You had a really great week at school. I have to admit that I was a little nervous. Why? Well, Monday was your first day back after Disney World and winter break after that. On Monday, your teacher mentioned that your student teacher was doing her solo week. I cringed at the thought of doing a solo week right after a break. I was proud to hear that you did well this week. After the initial excitement to tell everyone all about Disney World, you settled down (at least I think since nobody called/talked with me).
On Tuesday, you were so excited about the assembly for Black History Month. For months, you have been coming home and singing Michael Jackson songs to get ready. I took a bunch of photos and video from and will be sharing more about that later. That afternoon, JSL and I went to hang out at Chess Club with you. We figured an extra adult in the room could not hurt.
When Chess Club was over, your little brother refused to hold my hand while walking to the car. Thank goodness, you were sweet and volunteered to help out. The two of you were so cute walking in the snow that I had to take a photo.
Later that night, you turned your PJ top inside-out to rally for a snow day.
You were quite successful with your first ever attempt at rally PJs. An entire foot of heavy, wet snow fell and closed school for the day. When I went outside to help Daddy shovel, you waited inside in case JSL woke up. When he woke up, you went to him, helped him out of bed and snuggled on the couch with him. You are such a great big brother.
The rest of the week went by pretty nicely. Now you are looking forward to seeing Cousin S and your new Baby B. I hope that the weekend as big brother/cousin continues the way the week went.
Love,
Mommy
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If you want to participate in Dear Kid Saturday, head on over to Cutest Kid Ever by clicking on the button below.
On Wednesday, both of the boys were home with me. Thanks to Mother Nature reminding us that we live in snow country, we received about a foot of snow in less than 24 hours.
At one point, I went outside to shovel and came back inside to check on the kids. They were sitting on the couch watching a movie. Something caught my eye. It was two year old JSL sitting with no socks on. Don’t get me wrong, I have no problem with this during the warm months, but in our 63 degree house this is a little cold. Of course, he is two and it was not simply left at that. he sat there dancing around with his socks now on each of his hands.
Since I was soaked from being outside in the heavy and wet snow, I was not able to grab my camera. No worries, on Thursday JSL repeated his silly performance. Here are a few shots of my silly little guy.
Note the little tootsies out of their warm socks:
He really was hamming it up for the camera as you will see here:
Of course, with this little smile it is hard to be upset with him for taking his socks off in the cool house.
So my question for you this week:
Think back about the last week. What is a silly/funny moment that stands out in your mind?
Thanks to Kailani at An Island Life for starting this fun for Friday. Please be sure to head over to her blog to say hello and sign the MckLinky there if you are participating.
Today, NHL went back to school after two weeks off. This meant that JSL’s entertainment system was gone. Of course, this was made worse by the fact that JSL woke up after Daddy and NHL had left for the day. The reality of time with only Mommy was harsh. Sure we have fun, but I am not his six year old brother who is in constant motion.
After breakfast, I asked JSL if he wanted to head out to the post office and grocery store. He liked the idea of going out. Much to my surprise, he was really good about getting help putting on his shoes and coat. Recently, meltdowns are possible at this time because Mr. Independent wants to do everything on his own. Love that he wants to do this, but not when we are late to get NHL from school or on the way out to an appointment.
We had a nice ride to the post office. When I stopped in the car after to check things from the PO Box. the little guy let me know that this was not acceptable. When we pulled into the grocery store just down the street, there were protests. Mr. Independent was not happy that he was sitting in the cart. This is the face that I saw:
Of course, that should have been a sign to turn around and leave. I did not and we continued into the store. JSL helped me to hold onto the coupons that printed out with my store card. He was content with that. We found some items in produce (new Tempeh to try) and continued on. When we got a few more aisles into the store, JSL wanted out. He kept saying "Let me out! I want to walk." I told him that I needed his help to look for items.
This was about the point that I went back toward the front of the store and was greeted with the following:
It was right about that point that I was ready to sit on the floor with JSL and have a tantrum. I like the concept of Passover, but the stress involved in the planning and the expense of the specialty foods that are Kosher for Passover makes it too much.
Luckily, the rest of the trip was not too eventful. We skipped actually looking in the Passover section, got the rest of the items we needed and went home. JSL was so excited to go and pick big brother up from school a few hours later that he fell asleep a block away from school!
Any ideas on how to combat independent toddlers that can not wander around the grocery store?
This is something new to me since NHL never did anything like this until he was older. Of course, I know the best solution is to simply shop without him – LOL! I will spare you details about the tantrum in the car later while going home from NHL’s swim lessons. Let’s just say it involved kicking and screaming since The Wiggles were not put on the CD.
In recent years, I have started to fear flying in airplanes. I think it started after our trip to Disney World in May and intensified when we flew to, and especially from, the Disney Social Media Moms Celebration.
On our way home from Disney World in May, we had a rocky landing. Turbulence was bad through most of the flight. My stomach sunk down to my feet many times. As someone that likes wild rides, this hit me hard. Never before did I feel each and every move of the plane like I did on that flight. I never said anything about my fears because I did not want my boys to hear anything.
Leading up to our trip to the conference, I started to have nightmares about flying. It worried me that it may be trying to tell me something given the huge storm we had to fly around/through/over. I ignored them and we flew down to Disney on the 6th. That flight was pretty uneventful. I kept busy sitting with NHL. We looked out the window and wrote stories together.
Coming home, I sat with JSL. He did not want to do much aside from look at books and rest on me. My mind was able to think about every move that I felt the plane make. As we were about 30 miles out from home, it got really rocky thanks to the strong winds (darn winter flying). The plane moved up and down, left and right over and over again. It was worse than any ride we had done at Disney World. Perhaps it was sitting in the last row, but it scared the you know what out of me!
Once we got off the plane, I was SO happy to be back on the ground. I am so glad that we can take the train to BlogHer and not worry about air travel for a little while. So my question to you this week:
Do you like to travel by airplane? Either way, what do you do to keep your mind off of things once you are up in the air?
Thanks to Kailani at An Island Life for starting this fun for Friday. Please be sure to head over to her blog to say hello and sign the MckLinky there if you are participating.
After a morning full of fun and adventures, we finally checked into the Polynesian at about 4:00. From there, we quickly went to the hospitality sweet where I literally bumped into Amanda Tinney from Disney Every Day. This is where we were given a large bag filled with goodies for the entire family, credentials, agenda for the Disney Social Media Moms Celebration and park passes. Then we rushed to drop things off at our room and change a diaper.
As you can see, the rooms at the Polynesian are huge! The decor is amazing and works perfectly with the theme. There was no need to crowd in the room and stuff the double stroller from Orlando Stroller Rentals into the corner. We were now able to leave the stroller by the sliding glass door where the balcony was with the pretty garden view. For a fabulous walking tour of the room at the Polynesian head on over to see Carolyn’s vlog tour – I love it!
With time ticking, we quickly packed the boys back up and were off to meet Christina (@CutestKidEver) and her family to go to ESPN for the first official event. The chartered buses to the event were fabulous. We did not have to fold up the stroller. The cast members helped us to put it right under the bus and it was waiting for us when we stepped off and at our new destination. At first, we tried to stuff into a bus that was filled. The nice part was I was able to quickly meet and say hello to Monica Brady of Mommy Brain Reports (@MommyBrain). Wish I had had more time to chat, but the bus was filled and we had to move. When we arrived at ESPN, we walked in the cold to our destinations. Christina and I went to the press conference while the five boys went to play out on the fields.
Thanks to coming a little late, we walked into the session as they were finishing up the talk about the new plans for Fantasyland. As a long time Disney World visitor, it is hard to imagine such change. Of course, all of that went out the window when they explained how the new Dumbo ride would work. Rather than just have one set of Flying Dumbos for everyone to enjoy, there will eventually be two. The new waiting areas will be intereactive. No more waiting on boring lines, families will be able to participate in carnival games as they wait to fly with Dumbo. Once again, Disney shows that they understand how to get guests to wait patiently for a ride while keeping them busy.
In addition to this, we also heard news about the changes to the Disney Cruises. My extended family has always talked about taking a Disney Cruise together once our children are older. Now, there will be even more options for us to consider. The one that I am most excited about is the excursions to Alaska. My dream has always been to go on an Alaskan cruise, so Disney Cruise + Alaska = a Magical adventure at sea! We also saw the makeover plans for Disney’s Castaway Cay and the debut of the new Disney Dream Cruise ship. This new ship will have a water coaster called the AquaDuck and virtual port holes inside every cabin. You can check out video about the Disney Dream here:
Before concluding, it was time to explain the new ESPN Wide World of Sports Complex. As visitors that evening, we were getting a sneak peak of the digs before they officially reopen later this month. For more details about the ESPN press conference, please check out some blog posts from other DisneySMMoms attendees:
Please let me know if you have another post you would like me to add here.
Meanwhile, the boys were out and about running on the fields. They seemed to enjoy the time running around. While listening to the press conference I received a Tweet from TechyDad that he had fallen while trying to catch a football or something. LOL! Apparently he was more worried about my reaction to a possible grass stain on his jeans than about being hurt. Oy! Here are some photos of NHL and JSL romping around outside with their friend TJ:
Once the press conference was over, Christina and I followed the crowd over to where the Tailgate style dinner/party was taking place. We grabbed a drink and went to the tables where peanuts and Cracker Jacks were on each of the table.
After a while, the boys met up with us and we had some dinner and met a few characters along the way.
There was music playing, activities on stage for the older kids and tons of people. Eventually, we spotted desserts. The Mickey ice cream bars were too much for us to say no to. The boys certainly enjoyed their treats.
We decided that the boys were getting really tired and packed our items up to head back. On the way out, we were given ESPN hats and then boarded the buses back to the Polynesian. During that ride, we also met up with @MorethanMommy (she writes at Quirky Fusion and More Than Mommy). We had been Tweeting with her while planning the Disney trip since she was also staying at Pop Century the night before moving to the Polynesian. Loved chatting with her and hope to do so again soon.
As we left the bus, we were able to see the Wishes fireworks from the Magic Kingdom over the Lagoon at the Polynesian. We went back to the room to settle the boys. The next morning, I had to be at the bus by 7:30 to be to Epcot for a busy morning.
More coming soon!
Disclosure: Although we paid for our own trip to Disney World, we were given an incredible deal thanks to Disney. The $350 conference fee included 3 nights at the Polynesian, several meals for the entire family, 7 day park hoppers for everyone, conference/meals for me and some other items to take home.
