SJ Update

SJ will be 21 months next week, and over the last year there have been so many things I have meant to get on video, to write down...those little things she does and says that are precious and unique in our household. Here are a few recent views of SJ, including a few of our longstanding favorite "SJisms"!

A newfound fun activity...splashing and getting splashed at the end of the waterslide!


This is SJ's classic "prayer face" before (or during, in this case!) meals. Often you can see that she is peeking through tightly squinted eyes, and sometimes she yells "'men!" midway through the prayer.

For the last few weeks we've been doing breathing treatments, or the "fishy mask" as we call it, with SJ. Thankfully she was never afraid, and she is all clear now. We hope this will not be a frequent event...


And here's a video of SJ requesting what has always been one of her favorite foods in the very same way she's always requested it...

I love the bonus of the high-pitched "Thanks!"

Unexpected Showers

Last night we went to our church community group meeting for the first time in a few months. It is hosted by a wonderful, fun family with 7 kids, and going to hang out with them is a highlight of the typical week for our girls...AG and LL love the whole experience and were so excited all day yesterday just anticipating our evening plans. LL even told our pediatrician, "We're going to community group tonight!" So we got home way after their usual bedtimes and after getting them into their PJ's I decided to put AG and LL in the bathtub just to rinse off their dirty feet. As soon as I turned on the water, rather than coming out the faucet the shower started spraying them, which brought immediate screams and general chaos as they froze under the surprise downpour. Realizing that the shower knob must have been left up all day since T got ready for work that morning, I tried to turn off the water, but it wouldn't go off! Of course I didn't think to just get them out...I was so confused about the unstoppable water flow that I just left them standing there in it, screaming like crazy. T heard the prolonged commotion and came in and after a while was able to turn off the water...turns out that after 40+ years, a gasket in the plumbing system wore out just at the right moment to give AG and LL a good scare and, afterwards, give us all a good laugh!

Day 7: Magic Kingdom, One More Time!

Sunday was our last day of vacation and we planned to drive all the way home, but we wanted to max out our park time and still had a few more things we wanted to do at Magic Kingdom. We spent the morning there meeting a few more characters...

Alice and the White Rabbit signed our "Alice" storybook.


We finally rode the flying Dumbo ride!


The girls were excited to meet Cinderella! She signed her storybook, too.


We caught up with our friends one more time at the castle on this last busy morning. It was such a treat to get to spend time with them and we miss them lots!


All three girls truly earned their mouse ears on this trip! They hung in there through lots of driving, activity, walking, fun, sun, long days, late nights, and more driving and had great attitudes almost the whole time!


We'll all look back on this vacation as a truly special time with family and friends, filled with fun and creating magical memories!

Day 6: Hollywood Studios

Saturday we checked out Hollywood Studios and discovered it has lots of fun shows and rides for little ones.


Is that a movie star? Maybe Stevie Wonder?


The girls made a friend and played ring around the rosie while we waited for the Little Mermaid Show. The other favorite show was Beauty and the Beast live onstage.


We met Prince Caspian, which inspired T to start reading The Chronicles of Narnia to the girls since we got home.


The girls loved playing in the "Honey I Shrunk the Kids" playground, especially the huge spider web and on the giant ant.



AG, LL, and A outside the Toy Story ride...which turned out to be so much competitive fun for me and T that we would have gone on it a bunch more times if that wait hadn't been over an hour! (no, we didn't wait that long even the first time!)


We finished the day at the afternoon parade, where AG and LL danced with a monster.


That evening we went for a fun swim with our friends!


Whew! Another packed and fun day...just one more to go!

Day 5: Epcot (World Showcase)

Friday morning we awoke looking forward to a special treat: a late breakfast with the princesses which was a gift from our friends! The girls got dressed in their Cinderella dresses and shoes, and on the way into the park AG and LL were stopped by a "cast member" (what Disney calls all their employees) who was gathering autographs in Mickey's personal autograph book! AG was quick to sign her name and help with LL's, too. How fun to have the tables turned!


We made our way to the Norway exhibit in Epcot's World Showcase where the breakfast was held, and we were greeted on our way in by Aurora, aka Sleeping Beauty.



We all enjoyed the delicious breakfast and being visited at our table by Mary Poppins, Belle, Jasmine, and Snow White...

You may have noticed that in most of the other photos showing SJ with characters, she will not turn away from them. She was totally fascinated by them and only seemed a bit afraid of a few, and her most common response was to start saying, "Funny!" as soon as she saw anyone dressed up!

We made our way around the World Showcase and stopped to see a few shows, hear a great choir in the USA area, and hit most of the Kidcot Funstops, where the kids decorated masks. Below, the girls are joined by W at the mask-making station.


On our way out we stopped for a much-anticipated Mickey Mouse ice cream bar (which brought back memories of elementary school for me!).


While stopped we discovered that SJ had fallen asleep in the stroller, which was a first ever, I think. She is an amazing sleeper in a bed, but almost never falls asleep anywhere else. I literally checked to make sure she hadn't passed out from the heat, and then we decided to buy some extra nap time by riding the monorail before heading back to the hotel. AG, LL and I got to ride in the first car with the driver!


The view of the track and surroundings was great, and the girls got "copilot" licenses when we stopped.


SJ snoozed the whole trip!


Needless to say, it was a fun but tiring day, and the girls had an early bedtime while T and R headed back to the park for the non-kiddie rides and M and I had a chance to catch up!

Day 4: Magic Kingdom

Thursday morning, we got another early start at Magic Kingdom with lots on our to-do list before noon, when we planned to all go back to the hotel to bid Nana and Grandpa farewell and welcome our friends who were flying in from VA that day.

As soon as we walked in, we ran into Mary Poppins...


and Snow White!


Stopping on Main Street for a family photo


We hit Adventureland first and rode Aladdin's Magic Carpet ride and the Jungle Cruise, then checked out the Swiss Family Tree House. We were all excited to meet some of our best-known characters, Captain Hook (SJ's smart...she's not turning her back on him!) and Mr. Smee...


and Peter Pan!!! (SJ was equally fascinated with him!)


Another castle view on our way to...


the Move It! Shake It! Celebrate It! Street Party, which was lots of fun as you would expect from the name.


SJ was happy to be released from the stroller for a while!


She joined AG and LL as they danced in the street with Donald Duck to "Shake a Tailfeather"!


After the street party we hung around for the Dream Along with Mickey show and the girls enjoyed seeing the characters sing and dance on stage...


especially the princesses and princes!


When we got back to the rooms, we quickly met up with our friends, and the girls were so excited to see A, one of their oldest friends! She is is almost exactly 9 months younger than AG and 9 months older than LL, and they both had a great time with her and her brother W, who'd just turned 2 the day before! (Included in this picture are the newest additions to our family, baby Simba and baby Minnie. Thanks, Nana and Grandpa!)


We were sad to say goodbye to Grandpa and Nana and knew we had our work cut out for us after having been spoiled by all their help with the girls over the previous 4 days! After resting for a few hours, we headed back to the park with our friends and went to another street party, Tomorrowland, and stayed late for the fireworks and night parade. What a busy and fun day!

Day 3: Animal Kingdom

Our Wednesday of vacation got off to an early start as we headed for Animal Kingdom. Unfortunately it was too early a start and we got there an hour before they opened because I'd mixed up their hours that day, but our gang graciously had good attitudes and when the park opened, we were there to witness it!

A highlight of that park was the Festival of the Lion King show, and even I was too busy watching every move to take any good pictures of it. Here are a few we did manage to snap:

We met Pocahontas...


Donald Duck...


and went on a real safari, complete with really bumpy roads and some good views of giraffes, crocodiles, elephants, ostriches, and hippos.


Here's a gorilla we'd seen walking through the wilderness trails before the safari.


SJ was most interested in playing with the "zips" on Grandpa's backpack during the safari!


Meeting Eeyore


Winnie the Pooh


and Tigger!


We ended our time at Animal Kingdom by watching the afternoon parade, which of course had its very own "wild" style to set it apart from the other parks' parades!


When we got back to the hotel, T and Grandpa took AG and LL to the pool for a while, and SJ was in bed by 6:15! With no naps every other day, we were all ready for an early bedtime so we could be ready to go again the next day.

Day 2: Epcot

Tuesday morning we headed to Epcot early and were greeted just inside the entrance by some of the lovely character sculptures, all created using shrubbery and plants, that were a special part of their annual Spring flower and garden event.

The girls and me with Beauty and the Beast and Sleeping Beauty


Cinderella and the Prince dancing in front of Spaceship Earth


Nana and SJ with Snow White and the seven dwarves (dwarfs?)


We rode Spaceship Earth, hit lots of rides and shows in the Land and the Seas (Soarin' and Turtle Talk with Crush were favorites!), and then went back to our rooms for some afternoon rest. We returned later and made a loop around the World Showcase, stopping to pose with Captain Hook and the TickTock Crocodile,


Lady and the Tramp in Italy,


then had a great dinner in Morocco. It was delicious, but we won't try to feed SJ couscous again soon! (We finally found something she won't just gobble right up!)


Finishing our loop, the girls saw Bambi and friends,


and then we found a good spot to watch Illuminations, Epcot's laser/fireworks show. Nana kept a wary SJ happy by talking her through the noise and teaching her to narrate the show for herself..."POP POP, BANG BANG, lights, pretty!"