Our June at Home

We've fallen into a relaxing set of activities for our summer at home. It's always amazing to have eight weeks off together while Scottie's off for summer vacation. One thing that has been great for me is that Scott's spent some time cooking and baking. I enjoy cooking and baking, but as Keira's still so needy, I find it hard to enjoy it right now. Scott's made chicken fajitas, crispy chicken strips from scratch, and his two crowning achievements were Mickey Mouse shaped cookies and Special Ingredient Pancakes. Before leaving Disney World, we bought Mickey Mouse baking utensils including a Mickey Mouse shaped cookie cutter. Eli loved his Mickey Mouse shaped Chocolate Chip Cookies.



Another one of Scott's big achievements in the kitchen were Special Ingredient Pancakes. For more than a year now we puree blueberries to put in our whole wheat pancakes. Eli balks at whole blueberries in his pancakes, but will happily eat them if they're blended into the batter. Almost jokingly, Scott and I started talking about adding pureed spinach to the pancakes too, after all we puree spinach into most of our dinners. So, one night for dinner, Scott tried adding the pureed spinach. At first, Scott and I tentatively tried it, but sure enough it was fine -- you can't even taste the spinach. Eli seemed confused as to what all the fuss was about. He ate more pancakes that night than usual and seemed unfazed by the green color in his pancakes. The pictures aren't great, and a bit blurry, but worth it for documentation purposes.



While we were in Disney World, Dendi generously came over to water our plants, feed and love Kodi. One day, while she was over, she got a big surprise in the kitchen. A white cat greeted her instead of Kodi. Scott, Eli and I were curious to see if the white cat would visit us when we got home. Sure enough, a few nights after we got home, our visitor returned. Scottie and I guessed that she was a girl cat, and probably less than a year old, but not a kitten. She was as sweet as anything -- she let both Scott and I hold her and she purred like crazy. Her coat was a little dusty, like she hadn't been well cared for and she seemed very hungry. But, she seemed too sweet to be feral. Eli and I were hoping that we had acquired a new kitty, and Kodi seemed resigned to the fact, too. I even named her Luna. Unfortunately, after she came to see us a few times, she stopped visiting. Right after she stopped coming around, Tom saw road kill on Peachtree Parkway that matched her description. Hoping for the best, we visited the animal shelter, hoping someone had turned her in. Nope. :( We contemplated getting another cat while we were there, but thought better of it. Here is Keira playing in the kitty water next to a hungry Luna. That was another great thing about Luna, she was very tolerant of our little ones. Sigh...



The Peachtree City Library has a great schedule of activities for the summer, they have something for the kids almost every day. One week we decided to get all the necessary tickets, yup tickets -- the activities are in high demand, and while you don't have to pay for the tickets, you do have to pick them up a week before. That week, we went to the library five days out of seven. While we enjoyed it, we decided it was a little too much. We felt too scheduled, many of the activities are right around lunch/nap time, and Eli's behavior seemed to suffer. The one hands down hit was Babytime for Keira. At this age, I had to stop bringing Eli to Babytime, he would cry when everyone in the room started singing. I think it was too loud for him. But, between the ages of 1 1/2 and 4 he loved it. Yet, even though he enjoyed himself he was generally shy and stayed very close to me or on my lap. Just recently, after attending off and on for three years he seemed to have come out of his shell and lately even offered to help the Librarian hand out craft supplies.

Keira on the other hand, wasted no time checking out the entire room on her own, and even trying to escape out the doors a few times. She was enthralled when the librarian read, and seemed especially spellbound since the Librarian read two Sandra Boynton books. She's heard both books before, and "Moo Baa La La La" is one of her very favorites that she hears almost daily. While we sang, Keira spent half of the time "dancing" in my lap and the other half wandering around the room with several other children. At the end of the songs, Keira raised her hands over her head, broke into a huge grin and clapped wildly. I struggled getting any good pictures, since I was trying to supervise her. These pictures don't give you much sense of the other children, toys or books in the room, but you can get an idea how happy and at ease she was.



Since we are now laying low and limiting our library activities (with the exception of Babytime), we've found a few other things to do. First, we've decided that trying to play outside in the heat of the day is nearly impossible. Instead, we've been going on a bike ride, walk or to the park right after breakfast -- first thing in the morning. The days that we've done our early morning outdoor time have gone the smoothest. Eli seems to need it, even though he's sometimes hard to convince to get out the door. Another thing that has been a wonderful success is swimming in the afternoons. We've been going to the Kedron pool, and each day we go, I see Eli getting more and more confident in the water. One side of the pool is 2 1/2 feet, so Eli can walk around by himself. He gets splashed in the face now and hardly even comments as long as it doesn't go up his nose. Scott has been giving Eli swimming lessons that have consisted of getting more comfortable in the water, working on kicking and blowing bubbles. Keira and I spend our share of time in the pool, but we also spend a lot of time sitting in the shade, relaxing. Just like the park, Eli's not always enthusiastic to go the pool, but then once we're there, he never wants to leave.

Left to his own devices, I think our little homebody would stay at home all day, doing crafts and puzzles. Here he is meticulously cutting tiny pieces of ribbon to make a firework craft. He's funny, I don't think he likes crafts for the typical reasons that some kids do. It's not really that he likes art, it's more that he likes following directions.


While Eli does crafts, puzzles, and activity books, Keira is quite content to wander around the house amusing herself. She likes playing in her room with her toddler sized door, mailbox and pots and pans. She also likes sitting in the kitchen while I do dishes and play with the tupperware -- patiently trying to find tops for the different containers. Mostly though, she's in love with walking around. She'll stop every once in a while and get into an awesome "Down Dog" yoga position. We call her Yoga Baby. She assumes this position dozens of times each day. I have no idea why. :) Although, it's pretty hysterical, considering that I did yoga 3-5 days a week while she was in utero.



Two of Keira's other favorite things around the house are Daddy's guitars and the sink. While she's walking through the living room she'll point up to the guitars hanging on the wall. Scott and I will pick her up and she likes to take turns touching and thumping each one. At first, she seemed to have a love/hate relationship with them -- she was fascinated, but a little scared of them. But now, she even likes Scott to serenade her and will even request her favorite song -- "Eee Iiie Eee Iiie Oooe!"


And, of course, the sink is still a favorite. She'd like nothing better than to climb into every sink she sees and play to her heart's content. Fortunately, many times, around the house she's just in her diaper, so having some sink time works out fine.

Congratulations Uncle Jason and Auntie Andrea!

Jason and Andrea have had an exciting year so far. A few months ago, they got engaged, and now they've bought their first house! They bought a beautiful, spacious, three bedroom, two bath ranch with a bonus room. It's in Dendi and Bapa's subdivision in Senoia. The house is officially across the street and two doors down from Dendi's house, but it's actually down a little hill and around a curve. The topography makes it feel farther away than it sounds.

We're all very excited for them. While we're sad that they are moving out of our subdivision, we're sure we'll still see a lot of them. Eli LOVES their new house, and when I asked him why he always wants to visit, he told me he likes their sprinklers and it's new. Diane missed the closing as she was in California. But, she was there in spirit. She had a personalized banner made and she had a neighbor agree to hang the banner and "Jason" and "Andrea" balloons.

Disney World, Part IV -- Downtown Disney

Once we rescued our camera from the van, I made sure to bring it on our trip to Downtown Disney. And, as always, it was one of Eli's favorites. His favorite attraction at Downtown Disney was still, hands down, the train. It was amazing, not only was the train still there as we'd hoped, but Eli's favorite train operator was even working! In the beginning, Eli was a little nervous and didn't want to go on by himself. So, Scottie and I took turns going with him. I even took Keira with me once. She seemed mildly interested, but not excited, to be riding.


Pretty quickly, Eli remembered how much he loved riding the train by himself, especially as he started getting more attention from his favorite train operator. Every time the train would pass, she would pound on the roof, ring the bell, yell a greeting or wave wildly. Once we told her how much Eli loved and talked about her, she showered him with attention. He ate it up. Here she is getting ready to tap him on his head and his gleeful reaction to her.



The train and the day were HOT, so after a good dozen rides around and around the tiny track Eli had earned a cold milk cuddle with Daddy in the shade.


Fortunately, there were plenty of cool activities indoors including poking through the numerous stores, constructing Mr. Potato Head, and posing with the many characters all around.

Disney World, Part III -- The Magic Kingdom

Unfortunately, Scott and I chose not to bring the camera to the Magic Kingdom. We were on our way to the buses when we realized that it was locked in the van, and the key to the van was locked in the safe. We decided to go pictureless instead of lose all our forward momentum and miss some of the Magic Hour. Magic Hour is when they open, or keep the parks open an extra hour for people who are staying on Disney property. Magic Hours make a difference as the lines are significantly shorter.

Even though we went pictureless at the Magic Kingdom, we still had a great time. Yet, two things complicated the trip a bit -- Keira's interest in wandering and the heat. Last trip, when we went in February, Keira was not walking yet. She was quite happy to stay in the sling all day long, and it didn't matter whether we were in a long line or walking around the park. However, this trip, she was mobile. As I've said before she's in love with her new skill. Every time I tried to stand in a long line with her in her sling she'd start wriggling and gesturing that she wanted to get down. Obviously, that isn't possible in a long line, so after trying to wait in a 30 minute line for Dumbo with her, Scott and Eli, I thought better of it. Instead, Keira and I got out of the Dumbo line and waited in the short line for the carousel. She wasn't a fan of the carousel (I think again, at that point, all she wanted to do was walk), but the length of the line was much more tolerable.

While Eli and Scott rode rides, Keira and I spent a lot of our time walking around -- either with her in the sling, or with me following behind her. We also enjoyed playing at the playground in Toontown and on Donald's boat. Donald's boat is a water playground and Keira was transfixed with all the squirty water fountains and all the big kids who were frolicking in them. Donald's boat was Keira's second introduction to squirty water fountains and she was still fearless. She was completely unfazed by all the big kids or getting sprayed and splashed in the face. Altogether, I think we spent several hours on Donald's boat which was a welcome respite from the heat. Another huge hit for Keira was the marching band that we stood and watched on Main Street. They were professional musicians, employed by Disney, and they were excellent. Keira LOVES music, so she was happy to be held by me while we danced around to the music. It always seems like it's the little things, like finding the Main Street Marching Band that makes Disney so magical.

Despite the fact that Keira didn't tolerate lines well, we still went on our share of rides as a family. Buzz Lightyear is hands down Eli's favorite ride. As a family, we rode it three times, and I think Scott and Eli rode it at least another three times on their own. The key were the fastpasses. By getting fastpasses for the ride, we didn't have to wait in line for more than a few minutes. And once on the ride, Keira was mesmerized by all the lights, colors and motion. Another ride that we took advantage of the fastpasses was Winnie the Pooh. Winnie the Pooh is probably Eli's second favorite and I think it was Keira's favorite. The second time we rode the ride, Keira was grinning ear to ear, pointing and "talking" about all the characters. Probably a coincidence, but cute nonetheless, the only stuffed animal that Keira was interested in on our trip was Piglet. As a family, we also rode It's a Small World and the People Movers. Both rides were a little long for Keira. She loved It's a Small World at the beginning, but she was wiggling and trying to climb out of the boat (probably to splash in the water!) during the last few rooms. Besides Buzz Lightyear, Scottie and Eli went on a couple other rides by themselves. They rode Dumbo and The Big Train, too. After I quickly adjusted my expectations for Keira and lines, we had a great time taking our time and enjoying the park.

The other thing that we had to adjust to was the heat. As I've said before, it was in the 90's for our entire trip. I think I felt the heat the most on our Magic Kingdom day. Unlike our other days at the hotel or at the water park, there was nowhere to jump in the water. But, Scott and I felt like we did fine. In a lot of ways, it was much better to be there when it was a little too hot rather than too cold, like it was on our last trip. Disney is smart. They have misters and squirters in several locations around the park. They also sell personal water bottle fans which made a huge difference. And, Scott and I discovered that they give out free cups of ice that we used to refill our water bottles.

Speaking of water bottles and free cups of ice, I think I'll now launch into a little tangent about our food. On this trip we decided to once again bring all our food. Please excuse the excruciating detail I'm about to impart and feel free to skim or skip. I think this will be useful for me to detail, so that I can look back and pack accordingly next year. For breakfast, we packed Kix for Eli, yogurt and Kashi for me and oatmeal for Scott. Many mornings we ate down at the dining hall, so that we could spread out and refill our bottomless mug of coffee. The Disney resorts offer refillable mugs for sale, and they are always a good deal. This time we only bought one, since I've basically weaned myself off coffee. For lunch, we packed Lance whole wheat peanut butter crackers, baggies of Wheat Thins (Daddy crackers), granola bars, string cheese, prepackaged bags of apples and grapes, prepackaged baby carrots and dip (we're thinking about prepackaging both ourselves next time), and pints of milk for Eli. Then, for dinner, we brought batches of frozen casserole type dishes that I had made double batches of in the weeks leading up to our trip. We brought chicken alfredo, chicken chow mein (green noodles), creamy chicken and rice (zaza rice) and hamburger alfredo (Daddy's Special Noodles). All of the dishes were packed with veggies including pureed spinach and carrots. Overall, the food was an overwhelming success. Eli and I were not plagued with heartburn, like we were during our trip in February. We ate lighter and more healthfully and saved a ton of money. Since we've tried bringing our own food before, we've learned from our mistakes, and this time was great. The only things we plan to change next time are bringing our own desserts and prepackaging some of our own lunchtime fruits and veggies -- both changes would save us even more money next time.

Disney World, Part II -- Water Fun

Keira wasn't the only one who enjoyed playing in the water at the hotel, Eli loved it too. He's not fond of the squirty fountains, like his sister, but he did have a ball swimming in the pools. After thinking about putting him in swimming lessons this summer, we decided to keep him with us and have Scott teach him instead. He's generally not fond of the water, and we didn't want to antagonize his fears by turning him over to a stranger. So, Scott started his swimming lessons at Disney. The first lesson (that may last most of the summer) is have fun in the water and relax. It worked.

Pop Century has life jackets that the kids can borrow through their stay. While Eli was a little hesitant at first, eventually he realized all the freedom he could have with one on. He started by standing on the steps and jumping into Scott or my arms, but within a few hours, he realized he could get around the pool by himself. We stayed close in case he needed us, but he was proud and by the second day, didn't even want us to touch him. It was awesome.


His confidence in the water even followed us to Typhoon Lagoon. He rode his first water tube water slide and fell in love. I think he rode it about twenty times. It was great. He was happy and confident even while riding down the little rapids (he called them a waterfall), spinning around backwards and occassionally getting a little splashed in the face. Huge progress!



I wasn't able to get any pictures of Keira playing in the water, but I did snap a few funny pictures of her playing with one of our beach towels. For several months now, she's tried to put on her own clothes. If you hand her a sock she will methodically, and patiently try to put it on her feet. With any piece of cloth (or even Kleenex!) she'll try to put it on her feet, legs and occassionally on her head. I think the interest in getting dressed must be a girl thing as Eli (at 4) only now reluctantly dresses himself. Another funny thing she does with random objects, and sometimes her hand, is she talks into them loudly in a monotone like she's talking on the phone. She says, "bye-bye, ahhhh ahhh ahhh, bye-bye". So while I was snapping these photos, first she tried to wear the towel, then once over her head she tried to talk into it.

Disney World, Part I -- Pop Century

Our drives to and from Disney World went surprisingly smooth. Bapa and Dendi let us borrow the van, Keira has become a much better traveler, and Eli loves working on his color by numbers and activity books. All in all, our 8 1/2 hours of travel time each way were relatively uneventful, thankfully.

We tried a new hotel this trip, and we love our new find. This time we stayed at Pop Century. While it's very similar to the All Star hotels that we've stayed at before, it's a little newer. Disney ironed out all the kinks and Pop Century has a bigger, more leisurely feel. The dining hall is larger and better designed, there are three pools and two water play areas for the kids, and the whole hotel complex is situated on a lake. The lake even has a path that runs along one side that made for a great nap walk destination for Keira and I. We enjoyed hanging out at the hotel so much, that we only spent two of our five full days at the parks. The other three days we spent hanging out around the hotel. The hotel was so big that I carried Keira all around in the sling, and Eli spent a lot of time, while not searching for hidden speakers, on Daddy's shoulders.


Eli and Daddy spent hours at the dining hall. They happily spread out and did all of Eli's Disney puzzles -- both new and old. For Eli's main souvenir, he chose two boxes of puzzles. Each box had four puzzles inside. One box is filled with 24-piece puzzles that Eli zoomed through himself. The other box contains 200 piece puzzles that Eli needed some assistance and guidance to complete. Eli was in heaven.



Keira and I spent a lot of time exploring. She's absolutely in love with walking. She walked all around the dining hall and adjoining store while I followed. She also loved the kiddie water fountains that we passed on our way to the dining hall. She called them "bah" or "bah--oo" (bottles) which is what she calls everything pertaining to water. To begin with she was absolutely fearless around all the fountains she found. There are two water play areas at the hotel and we also spent a lot of time at Donald's boat at the Magic Kingdom. She plunged into the water and didn't even close her eyes when the fountain squirted her in the face. By the end of our stay, she was slightly more reticent. While she continued to approach the fountains, she would be slightly tentative putting her hand in at first and tried to avoid being sprayed in the face.

We also spent a lot of time playing at the park. Everytime we passed the playground at the hotel, Keira would wiggle in the sling or my arms, point and repeat "pah" over and over again until I responded. One time, I made the mistake of going to the playground during the hottest part of the day, which was HOT (temps were in the 90's for our whole trip). When I took Keira down the slide on my lap, I burnt my legs and worried about her making contact with any part of the slide. After that, when I didn't want to make a pit stop at the park, usually because of the temperature, I took another route to the dining hall, so she hopefully wouldn't catch a glimpse of her beloved "pah". Both kids loved playing with the pebbles.



Keira walked all over the park and even tried her hand at climbing. It wasn't successful, but it was adorable nonetheless.

Memorial Day at the Lake House

Last night, we got back from a seven day whirlwind of fun at Disney World. But, true to form, I'm playing catch up and finally getting around to posting about our Memorial Weekend trip to the Lake House -- how we launched our summer of fun. We spent three full days at the Lake House and squeezed in time with both sets of Georgia grandparents, Aunt Seana and Josh. We had a great time. Keira had just started walking four days before we arrived and she spent most of her weekend exploring her lakehouse with her newfound skills. She likes to clutch both hands in front of her chest in a prayer position as she walks. That prayer position often accompanies a giant toothy, proud grin. Speaking of teeth, Keira's first canine tooth broke through while we were at the Lake House. She now has 13 teeth! She also spent a lot of time looking at the boats on the lake while taking a break between her sprints. Grammie also got some great shots of the proud walking nudie girl. In these pictures she is holding on to my finger, but she resists holding on at all costs now, which has resulted in her share of bumps and bruises. While she was "nudie" (just in her swim diaper) I was able to let her indulge in one of her favorite things -- sinks! Whenever she sees a sink she points to it, leans towards it, grunts at it, rubs her hands together, claps her hands and looks at me pleadingly. I've figured out how to quickly and carefully wash her hands without involving the rest of her body. But, left to her own devices, she wants to make it a full body, multi-sensory experience! Keira is a water girl. She also tried her hand at the Lake water. She was hysterical. It was only her second time in her swim suit, and she couldn't get in the water quick enough. She would charge into the water, trying to run into the deepest water as fast as she could. She tried to shake off my grasp as if to say, "Mommy I can do this, let go!" Then as we got deeper and deeper she would lose her footing and float to the top. She would get irritated that I was still holding on and we started the cycle again and again. Her lack of fear around water is completely new to me as Eli is still unsure around water and doesn't even like getting his hair washed. Keira also liked to play in the sand on the beach with Eli, but unlike Eli we had to keep a very close eye on her. Before we knew it she would be crawling towards the water again. Besides water, another one of Keira's favorite things is me. She's always been a mama's girl, but it seems to have intensified in the last few weeks. At the Lake House, she was teething and she was coming down with a cold that went to her lungs. Her health only made her more interested in staying in my arms. She would interract and occassionally go to other family members, but she seemed to keep watchful eye on them. She was particularly adamant and funny with Babo. They developed a game of sorts where he would ask Keira if she wanted to come see him and she would vehemently shake her head no. That girl, like our boy, definitely knows what she wants. In the beginning of this video clip you can even hear Keira counting to five. She seems to have memorized the sounds of the numbers up to six. Pretty cute.



While Keira's health was questionable (she's since made a full recovery), Eli had an unequivocally great time at the Lake House. When we came home he kept asking over and over again when we were going back (even though we were heading to Disney in a few days!) When I asked him what he loved so much about the Lake House he said doing adult puzzles, going down to the storage room, getting his toys out of the storage, turning on the light and he even mentioned liking the smell of the storage room. Just like his Daddy, he seems to be a bit of a home body, even with his temporary homes like the Lake House. Even though, we are in water wonderland up there, he often, just wants to sit and do puzzles or read books. Daddy and Eli did there share of "adult puzzles" (over 500 pieces). Eli loves to do difficult puzzles with lots of help and guidance from Daddy and we've reserved them for vacation times since there's no way I can be much help with 500 piece puzzles and supervise two children by myself. Therefore, adult puzzles have become even more special. Even though he loved his indoor activities, it wasn't difficult to convince Eli to get outside and enjoy the water fun. He enjoyed playing at the water front, going on walks to the boat house and especially riding and driving Babo's boat. This trip was even more special for all of us, as Dendi and Bapa came up on Sunday to spend some time at the Lake House. We even got to spend some time on Babo's boat with them.