Secret Pumpkin

Hey, look at what my Secret Pumpkin sent me this year!

Every year some of us Halloween freaks (on my Halloween list-serve) send each other a surprise gift some time in April (6 months till Halloween) and do a little gift exchange if you will. I'm a little late in sharing, but check out the stuff I got this year.

First we have this little guy that is now currently sitting on my desk in my office. He is some sort of skeleton gargoyle that my Secret Pumpkin made for me. It always gets me lots of strange looks from the folks who notice it. Ha ha.



Then there are these lovely items: six mini tombstones, creepy cloth, and a big ole' Styrofoam skull.


As much as I loved the stuff, I had to put it away until Halloween because it was driving R crazy....and CMan kept wanting to play with it all (aww, that's my boy).

Speaking of Halloween, this past Memorial Day weekend, I met WB (and her hubby), one of Amanda's blog friends. She was very nice and did her best not to yawn while I bored her with my endless Halloween stories and photos. She throws a Halloween party of her own every year, so it's nice to know there are other kookies out there like me. Hi WB!

We've got rhythm, yes we do.

And now a post about Chris. Because you know, I haven't talked about him enough lately...

Anyway, onward.

First some quotes:

Cman: I'm going to the supamahket
Me: Oh you are? What are you going to buy?
Cman: CHEETOS!

Cman: Mommy, you name is Claudia?
Me: Yes, babe. What's your name?
Cman: Kistian
Me: What's the baby's name?
Cman: Baby.

After putting on his yellow iron man sunglasses: "everything is Lellow!"


And now a video of his recent love of drumming to the jingle bell song:



I was actually surprised that he has rhythm and pauses in the correct places. Unfortunately, you can't really tell because he wants to see the video before it's even over. lol. Maybe we've got a future rock band drummer on our hands.

My feet still hurt

Some CMan quotes:

"Silly rabbit"

"Fine! Not your beh frend!"

"Fine! I going home!"

"Yo ho, yo ho, a pirate's life for me....la la la la la, la la la la, drink up drink up drink up"

"I wanna go to Diney Wohr"

and so....we went. Hey...he doesn't have to ask twice.

Going to Disney (with a 2.5 year old) while 6 mo preggo is quite difficult, but I managed to make it through both days without losing my mind (or using a wheelchair).

On Friday Cristy, Sophia, Christian and I left at 1-ish hoping the kids would take their naps in the car (silly rabbit). Sophie was sick so we stopped to get her some medicine. You know how cough medicine makes some kids sleepy? Well, not her. It had quite the opposite effect and we didn't figure it out until the second day there, but more on that later.

We arrived at the Pop Century resort and Cristy checked in while I tried to herd the children in the lobby (don't try this at home). We went to our room and let the kids jump around on the beds for a bit so they could let off some energy. Then we went to dinner, took baths and went to bed as we had a long day ahead of us on Saturday.

We got to the Magic Kingdom around 10:30 and saw/rode the following:
The Pirates Ride: CMan was a little scared, but later he said he wanted to go again.
The Haunted Mansion: he was a little scared, but said that he liked it.
Peter Pan: he said he liked flying.
It's a Small World: he liked it.
Snow White: he said it was scary.
Winnie the Pooh: he liked it.
Winnie the Pooh playground: loved getting in the little house and hiding in the honey pots.
Woody's round-up show: loved it.
Barnstormer roller coaster: says he liked it, but he looked scared to me (he rode it with Cristy).
Toon-town playground: loved going in the little house and telling all the other kids "GET OUT OF MY HOUSE!"...lol.
Buzz lightyear spin: liked spinning the car around with the joystick.
3pm Parade: loved it.
WDW Railroad: liked it.
Fireworks: loved them.
Spectromagic parade: loved it.
We also had a character dinner with Pooh, Tigger, Piglet and Eeyore (which he totally loved) and also took pictures with Cap't Hook, Buzz Lightyear, Mickey and Minnie.

We walked out of the park at 11:30pm and neither of the kids was asleep. My feet felt like they were going to fall off. By the time we got to the hotel and turned the lights off to go to sleep it was 1:30 am! We had a character breakfast scheduled the following day at 8:30 am...God help us.

At 7am Cristy turned the lights on and woke our asses up. I thought for sure she'd forget about the breakfast and sleep in, but wouldn't you know it, the one time I was counting on her to do so...she didn't. We packed up our stuff and had a hard time waking the kids up (that's a first with Christian). While I was packing my stuff up that morning, I realized that I no longer was in possession of my 5day park hopper ticket (not good), but this is Disney we're talking about, so they were able to replace it for me (since I saved the bar code # from the ticket that they gave me). I immediately went to the gift shop to buy a lanyard so I could put my ticket in there and not lose it (again). I wanted to get one with pins on it, but those suckers were $44. I settled for the one without any pins for $9.

We didn't make it to Animal Kingdom until 9:30, but they let us sit for the breakfast anyway. The kids loved having the characters (Mickey, Minnie, Donald, Daisy and Goofy) come by while they were eating. We took lots of pictures and then slugged (and waddled) our way through the park.

Chris and I rode the safari ride (Sophie was asleep) and saw lots of animals. Then we took the kids to the bugs life show. At the entrance they had two Disney employees tell us that we were "at the right place, at the right time" and that we had won a prize (part of their Year of Million Dreams promotion). Guess what we won?....A lanyard....with pins on it. Is that funny or what? The kids liked the show, but I think the part where the lights go off (and the spiders come out) was a bit scary for them. It was a 3D movie show, but Cman refused to wear the glasses, so who knows if he knew what was going on.

Next we headed over to DinoLand. By this point Cristy and I had had enough. Our feet were hurting and we were sleep deprived. We didn't want to ride anything that required that we stand in a line, so that meant it was time to go home. It was 2:15, so we figured by the time we got to the car it would be 3ish. We headed out and by the time we got to the exit, both kids were asleep...grrrreat...so much for getting on the tram. We walked back to our car and finally left at 4:15pm. After some stops at the convenience store and gas station we were finally leaving Kissimmee around 5pm. The trip back was shorter since we didn't stop much, but neither of the kids slept a wink the whole way back. Fun.

Overall, the trip was fun, but there were quite a number of issues that I have left out that made it somewhat crazy and hectic. Cristy was having some problems, Sophie was sick, because of this she was acting out big time, I lost my ticket, Chris made me visit every bathroom in Disney...twice, and to top it off, we had a fender bender in the parking lot before going to Animal Kingdom (it's OK, just scratches). I think the adult to child ratio should be 2:1 for future trips involving pregnant people.

Don't get me wrong, I LOVE DISNEY, but this trip sure tired me out! I'm going again in December...hopefully that will be less chaotic (with a 4 month old Claudia?...yeah right, good luck with THAT one). What can I say? I'm a Disney addict. Is there a support group for that?

And now, some animals

R filmed four bluejays beating up on another bluejay. Bird gangs.



We went to the lake to feed the turtles...

and the ducks.

Stilts, drums and fire balls

You know the bad thing about having Chris sleep in a big boy bed is that he can get out of said bed when he wants to sleep with us. Last night he threw a tantrum because I wouldn't let him come to the "big bed". He eventually showed us who's boss by getting out of his bed and hoping into ours. Although I should have put him back in his bed to discourage such behavior, after fighting with him for an hour, all I really wanted to do was sleep. He stayed in our bed. I think it's time to putup a baby gate at the door.


And now, a tidbit from the "they grow up too quickly" files:

CMan: Mommy?

Me: Yes babe?

CMan: I want an iPod.


So my trip to El Sal was great, but I haven't really had the time or inclination to tell you all about it, so here goes:
On Friday I got there and that night, they had a nice home made dinner waiting for me. Yum. The following day I got to go to the beauty parlor and have my hair and nails done...Aahhh much needed pampering. The wedding was that evening and it was quite lovely. I've never seen so many photographers at a wedding. The bride and groom (my cousin) looked like they were celebrities being hounded by paparazzi.

The reception was at a nice hotel in San Salvador. At first I walked into the wrong wedding and was happily snapping pictures of the cake, when I realized that I didn't really know ANYONE there, so that couldn't be the right wedding. Fortunately this happened within the first 30 seconds after I got there and not after sitting down and eating the meal. Ha ha...that would've been hilarious (wow, this food is good, but who are those two people dressed like a bride and groom...uh...oops wrong wedding).

Once I made it to the correct room, we found out that our table was too small for all the people that were assigned to it, so mid-wedding, they took our table away and gave us a new one. We were stuck all the way at the back, so my mom convinced them to move the table right next to the dance floor...much better. They had a live band that was playing pretty good music and after a while, the bride took the stage and sang 4 songs with her band as well (she sings in a nightclub once in a while). This really got the party started and got some people out of their seats.

The party was in full swing, everyone was having a great time and then things got crazy....the drum players, fire juggler and stilt walkers showed up.

I'm not kidding.

They were passing out wigs and masks and noisemakers and veils and all sorts of fun carnival type things. It was so crazy, I've never seen that at a fancy hotel wedding before (or at any wedding for that matter). It was really fun and I would have participated more if it weren't for the fact that my shoes were killing me and for some reason I felt weird taking my shoes off and dancing with my pantyhose (yes, I know, feeling weird about that amidst stilt walkers really doesn't make sense, but hey, I didn't want to rip my spanx!). I was standing by the dancefloor to see the fireball lady, but I backed off a bit because I was scared that she was going to hit me with one of those fire thingies...she didn't seem to be very careful about looking around to see who was standing close by.

This was only the second wedding that I'd ever been to in El Salvador, so I noticed some differences between it and the weddings that I had been to here. I didn't see a bouquet toss or garter toss happening and the first dance was not really a big deal in the sense that there was no DJ or MC announcing it or anything. The cutting of the cake wasn't a big deal either. I don't think the couple ever cut it or took pictures with it (the hotel staff cut it up and served it)...and well, there's no need to mention the whole circus atmosphere either. It was definitely fun though. The party continued until 5 am (have I ever mentioned that these people like to party?), but I called it a night at around 12 or 1. I heard that after I left there were also mariachis that came later on. Wow, what a night!

The following day, we headed out to the beach house nice and early. On the way there, I noticed an accident on the side of the road. The police were there filing their reports and looking at the car, but there was a clown directing traffic away from the accident lane. Yes my friends, only in El Salvador do the clowns direct traffic and the cops make you laugh.

The beach house was so nice and relaxing. I got to vegetate in a hammock for a little while and go swimming in the pool. Good thing too, because it was so freaking hot, I thought I was going to melt. During this time, the cicada skins are still on the trees. I love seeing them all over the place because it reminds me of my childhood when my cousin and I would have contests to see who could collect the most.

The following day, it was time to come back. Boohoo. Oh well, it was nice while it lasted.

More pictures are up on Flickr (check them out over on the sidebar thingy over there --->).

Reporting for duty

I have been reprimanded by Amanda for not updating my blog. So here I am, reporting for blogging duty lest you think I ran away to El Salvador and never came back.

Since I got back last week, I've been busy playing packrat working, so my poor blog has suffered.

I'm too tired for an El Salvador recap right now, so let me fill you in on this past week's happenings...

On Saturday CMan came out in the Miami Herald newspaper. We had no idea he was going to come out, so it was quite a surprise when R opened the paper and found his son's picture there. Ha ha! And all because I submitted his picture to a gallery at this site, who knew?

On Sunday he fell off Amanda's couch and hit his forehead and lip. It was kind of scary because I had never seen a head bump get that big before and at first we didn't really know where the bleeding was coming from (his lip) so we thought he had knocked his tooth loose. Fortunately, he's doing better today. The bump has gone down, but it's an ugly black and blue color. He doesn't seem to notice or care that it's there. Thank God.

Yesterday I had an OB appt and the babe is fine. Kicking up a storm and growing like a weed, or is that the Taco Bell that's making me grow? The doc says I'm big for my dates and I told him that I kind of knew that because I felt so huge....not to mention that my mom reminds me of this all the time. Almost sixteen pounds so far; at this rate, I definitely see myself beating my 42 pound record with CMan (I'm only 5'4" and already had too much weight to begin with!).

Oh and I've got a cold again...that's 6 in case you're keeping track....I know I am.