Disney (Day 2) - Wrapping it Up!

To recap, we started out our second day of vacation with a photo shoot at the Grand Floridian and breakfast at 1900 Park Fare. I wrote all about them here. After the camera fiasco and having to go to lost and found, we finally made it to our first park, Epcot, at about 1pm.

Tim's working off the long morning with a snooze.

Epcot is really pretty in April because they have their Flower Festival and they have really cool flower displays, character themed shrubs/flowers, and some extra cool playgrounds there for the Festival.

Katie and I started off by going to Spaceship Earth while Chris went to Test Track with Timmy to get us Fast Passes. A mellow/lame ride by Disney standards, but Katie got off of her first ride of the trip gushing that "It was a REALLY great ride." Actually, I was even pleasantly suprised. I missed this one last time around. Chris and Katie went alone for some reason and it was actually better than I remembered. They incorporated a fun little story/game at the end while you go down where you pick things that are most important in your life and they show you "future" machines that will help make your life easier. It's done in a cartoon manner and one of the characters was actually Katie's face. She loved that!

After the ride, which only had about a 15 minute wait, it took us about 30 minutes to find/meet up with Chris...since the geniuses we are forgot to designate a specific meeting point. During that time I went to guest services and got a replacement Tables in Wonderland card...or shall I say..paid through the nose for a replacement. (It's a card that can be purchased by annual pass holders for 20% off all food/beverage...I had lost the one I got last year on the last day of vacation and was expecting to have to pay $35 to replace it...but they bumped it up to $50...grrrr!)

Next we walked through the Fairy Garden (flower exhibit and playground) and headed over to Mexico to ride the boat ride. To say Timmy enjoyed the boat ride is putting it mildly. There were screens with sound staggered on both sides of the boat and he could not whip his head back and forth fast enough to take it all in. Then we headed out for a break. Chris took the kids straight back to the hotel. I brought the empty stroller (since Chris couldn't hold Timmy and fold up the stroller on his own) back to the Grand Floridian to get my freaking camera. Good times!

Here's a little Then and Now:

Katie at 1 1/2 and now at almost 4

Katie one year ago and Katie now.

After a little rest and eating dinner at our hotel foodcourt we headed back to Epcot and got there about 7pm. We went straight over to the Finding Nemo ride, but it had just stopped working so we headed over the Crush show (from Finding Nemo) - then we all went on the Finding Nemo ride with no line at all. By the time we were done it was already about 8:15 our return time for Test Track, but I knew we wouldn't have time for both of us to take turns riding with Katie so just Katie and I went while Chris strolled Timmy around. The line was ridiculous and it still took us 1/2 hour in line since everyone was trying to use up their passes before the park closed. However, this ride was a big deal for Katie. Last year we had an issue and she didn't get to ride. You have to be 42 inches to ride. Last year, with shoes, Katie WAS 42 inches and rode all the other 42 inch minimum rides, but the day we went over to test track she was wearing her crocs which are much lower than all her sandles and they wouldn't let her on. She was crushed - but she was SO excited this time...not that you can tell in this picture...

We got off the ride just in time for the fireworks at 9pm. This was another first for Katie. Her first trip we didn't even attempt any fireworks and last year we tried, but she was so tired she just freaked out...for the same reason she's never even gone to 4th of July fireworks...so this was her first time EVER seeing fireworks and she LOVED them!!! We didn't really see the water portion of the show because we stayed in Future World at the entrance to the World Showcase, but that worked out great because we raced to the buses and had NO wait to get back to the hotel.

Day 3 (Thursday of our trip) is next...morning at Hollywood Studios with a Playhouse Disney breakfast and an evening at Fort Wilderness Campground.

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Tuesday Blog Party Winners and Exciting Announcement

Wow, it's been a quick week. It's already time to announce the winners of my Tuesday Blog Party Winners:

Shoes

By default, since she was the only entry...

Ora

Baby Einstein DVD's

Min: 1 Max: 11 GenerateResult: 10
winner chosen by random.org

Kacie

Onto the exciting announcement...well, even though the Blog Party ended yesterday - one of Tuesday's Momma's friends has come through with two more HUGE giveaways and they will be open until May 16th. The first is for an overnight package at a luxurious bed and breakfast in Denver, Colorado. Winners will get to pick their date. There will be THREE winners for this giveaway. To enter the giveaway, you will need to donate $20 towards pediatric cancer research for one entry and $10 for each additional entry. Second, the SAME generous woman is giving away a one week stay at her Florida vacation home, just 2 miles from Disney World. Winner will get to pick their week. The only blackout will be when she is using it herself during the winter months. There will be TWO winners for this giveaway. To enter this one, you will need to donate $30 for one entry and $10 for each additional entry. For all the details on the packages, the donation button, and to leave a comment that you are interested in entering, head on over to Who Says Eight is Enough? via this link.

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6 Months Old - Mr. Bad Boy!

I know this is a cliche, but seriously - where the heck has the time gone? It seems like yesterday that I was pregnant (probably because it sucked so bad at the end that is has left a lasting impression). But wow, it really does seem like the time is flying by. When Katie was a baby she was so fun, but I was so impatient for her to grow and to see what her personality would be like as she got older. This time - I just don't want the baby phase to end!!! From the first second I held Timothy I was overcome with the feeling of being completely content to hold that little baby...and to HOLD ON to these baby days!

Timmy is continuing to get taller, but is starting to thin out. To be quite honest...I don't REALLY see him thinning out, but according to "percentiles" he is. Seriously, how can the rolls in his thighs be AVERAGE?!?! (You'll see what I mean when you watch the video at the end of this post.) Tim had his 6 month wellness visit today (sorry, I'm backdating this post since I didn't feel up to doing it yesterday.) He is now 18 lbs (55th %) and 27 1/2 inches (90th %). I do actually think he was slightly more than 18 lbs; she read it while it was still teetering, but whatever, he's about 18 lbs. He is still going back and forth with his sleep routine. He slept COMPLETELY through the night for 4 nights in a row the week after we got back from Disney and has been back to getting up 1-3 times ever since. Damn teeth! He does go right back to sleep though as soon as I nurse him.

It's funny, just about a week ago I was thinking to myself that since 5 months, he really hasn't reached many more milestones. He's turned into Captain Destructo in knocking anything he can down from wherever it should be and grabbing for anything he can get his hands on. But besides that, he had only gotten one more bottom tooth and started eating solids. He loves cereals, squash and peas; he tolerates carrots, green beans, and sweet potatoes; he really doesn't like apples and bananas very much unless it's watered down and mixed with cereal, then he loves it, and he DETESTED a first taste of kiwi. I am very proud of myself that I have actually MADE baby food this time around. Well, proud of myself and embarrased by myself as I was with Katie. I can't believe that I bought baby bananas and applesauce. He is also quite messier than Katie ever was (well when she ate baby food, anyway) - a combination of not opening quite enough and putting his hands in his mouth between every bite.

I digress; what I was beginning to say is that in the last week he has all of a sudden been doing loads more. He is now rolling in both directions and not even just rolling from back to belly, doing it so fast like he's been doing it for months. In the last few days I've been working with him on sitting. He's doing really well if he's reaching for something in front of him and at the doctor's office today actually sat for about 15 seconds before toppling over. He just started leaning towards the person he wants to hold him and when he eats he opens and says "ahhh" and while he's eating says "Mmmmmm!" Just today, Chris also noticed him up on his elbows and knees like he was getting ready to crawl (God help me when THAT happens). Why? because as cute and charming as this boy is...it is for a reason...he is naughty...our little Mr. Bad Boy: from pulling hair (a LOT), to knocking everything over (actually destroying anything that is within his reach that can be destroyed), to "talking" to the bears in his crib when he should be napping (and seemed to be sound asleep just 10 minutes prior). Like when Chris went in to check on him today (10 min after going down and smartly with a camera):

Beevis and Butthead laugh: "Hee, hee, HEEE" (That actually is how he laughs, too, especially when he knows he's being bad)

"But Daddy, I'm charming. Come on, let me get up!"

"Just a little bit closer, so I can grab your camera!"

I was looking through my baby book a few weeks ago and was amazed at how much I (as a baby) look like Timmy. While he and Katie really do look similar when comparing their baby pics and some of Katie's baby pics look me, there is no question when looking at my baby pics that Timmy and I look alike. It's true...but I still think he looks awfully like his daddy when they're together, too.

See, I look like Mommy AND Daddy!

In addition to being naughty and charming, he is usually a happy boy (when he's not teething - which does seem to be a lot of the time lately) and downright silly. He LOVES when I clap my hands - especially playing "Pat-a-Cake" and singing "If You're Happy and You Know It." Tim has a cousin Will and he's also very silly, but his mom does NOT like the nickname Willy - SO Tim is officially the Silly Willy of the family :)

And don't you worry - I WILL finish up sharing about our Disney vacation...eventually...

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F4 - Disney (Day 2)...the first part...and this takes us up to BREAKFAST.

First off, just a reminder that the Tuesday Blog Party Giveaway is STILL open and going strong until May 12th. Over $2,000 has been raised at this point. Help us reach the goal of $3,000. Check out Who Says 8 is Enough Gives Back to visit the link list of all the generous giveaways going on.

Back to our vacation...and at the rate I'm going I may be able to write about them for "Way Back Wednesday's". On Wednesday, April 15th we headed out for Day 2 of our vacation (which was really more like the first day since the our actual first day turned out to just be this.) We got to the Disney Transportation by 8:15am ish on our way to the Grand Floridian for a 9:00am Photo Session and 9:45am breakfast at 1900 Park Fare. For the first time, we were one of "those" families; you know, the kind where everyone in the family matches...but I swear..it was slightly embarrasing and it was ONLY to get our pictures done. We took the bus to the Magic Kingdom and then hopped on the monorail to the hotel. Timmy looked so handsome that I had to take my camera out to shoot a picture. His fat little legs made their debut to the public and were quite the coversation starter. Noone could resist talking to him and commenting on his chunker thighs.

We finally got to the Photopass desk at the Grand Floridian at about 9:02. Let me give you some background. My sister had done a family photo session done here on her trip back in December 2007. If you had already purchased a photopass CD (or were planning to), you could book a 30 minute session at a variety of the Disney Deluxe resorts where the photographer is 1 on 1 with your family for only $25. A great deal, right? I thought so. So, since we haven't had any family portraits taken I thought this would be a fun opportunity. My sister's family had pictures taken on the beach there and they looked awesome. Here's what I didn't count on:

1) It is now SIGNIFICANTLY more expensive to do these photo sessions. There are different price points, but if you want the pictures on a CD like the photopass, the DISCOUNTED price since you already bought a photopass CD, is $70. (Oh and now they throw in a choice of 3 combo print packages to lessen the blow-but who needs prints that you have to travel home with when you have a CD?)
2) The early morning sun was SO bright on the beach..Katie and I had a horrible time keeping our eyes open. I wanted pics there, but the entire time he was like -where do you want your pictures? Hello...you work here - you're supposed to suggest the good spots.
3) The photographer didn't try to engage the kids to look at him at all. Katie was just being a brat cause the sun was bothering her, but I kept saying..his name is Timmy can you please just call his name...nope. Then he cut the whole thing a little after 9:20 cause he had to get back upstairs and get our prints uploaded before 9:30.

We did get a couple decent pics and one good one...but still...for the money we paid and the effort we put into getting there - not worth it at all. I would have rather done something local where the photographer would have at least been accountable.

Here are a few of the better ones (each with their own imperfections):

Timmy, look over here Timmy...oh yeah, that's right, that was just me in my head trying to telepathically get the photographer to try.

Perhaps he was afraid to directly engage with the kids since Katie looked a bit like the devil. Seriously, counting to 3 before taking a pic does NOT really work with small children.

I like this one of me. Of course the kids aren't looking. However we did get ONE with Timmy looking and ONE with Katie looking...sooooo.....cut and paste, cut and paste and here's me doing the photographer's job below:

See, you didn't even notice that Chris had two left elbows or two left knees, did you?

Chris opted out of this one, because he was afraid he'd break the hammock.

But look, cut me out of a picture that I looked AWFUL in and you have a matching sweet pic of Chris and the kids.

We got a few of this shot...Katie's eyes closed.....

Katie with her hand on her nose (and on a sidenote, I mentioned in an earlier post that she had her hand in her nose in many pics...I should clarify...she somehow got a cut right underneath her nostril and then like a dog, couldn't leave it alone the entire week (and still).

and finally, drumroll, ONE good picture from the entire shoot:

Whoo, done with these pics...a Friday Foto Finish Fiesta if I ever saw one. This one was for you. Carrie :) Carrie gets lots of bloggers together on Friday's to show off their Phavorite Fotos. You should check them out...I promise you'll find many that aren't quite as wordy as mine.

So, this brought us to about 9:45am on Day 2. Chris went downstairs to check in for breakfast while I wrapped everything up with the pictures and unknowingly left my camera on the desk. I finally met up with Chris, nursed Tim and then noticed that my camera was GONE. I knew I had taken that picture on the monorail. Damn. I asked around and wound up buying a disposable camera for our breakfast with plans to go to the transportation center lost and found after breakfast and on our way to Epcot.

I still haven't developed those pictures, but we had a great time! We saw Mary Poppins, Alice in Wonderland, The Mad Hatter, Winnie the Pooh, and Tigger, too. I had gotten Katie to watch Mary Poppins about a month before the trip to get her excited and since it quickly turned into one of her favorite movies she was thrilled to see her. In having this breakfast, we also grew out of the Crystal Palace breakfast (that has all the Pooh characters) we attended on our last 2 trips. I was really excited that both Pooh AND Tigger were here, too. For the first time, Katie went up to the buffet lines with us and got to pick her food and let me tell you...it triggered an eating disorder waiting to happen. At this meal and for the rest of the week she PILED her plate up and wasted NOTHING. I honestly don't know how she fit it all in. Whenever we were at a restaurant that was a normal menu place she had a tantrum because she couldn't "pick" her food and got fond of telling me at meals that she wanted to "fill up her belly SOOO much". Lovely!

I'll be back with the rest of the day in Epcot....

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Tuesday Blog Party Giveaway

From now until May 12th, I am holding this give-away to help benefit the Tuesday Fiona Whitt Foundation. Tuesday was the beautiful twin daughter of my sister-in-law's dear friend Jessica Kate. Tuesday bravely fought and sadly lost her 8 month battle with stage 4 neuroblastoma in January of this year. Debi (my SIL) and her friends from Jess' multiples group have decided to put together an annual blog party to help raise funds to fight pediatric cancer, specifically neuroblastoma, as it is the least funded of ALL cancers yet one of the most fatal.

The first item up for auction is a pair of brand new chocolate brown size 13 Medium Kenneth Cole Girl Ballet Flats.


I actually bought these for my daughter online, but was a bit suprised to receive TWO pairs instead of one. Unfortunately, I paid for 2 pairs as well. I thought I'd just keep both pairs since Katie scuffs up all her dress shoes so quickly, but Debi pointed out that they may make a great giveaway for the Tuesday Blog Party.

My second item is a set of 3 brand new (still in shrink wrap) Baby Einstein DVD's: Baby Mozart, Baby Bach, and Baby Galileo.

I figured since my first item was so specific that these DVD's may interest a slightly larger group. Even if you don't have a baby or toddler yourself who may appreciate them, they would make great baby shower gifts!!

All you have to do to enter to win either auction is simply leave me a comment letting me know whether you are interested in winning the shoes or the DVD's and then and be sure to donate $1 to the Tuesday Fiona Whitt Foundation for each entry.

Please leave a separate comment for each giveaway and a separate comment for each entry you would like. I'll use a random number generator to pick the winner on the 13th.

Also, head on over to the Tuesday Blog Party to see what other fantastic items are being auctioned off. There are lots of great auctions going on and all it costs is one dollar to enter each one. If you would like to make one donation, instead of many individual donations, please feel free to donate however is easiest for you. If you end up donating $10, but only find 5 auctions you are interested in, you can use those additional dollars as additional entries :)

Thank you so much for supporting a great cause! Cancer sucks and is striking too many of my friends and family. As my friend Carolyn, who is currently suffering from stage 4 breast cancer that has moved to her lungs, says: F$&k Awareness; find a cure!" (Although she spells all 4 letters out very nicely.) So for Tuesday, my friend Carolyn, my dad, my aunt Mildred (my dad's sister), my cousin Kelli, my aunt Dotty, and most recently my Aunt Carol...enough is enough...find a cure!!!!

P.S. I'll start back up sharing all about our Disney trip soon...just waiting on those pictures from the Photopass that I told you about.

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F4 - Disney (Day 1) aka Travel Days Suck!

On Tuesday the 14th we got to the airport in plenty of time. We actually got ALL our packing done the night before (and we only had to stay up until 3am). Now on previous vacations we have always taken very early morning flights because 1 - they're the cheapest and 2 - we get another day of actual vacation. However, it normally just sets the whole week up for being overtired. So, with 2 kids in tow this time we figured it would probably NOT be best to grab that 7:30am flight and we settled on a leisurely 1:30pm flight. We would get in around 4pm. I figured we'd check in to the hotel, have dinner in the food court and be at the Magic Kingdom for a few rides by 7pm...so, back to being on time at the airport...it was so stress free - we loved it. There was absolutely no line at security and we waltzed through. We checked the departures and were thrilled to see that our plane was actually on-time.

"Yay, we're on our way to Disneyworld!!!"

We grabbed a bite to eat at Chickie and Pete's and did all our last bathroom breaks. As I was walking back from the bathroom I noticed the departures had been updated and we were now about 30 min delayed...so we waited....and waited. I think we took off some time around 3pm.

"Um, mom...I think something is happening in my mouth here"

"It's time? It's time? We're actually getting on the plane...why is Philly ALWAYS delayed?!?!?"

"Daaaaaad, I TOLD you I'd chip in some money from my piggy bank if you'd get some of the hard stuff. Ice water is NOT making my teeth feel any better...I could be passed out already!!"

Katie coloring angelically...lol...I think I snapped this picture because it was a miracle (and shortlived.)

I think it's quite possible that Stewie Griffin took over the body of my sweet-natured Timothy on this plane ride. Thank goodness we had a smooth ride and I was able to walk him up and down the aisles. Don't you know that as soon as I put him down in my seat (while I was still standing) to rest my arms a bit that he perked right up?

Torturing your sister is always good for a laugh, too. Don't feel too bad for her though - she was moving her head TO him so that he COULD pull her hair...way to take one for the team Katie!

We finally made it into Orlando at about 5pm, I think..we actually made good time once in the air. Then we headed over to the "Magical Express" to be transported over to our hotel - the "Pop Century." And by the way "Magical" does not mean it will get you there quickly. So we waited for a while for it to be our turn to get on one. Of course as soon as it WAS our turn, Katie had to go to the bathrooom...badly. I'm not really sure why I was concerned though, since after we did board we still waited another 20-30 minutes for more passengers.

"Oh daddy, I feel SO much better now that my tooth is here and I'm SO glad to finally be on our way to the hotel....tell mommy to stop spazzing that we'll only get 2 days in the Magic Kingdom now instead of 2 1/2."

After we checked into our room, we walked around a bit on our way over to the very awesome food court. We got to see this gorgeous sunset - not Cinderella's castle..but still very pretty.

We actually loved our hotel. On previous vacations to Disney (as an adult), I had stayed at Dixie Landings (now Port Orleans riverside), the Caribbean Beach Resort, and used my mom's timeshare at the Sheraton Vistana Villages. I had loved our other 2 Disney hotels and thought I ALWAYS wanted to stay in the park until I had the opportunity to stay in a beautiful, spacious time-share. This time though, we utilized Disney's buy 4 nights, get 3 free promotion and actually got 2 adjoining rooms since my mom would be staying with us for 4 nights of our vacation. I was really pleasantly suprised by the "value" class of the Disney resorts. The rooms were exactly the same size, as far as I could tell. The food court was great! Really the only difference I could tell from the "moderates" was lack of a sit-down restaurant (who cares!) and no pool slide. However, there were still 3 pools - cutely themed, a child fountain play area, and a playground. AND we lucked out and got a really great location (even though we didn't pay extra for a preferred room). We were really close to the playground and a really good location in terms of where the food court and bus stops were. While it was still a little light out I caught some shots of some of the pop-icons around the hotel grounds.

We finally made it to get some dinner. Chris took Timmy back to our room and I let Katie play at the playground for a bit. And then, the best part of Katie's day....

Max & Ruby!!!

Day 1 - over and done. Stay tuned for Day 2....family photo shoot and Epcot.

These definately aren't the greatest pics from our vacation...but it is PHRIDAY...so this will just have to do for our Friday Foto Finish Fiesta sponsored by Candid Carrie. Check out her site to play along or see who else is playing along.

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Tips for a Stress-Free Disney Vacation

1) Make sure to prepurchase a Disney Photopass - you'll save $30 over getting it after and it's really great to have someone take pictures of the entire family...it doesn't matter if you only get a few good ones or if you also manage to take over 800 pictures with your own camera.

2) Make sure, after your plane ride to Florida, if everyone points to your baby and says "Oh, THAT'S the little guy who was making so much noise," that you tell them that he actually cut his second tooth while on the plane and that if they had a new tooth cut through their gums they'd have been screaming too.

3) Try not to hyperventilate when it's time for your much aniticipated Mary Poppins breakfast at the Grand Floridian and you realize your camera is lost and you think you left it on the monorail....or to further hyperventilate when you have to pay $20 for a 39 exposure disposable camera.

4) Before you make your family wait for an hour at the transportation center lost and found (not to mention spending $20 on the disposable camera that wasn't even digital) you might want to retrace your actual steps and revisit all places you could have left your camera...like the desk where you checked in for your family pictures AT the Grand Floridian....OR you might want to just leave your cell phone on so that when they call you right away to tell you it was left, you can actually go get it right away instead of living through all of the above AND having to go all the way back there in later in the day to get your camera.

5) Don't expect children to actually sleep when you go back to the hotel for an afternoon rest.

6) Try not to lose it when you find out it is now $50 to replace your lost Tables in Wonderland card instead of the $35 it was supposed to be (according to when you purchased it less than a year ago.)

7) Don't panic if a lion steals your baby and doesn't want to give him back.

8) Don't force your husband to see more than 1 parade.

9) Fully expect your 3 year old to cease acknowledging you exist once another family member joins you (we learned this one last year when Aunt Candi and Uncle Pete joined us - thank goodness we were prepared for when Grammi joined us this year...oh wait - that's right, that's WHY we begged her to come)

10) Know that Chef Mickey's is NOT all it's cracked up to be...the other character meals are far less rushed.

11) Check pirate hats that you've bought before you leave the store so that you aren't suprised later that they added "Captain" before the child's name.....but spelled it "Captian"...TWICE.

12) Don't let your mom convince you to try out for American Idol (the Hollywood Studios version) unless you've had time to prepare!!!

13) Try not to yell too much at your daughter if she tries to hide everytime you want to take a picture...she'll smile when the characters are there ( and if you're really lucky she'll have her finger in her nose for most of them, too)

14) and finally, realize that the Princess lunch in Epcot is so much fun that even though she isn't expected or invited, Aunt Flo may crash the party!

We had an awesome vacation and don't think you got let off that easily...a fully illustrated day-by-day breakdown will be following...

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