big thing is that she's reading. She still doesn't quite admit to it, but she is definitely reading. Full sentences, full paragraphs, whole pages... reading! She is completely underwhelmed by it as far as I can tell, but I am super excited! I made her promise to still let me read to her every day, even though she can read on her own. I think she was a bit concerned that we'd stop that, for some reason.

And now it's Spring Break, and we're off to OKC to visit some friends and their brand new baby, which will remind me even more how quickly they grow from "little bitty brand new life" to "big girl almost heading off to kindergarten". *sigh*

If you'd like to check out M's 2008 album, you can see it here.

Happy New Year!

I hope everyone is having a great start to the new year. I'm pretty pleased with 2009 so far. And we're already 10 days in, so surely the rest should be cake, right? Well, I'm sure this year will come with it's own challenges and triumphs, but in my overall optimistic attitude, I think it's going to be a GREAT year. I even managed to stay awake to ring it in! I don't think I've done that for a while.

For the big celebration, we stayed home. We decided to do family movie night, and rented Chicken Little, which M has gone absolutely crazy over. I think she watched it about 6 times before we had to return it. Her Chicken Little plush, that she's had for quite a while, is now getting LOTS of face time. After little M was in bed, we watched The Dark Knight, which was good, but not nearly as creepy/freaky as all the hype made it out to be. I was glad about that, actually. I don't like to be creeped/freaked out.

Just before midnight, I woke M up to go outside and bang pots and pans and yell "Happy New Year!", just like we did when I was a kid. She was very much asleep. I finally got her up and asked her if she wanted to go out and bang pots and pans, and she said yes. We got about two steps away from the bed, and she said, "Actually, I don't", and went back to bed. Well, so much for that. We'll try again next year.

Home for the Holidays

Well, we finally got ourselves into a place, and just in time for Christmas. We looked at probably 80 houses, and I think we did well to be patient and wait for the right thing to come along. We absolutely love the new house. It has just the right space and layout for the way we live, and the yard has plenty of potential for landscape and gardening. Yes! We will be canning salsa in 2009! We still have some boxes to unpack and some organizing to do, but we're mostly settled and even put the Christmas tree and some decorations up. And we're finally home!

Little M took the chaos of moving again all in stride, with her usual good nature. What a great girl. She didn't seem at all sad to leave the rental. It helped that she had 12 days of gifts to open all the way up to Christmas to distract her. Mookie and LouLou rock! Very well done! And she loves the new place as much as I do, I think. Wait until it warms up and she gets to play in the gazebo in the back yard! I'm seeing endless tea parties out there. And, of course, having her best friend within walking distance is a huge bonus.

Santa was good to us this year. He left M a note thanking her for the snacks and telling her she's been very good, and reminding her to listen to her mom and dad. He also left her books and a bunny, as she requested. One of the books was a pop-up that opens 360° to create a wonderful fairy garden/village thing, and comes with little stand-up paper fairies. I imagine it is exactly what her Grandma Tory would have given her if she were with us.

So, 2008 is ending on a high note, and we're well set up for a Happy New Year. I'll get M's 2008 photo album online soon, so check back for the link in January. We're plenty ready for guests at the new abode, and we're already booked for January, so make your reservations soon! We look forward to seeing you!

Don't say quack around ducks.

Another great conversation with Little M this week:

M: Sometimes ducks get confused if you say quack. That's why you should never say quack around them.

G: Why do they get confused if you say quack?

M: Because they have a tiny brain!!

Thanksgiving

I'll admit, I wasn't expecting much from Thanksgiving this year. The big get-together with the Aunts/Uncles/Cousins was the Sunday before, and then I figured it would just be the three of us for the actual holiday. I was gearing up for a low key, uninteresting, and possibly slightly depressing holiday in The Rental. But happily, Brandi (our niece on Jay's side) and David decided it might be fun to drive the 6 hours from Nebraska, so we had them and their two super great boys with us for the whole break. It was really cool to have them here and have enough time to really hang out. I, for one, ate way too much, stayed up way past my bedtime, and had just way too much fun.

Lincoln is an extrodinary, smart, handsome boy with a sweet and gentle heart. I love his enthusiasm. I love the way his eyes light up when he gets excited. I love his love of bowling :o). I loved watching he and M play together, especially when Brandi was setting off alkaseltzer rockets in the driveway! Lots of running and screaming involved. I'm looking forward to the two of them seeing more of each other and being excellent cousins (once removed, right? or something like that). Sweet Lincoln, I'm sorry you're allergic to Kali's kisses. Thank you for loving her, anyway.

Henry is quite possibly the best baby ever. He pretty much never fusses, and seems quite content most of the time. He's one of those aware babies, that you can just see is thinking about things. Really thinking about things. Probably mostly about that he's going to start walking... like quite possibly tomorrow! He's also dangerously cute. Dangerously. Yes, I believe I'm more than a bit smitten with little baby Louie.

Brandi and David, aside from being excellent house guests and very cool people, are also highly skilled players of Hoopla (Jay's game of choice for our evening entertainment). I learned much from them. I learned that if we really work together as a team, we can make a 15 minute game go into double overtime. And that fuzzy dice are smaller than soft, and bigger than seven. Thank you, David, for helping my husband fix the dishwasher door, and for all the great pictures and info. Thank you, Brandi, for showing me how to make tutus, for bringing Pin the Hat on the Turkey, and all the great conversation.

Meeting "the kinfolk" in Tulsa for dinner on Saturday was a must, and there were about 30 of us. It happens that Dan and Tina decided to drive up to stay with Uncle Louis and Aunt Cindy for Thanksgiving, so we met them at a bowling alley at noon and got to spend some extra time with them, which was lots of fun.

So, a fun, family-filled holiday, after all! And now I think we've had more company in our three and a half months at the rental than we had in a full year at any of our more permanent residents. I hope we can keep up the momentum after we move into our new place. Yes, that's right! We close on a house in mid-December. Woo-hoo! Bring on Christmas!