We should too

Today was a big day. And it was a good day, too.
Allen answered at the meeting. He said, 

"We should pray too." (the small font indicates whispering).

He was very proud of himself. We were too.

He also went pee-pee in the potty twice today. He was proud of that too. And so were we.

We went to Disney On Ice Finding Nemo (the subject of another post), and Allen made out like a bandit. Five over-priced gifts.

For dinner, we went to Dockside. Allen had "yucky fish." I'm still not sure what makes it yucky.


On the way home, he started whining and crying ... he kept saying, "but but but" when we told him we were not going to Walmart to purchase yet another toy for him. So I started to sing, 

"I like big butts and I cannot lie ..."

He told me to stop, and then he said, 

"Mommy and Nana are big butts."

Gotta love him.

xoxo,
me
 

 

Excessive

So, I was a little bit excessive today. When we went to Disney On Ice Finding Nemo, I took um, well ... uh ... about 140 pictures. So I'm busy trying to narrow those down into something that's not ridiculously boring to ya'll. I promise to do a great recap, but it's not going to be tonight.

However, lest you be totally disappointed, I'll post a preview picture ...

xoxo,

Me

The Negotiator

My son, the future lawyer. With negotiation skills and charm even the most polished litigators would envy ...

Yesterday morning
We're laying in bed just after waking up. Dad's downstairs procuring breakfast. Allen hugs me, and says:
"True friends eat donuts."
He had me at "true".

Last night
We'd just finished watching Toy Story 2, and it was time for bed. So the negotiating began:
Allen: I need to watch Toy Story again in your bed.
Mom: We're going to go upstairs and read a book and sing in your room, and then go to sleep.
Allen: No no no no no. That's not the choice I want. That's a bad choice. Let's talk about it.
After more back-and-forth, he tried again once we were upstairs: "Let's do something. Let's go in your yoom ..."

And here I am typing this post, as Allen sits between Brian and me in bed, eating jelly beans and watching Finding Nemo. This boy's got skills!

xoxo,

Disney Recap: Epcot Day Two & Last Day ...

Our last day :( And almost equally as sad is that there weren't very many pictures. Here are the only ones I could come up with ...

A fabulous picture of Allen and Aunt Kissy looking at pictures on her camera.

After a couple failed attempts, Brian and I finally got to enjoy the Epcot laser/fireworks show ...

Hope you enjoyed my Disney recap. I promise to post very very soon about what's been happening in our lives more recently!!

xoxo,

Disney Recap: Magic Kingdom Second Time Around

At this point of the trip, things started to get bittersweet. Doing Magic Kingdom for the second day, meant that our trip was coming to a close. I tried really hard not to dwell on it and to focus on what we definitely wanted to do ...

So we rode Aladdin first. "Jasmine" and "Aladdin" were on the ride too. I wonder what you had to do to ride with them??

Then we went to our lunch with Winnie-the-Pooh and Friends. We met Piglet first, but we don't have a shot of that because most of us were at the buffet getting our lunch. Piglet did a lovely job of calming Allen down though (he was upset that he couldn't have ice cream for lunch). Then we met Eeyore ...

Tigger came by next. He was awesome. He messed up Papa's hair, he greeted us all. Allen was so excited to meet him!

And finally, we got to meet Winnie-the-Pooh. Allen was very happy.

Before I move onto the next picture, I'd like to offer a tip/suggestion/piece of advice to other parents going to Disney and reserving any kind of character meal. Your children do not need to chase after the characters. Each and every character will visit with every single table in the restaurant. When children run up to the characters at someone else's table it does three things. 1) It infringes on the time that the rightful table (child) has with the character; 2) it makes the "chasing" child look like a brat; and 3) it makes the parents of the children who sat patiently and waited for their turns think that the parents of the "chasing" child are obnoxious morons. You don't want that, do you? I didn't think so.

Anyhoo ... moving on ...

Allen got to meet Buzz Lightyear (or as he calls him, Buzz Yightyeah). While Toy Story was a relatively new movie to Allen, he totally got into meeting Buzz and riding the Buzz ride.

Other non-photographed highlights of the day included Allen riding with Mommy and Daddy on the test-track (go-carts on a forced track), the adults riding Thunder Mountain Railroad, and Brian kicking butt on the Buzz Lightyear ride.

xoxo,

Yes I'm Back; Disney Recap: Animal Kingdom

Sorry for the long absence. I'll explain later, but for now I want to wrap up the Disney Recap.

I just love love love Animal Kingdom. I'm not sure exactly why. Maybe it's the face-painting. And the beautiful wild animals. And the face-painting. Anyway ... here's the photo recap ....

Allen enjoying a chocolate milkshake

Allen sitting perfectly still for the face-painter. He really did sit very still. More still than I sat. It was so adorable. And just in case anyone wondered, we let him decide if he wanted to get his face painted, and not only did he say that he did, but he picked out the tiger (roar) for himself.
Here we all are after getting all "done up." While Allen did want to get his face painted and sat so still for the artist, when he saw himself in the mirror, he kind of whimpered and burrowed into my shoulder (hence his pose in this picture). He did not want to see himself in a mirror at all the rest of the day. Apparently being a tiger is not all it's cracked up to be (though now he has fond memories of it). Close-up of "pretty mommy."

ROAR

A tiger and a rhino (oh and an Uncle Josh too)

Two tigers!!

Allen pets a goat

And a sheep (am I the only one who gets grossed-out by petting zoos? I could barely photograph this stuff ...)

Allen finally meets (safari) Mickey

We meet up with Goofy again, camper/safari-style.

And we get to meet Donald!

He is soooo in love with Minnie. He couldn't take his eyes off of her. And he still talks about meeting her.

More to come ...

xoxo,

Disney Recap: Sea World

Allen adores cars. They are definitely his "thing." But running a close second is his adoration of animals. Pretty much all animals. Because of that, we were all very excited to take Allen to Sea World. Most especially, Nana. She loves Sea World. She loves it so much that Kristen and I decided to do the "Dine with Shamu" thing as my parents' anniversary gift (thanks Kristen).

Needless to say we all enjoyed the day. It took me (literally) at least an hour to sort through all the photos to pick out these "highlights." I hope you enjoy ...

Allen and I got to pet a Clydesdale.

Up close and personal with a Shamu (there are 7) during lunch.

Beautiful shot of one of them.
Happy Nana watching the Shamu behind-the-scenes show.

Allen flirting with two girls while watching the killer whales (note, he did a lot of this at Sea World. He flirted with a woman who had Dory from Finding Nemo on her shirt ... almost touching her chest region. He flirted with a young British lady, trying to rub her leg until Mommy explained that it was inappropriate to touch strangers like that. I was constantly chasing him around).

Allen and Nana, riveted and giddy, watching the dolphin show.

And you can see why. Look! Six dolphins jumping at once!!

Two Shamus at the official Shamu show.

Allen enjoying the official Shamu show.

Obviously, Allen enjoyed the water mammals at Sea World immensely. There were many more pictures I wanted to include, but if I had this post never would have gotten published.

Two other brief stories about this day: Allen sat in a complete stranger's lap before one of the shows (and would have continued if Mommy and Daddy had let him; but we're not that trusting of strangers). And he went behind the counter and "helped" the woman who made his Shamu stuffed animal (think Build-a-Bear). It was adorable.

xoxo,

Disney Recap: Hollywood Studios

Tuesday we went to Hollywood Studios. While there was more for the "adults" to do here (Rockn' Rollercoaster, Tower of Terror, etc), I was particularly excited for Allen to visit this park because he was going to get to meet all his friends from Playhouse Disney. Once again ... the photo highlights:

Mommy, Daddy, and Allen watching the Playhouse Disney Show (featuring Mickey Mouse Clubhouse, Handy Manny, Little Einsteins, and Handy Manny)

Sharing a milkshake with Mommy at the Sci-Fi Drive-In restaurant
Seeing the real, live Mater!

And the real live McQueen!!!

In line with Daddy to meet the Little Einsteins

June and Quincy!

Annie & Leo!

Handy Manny (Mommy has a little cartoon crush on him)

xoxo,

Disney Recap: Epcot

We really enjoyed our first day at Epcot. We didn't do a whole lot (well, actually Kristen and Josh did. They were on their KimPossible missions most of the day). The highlight for most of us was The Seas with Nemo. Allen loved looking at the different fish and at the manatees. Nana loved it too!

Some photo highlights ...

Nana in front of the "Ball"

Allen with his new friends Dory and Nemo
The Craig Family at the Upside_Down Waterfall Fountain

Checking out a real fire truck

Playing with Josh in a London phone booth

Lunch was shared with a large aquarium of fish at the restaurant at The Seas, and we enjoyed dinner underneath the "stars" in Mexico.

More to come ...

xoxo,