Disney Part 2

Oooh, look at that, I never wrote part 2! I've been such a space cadet lately (lately?). OK here goes... Since we stayed at the movies resort at Disney, before we headed out to the parks we took a stroll through the grounds because I really wanted the boys to see the Toy Story section of the hotel since they (mostly Jordan) are currently obsessed with those movies. When Jordan laid eyes on the giant Buzz he held his Buzz doll up, looked at me, then looked at the giant Buzz, then looked at me again. It was adorable to watch. After our stroll we headed to Disney Studios. I didn't used to like that park before because I felt there wasn't enough to do there. This was of course, before I had kids. Now that we go mostly for the boys (at least that's what I tell myself), the park is all of a sudden more interesting. In fact, both times that we've gone recently, we haven't been able to do everything. I've yet to go on the Toy Story ride for example. There is always a crazy long line and I've tried with the fast pass and both times it's been too late (we've had to leave the park early both times because we were driving back that day). The skies were a little grey, but thankfully the weather was better than the day before. First we went on the backlot tour (since we missed that last time) and saw some pretty cool scenes and props. Christian loved the hall with all the costumes. He requested that I take his picture with a few key characters. I'm thinking he likes the villains. Wherever does he get this from? Next we went on the Great Movie Ride. Chris loves the part where the wicked witch comes out (see what I mean?) in the Wizard of Oz scene. After our ride, we stopped to eat lunch at the Sci-Fi diner. I really love this place because I'm such a sucker for gimmicky places. I had eaten there once before and I knew the boys would love it. They make it look like an drive-in movie lot. You sit and eat in a "car" while watching clips of old movies. So cute! After lunch we headed over to the Hollywood Tower of Terror (can you tell I like photographing trees?). Chris said he wanted to ride it (he liked it the last time he rode it). Unfortunately because he had just eaten, he didn't enjoy it as much this time. Oopsy. Fortunately the boy has a good stomach so there were no unfortunate incidents. We then headed over to the I shrunk the kids playground, but we took a detour because I wanted to show Chris the Star Wars ride set. Good thing we did because hidden in a little corner I found this guy. At first Chris was excited to take a picture with him (after all he took a picture with the costume), but then not so much when he realized that Darth isn't as friendly as Goofy. Side note: OMG chewie back pack! $54...um, no thanks. The kids loved the playground. I was wishing they were old enough to run around by themselves since Jordan kept ducking into holes where I could not fit. I kept freaking out because I never knew where those little caves led. Fortunately, they were OK and were not eaten by a giant insect. Ren however, found his long lost love. Since we had to drive back that day, we had to leave early, so we only had time to catch the parade right before heading out. It was a Pixar parade, so all our favorite characters came out to sing and dance and wave hello. Yes, even the Toy Story Gang! After that, we grabbed some cotton candy and boarded a bus back to the hotel. What a fun trip! Can't wait to do it again this week!

Happy 2nd Birthday Weekend!

Friday was Jordan's 2nd birthday. We celebrated the whole weekend. On Friday, his Daddy took happymeals, cupcakes and goodie bags to the daycare. That evening we drove to Tampa. The following day we went to Busch Gardens and had lunch with the Sesame Street characters because Jordan is so in love with Elmo lately.

On this trip, we learned that he only likes Elmo (et. al.) from a distance. Ha ha. At least he didn't cry or anything, but he was kind of shy and didn't want to get too close to them. Christian on the other hand took numerous pictures with all the characters. He found it hilarious that he could poke them in the butt and they wouldn't feel it. I can't tell you how many butt poking pictures I got. The cookie monster one was the funniest because his hand practically disappeared in all the fur and it looked like he was sticking his whole hand... um anyway. After lunch, they played in the kids splash zone and it felt soooo good to cool off from the Florida heat.

Our friends (who came with us) then met up with us for the water rides. Chris rode the flume ride and the congo river rapids ride for the first time ever. Needless to say, he loved it. He even went on twice. By that time we were pooped and ready to leave since we had a 5 hour drive back home. Chris was sad because he wanted to ride the Scorpion but Dad wouldn't let him because it goes upside down.

The following day, we invited a couple of friends over for cake and goodies at the house. I figured JJ is still too young to know what's what, so no big party this year. We'll save the crazy effort for when he's old enough to enjoy it. Wow, my little baby is two...how did that sneak up on me?

Wannadon't City

Yesterday, instead of going to the movies, R and I took the boys to Wannado City (further known as Wannadon't City in my house). Once I got past the price of getting in there (and the ridiculous fact that Me, Ren and the BABY had to pay too just to go watch Chris) it was pretty overwhelming. If you've never been there before, there's a slight learning curve to figuring out how the whole place works. It doesn't help that the people at the registers don't really explain things to you. A simple "Welcome! Have you visited us before? Would you like me to explain how it works?" would have been nice. I guess I've been spoiled by Disney. No friendly mousketeers here, they just put an electronic prisoner tracking bracelet on all of us (I'm guessing so they don't steal your child or in case he gets lost), hand you a piece of paper (a check) and throw you to the lions. There are posters on the wall showing you the map of this place, but there are no maps that you can actually take with you as you go inside, which would be oh so helpful.

We walked inside, looked all around and didn't even know where to start. I crossed the miniature street without getting run over the miniature fire truck and noticed that there were little stations all over the place. Each station had a little (or not so little) line of children waiting to get inside. We walked around a bit and stopped someone to ask them what we were supposed to do with this little check. They told us to go to the bank and cash it or deposit it. Interesting. So we go to the bank and gave the lady the check and she gave us a wad of Wannado City money. Cute, OK, now what?

We went back into the city and looked around for a line to get into. We found a Willy Wonka factory line and were just about to get in line when I noticed that in all the activities, there were only kids in there. Not ONE parent. Parents weren't even allowed to wait in the line! Now if anyone knows my son, then they know that this trip just became a huge waste of time and money. He HATES being by himself and he is super slow to warm up to things, so there was no way he was going to wait in line, let alone go inside the mini little buildings to do things BY HIMSELF. HA! I quickly asked one of the workers there if all the activities were like that and if parents were allowed to go in with the kids. She said they could but that we had to have a special pass which we had to go pick up at guest services which was where exactly? Oh yes, my very own map would have been nice right around now.

After finding the cleverly hidden guest services, we get our pass and go back in the city. With pass in hand we head over to one of the little rides in the Wannado Fair. Surprise surprise, Chris doesn't want to ride by himself, so we went on the merry-go-round instead, where I AM allowed to go with him. We then head over to the Willy Wonka Factory. I get in line with Chris and we wait...and wait...and finally they let in 12 children. Wouldn't you know it, we're #13. The lady tells us that the next batch of children will be let in in half an hour. Nice. In the meantime I start chatting it up with one of the kids in line to get the scoop on how this place works. She tells me that you have to pay some of your Wonga bucks to get inside the fun stuff, but then you can go do a "job" (Fireman, Doctor, Dentist...etc) and you get paid. Wow, we get to do this in real life, why come and pay to do that here!?

We wait and wait and wait, and my child is getting bored and restless:

Chris: Can we go to the Haunted Mansion?
Me: There is no Haunted Mansion here.
Chris: How about the YO-HO's?
Me: There are no YO-HO's here either babe.
Chris: Awww.

Perhaps it was all the time spent in line that made him think that we were in Disney. I felt the same way too (minus the nice employees, more on that later). More than half an hour later, we finally get called in and we have to pay 60 of our Wannado bucks to get in. The actual experience is pretty cute because they had the kids make a little candy ice cream cone. Fortunately for me, Chris took one bite and didn't like it. It was delicious.

Now it was time to go work and make some money. Chris had seen the little ambulance and firetruck driving around, so he wanted to do that. The firetruck line was super long, so we went to the hospital instead. We got in line. They let 8 children in. Surprise surprise, we were #9 (I'm sensing a trend here). The lady said the next fire truck would be here in 45 minutes. Seeing as how we had time to kill, R waited in line with Jordan (wearing the special pass or else he can't even stand in line) and I took CMan across the "street" to the cafe to get something to eat. We ordered our pizzas and just as we were about to sit down to eat, R called me to tell me that one of the kids didn't want to ride the ambulance so I had to bring Chris back now because they weren't going to wait for him and adults weren't allowed to hold a spot in line anyway. So I piled my pizza plates one on top of the other and grabbed the sodas and ran over there, only to discover that the kid that chickened out, decided to ride after all. So here we were standing with all this food and the cheese of the bottom pizza got stuck to the bottom of the plate of the top pizza and the top pizza was too hot to eat and we had to all wait in line RIGHT THERE for 45 minutes because no one could save a spot for anyone.

We're all standing there eating our food when it suddenly occurs to me to ask if parents (with the guest pass) are allowed to ride the ambulance with the children. Surprise surprise. NO. Um OK. So we ask what time the next job starts and the super friendly lady dressed as a nurse points to the wall and says "the times are right there". On the wall are a bunch of little clocks with the name of each job posted on it and the hands of the clock pointing to when the next one will start. It looks like Surgery is starting in the next 5 minutes so I tell the lady that Chris will not be riding the ambulance and that he'll do whatever job is next. She says fine. So we wait...and wait. When all of a sudden I hear someone say that the line for the other jobs is inside. We go inside and the lady tells us to just have a seat inside at which point I not so kindly ask her why she didn't tell us this 10 minutes earlier when I told her that he was going to do another job. She says she did. Rrrright. You know this Wannadon't City really does mimic the real world. I feel like I'm in one of those hospitals with the jaded work staff that is tired of talking to sick people all day and just doesn't give a damn. Amazing.

I leave R and Chris waiting in the waiting room for the next job to start (which is now like in 20 minutes because Surgery is now full) while I go change Jordan. When I get back we switch and R takes Chris to the bathroom. While I'm sitting there, the same lovely nurse tells me that parents are not allowed in there because that is the waiting area just for children to which I reply "he went to the bathroom and I'm holding his spot. Seeing as how we already wasted a lot of time waiting outside since nobody told us that the line was in here, I have no intention of losing his spot again". So There! She didn't say anything.

I continue waiting in my little waiting bench when a group of girls walks in and asks what the next available job is. The nurse at the desk tells them it's Pathology and the waiting area is over there (pointing to an area that I am NOT in) but there is only one spot left. No sooner has she finished saying that when one of the girls sits in that spot. I am just about to have a major freak out when R walks back in and the following exchange ensues:

Me: "What specific job are we waiting here for?"
Ren: "Pathology"
Me: "Oh really? because the lady just said that Pathology is over THERE and there is one spot left, and someone just took it"

At this point Nurse Ratched notices that I am about to stuff my pizza up her ass and she quickly states that it doesn't matter where the waiting area is, we are in the next group.

You know what, this is way too much stress. I leave and sit on a bench with Jordan while R and Chris put their gloves on to do their Pathology work. Is there a miniature insane asylum in this little city because I want to go there.

After the hospital fiasco we head over to the Archaeology area. Chris goes inside with Ren and fortunately this time we checked the sign first to see how many kids go in at once to make sure that we are not that number+1. Their adventure is uneventful and he and I switch off so that Chris and I can do the next job of digging for dinosaur bones. We are happily sitting down waiting for our turn when the lady in the line behind me starts whacking her kid because he did something for the third time already and she is just fed up (she must have just come from the Wannado hospital too, they have that effect on people). Another lady starts reprimanding her, calling her an animal, and telling her to stop hitting her kid or else she is going to call the cops on her. What do you know Wannado City has a Jerry Springer job too!

The rest of the day was spent going on the merry-go-round one more time (don't sit on the horses ma'am....damn, I'm not that heavy) and then we decided to call it a day. We went to guest services to return the guest pass and ask them where we can go to have our prisoner bracelets removed and they direct us to stall number 9 or 10, the sign of which was super tiny, so if we hadn't asked, we'd be wandering around trying to figure out how to leave.

Review and Recommendations: It's a cute concept, but some activities need to be a little more organized (cough cough, hospital, cough cough) and the staff needs to be friendlier. When you walk in they should give you a map and brochure detailing how it works . I also think the age range should be higher maybe ages 4 and up because some 3 year olds just aren't ready to do all these things by themselves. Babies shouldn't have to pay to get in.

Don't expect me to set foot in there for at least another 3 years (until JJ is 4).

Mama's been busy

I've been busy buying new toys and going broke (because of said toys). This is also the busy season at work, so you'll have to pardon my lack of bloggage. I have to admit that Facebook and Twitter are stealing me away from Blogger. It's so much easier to type a couple of sentences to let my peeps know what's going on, than having to sit down and actually put a cohesive paragraph (or two) together.

Worry not though, I shall continue with the blogging. I need it to track Jordan's milestones so that I don't forget when it comes time to write it in the baby book (his two bottom teeth came out last week!...first the left and then the right). I'll have to try and get a picture of them, but it's really hard because he sticks his tongue out when you pull his lip down to see them.

So, milestones, yes, let's get to those with the aid of my trusty new toy (Nikon D40). And what a wonderful new toy it is. All I do is press a little button and gorgeous pictures spew forth. Who knew it would be so easy?

Check out some pictures from our recent trip to the fair...ah the elephant ears, cinnamon rolls, cotton candy, ice cream, sausages...oh, I got a little carried away there (yes, the 20/20 plan is still going strong by the way). It was Jordan's first trip and he was none the wiser. Christian on the other hand went twice this year. The first time with Sophie and the second time with R, JJ and I. He had a great time because this year he was tall enough to ride most of the kiddie rides and was in no way scared (hey look, he grew 4 inches since last year and 6 inches since the year before that!). He loved the roller coaster and all the rides that go up and down and round and round (nauseating).

For the first time ever, he asked to have his face painted, but it proved to be a bad decision because he started rubbing his eyes and getting paint everywhere. He wanted it washed off before we even left the fair! R was pissed at what a waste of money that was. Consider it a lesson learned, no face paint for 3.5 year olds no matter how cute they look with it on.

Easter pictures coming soon! I promise no bunnies were hurt in the taking of those pictures.

Zoo-lander

This falls into the Stuff I haven't blogged about and should have, but it happened so long ago, yet I still want to mention it category:



On Nov 16th, I took CMan and Jordan to the zoo for the first time ever. Yes, Chris had never been to the zoo before then. This might surprise those of you that go to the zoo like a jillion times a year.

When Chris was a baby, I always said that I would never take CMan to the zoo until he could say the names of the animals and tell me that he wanted to go to the zoo himself. Before then, I considered it a waste of time because he wouldn't really know what the heck is going on. I'm glad I waited. It was more fun for him to see the animals and name them and be able to have a conversation about them (Jordan went along for the ride). When JJ is 3 maybe we'll take them again.

I don't know, but I just can't see why one would need to go THAT often. I mean, the animals aren't going to change. It's the same old animals in the same old hot sun (we picked November so it wouldn't be hot). No need to do that more than once every couple of years..really. I think the last time I went to the zoo was before Hurricane Andrew....um wow, that was in 1992, so you do the math.


Anyway, he had a great time and got to ride a camel and feed the giraffes. The giraffe's long black tongue freaked him out a bit though.







The rest of the pictures can be found here.


We also went to Jungle Island a couple of weeks ago, so that was a first for all of us. Unfortunately I didn't take any pictures, but my aunt did. If/when she sends them to me, I will share.

Our next goal?...the Miami Seaquarium. It's been even longer since I've been there!

This weekend post is brought to you by the letter J and the number 8

I'm going to go see Pearl Jam today!!!! I have no idea what seats I'll have though until I get there, so cross your fingers that they are good...very good. If they let cameras in, I shall have many pictures to share.

My baby shower was this past Saturday. Thanks to Lilli, I have a decent photo of myself that I can add to this post because in all the pictures we took with my camera, I look constipated and in pain. I had my baby shower earlier in the pregnancy this time around because last time I was as big as a house (right now I'm only about trailer-size) and I was pooped. Last time I was able to lay down when I got home ; this time, not so much, Christian duty called.

On Sunday, we took Cman to his first live action show. I was hesitant about doing so since he won't even sit in front of the TV for 10 minutes straight. We've yet to take him to the movies for the same reason. I figured that a stage show might capture his attention better since it's live and action packed (and it didn't hurt that we had 4th row seats). Anyway, we went to see Elmo and the other Sesame Street characters. When we got to the place we bought Cman one of those spinning light things (in case he got bored of the show) and then took our seats. I'm pleased to say that all went well and he watched the show, sat still (alternating between our laps every 15 minutes) and didn't try to run away (except for that one time that he wanted to touch the stage lights). It was really cute and we had a great time. The floor seats were great because the characters would come up close and touch Chris once in a while. I don't know if it's the pregnancy hormones, but I just about lost it at the beginning when all the characters came out. Maybe I'm just a sentimental sap. Speaking of sentimental, they played the 12 song on the big screen and had Bert dance disco in a white leisure suit. I guess those were their attempts at entertaining the old folks in the crowd....they worked. At least on me they did.

Let's hope I don't watch a TV special on Australia next

Last week I was watching a travel channel type special about how Disney is celebrating the holidays this year. I love me some Mickey...and I love me some holidays...put them together and well...It's overwhelming.

They showed how the castle was lit up with a jillion lights this year and I just lost it. It was such a beautiful sight that my mouth was open and the tears were flowing from my eyes. I can't say I've ever had that reaction to a Disney TV special before, but there you have it. At that moment I decided that I needed to see that in person. I needed to see that!

So..um, guess where I went this past Thursday?

Here's a hint....and here's another...and there's several more on flickr, so check out the little badgie over on the right!

Enchanted

Sunday evening R, CMan and I went to Santa's Enchanted Forest. Chris seems to be obsessed with lights, so I figured that he would love the Christmas theme park with a jillion lights...and for once...I was right.

They had some real ponies that he wanted to ride... up until the point that I sat him on the pony that is. Whenever we got to a kiddie ride, I would ask him "do you want to go on that one?" , if he said no we would skip it, but if he didn't say anything we would ride it (he never says yes). Well, at one point we walked up to this ride where they strap you into this bungee ball thing and you go flying in the air between two poles. I asked Christian in a joking fashion, "do you want to go on that one?" and he goes "Nooo!" (hee hee).

He wasn't too fond of the carousel and was holding me by the neck the whole time. I had to go up and down when the horsey did, so my thighs got quite a work out on that ride (burn off that arepa girl!). Then we went on a little Santa train. He really liked that one since it had a little steering wheel and buttons for him to play with (although in the picture it looks like I'm enjoying it alot more than he is). He managed to rip the seat belt off of it's hook mid ride, so I had to hold on to him to make sure he didn't jump out. Finally, we got on the bee ride and I'm quite impressed that he didn't get scared. It's the fist time he's been on such a sophisticated ride (it's like the Dumbo ride at Disney), I thought for sure he'd freak out.

After the rides we just walked around and played carnival games. We played the one where you throw rings on to bottles and the one where you throw balls in to bowls, Chris was better at them than we were. The picture with Santa was a no-go once again, I didn't even bother actually. We just stood at a distance waving to him. A fun time was had by all. We got the season pass, so we're going to try and go again a couple more times before we leave to El Sal.

___________________________________

By the way, thanks for the tips on tree revival. I tried to cut another piece off the end with my mom's saw, but it was too difficult; I only managed to dent it all the way around. I will have to take it back to the place I bought it (Home Depot) and have them do it. I will try the hot water trick after that. On the other hand, I may just get a new tree altogether because it's already starting to brown at the bottom and I don't want it catching on fire. Yes, these things only seem to happen to me.

8 secrets/things I haven't blogged about

I was tagged by Elizasmom a little while back, so it's meme time. I guess mine will be more of a eight things I haven't blogged about theme because obviously if I wrote about my secrets...well, then they wouldn't be secrets. This also means I can squish in a bunch of unrelated things that I've been meaning to blog about (but have been too busy to do so) all in one post. Ha ha I'm tricky like that!

OK, so here we go in a completely random order:

1. This year, when we go to El Salvador for the holidays, I will be flying over there with Christian, all by myself. My mom will be heading over on the 24th, and I will be leaving on the 27th (Ren has to stay and work). This terrorizes me to no end. I am fearful about how I am going to handle luggage, stroller, carryons, tickets, security checks, and toddler all at once. I decided to get one of those little child harnesses so that CMan could walk around if he got sick of the stroller. R was totally against it, but unless you've seen the video of the break dancer that kicks a toddler 5 feet in the air, you cannot fully appreciate the need to have your children next to you at all times (especially in crowded places). The speed at which these children can break away from your hand and run off is quite scary. Anyway, so I got one of those cute little monkey backpacks hoping that he would like it and be excited to wear a backpack. No such luck. I can't even get him to put one arm through it, much less buckle the thing up. I have about 31 days left to convince him, so we'll see how this goes. This past weekend, we saw 3 little boys with the monkey back packs on. I made sure to point out all three of them to Cman.

2. We went to Andrew and Rebeka's pirate party at the Children's museum a couple of weeks back. Cman had a great time playing with his friends on the playground, sitting on a bike, dancing with a hula hoop and exploring the museum. Happy Collective Birthday to the Mejia family (they are all in November)! Oh, and I actually got him to wear the pirate hat on more than one occasion!

3. We went to the harvest two weeks ago and I bought myself a cute quilt with a gingerbread man on it and some yummy dip mixes. We went to the historical village and hung out with some Pirates from the Florida Keys (Pop quiz: do you recognize any of those people from somewhere else?). Cman loved the cannon and I had quite a hard time pulling him away from it when it was time to leave.

4. Later that day we went to Gianna's (CMan's niece) first birthday party. Chris had a great time playing with the "boons". They had a cotton candy machine and face painting, but he didn't want anything to do with either of those activities.

5. I don't believe I've showed you the pictures from his last photo session (and his Halloween costume), so let me share now for a bit:

6. Mr. Cman surprised me in the car the other day. He and I usually count things together so that he can learn his numbers. He's never really counted by himself (he always wants me to do it and he repeats), so the other day we were driving around and he started talking in the backseat saying "one"...."one"...."one"...he kept saying it over because he wanted me to repeat, so I said "one" then he said "two" and I said "two" and we kept going like that until he got to number 10. I was quite impressed thinking wow...he can count to 10...news to me! Then I hear this from the back seat... "eleden"...and I go "eleven"....and he kept counting until 15. That daycare lady sure is teaching him alot because he and I usually don't count more than 10 things. I decided to say "sixteen" to see if he could go further and he did...all the way to 19. I had to say 20 for him; perhaps that's as high as they've taught him. He also knows all of his letters now. He can point to a letter and tell you what letter it is and/or you can ask him for a certain letter and he will give it to you. He also knows what sound most of the letters make.

7. I found this little tidbit online the other day. This was a pep-rally at my high school. Unfortunately it happened 2 or 3 years after I had already graduated. Needless to say I would've loved to have seen this in person:

8. The holiday shopping has begun! Amanda and I went shopping on black Friday and spent way too much money. I got some presents for Chris (aka the most spoiled boy in the universe...aka TMSBIU) and about 60 DVD's (yes, that is not a typo) for about $3.81 each. I've got quite a collection going...pretty soon, I'll have to start renting them out to people.

It appears that I have run out of numbers and I still have more to share, so I'm off to write my next post!

*UPDATED* OY! I forgot to tag someone! Here you go Amanda, I know you had some stuff you needed to blog about. Ha ha.

The Little Farmer

Yesterday we took Cman to the Little Farm. This was our first visit there and we had a wonderful time. They have a pumpkin patch, a petting zoo, pony rides, little play houses and a butterfly garden. Chris loved the pumpkins and kept saying "punkin" and trying to hug them and take a bite out of them. The petting zoo had one or more of the following: goat, sheep, PEEPS, turkey, chicken, bunny and pig. Cman kept trying to pet them on the business end and I was afraid that he would either get kicked or pooped on (or kicked and pooped on). His favorite animal was the bunny. He kept petting it and saying "Bum! Bum!" (he can say bunny now, but he sleeps with a rabbit that he named Bum back when he couldn't say bunny).

When it came time for the pony rides, I thought for sure that he would be scared of them. He doesn't even like to sit on the 3-horse-carousels in front of the grocery store...not even when they're OFF. I figured a real pony would be out of the question. But wouldn't you know it. He sat on the horsie like he's done it all his life. He held on to the saddle and was just relaxin on the ride. I walked next to the horse holding on to him in case he decided to jump off (mission abort!) because the horse was too scary, but nope...he was calm, cool and collected the whole time.

They also had some little play houses and Chris LOVES those, so he spent a good deal of time going in and out of them and closing the windows and opening the windows and closing the windows. Next, we headed over to the butterfly garden where there were so many pretty butterflies. They wouldn't land on us, but they did sit still on the branches sometimes, so you were able to touch them before they flew off. CMan loved running up and down the bridge and trying to grab the butterflies. I found some other nifty creatures there too.

Finally, as we were leaving the butterfly area we saw some of the other animals that lived at the farm and called it a day. Christian had a huge smile on his face and so did I. I definitely think we'll be going back there again (we only spent $5!).

On the ride back home I saw a pretty little country house (you hardly see this type of architecture down here) and I made Ren stop the car on the side of the road because I just had to take a picture of it. It was so cute. It had a plaque in front of it that said Lindgren House; It turns out that it's a historical home!

Happy 2nd Birthday Christian!

Today is my favorite little man's birthday. R and I took the day off from work and spent it with Christian, letting him do whatever he wanted (ok, so how is that different from any other day?...ha ha).

In the morning, Cman woke up and found a big ol' present on his bed. I gave him the little monster doll that I had bought him. He liked hugging it, but I refrained from giving him the markers that came with it (you're supposed to doodle stuff on the monster and then it washes right off). I didn't want him to think that he could go around writing on anything and everything in sight.

We spent the morning at home and then in the afternoon we went to Pinecrest Gardens (where the old Parrot Jungle used to be). Cristy had been raving about if for some time now, but I hadn't really gone to see all it had to offer. I'm really glad we finally listened to her because the place was so nice; I'm a fool for not having gone before!

First we walked through this beautiful and lush nature trail. After that we took Chris to a cute splash zone with lots of fountains for kids to splash in (for $3). Once he had his fill of getting wet, we took another lovely stroll through the grounds and ran into many of the iguanas that call that place home. I'd never seen so many of them in one place! The park also had a little playground with tons of slides, a butterfly exhibit (with 1 butterfly that kept trying to get out...I guess he was lonely), and a petting zoo. I was scared that the animals were going to hurt Chris in some way because he kept on running up to them. Two year olds aren't exactly gentle when it comes to approaching or petting animals. They had pot-bellied pigs and goats and some bunnies in some cages. We had a wonderful time and I look forward to going back there again. Of course I took a thousand and one pictures, but I haven't uploaded them yet, so I'll update this post with a link to the pictures later. Trust me, there's too many to even do my usual linky dink posts.

After our little outing, we headed to my parents house to cut a (cup)cake and sign Happy Birthday to him. He loved it when we all sang to him and really had fun trying to blow the candle out. It was quite funny because once we stopped singing and the candle was blown out he kept saying "happy happy happy" because he wanted us to sing again. Of course, like the suckers that we are, we would do it all over again. I think we probably sang to him about 8 times before we decided we'd had enough.

I'm happy that he had a wonderful time today, but I'm a little sad because I worry that he's going to miss me for the next 5 days. I leave to California tomorrow at 6am, so I won't get to say bye to my little boy before I leave. This reminds me of how sad I got on the plane when I went to NY last year....

I'll see you guys in a week!

Beach bums

After 22 months, I finally took my child to Miami Beach. Yes, I know, it's crazy to live so close and never go, but I'm not really a beach person. I hate having to park so far away. I hate all the crap you have to take with you (times 2 with a toddler) and lug all the way down to the shore. I hate having the sand get all up in my nether regions. I hate the sand sticking all over me when I get out of the water. I hate having to pack up all the crap I brought and lug it back to the car that is now 200 degrees. I hate having all that sand in my car afterwards... you get the point right?

The last time Chris went to the beach was in El Salvador and he absolutely hated it. He screamed and wouldn't get in the water (not even in his little inflatable pool). He didn't even want to touch the sand much less play with it. This time was much different though. He loved the water and kept trying to taste it (like he does in the pool). When he realized how nasty it was he made a funny face. The sand was fun for him too, but at first he didn't like that it was sticking to him (I hear you little man). Once he got over it though he had a great time shoveling sand into the pail and dumping water all over himself.

After our romp in the water we headed back to the shelter. Thank god there was shelter otherwise it would have been unbearable. This weekend was the hottest weekend of the year. I haven't been to Miami Beach in years...leave it to me to go THAT weekend. The reason we went is that a Salvadorean group that my parents belong to was having a picnic. They lured me out of my cave with promises of steak, elotes locos (crazy corn), and loteria de Atiquizaya (raunchy Salvadorean bingo..yes, we're a bunch of classy folks). Unfortunately there was no crazy corn* when I got there, but I did win the first bingo game (I won 5 bucks) so I forgave them for their oversight.

Oh and by the way...watching Shark Week on Discovery Channel for a whole week and then heading out to the beach...not a good idea.

In other, more dramatic news, I had my first ambulance ride on Thursday night (that seems to be a recurrent theme this year, perhaps I'll buy an ambulance ornament for my tree that says 2007 on it). On Thursday night at around 9:30, I went to the Urgent Care Center because I was having bad abdominal pains and they weren't going away. At the UCC they gave me Xrays and a morphine injection for pain. The Xrays didn't show anything and the morphine didn't help the pain, so they took me via ambulance to Baptist hospital ER. There, they gave me an IV, drew blood, did an ultrasound, a CAT scan and I was seen by a doctor. Twelve hours later, they still couldn't find anything wrong with me (good I guess). The pain lasted for 5 hours and left as quickly as it came. I ended up leaving the hospital around noon. What a mission! Fortunately, I'm OK though; all my tests came out negative. I have to see a GI doctor to find out what the heck it could've been (probably trapped gas if you ask me) though.

And that my friends wraps up my weekend activities roster. How was your weekend?


*elotes locos/crazy corn: a Salvadorean food: sweet ear of corn roasted in its husk, then rolled in mayonnaise, mild cheese and thick cream (can also have mustard and a black sauce containing lea & perrins, tamarind and God knows what else) Yum!

Fair fun

On Sunday, R, Chris and I went to THE FAIR (be there!). We went as soon as they opened to avoid the crowds and avoid the crowds we did. Have you ever seen that midway so empty? It was great!

First we headed over to kiddie land where Cman got to ride the carousel. He stayed on the horse (as opposed to my arms) for most of the ride (better than his last carousel ride), but got a little spooked at the end when the kids on the roller coaster next door started screaming. After that ride, I scoped out the place to see what else we could go on, but unfortunately, Chris was too little to ride anything else (must be at least 36"). I hope he'll grow 4 inches within the next year (is that even possible?), otherwise next year promises to be a no-go as well.

Since we couldn't go on anymore rides, we decided to walk around and stuff our faces instead. Between the three of us (OK, fine, mostly me) we managed to eat: a cheeseburger, 2 slices of pizza, cotton candy, 2 sodas, 1 lemonade, and 1 elephant ear. As we strolled through the fair the little man fell asleep, so R and I were able to check out the exhibits and stuff for sale. We didn't buy anything, but at one point or another I was tempted to buy one or more of the following: a mattress, a caricature, a Peruvian hat, a Pearl Jam iron-on patch, a fountain, a koi fish pond, a dancing puppet, and one of those super soft fur throws. Yes, now you know why Ren won't leave me unsupervised with a credit card for more than a minute.

After the exhibits we headed over to the petting zoo. I was about to go in by myself, but fortunately Chris woke up just as I was entering, so I scooped him out of his stroller and took him with me. Talk about a rude awakening...
good morning mom... what is this thing in my face?
He was a bit freaked out by the close proximity of the animals, but was curious nonetheless. We bought little carrots to feed the animals, but Chris wanted nothing to do with that. It's a wonder I didn't get my fingers bitten off....notice the sign...and notice my hand. Yeah. I'm a fool. Fortunately for me, the animals were very gentle as they had had their fill of fingers for the day. Chris was quite wide-eyed as he got to see lots of neat animals that he had never seen before: a camel, a zeedonk (zebra+donkey), a kangaroo, and goats. I was having a great old time petting this little fella. I noticed that he felt alot like the throws that were on sale in the exhibition area...and then I felt a little sad because I realized that throw I wanted to buy was probably this little guy's cousin.

After the petting zoo, we headed over to the circus tent. Chris had never been to the circus before. He's not really a fan of loud, big crowds, and the dark tent didn't help much either. We were late to the show, so our seats were all the way at the top. He watched a bit of the show, but quickly got bored of it and sat back down on my lap. Whenever the crowd cheered or clapped he would tense up. Whenever some one around us would clap or cheer, he would turn around and give them the evil eye as if to say "shut up" and at one point he shrieked really loudly for no reason. R and I made the wise decision to leave.

We headed over to the agriculture tent instead. Cman got to see even more animals there. They had sheep, pigs, turkeys, geese, goats, roosters, guinea pigs and FUZZY PEEPS! I especially liked watching him trying to pet the evil red-eyed bunny. Oh and we also had fun taking some corny pictures (ha ha).

After the animal overload, we were quite exhausted and decided to call it a day. Despite not being able to ride anything, we had a great family day at the fair. I bought 22 coupons and only used about 5, so if anyone wants to go again, count me in.