Wordless Wednesday- My Birthday

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Since we have had these pictures in our camera for a few weeks now I thought I would share! These are from my birthday celebration with my family.

Clearskin Professional

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I know I have posted a few different skin care regimens before- including ideas for acne treatments. Well Avon just came out with a new system called Clearskin Professional. It is supposed to be comparable to Proactiv. I have a customer who ordered it for her teenage daughter and said it works wonders. And it’s only $34 for the whole three step system!

Not Me Monday #2- Early Edition

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I am loving this blog carnival! Here are my “not me’s” for this week

I did not buy three flavors of Ben and Jerry’s ice cream this weekend.

I did not call the car insurance company and have the spelling of my husband’s name changed… only to find out that it has to be changed back….

We did not drive around a state park for over an hour so that my daughter could finish her nap. Because that would be so lame.

I did not tell a psycho Avon customer I was going out of town just to avoid her this weekend.

I did not stay up until 2 a.m. playing on a new website I found (www.pandora.com). I did NOT personalize ten radio stations to listen to online. I am not that dorky.

I did not wipe off my child’s face and hands and feet with a baby wipe instead of giving her a bath. That would just be gross, right?

To see what else people DID NOT DO, check out www.mycharmingkids.net

About My Daughter- 17 Months

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We are shockingly close to one and a half years, here. I am so proud of my little girl that my heart could just burst. I am also so incredibly sad that all these little times together are slipping away. One of these days, she will not need me as her favorite play mate. I know that is the goal here, but I can’t imagine it not being just Mommy and Muffie.

This kid, she loves to read. Honestly, she reads like no child I have ever seen before. She reads anywhere she can. She will read anything you give her. (Reminds me of myself, reading the back of the cereal boxes at breakfast when there is nothing else around). Her other love is physical activity. Climbing, running, jumping, anything. She is really a good jumper now and likes to hop across the room. A pediatrician friend of mine was shocked by her jumping ability last time she saw her. She also likes to crouch down like a frog and then jump up. We are taking a motor skills class and Bailey loves the gross motor activities but doesn’t really want to stand or sit at a table for the fine motor stuff.

The vocabulary is expanding daily. She is becoming a monkey and will repeat a lot of things we ask her to. She now says “Elmo” instead of just “Mo”. I know that’s a small step but I am already imagining all her cute pronunciations slipping away. She can name a lot of her favorite foods, but calls almost every drink juice (or Joosh, as she says). We went to the park yesterday and she likes to slide so much now. She says “Za” for slide. I know, it’s not close, but she’s trying.

Bailey loves to wear only one shoe. She will ask for help to put one shoe on, or in the church nursery she likes to take just one shoe off. It must feel interesting or something, because she has done that for a few months. Maybe she likes the unbalanced feeling when she walks… that is the only thing I can think of! She is also starting to hold food herself, like corn on the cob and apples. She thinks she is really big when she eats stuff like that. She also hates to get her hands messy, like playing in sand or play-doh. Wonder where she gets that from? I am kind of an OCD hand washer!

She loves to say her prayers before bedtime. it’s just in the last month or so that she has started caring. Now when we are in her rocking chair she will fold her hands (or help me to fold mine) and bow her head. It amazes me that the child who can never sit still for anything, can sit still for this!

I love this little girl more than life. What did I do without her for 26 years?

I think this picture captures her so well- with the one shoe on, reading in a laundry basket!

Longest Nap Ever

Filed Under Seventeen Months, Sleep | 4 Comments

Bailey slept today from 1:15 to about 4:45. I know some of you have kids who do that regularly, but Bailey has always been a good night sleeper and crappy napper. It was amazing to have a THREE HOUR BREAK this afternoon!

Wordless Wednesday- The Call of the Wild

Filed Under Food, Wordless Wednesday | 2 Comments

Before you think I am a weirdo, I have to tell you that Jonathan is the one who found these in the animal cracker bag and came running in with them. We both had a good laugh. Yep, we’re meant for each other.

Magic House Free Admission Night

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We went to the Magic House last Friday night because it was free admission. I will NEVER do that again. We have taken Bailey there a few times before and she liked it- and they raised the prices (it’s now only free for kids UNDER one, whereas before it was free for kids under two)- so we thought this would be a good chance to go check it out again before we buy a membership. Well, it was so busy. It was just horrible. Normally during the day, it’s a fairly nice, mom and kid type crowd. Well, all the dirties and everyone else came out of the woodwork for the free night. You know, parents who scream and don’t watch their kids? The families who normally don’t go to these events and have no idea how to behave? Yeah, they were all there.

We stayed about an hour or so and then we ended up leaving and going over to my grandparents house. We decided to definitely get the membership, because Bailey had so much fun. She could play in the Little Bit of Magic (kids under 6 years old) area for about 12 hours if we let her. And there are plenty of opportunities for climbing and sliding and crawling, as well as educational/science-y things. I think we are going to get just the basic $60 membership and keep doing our Parents as Teachers classes instead of Magic House classes. Otherwise we would have to pay for the $120 membership PLUS the price of the classes and that seems like a lot right now.

Here are some pics of the Bug from Friday night. You can click on them to enlarge.

Not Me Monday #1

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So I am participating in a new blog carnival today. This is the first ever “Not Me Monday” hosted by MckMama. Here is my opportunity to tell you about all the things I am definitely NOT claiming to have done.

I DID NOT spend almost $200 on groceries in less than a half hour tonight.

I DID NOT get in the biggest fight EVER with my husband this weekend. (It really WAS NOT about the groceries, either).

I DID NOT cry when my husband apologized to me.

I DID NOT sleep until noon on Saturday while my husband entertained my daughter. Because that would have been lazy and irresponsible.

I DID NOT leave wet laundry in the washer so long that it had to be rewashed.

Speaking of which, I DID NOT wear wet khakis this afternoon. My clothes are always done drying when I am ready to leave the house.

I DID NOT forget to pay my grandma’s mortgage for her.

And I DID NOT just promise my husband that I was coming straight to bed after checking my email.

Magic Kingdom- Part 2

Filed Under Disney Vacation | 3 Comments

We spent two whole days in the Magic Kingdom, and part of another day. We had plenty of time to see everything we wanted to see. We were able to move quickly since it was just two adults and we didn’t have to take lots of breaks or visit with all the characters. Also, we didn’t go into the Toon Town Fair area at all. It’s basically a kid area- in fact, last time I went to Disney World with my family, it was called Mickey’s Birthdayland.

I think my favorite area of the Magic Kingdom has always been Tomorrowland. You can get to it by going to the right, even before you walk through the castle. This is what we did the first day. Sometime worth knowing- there are almost never characters in Tomorrowland.

Probably the most well-known attraction in Tomorrowland is Space Mountain. Last time we went to Disney, according to my mom I went on it something crazy like 17 times in a row. (My family always went during the slow season when there weren’t lines for rides). I forgot how much of that ride was in the complete dark with just stars. For some reason I remembered being able to see more things like planets in it. I don’t know whether the ride was changed at all or if my memory is failing me. Jonathan was initially a little apprehensive about Space Mountain. He remembered going on it as a kid and not being crazy about it. But we did it, and it was fun! We ended up going on it several times during our visit. The first time, I was in the first car in our little train. If you are looking for a more intense experience, that’s the way to go. You feel like you are really shooting through space and you cannot see ANYTHING in front of you. At least if you are even one car back, you can see the glow in the dark paint on the cars in front of you!

The other thing that we went on several times in Tomorrowland was Buzz Lightyear Space Ranger Spin. The name is a little deceptive, because there is nothing spinning about it. You can turn your cart to face different directions, but that’s about it. It is a laser gun game, and it’s pretty fun. You can ride two to a car and it keeps score for you right below your gun. If you are serious about this ride, I would recommend riding one to a car. The guns on the left side never seem to work as well, and you can’t get quite as good of a shot at some of the targets.

We ate lunch at a great (air-conditioned, indoor) restaurant called Cosmic Ray’s Starlight Cafe. We used a counter service meal from our dining plan and we were both stuffed. Double cheeseburgers, fries, sodas, carrot cake for me and triple chocolate cake for Jonathan. Mmmm I miss Disney food. Heck, I miss food. We have nothing to eat in this house!

We rode on the Tomorrowland Transit Authority after eating. If that doesn’t sound familiar, it used to be called The PeopleMover. It’s a slow-moving ride that winds through Tomorrowland about 20 feet in the air. You can get an overview of a bunch of the rides, and you even ride through part of Space Mountain. It was nice and relaxing but not something I would want to do more than once or twice. We skipped the Carousel of Progress and one other ride.

The one thing I would NOT recommend in Tomorrowland is Stitch’s Big Escape. Biggest waste of time EVER, in my opinion. They tell you that it’s a ride and not to go on it immediately after eating. Well, it is NOT a ride whatsoever. First you go into a room where you stand and watch a show, mostly on tv screens but also with an animatronic Stitch. Then you go into a circular room where you sit in roller coaster type seats facing inward, and pull the shoulder restraint down. WHY the shoulder restraint if it’s not a ride? Probably so you can’t run away out of boredom. Literally, the thing NEVER moves. Can you tell I am still annoyed by this? You sit in there for about fifteen minutes while Stitch jabbers at you. The lights go out and you hear him “running” around the room. You get sprayed with water a few times when he is supposedly spitting on you. Then, the lights come back on, the shoulder restraint lifts, and the wannabe-ride is over.

One thing that I knew was gone, but that I was still sad about, was 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea. If you remember that ride, click the link and read what happened to it.

We had a chance to see several parades while in the Magic Kingdom. This was the Dreams Come True parade. It is daily at 3 pm, starting in Frontierland and going all the way to Main Street. If you have kids who want to see, it’s a good idea to get a spot early. They rope off the parade route and people start waiting with cameras in hand about a half hour prior to the start of the parade. We just walked up as it was starting but I was still able to see a lot of it.

I’m not really sure of the logic behind this, but that’s Mary Poppins on the back of the Aladdin float.

Ariel and Prince Eric- I told Jonathan he’s going to have to study up on his Disney Princesses before Bailey gets older

Playing Catch-up

Filed Under Avon, Blogging, Complaining | 3 Comments

I am still trying to get caught up on things from while we were out of town. And how is that our house got really messy again in just five days? And WHY am I so tired all the time? I just sat down to write a nice lengthy blog post and to share some pictures but I think if I sit here for more than a minute I am going to fall asleep. I should also be looking at business resumes to find a sample for Jonathan to follow when he updates his. And I should be replying to about forty emails sitting in my in box… So instead I’m going to go drink a Diet Cherry Coke and get my Avon brochures ready. Which is NOT my favorite thing to do.

Red Light, Green Light

Filed Under Seventeen Months, Talking | 2 Comments

Something fun that my mom taught Bailey- when she sees a traffic light, she yells “GO GO GO!!!” She used to yell it whether we were approaching a red light or a green light. We have had lots of talks about “Stop Dogs Stop, the light is red” and “Go dogs go, it’s green ahead”* and she finally knows the difference. Now I’m not saying that she could pick out red and green in another situation, but when it comes to lights she knows the difference. If we’re sitting at a red light she watches for it to change. As soon as it changes to green, she starts yelling at me to go.

Also, I am not sure who taught her this but when we go down hills or around a corner she says “Weeeeee! Weeeeeeeee!” My mom says she didn’t teach her, my friend Faith said Bailey did it in the car with her but she didn’t teach her, and it wasn’t me or Jonathan. So that leaves… nobody. Is it possible that she came up with it on her own?

One more random thing. Today Bailey walked into a spider web for the first time, at the park. I personally HATE spider webs especially touching my face, but she laughed out loud. Then she proceeded to tear down the rest of the web with her bare hands. Ick.

* From the book “Go Dog Go” by P.D. Eastman- it’s one of her favorites.

Magic Kingdom- Part 1

Filed Under Disney Vacation | 3 Comments

I am already planning on having more than one post about the Magic Kingdom because I know I will get tired of typing partway through this. I’m just in that kind of mood. But I wanted to post about this park first, because in my opinion it’s the most exciting!

There are a few important things to know about the parks when you are booking a trip to Disney World.

1. The more days you stay, the cheaper it gets per day. Like for us to add a sixth day to our tickets, it was only three dollars more per person. So taking a long vacation doesn’t really cost a WHOLE lot more, except for lodging. It’s feasible to take a long trip to Disney World and it will let you do everything at a much more relaxed pace.

2. The park tickets are called Magic Your Way tickets. The first level is a Magic Your Way Base Ticket. This allows you to visit one park per day, either Magic Kingdom (MK), Epcot, Hollywood Studios, or Animal Kingdom. The next thing to add to that is a Park Hopper option. This costs a flat rate of about $60 per person regardless of how long your stay is. The Park Hopper lets you visit as many parks as you would like in one day. That makes it convenient if you want to have breakfast with Cinderella, then go to Epcot later because they have extended hours, or something like that. The next option is to add waterpark privileges to your tickets. The two waterparks are Typhoon Lagoon and Blizzard Beach. Although I have been to TL in the past and I think it’s an amazing park, we didn’t have this option on our trip. It adds about $50 per person to include waterparks on your tickets.

3. Fastpass- These are great! You can go to a popular ride and insert your card (called Key to the World, it’s like a credit card and works as your room key, tickets, and meal plan). The Fastpass machine spits out a little ticket stub with a time printed on it- usually a one hour range- and if you go back during that time then you go through a separate Fastpass Line and walk almost right to the front of the other line. You can only have one Fastpass at once so you have to either use it or let it expire before printing another one. Also, they only print a certain amount of Fastpasses for each time period and they can run out partway through the day. This happened to us on one ride.

4. Eat meals slightly off of the normal mealtime. You’ll have a short wait to get your food and then while everyone else is eating, you can do the more popular rides or shows and have shorter lines for those. Sounds simple, but obviously most people don’t do it!

5. Find out before your trip which parks have Extra Magic Hours which day. Each day, at least one park opens one hour early or stays open up to three hours late. Only guests staying at Disney Resorts can stay in the parks during the Extra Magic Hours. It allows you longer in the park, which is nice because the temperature drops quite a bit in the evening and its much more pleasant. Also, the lines are shorter.

Okay, about Magic Kingdom. When you first enter the park, you are on Main Street U.S.A. There are not any rides on Main Street, but it’s a great place to shop. The stores along each side of the street almost all connect to each other. If it’s hot out, walk through the stores instead of down the street. Main Street is also the path for various parades and shows. This was part of a morning parade.

We watched a group called the Dapper Dans perform. I thought it was going to be boring, but they turned out to be really interesting. They played musical instruments and tapped danced and sang.

One thing that is definitely not to miss is the Main Street Bakery. Yummy pastries! If you time it right you can eat breakfast while watching the 10 a.m. parade, if there is one that day. Or have a snack around 3 and then catch the afternoon parade. Another place on Main Street that we ate was the Plaza Ice Cream Parlor. We each got a double scoop cone (Edy’s) and it was more than we could eat. Well, Jonathan finished it, but he was even struggling by the end.

Here we are standing in the middle of Main Street, with Cinderella’s Castle behind us. By the way, you can now stay in the Princess Suite in the castle! It’s only like 8 million dollars a night, though.

A view from the back of Cinderella’s Castle

Right after you walk through Cinderella’s Castle, if you look to the left there is a store called Tinkerbell’s Treasures. This was my favorite store in the MK. It’s really girly and fun. All kinds of princess costumes, hair pretties, jewelry, etc. I actually bought a set of hair clippies there because my bangs wouldn’t stay back in my ponytail and they were driving me crazy. So I sported a Disney Princess clip in my hair most days during our trip. I figured at least Bailey could wear them once we were home. Check it out-

Wordless Wednesday- Laundry and Reading

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Bailey came with me to switch our laundry to the dryer (we have SO much laundry that we are behind on from vacation!!) and when I turned around she was like this- so I ran for the camera-

Some Links

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If you want to read some really funny things said by a two year old, check out Kelli’s most recent post. I laughed out loud. Thanks, kel, for letting me laugh at Elle’s expense

If you want to watch a news clip from Show Me St. Louis where several of my friends are interviewed, and I make a very unattractive appearance late in the video (wearing pink shirt, no fat girl comments please) then check this out.

Disney- Pop Century Resort

Filed Under Disney Vacation | 9 Comments

I guess the most logical place to start talking about our Disney trip is with our resort. Since that’s the first place we went to, other than the Orlando airport. Which is fairly disorganized and slow, compared to the STL airport, at least while we were there.

The resort we stayed in was Pop Century. It is one of the cheapest Disney resorts (the other being All-Stars) but it was fine for what we wanted. I knew we would not be in the room other than to sleep and get ready in the morning, so I didn’t want to spend a lot of money on accommodations. It might be different in a few years when we have kids who need naps and when we will need more down time at the resort. But we knew we definitely wanted to stay on property.

There are a few perks to staying at a Disney resort versus a random hotel.

First, you get free transportation. This includes both to/from the airport, and also to/from all the theme parks and in between parks. The transportation from the airport is called Disney’s Magical Express. You stand on a red carpet while waiting to board the bus to your resort. This part of the airport was actually very organized. In fact, EVERYTHING about Disney is organized down to the minute. That is one of the great things about Disney. Also, you don’t have to go through baggage claim. They get your luggage for you and it magically shows up in your room within three hours. And you don’t have to sit and wait in your room for it. We were able to drop our carry-ons in our room and head out to a park right away.

Second, you can get the Disney Dining Plan. For a fixed cost, you get a snack, a counter service meal (fast food), and a table service meal (sit down) for each person, for each day of your stay. We were lucky and got the dining plan for free as part of a special promotion. Jonathan is a big eater and he was nervous that it wouldn’t be enough food for him. I planned on spending a lot of extra money on food. Well, we only bought one snack and a few drinks outside of our dining plan. We were able to do several character dining experiences and international restaurants at Epcot, too. We brought stuff like granola bars and small boxes of cereal for breakfast but otherwise we ate out all the time.

And the third great thing about staying at a Disney resort? The Disney-ness. Including the over-the-top theming and special touches on everything, and the staff (called Cast Members throughout Disney World). Nothing is left for you to figure out on your own. You don’t have to bug them for anything. They are a step ahead of you the whole way. Even housekeeping (a.k.a. Mousekeeping) left us cute surprises in our room almost every day!

Our resort, Pop Century, had a theme of American Pop Culture from 1950-1999. There were lots of great things to look at from each decade, under glass in the main building. I know that sounds boring and historical but it was really fun to see toys from when I was little, and things we remembered our parents talking about. I wish I had taken pictures. This picture was on the last day when Jonathan declined the use of Luggage Assistance but it’s the only one where you can see the inside of park of the resort.

There were also five sections of buildings with guest rooms- one for each decade. We were in the 90s one and I have to say it was the least exciting. It was mostly cell phones and a giant laptop and stuff like that. Each section also had its own pool that also went along with the theme. Here is the view facing the building we stayed in.

We also went swimming one afternoon in the 60s pool. I thought this was the most fun area in the resort. It had a “groovy” shaped pool, whatever that is. There were also giant flower fountains spraying different areas of the pool. And a poolside bar called Petals. A few shots of the area around the pool and then one of me swimming. Notice I am only visible from the shoulders up while wearing a bathing suit. There’s a reason for that, folks. You should thank me.

Our resort also had a giant cafeteria with a lot of different food options, like Italian and Asian and hamburgers and sandwiches and stuff. We got a refillable mug for $12.49 and I would recommend that to anyone staying on site. You get unlimited free refills at any resort during your visit. And it’s a cute plastic souvenir mug with a lid.

There was also an arcade area. We used it for about an hour the last day of our trip, while we were waiting to check in for the bus to the airport. We spent about $10 and redeemed our tickets for two mini containers of play-doh for Bailey. Which probably would have cost under $1 at the store, but we had fun.

Me and my honey in front of the resort- we got pretty good at the self-portraits during our trip. Of course he had a hard time being serious since I couldn’t look over and see his face while taking the picture.