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,

Reading, Smarty Pants, Sweetheart

Now that Daddy is once again gainfully employed, Mommy and Allen are getting back into a routine. Since I've been under the weather lately and it's been colder out, we've been reading a lot of books.

Yesterday, he decided he wanted to read Chicka Chicka Boom Boom and Llama Llama Mad at Mama. We brought them downstairs, and I sat down to read them to him. He had other plans though. He stood and "read" me Chicka Chicka Boom Boom, and then decided to read Llama Llama to me as well. Since we already have video of him reading Chicka, I didn't video tape that, but I did get him reading Llama Llama.

It's kind of a long video, and it's not as cute if you aren't familiar with the book, but it's charming nonetheless, and I decided it needed to be posted. I hope you enjoy it as much as I did (and Allen. He spent about an hour yesterday afternoon watching the video. He's so vain).

After he read the books to me, he asked me to read Chicka to him. I read it, and then we looked at the inside back cover, which has all the entire alphabet. I was very impressed to discover that he recognized about 85-90% of the letters. He calls the letter U "umbella" (umbrella) because he has another toy that has "U for Umbrella". What a little smarty pants I have on my hands!

Also, he's been very excited about going in field service lately. He wants to give "people tacts" (tracts) and tell them about "Hovah" (Jehovah). He also announced to us the other night as he got into bed that "Hovah made moon and stars" (and he shook his finger at us for emphasis). I'm so proud of him.

Finally, I was reading an article on Babycenter about teaching your toddler manners, and was impressed to see that Allen is ahead of the curve with this. The article said that by age 4 children can sometimes say "please" and "thank you". I'm so proud to know that Allen says both fairly regularly. In fact, he was ahead of the curve on most of the "manners" that the article discussed.

OK, I'm done bragging for now. Have a fabulous weekend, my friends. I plan to continue my Disney recap and enjoy some Mexican food tomorrow night with my friend T and her beautiful son, Micai. Oh, and we'll be giving people "tacts" tomorrow too!

xoxo,

Capes

Since Allen's first trip into Mia's crate, it's become his regular hangout. He goes into Mia's "cape" (as he calls it) several times a day. Yesterday, he decided to join Mia in there. You can see how much Mia enjoyed that ...

He looked a little dejected after Mia decided she'd had enough and vacated the "cape."

Since he was enjoying Mia's "cape" so much, he decided he would check out Murphy's (smaller) crate as well. He got in there, but it was definitely a tighter fit, and he announced to Mommy as he was getting out, "I'm in stuck. Hep!" (I'm stuck, help).

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,

We interrupt our regularly scheduled program

of the Disney World recap to bring you this amusing story. As I was cleaning up after dinner last night, I found Allen messing around in Mia's crate. Now that's no surprise, as he has always shown an interest in it ... opening and closing the door, checking on Mia, throwing his cars in it, etc. But what I witnessed him doing last night was like nothing I'd ever seen before ... take a look:

I loved the exit ... so graceful.

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,