Disney World - Day 3

With the grandparents in town, on Tuesday we headed to Magic Kingdom.  I was beyond excited to take Emma to the Magic Kingdom.  I imagined staying the whole day in the warm sunshine and see all the enchanting things there were to see.  Of course, you know how best laid plans go.

Note:  Please excuse the binky in virtually all the pictures in this post. Emma is typically not allowed to have her binky outside of her bed or in very special situations, but Disney, while magical, can be stressful so we bent a few rules.  This day was especially stressful so the binky was in full effect.

Emma getting ready for Magic Kindom in the Mickey ears Grandma bought her the night before.

Emma seemed a little off that morning.  She hardly ate anything, was in a zone and at one point asked to go back to bed, which I don't think has ever happened before.  I figured she'd perk up once we got in the car.   She perked up for awhile, but was soon in tears again.  She cried on the monorail taking us from the parking lot to the park.  She finally calmed down once we got in view of the park, but still wasn't her usual perky self.  We had tears off and on all day. To add to it, the sunshine and warm weather I had imagined were nowhere to be found.  It was cold and gloomy and none of us were prepared. This was not how I envisioned our trip!

We marched onward and soon found some things to keep the little one happy.   Our first real stop was in Mickey's Toon Town Fair.  I wanted to be sure to get there because Emma loves Mickey and it was built for her age group.  But, the main reason was that the last time I was in Disney it was just being built so I didn't get to go and it was going to be closing forever at the end of that week! It was 'now or never'!

Look Minnie and Emma are the same size!

Minnie's house in Mickey's Toon Town Fair

Just realxing in Minnie's chair

I thought this was in important message pinned to Minnie's bulletin board.

After leaving Mickey and Minnie's houses, we found a few friends.  Emma had to wait in line to see them, something I don't remember being the case when I was a kid.  Didn't the characters used to just walk around the park?  Well either way, she was delighted to meet Tigger and Pooh! Notice the wardrobe change.  Mommy was feeling bad for dressing Emma for warmer weather than we were given so Grandma Helen and I went in search of something a little warmer. We all felt a little better, except that her ears went so well with her shorts!

After Tigger and Pooh, we headed over to 'It's a Small World'.  You can't go to Disney without riding eventhough, truthfully, it's one of the least exciting rides, which could explain the 90 year olds operating it.  It has recently been redone and the children are vibrant and beautiful!  The wait was only 5 minutes and it was warm inside so we were all in favor of it! Emma just looked at the picture as I was posting and said, 'Oh! It's A Small World! Can we ride it again?'  I couldn't believe she rememberd what it was called! Glad to know it made an impression on her!

Grandpa Don, Grandpa Barry, Emma and Daddy waiting to ride It's A Small World

I love the visuals in this ride.  This was my favorite room.

After Small World, we had more tears, a leaky diaper, a failed attempt at eating lunch (thanks to tears from Emma) and what we thought was a stolen stroller.  We found it and realized it had been moved since must have left in an undesirable place.   We decided to keep moving and hit a few more favorites before calling it a day.

Emma and Grandpa getting ready to climb up into the Swiss Family Robinson's tree house.

Another (rare) picture of Mommy and Emma

We also headed over to Pirates of the Caribbean, not sure how Emma would do since it's dark and fairly scary.  She loved it and rode happily, unafraid for the whole ride!

Finally as we were all getting tired, the sun came out.  What a bummer!  We couldn't walk another step though. At least we got a pretty picture of the castle on the way out.

Emma fell asleep in her stroller which I'm pretty sure she's never done other than when she was a baby still in her infant seat.  Emma sleeps in two places and two places only - her bed and her carseat. We realized she must have been cranky because she was so tired.  She slept all the way out of the park, on the ferry across the water back to the parking lot, and I think all the way to the car!

We got our sleepy girl back to the hotel, tried to feed her (not interested) and put her down for a nap.  If I remember correctly, she slept for 4 hours.  I was getting a little worried at this point because it was so unlike Emma.  I thought she might be getting sick, or worse, the thought that soemthing was wrong with her shunt!  Emma is never sick and rarely so tired that she wants to sleep all day.  She's a good napper, but this much sleeping was excessive.

Luckily, she woke up in a wonderful mood, which is more than I can say for myself. We went to dinner in the hotel and she finally ate a few bites of macaroni.  After dinner, we went up to the lobby for the parade of African music the have every night.  It was awesome!  Emma got to try out some instruments in the gift shop first.

Emma LOVES drums! She is a drummer at heart and I won't be surprised
 if she grows up to be the coolest girl drummer ever!

Then she got a little drum to carry in the parade.  We all walked around the lobby chanting 'Si ya ya, Africa'.  I'm sure that's not really how you spell it, but I don't know what the real spelling is.  It means 'We're going to Africa.

At the end of the parade, the parade leaders did some more drumming for us.  Emma parked herself in the middle of the circle drumming and dancing her little heart out.  When one of the women abandoned her drum to dance, Emma went right over and started drumming to the music of the other drum!

Emma participated in the parade the next two nights as well.  It was a great end to a day that started out not so great!

Disney World - Day 2

Day 2  in Disney was our Princess day.  Grandparents hadn't arrive yet, but the 3 of us headed over to Epcot for breakfast at Akershus Royal Banquet Hall.  (A word of advice to anyone who might be heading to Disney: There is a breakfast at Cinderella's castle, but you have to call 180 days in advance and even then you have to be one of the first ones of the day to call to get a reservation, so instead we went to this breakfast which was much more reasonablly priced, had 5 princesses and they give you a free 8 x 10 and 4- 4 x 6 prints of your child - or your whole family - with Belle. Emma's picture with Belle is awesome! It's a great deal!)

Emma was very excited to see the princesses.  We'd been doing our homework ahead of time by watching all the Disney movies, especially the princesses!  I almost cried everytime a new princess came to our table.  Not because I was so excited to see them, but because I get very sentimental when I see Emma experience these kinds of things for the first time. Or even the second. Or third.  I was the same way with Santa.  It's just the magic of childhood! I'm sure Jeremy thinks I'm a nutcase.

The ceiling at Akershus Royal Banquet Hall.  It looked more impressive in person.

My sweet girl with Belle - one of our favorite princesses

So a few times during the breakdast they have a Parade of Princesses.  All of the princesses (except Belle who is still taking pictures with guests) walk through the dining room collecting all the little princesses for a little parade.  Emma was not dressed in princess garb eventhough I wanted her to be (Jeremy thought it was a bit silly.), but I let her walk anyway. For about 30 seconds when I realized she doesn't know how to follow a group and she was only 2 1/2.  I quickly retreived her by the buffet when she was veering off towards the kitchen.  Maybe when she's a little older we can try again.

 While very excited and smiley to see Belle at the entrance, when the other princesses arrived at our table, she became a bit overwhelmed and shy.  I mean she was so happy to see them, but couldn't quite believe they were right there next to her.  So the pictures reflect her timidness. Not wanting to hog the princesses like some tables do, I just took the picture and didn't worry that she wasn't smiling.

Sleeping Beauty - Aurora

Snow White - Jeremy thought she was Cinderella ... apparently he wasn't paying attention during the
movie watching we did at home.

The Little Mermaid - Ariel - She kept calling Emma 'Starfish'

Finally, Emma's favorite - Cinderella.  Emma got a tiara and matching earrings for Christmas, as well as a Cinderella doll, so she loves to dress up like Cinderella.



After our royal feast, we headed over to 'The Seas' area of Epcot to see some fishy friends.  We rode a Finding Nemo ride and got to talk to Cursh, the sea turtle from Finding Nemo.  Turtle Talk with Crush is awesome!

Giving Nemo a kiss

Daddy and Emma with the seagulls from Finding Nemo - 'Mine!Mine!Mine!'

Then it was back to the hotel for a little rest and to wait for the grandparents to arrive.

On the way out, Jeremy wanted to try to hold Spaceship Earth in the palm of his hand.

Another cool animal outside our window when we came back for lunch.  I think it's an impala.
 Aren't those antlers crazy!?

A great first day.  After the grandparents arrived, we headed back to Downtown Disney for dinner and shopping.  Tomorrow - Magic Kingdom!

Disney World - Day 1

 Okay here's the beginning of our Disney Trip.  I could do it all in one, but I took a lot of pictures.  We were there for a week afterall! So, I'm going to try breaking it down.  I'll try to post them all in the next few days though.

Our trip started on the 6th of February.  We got a great deal (Thank you Military Discount!) on a room at the Animal Kingdom Lodge in Disney World.  I'm not all that into animals or African themes, but let me tell you, this hotel was AMAZING!  It's huge! The lobby is absolutely beautiful and as soon as you drive in the gate or walk in the door they say 'Jambo! Welcome home!'  I mean Disney knows how to pay attention to details.

One of the attractions of the Animal Kingdom Lodge are the savannahs that are home to several different species of animals.  You can pay extra to have a savannah view room, but we chose not too and were glad we made that choice when we read many reviews saying that it wasn't worth it.  Even our neighbor, who did pay for one, said she hoped we didn't because they really didn't see any animals.  When we checked in, Jeremy said that we had a 'parking lot view'.  Oh well, I thought, there are still plenty of places to see cool things.  So we get to our room to settle in, walk out on our terrace and here is what we see:

Baby giraffe and zebra -taken from our balcony!

Oh and a whole giraffe family! Emma kept saying the baby couldn't find his mommy and daddy. I guess she didn't see the big giraffes standing next to the baby!



So after seeing such a beautiful 'parking lot' from our room, I was REALLY glad we didn't spend the money for a savannah view.  We were also right near the steps to the pool and had lots of trees surrounding us so it was actually much better than the savannah view rooms!

Immediately upon arrival, Emma wanted to swim.  She must have noticed that there wasn't 2 feet of snow on the ground.  It wasn't terribly warm, but coming from 20 degree temperatures, it felt pretty nice! (And the pool was heated.)

They have a zero depth entry pool. AWESOME! No I didn't pack that big yellow life jacket.  The hotel provided them!

Pool side view of the Animal Kingdom Lodge

Oh yeah, we could also see flamingoes (and about 4 other kinds of exotic birds) from our room and the pool.

And an antelope

And a ... eland?  Lots of animals with horns/antlers.  I can't keep them all straight!

Later that night, we decided to go to Downtown Disney since we didn't have park tickets for that day.  We saw this giant Lego creature - dragon?  Maybe Lochness Monster?  It also had a long tail that went in and out of the water.  Very cool!

Then Emma found Sleeping Beauty.  She was thrilled!
 Little did she know she was going to have breakfast with the real thing the next day!

Outside of the Bibbity Bobbity Boutique, she was hit with some fairy dust by a Fairy Godmother-in-Training.
 She STILL has fairy dust stuck to her scalp!

Then we met some other friends.

Oh Toy Story! Her favorite ... Mr. Potato Head?  Buzz Light Year! She was in awe!

By the time we found Minnie, we were a little tired hence the binky.  Rules are broken when in Disney!

We ended the night with a few rides on the carousel.

I wasn't actually sure we needed to go to the parks after that first day.  There was so much to do at the hotel and at Downtown Disney! Emma didn't know any better! We could've gone home and called it a day!Grandmas and grandpas were on their way though, and we'd already bought passes for the rest of the week!

...To Be Continued ...

16 Weeks and 1 Day

Okay, Disney pictures are on their way, but I had to get the juices flowing.  Posting about such a big trip is daunting! So let's start with some baby business.

First of all, let me tell you that this pregnancy is 100% harder than Emma's so far.  Okay maybe not a whole 100%, but pretty close!  Everyone keeps saying, well you have a child now so you have to takecare of her all day.  Here's the problem with that, I taught Mommy and Me classes while pregnant with Emma!  Not one toddler! 10 or more at a time! Or a handful or preschoolers! All day! 9 in the morning to 6 at a night! 6 days a week! That was definitely harder.  Now at least, I have a couch to lay on all day and a nice big screen TV to keep Emma entertained.  (Emma, please forgive me for all the TV you've been watching.  I know you enjoy it now, but please don't hold it against me when you're older! Thank God you pick up A LOT from those shows!) Plus I have a wonderful husband who comes home at 4ish everyday and takes over!

Anyway, this pregnancy = much harder! Now don't get me wrong, I am very grateful to be pregnant and so far all things have gone smoothly - relatively speaking. No complications yet.  I'm trying to remain positive because I know there are people who would love to be pregnant right now, BUT holy moly, I have been sick in some way or another since the day I got pregnant! Yes even before I knew I was 'with child' I was sick.  Morning sickness, exhaustion, almost daily headaches for the first trimester, 2 stomach bugs, 3 colds ( at least), horrible leg cramps, and I'm just getting over the flu which has been plaguing me for about 2 weeks now! I'm still coughing so hard it makes me gag! Oh and at one point, I had to take an antibiotic a few weeks ago that made me feel like I wanted to die. It was awful!  Seriously, I can't get a break! Well, I did get a bit of a break in Disney World.  Thank the Good Lord for that!  So my poor husband and daughter having been living with me as a shell of my former self. Thank goodness for Jeremy's parents who were able to come up for a few days last week and watch Emma while I stayed in bed all day! (Times like this are why I'm moving in with my parents!) I keep thinking I'll pull out of this soon and then - WHAM! - I get hit with something else.  My neighbor told me it means I'm having a boy!



Here you will find one of a very few pictures of me on this blog.  I took this picture last night.
16 weeks exactly! I'm sometimes bloated at night, so my belly is a little bigger at night, but there's a bump for sure.



Speaking of gender, we don't know yet what we're having, but Jen's grandmother has some magical calculation she does that predicts a baby's gender.  I've been told that she's never been wrong.  She did predict Emma correctly. She recently did the calculation for this baby and predicts that it is .... a boy! I'm not running around buying anything blue yet, but I seem to be the only one who thinks it's a girl so it will be interesting to see what the ultrasound shows.  I'm not sure when said ultrasound will be, but I have a doctor's appointment today so they should be scheduling it in the next few weeks!

Last week, I met with a Maternal-Fetal Medicine specialist for a consultation because of my high blood pressure.  I was followed by one when I was pregnant with Emma too.  Actually, I found out that the one I saw last week used to be partners with the one I saw in Boston and he used to be the head of Labor and Delivery at the hospital where Emma was born.  Anyway, he was really nice and made me feel very comfortable about being in his care. Emma even liked him!! (Too bad we're moving in a month or two and won't see him again most likely.)  He had insteresting information to share.  Not good news persay but interesting.  He said what I had with Emma was actually HELLP syndrome which is a severe form of pre-eclampsia.  I think it stands for Hemolysis (a break down of red blood cells), Elevated Liver enzymes (liver function is affected), and Low Platelets counts (platelets help the blood clot).  You only have to have one of those things to have HELLP.  I had the elevated liver enzymes.  So the good news is that HELLP usually only happens once.  The bad news is that my changes of having any form of pre-eclampsia in this pregnancy is about 30 to 40% .  If I were to fall into that 30 - 40%, then there would be a 50/50 chance of having another severe form of pre-eclampsia.  So odds are still in my favor that I will have a normal pregnancy, but they're barely in my favor.  There's nothing I can do to prevent it either, so I just have to get good medical care.  Makes me glad I'll be delivering (I hope) at Magee in Pittsburgh!

So that's the news for now.  The bright side of all this illness is that while, I'm definitley sporting a bump, I haven't really gained any weight so, hopefully, I'll be able to keep that under control unlike last time (40+ pounds in 35 weeks).  This pregnancy is also moving pretty quickly.  I'm already 16 weeks and 1 day.  It feels like just yesterday I was only 9 weeks.  I'm getting really close to half way! Yikes! Anyway, that's all for now.  Maybe I'll have something to report after my doctor's appointment this afternoon.