Adventures at Disney World - Day 1

The big surprise was revealed to Megan at her birthday party on Saturday, June 16th.  It was, as I sort of anticipated, a major fail.  She totally played it cool for the big reveal in front of her grandparents and Uncle Kent.  Little stinker!  Despite her nonchalance, the anticipation definitely built for both girls in advance of our trip.  By the time Wednesday night rolled around, even Hannah was randomly exclaiming "I'm going to Disney World!", and we were all looking forward to our adventure.


On Thursday morning we hauled half of our worldly possessions through the airport. Megan, disgusted with our pace, even offered to help by pushing her sister in the stroller.

"Let's move, people!"

After a very smooth ride to Orlando, we had a couple of excited monkeys on our hands.

"Let's get this party started!"

We hadn't even left the airport yet before we spotted our first over-sized character statue.  This one was in heaven already!

We picked up our rental car, grabbed some lunch, and headed straight to our new home for the next four days.  Our digs were not quite ready for us, so we made the best of it and took full advantage of the facilities:

 After a quick grocery stock up and brief dinner break, we were off to Magic Kingdom for the first time.  

On the tram...which leads to the monorail...which leads to the park

It was a muggy night, but we found the ride lines to be pretty decent in the evening hours (this quickly became our strategy for the next two nights as well) - we got a great headstart on our list o' kiddie rides, and also caught the Main Street Electrical Parade.

The castle!!  It's real!!  This was a big first encounter for Miss Megan

We started slowly with the rides - Cinderella's Carousel was our first

Do these guys look ready to party or what?

 

This was actually Hannah's first ride ever - she was a big fan, and ready to move on to bigger and better attractions...

...such as the TEACUPS (she got a little quiet and green-faced for a moment, but quickly recovered)...

...just in time to hit the splash pad.  This was quite refreshing on a muggy Florida night.

She also enjoyed her first spin on Dumbo the flying elephant ride with Daddy.

Both sisters were pretty thrilled to see all the familiar charaters throughout the park, whether they were "real" or just signage along the wall.

Exploring Winnie the Pooh's territory after a spin on his ride - the Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh

Finally, we scored some good seats for the 9 p.m. Electrical Parade

It was hot, but we had fans!

After making our first souvenir purchases - a Minnie Mouse for Hannah and Rapunzel doll for Megan (which she is clutching securely while passed out in the stroller), we dragged two exhausted little ladies out of the park.

It was a very productive first night in the park!  It allowed us to get our bearings and give the girls a good taste of the fun to come over the next several days.  Mom and Dad also got a taste of just how exhausting this trip was going to be...but so, so worth it.  It was especially exciting to see how much Hannah enjoyed the experience - we weren't sure what this trip would look like for her, but we had no concerns about what she would get out of it after about ten minutes inside the gates.  We knew we had a lot of fun in store!

Megan & Hannah Pics - May/June 2012

This slideshow is so random that I apologize it even exists. I am in the midst of a camera dump leading up to Megan's 5th birthday party this weekend and a pretty big birthday surprise we have in store for her next week (details below). 

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I don't know where May went, but at least we got some pictures to prove it happened. We spent lots of time outside enjoying the sometimes-hot-before-it-gets-really-cold-again weather patterns. Kyle and I had an amazing kid-free trip to the Dominican Republic. I didn't attach too many pictures as a) you all would hate me and b) the memories of life in the tropics without children are too painful. It was insanely hot, the beach was gorgeous, the drinks were plentiful...and I did mention that the kids weren't there?

Hannah moved out of her crib shortly after we returned. Preparing for a battle, I reluctantly asked her one night if she wanted to sleep in her big girl bed. She enthusiastically agreed and we found her there sound asleep less than an hour later. She hasn't looked back since. Who in the world thought that would be so easy? Not Mommy. For about a week, she would call for me when she woke up just like in her crib, but it only took a few days before she figured out that there was nothing holding her back from escaping. She is fairly good about staying there at bedtime (though we've had a few escapes), but she now wanders into our room every morning to cuddle for a while before we get dressed for the day. All in all it's been a positive move. Her crib is now in pieces in the garage, and Mom is totally okay with that. She's taken a real interest in this potty business everyone keeps talking about, and we are planning on beginning the official training period in July.

Over Memorial Day weekend, I was lucky enough to fit in a quick trip to meet my new nephew, Oliver, who arrived on April 18. In my totally unbiased opinion, he is one of the sweetest babies ever to be born. He just made his first trip to Michigan this week, so we got even more cuddle time for a couple of days. He is already starting to get bigger way too quickly. I've encouraged Mom & Dad to keep a sharp eye on that.

Megan officially graduated from preschool at the end of May. This means...well, nothing, but her school had a very cute little ceremony with caps and gowns to boot. It was highly adorable. She also had her dance recital the first weekend in June. Similar to last year, she was awesome during the dress rehearsal and super proud to show us her moves (see youtube link attached - Megan is the second one in from the right - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BQFyDZwEu18&feature=g-upl). Unlike last year, she followed through on the actual recital bit and did a fantastic job performing during the show. We were very, very proud of her! She worked so hard during her routine to try to follow what the teacher was doing and do all of her steps just right. She was one cute little tap-dancer! We rewarded (or bribed, whatever you want to call it) her with a trip to Build-a-Bear after the show, where she proceeded to make the most flamboyant Hello Kitty reincarnate on the planet. Whatever it takes to keep our dancer happy, I guess. We had been pushing sports on her for the fall - I'd personally like to see another go at soccer, though we gave her a choice of t-ball or basketball, which she's recently taken a liking to. The girl has all the athleticism in the world but her choice thus far is to extend her dance classes to be year-round. She does seem to love it, so if this is what she's still thinking later this summer, that's what'll happen.

She's elected to have a Little Mermaid birthday party, coming up this weekend. Because of a big birthday trip in the works, we weren't going to do a "friends" birthday party this year, but Mom-guilt got the better of me when I realized that this was her last year with her Appletree buddies before they all go off to their respective kindergartens, so we're having just a few friends over Saturday afternoon for a low budget splash party. On Thursday of next week, we leave for... DISNEY WORLD! The birthday girl is not aware of these plans as of yet, but we plan to let her know on Saturday. Girlfriend is going to FLIP! We'll be there Thursday-Monday. She has breakfast with the princesses scheduled for Saturday morning (her actual birthday) and a little spa appointment at the Bippidi Boppidi Boutique Friday afternoon. I am working hard at building up all of the extra patience and sanity I can muster, as I'm sure three days at the happiest place on Earth is going to suck the life right out of us. Hopefully we'll have some happy little girls because of it, though. Grandma Purdy has graciously agreed to travel with us to help wrangle Hannah (for the safety of all involved, Hannah's afternoon nap is mandatory), which will be an enormous help. I'm sure there will be plenty of pictures to share.

Megan & Hannah Pics - April 2012

WARNING:  I have not yet thought about my message, but I have the distinct impression it is going to be lengthy.  Bear with me, good people.

April was BUSY.  Not our standard April-busy, as for once in my professional career, the busy-ness had nothing to do with taxes or financial statements, but we managed to fit in about as much life as we could on all our evenings and weekends.  We had a lot of fun, and have a lot of pictures to prove it.

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Easter was our first event of the month.  We have started an annual tradition of hosting an Easter egg hunt in our yard the Saturday before (this year being the second annual hunt).  We are very close with five other families in immediate proximity to our house, with 14 offspring ranging from 6 months - 9 years.  It's been such a great couple of years watching friendships grow among the kids - and the parents for that matter.  Anyway, we had a great time with the hunt, a craft project afterwards and watching the kids play while the parents got to chat it up.  

We caught Pinkalicious, the Musical with our awesome neighbors as well this month.  5 girls attended the play with their Moms.  We had a pizza party at our neighbor's amazing new restaurant before the play (major perk of your neighbors owning a restaurant).  The play was super cute (and totally pink so we had five very captivated little audience members) and the girls all got autographs from Pinkalicious herself (gasp!) afterwards.  We concluded the day with a pink cupcake afterparty at Megan's friend Claire's house, where Hannah joined us (she is not quite play ready with her tendency to throw things and scream at random).  It was a great, insanely pink, day.

Miss Megan insists on growing up and going off to kindergarten in the fall, despite my refusal to let her turn 5.  There is currently a big debate in our district as to whether or not kindergarten will be all-day, every day or remain the current 2.5 day (all-day, alternate day) schedule.  They don't expect to decide until the end of this month, which is rather annoying.  Because Megan has been in daycare full time since the wee age of 3 months, we're not too concerned with her transition (it may actually make our life easier just sending her to the same place every day), but it will be nice to know what our plans are for the fall.  The elementary school she will be attending hosted a Kindergarten Visitation Day this month, where she visited the classroom for two hours while Mom's emotions were put in check with reassuring words from current faculty and staff during a parent-only meeting (Dad was there too, but for whatever reason the thought of her going to school does not incite him to burst into tears).  It does seem like a wonderful school, and our future kindergartner LOVED her visit, which helped enormously.  Though our meeting was only two hours, I took the day off and held Megan hostage for the rest of the day for some Mommy-bonding time.  We went tutu shopping, out to lunch and had a lovely afternoon at home - all of this not particularly designed to make kindergarten okay for MEGAN, but I think she had a nice time too.

And, of course, just when I'm feeling all old and vulnerable at the thought of having a school-ager, the little one went and had herself a BIRTHDAY.  I haven't entirely processed this yet, but I suppose I am now the mother of a 2 year old (though if you ask her, Hannah insists that she is "two-anna-haff").  She had a wonderful birthday!  We took her to breakfast the morning of, then she went to school to pass out her special birthday treats, which she was totally proud of.  Her Mickey/Minnie party was the following day - the original intent was to have a Minnie party, but when I took her to the party store with me (a COMPLETE lapse in judgment on my part) she started with the "Where Mickey?!?" when we picked up our Minnie supplies.  The rest of the exchange when a bit like this:  Mom - "Hannah, do you want a Mickey party?"  Hannah - "Yeah"  (Mom then picks out all the appropriate Mickey supplies) Hannah - "AHHHH!  Where Minnie!?!" (Mom goes back to Minnie)  Hannah - "WHERE MICKEY?!?"... and there you have it folks, a Mickey and Minnie party (despite completely conflicting color schemes).  I may or may not have gone a little crazy with the Mickey themed treats, but she was totally into it.  We had a great time celebrating with family and friends, and had a super happy TWO YEAR OLD to boot.  

They are both doing great.  We recently picked up a Barbie Jeep Power Wheels thing from Craigslist for them.  I had no aspirations to own one of these stupid things, but the rest of the neighbor kids have them, and they all get together and drive their little cars around all day long.  Our kids were hitching rides all the time, so we were majorly guilted into the purchase.  Megan is approximately the worst driver ever, but at a max of 5 mph, I'm not too concerned about her potential for fiery crashes at this point.  

Hannah is talking insane amounts - she went from 2-3 words to entire paragraphs overnight, I swear.  She says everything - all the time, and she is probably the most hilarious person I have ever met.  She is very intentionally comedic most of the day - I definitely see potential as a stand-up comic or perhaps a circus clown in her future.  Many of you know that I am not exactly the most quiet person in the world, but between these two chatterboxes, I generally practice 15-20 minutes of complete silence after putting them to bed.  We had her 2 year check up on Monday - she weighed in a hefty 31 pounds, but more remarkably, she is 3 feet tall!  That puts her off the charts for height - who would have guessed?!?  Yesterday we took her for more allergy testing (you may remember that a year ago we learned that she was severely allergic to eggs) - we wanted to have her tested for peanuts/tree nuts so we didn't have to learn the hard way that she was allergic, as egg and peanut allergies often go hand in hand.  Not only is she not allergic to any form of nuts, but her egg allergy has all but disappeared too!  That was great news.  They suggested we avoid giving her unprocessed eggs (scrambled eggs, etc) for another year until she's old enough to undergo controlled testing at the doctor's office, but that is easy enough.  We were just happy to hear she is trending in the right direction.

Okay, that's all I've got at this point.  Kyle and I are off to the Dominican Republic for a few days next week.  At the end of the month I'm flying down for a long weekend to visit my precious new nephew, Oliver, so between the two trips I will barely see the kids long enough to photograph them.  You won't hear from me for awhile, I promise.  :)

Florida Trip - 2012

Fresh off the plane from Florida, I found myself with a full memory card last night and decided to do the memory dump and sort through photos (as opposed to doing something meaningful like laundry or grocery shopping).  Once again, we had a wonderful trip - a big THANK YOU to Grandma and Grandpa Nelson for allowing us to take over their otherwise quiet and spacious rental property.

The girls had an amazing time enjoying the beach, playing in the water, visiting with their cousins Lauren (3 - turning 4 in June) and Logan (2) - (the level at which they are related was explained to me but has since exited my brain - let it be known that they are the grandchildren of my mother's cousin, which I believe makes them 15th cousins 8 times removed or something of that nature - it is quicker and easier just to say "cousins") - and otherwise being outside.  They also made time to be spoiled rotten by Grandma and eat copious amounts of ice cream and popsicles.

It is always a special time for Mommy to spend with them, and I enjoyed it immensely.  (Sitting in my quiet office this morning was not entirely a bad experience, however - six days of intense Mommyhood was probably my limit).

We were sad to return to cold weather in Michigan, but what a pleasant surprise to see our front yard full of flowers and green leaves.  I hope the hot stuff returns soon!

Follow the link for the pics...

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Megan & Hannah Pictures - January/February 2012

Please see the attached for some recent pictures of the little ladies. This is kind of a random assortment, but we're headed to Florida for our annual trip to visit Grandma and Grandpa Nelson in a couple of weeks, and I thought it was a good time to clean up the camera.

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Everyone is doing very well. We've been keeping busy and survived January - our annual month of disastrous health - relatively unscathed (see below for discussion re: individual hospital visits - but aside from that, I would say it was marked improvement over January 2011!).

Megan started dance class just after the first of the year - it's a tap/ballet combo, and she LOVES it. It's an hour long on Saturday mornings, and she thinks she is big stuff because Hannah and I drop her off and then go hang out at the library until she's done. Little Miss Maturity. She just moved into the school-age room at daycare, for the kindergarten crew and up, so we're getting used to that transition. We're also in the process of getting her enrolled for kindergarten in the fall. There is a lot up in the air about whether or not our school district will go to all-day, every day kindergarten or not, so some of the informational meetings are being pushed back until this gets decided at the state level. (Currently our school district does two full days and one half day kindergarten). I'm not sure it will make much of a difference to Megan since she's used to being in daycare full time, but it will be nice to figure out what next year will look like for her. In other school events, she really enjoyed her class Valentine's Day party (which Mom got to attend for the first time - yay new job!) - including handwriting all of her own Valentine's and reading her friends names to pass them out appropriately. She and Kyle also attended the school's Daddy Daughter Dance a couple of weeks ago - this was their second time going, and Megan had been looking forward to it pretty much since the last one ended. We let her get her hair and nails done for the event, which is a pretty big deal to an aspiring princess. There wasn't much dancing with Daddy to be done, but she had a great time bouncing around with her little friends who were also ignoring their fathers.

Hannah talks and/or sings All. The. Time. She cannot be stopped. It is like owning a little parrot. She is stringing all kinds of words together and her song playlist is pretty impressive as well. She is very much an independent little gal - not one to submit willingly to big sister's domination (unfortunately for her big sister). It is not unusual for her to hit and/or pull Megan's hair when she is displeased with the way play is going...or just because she's bored. (Megan, god love her, is not a very physical child and will try to talk her way out of the situation - screaming when the miniature bully of the house has her by the hair. I am not going to come out and suggest that she use her size to her advantage, but I really think if she were to just lay Hannah out one time, it would make a world of difference on the amount of little sister instigated violence in our home). Aside from physical abuse of her older sibling, she is very into her books and baby dolls (including covering them with blankets and patting their backs - just like Megan did!) and has become a certified two-foot jumper. She is very much a Mommy's girl and is the world's greatest cuddler. We still have her in the crib for now - mostly because she is routinely soaking through her overnight diapers, and it is easier to wash crib bedding than full-sized mattress bedding. Really, really hoping that stops soon - I really don't enjoy much about the laundry. We are looking forward to celebrating her second birthday next month!

Though we have been ear infection free all winter (knock on wood), the girls each had their fair share of brief stomach bugs early in the New Year. I missed a few days of work here and there, but overall, it wasn't nearly the disaster that last year was with Hannah's recurring ear infections and severe colds. This is all well and good, yet we still managed to take each kid for some form of emergent care - I suppose it wouldn't be January without it. On an otherwise enjoyable Sunday, Megan started complaining of abdominal pain, and within an hour it got to the point where she wouldn't stand up and was begging to go to the doctor. I called our doctor's office and they suggested we go to the ER at the Children's Hospital in the event she needed an ultrasound - her symptoms were sounding like potential appendix trouble. It turned out to be a bladder infection that was giving her all the trouble, and the hospital experience was actually pretty positive - she got to watch Disney movies in her own private room, with a blue slushie to boot.

Hannah required her *first* (unless I succeed at finding her the perfect two year old helmet, I am sure it will not be the last) set of stitches in January as well. She took off running down the hallway at daycare (not listening? shocker!) and cracked her head on the corner of a wall, splitting the skin just above her eyebrow. It only took one stitch to get her put back together, but it looks like she'll be sporting a nice little scar on her forehead. Stitches at 21 months? God has dealt us a wild card here, folks.

Valentine's Day Pictures

So, these were not supposed to happen, let alone work out as well as they did, but such is my luck.  Daddy has been traveling quite a bit lately, and will be leaving us again the week of Valentine's Day.  To be clear, I HATE Valentine's Day, but being the mother of two girls on a holiday that features pink/purple girly-ness, it is my lot in life to do it up right.  I got a very last minute idea in my head last Friday to take the girls to JCPenney's for Valentine's Day pictures.  It was literally as we were getting ready on Friday morning that this idea popped into my head.  I threw their newly purchased novelty character Valentine's Day t-shirts and a couple of combs into a bag and away we went.  I didn't even have an appointment for pictures until just before lunch, but everything fell into place quite nicely. 

I had the afternoon off of work - Hannah had a doctor's appointment already scheduled to have the stitch removed from her forehead (oh, did I not tell you about that?  what?  would you not normally schedule pictures until facial lacerations have healed?  lame!).  So at 1:45 my baby was having a stitch plucked out of her head and by 2:30 we were at the mall having a quick snack before our photo shoot.  I am just trying to frame the context here to give you some idea of how low my expectations for success were.  The bar was set at approximately zero for taking away anything salvageable, but at $4 per portait sheet, I really had nothing to lose.

So the photo shoot begins, and Hannah immediately starts screaming when the photographer touches her.  I am not the slightest bit concerned about this, as I mentioned previously that I had zero expectations for this working out anyway.  But then something miraculous happens - Hannah becomes cooperative!  For perhaps the first time in her life, she behaves on cue!!  There was truly some higher power involved here.  Anywho, I ended up with like 5 billion photos that I don't need, but it was a very successful shoot and will hopefully make for a nice surprise for Daddy (and probably the Grandma's as well - they tend to covet cute pics of the girls together).  See below for a small sample of the pictures.

Megan & Hannah Pictures - November/December 2011

Please see the attached for some recent pics of our little ladies.  We had a wonderful Christmas with them - each year gets more and more fun with all the Santa magic.  Megan has been totally into it the last couple of years - now she is just getting harder to trick.  Hannah absorbed a whole lot this year as well - any person with a white beard was automatically labeled "Santa" and followed by a jolly "ho ho ho".  She's got the belly to pull off quite the realistic impression, too.  

 

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We kept very busy with pre-holiday activities - a trip to the GR zoo for Christmas with the Animals (we also find they have the best Santa in town - the ones in the mall have turned into real scheisters these days), Megan's preschool Christmas program, a whole lot o' baking (Megan and I made 12 batches of cookies for 5 families in our neighborhood for our very own "12 Days of Cookies" - we delivered one cookie per family member each night for 12 nights, solidifying our Favorite Neighbor of 2011 award), and a visit to Frederick Meijer Gardens to see the Christmas trees from around the world.  All these activities were made that much merrier by the fact that we've had no significant snowfall in our neck of the woods yet this winter - YAY!

On Christmas morning, each girl had a couple of gifts in front of the fireplace to open from Santa, and taped behind their stockings was a letter from the big guy himself indicating that he'd left quite a big surprise for them in their playroom downstairs.  Daddy went down first in order to "check it out" (a/k/a set up the video camera) and captured some priceless footage of two shocked little girls when they saw a massive dollhouse in the middle of the room. That was their big (literally) gift this year - on Christmas morning they were down there for 20 minutes on their own playing contentedly while I enjoyed breakfast of non-soggy cereal.  In my opinion, the thing paid for itself right there.  Another highlight of the letter - Megan had decided that in addition to leaving out cookies and milk for Santa, we should also provide a healthy option.  She chose broccoli - I could go on and on about what a hypocrite this makes her, but that is neither here nor there.  Anywho, Santa's letter included a thank you for the milk and cookies, and also a note that he doesn't really like broccoli, but ate it all up because he knows it's good for him.  She cannot seem to get this part out of her head.  We have discussed it every day since Christmas - "remember how Santa didn't like our broccoli?"..."does Santa gets snacks after dinner if he doesn't eat his broccoli?"... etc, etc.  The girl cracks us up.

The whole family suffered a round of the stomach flu between Christmas and New Years, which made for a very low-key week at home.  As I happen to suck at being low-key, I was the only person in my office this morning who was enthusiastic about being there.  I am sure we will look back on our downtime one day and appreciate it for what it was, but today is not that day.  For their part, I believe the kids were both awfully excited to get dropped off at school this morning, too.

In other non-holiday updates, we remain convinced (and totally unbiased) that both of our little beauties are extremely talented geniuses.  Megan is so, so, sooooo close to reading on her own.  She is doing 3-4 pages at night of her stories where she insists on sounding out every word and putting the sentences together before she gets frustrated with our slow pace and lets me take over.  Books with words that repeat over and over she can do all the way through - she is quick to pick up on these "sight words", as they call them in preschool.  It's very exciting to see this process unfold.  She is starting dance class (a ballet/tap combo this time) this Saturday, which will last until the recital at the beginning of June.  She is very excited to be back at it and is especially thrilled about her "clicky shoes" - I'm assuming her instructor will correct the tap lingo, for now I just think it's cute.  She is very into the movie "Matilda" (based on the book by Roald Dahl) and we actually picked up the chapter book at the library last weekend - she is tolerating a chapter a night of her first non-picture book very well.

Hannah is stringing together 3-4 words at a time kind of suddenly.  Tonight was "Lacey bad girl bark" for instance, which was a well articulated summary of the situation.  She's in rapid vocab expansion mode and is also extremely musical.  She doesn't know all the words to her song, but girlfriend can keep a beat - it's generally pretty easy to tell what she's singing based on her rhythm.  Pattycake and Frosty the Snowman are quite popular at the moment.  At 20 months, we haven't wanted to move her to her big girl bed yet, but will likely get to work on that shortly here.  She's also developing a pretty strong preference for immediate diaper changes after she's gone potty - this weekend she would come find me with a diaper in her hand when she wanted to be changed.  This probably means potty training is just around the corner for us, but I think I'm less eager about that process than I am about the thought of giving her the freedom to roam in a big girl bed.  We'll keep this stuff as close to her second birthday as possible, if she'll allow it.

Hope you all had a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!