Two Princesses

I really think I have a couple of princesses on my hands.  And, I think that my kids think they are princesses.  Although Lizzy is only 16 months, she likes to wear her princess pj's and always tries to put on Sydney's heels.  Today was a day fit for a princess!  Although, we didn't do anything too extraordinary, the kids felt like princesses.  First, they both woke up in their favorite princess pj's...I always think kids are cute in the morning!

Next, we went to visit Jason's Aunt Thelma who was in town from Arizona and staying at the Hotel Baronet in Novi.  Jason's brother Jeff as well as Karen, Kylie and Joby met us there from Frankenmuth.  There was a bunch of us there so we all congregated in this room that had tons of drinks and snacks and the kids thought it was pretty cool that they were just helping themselves and were given whatever they wanted.  At one point I turned around and noticed that Sydney was chilling at the bar with Kylie and Joby and the bartender watching cartoons and eating pretzels and popcorn and drinking Gatorade...rough life, huh?  It was kind of funny to see her sitting at the bar...but it was only our family in the room, so it was okay!  We spent about 4 hours there...so a lot of snacks were consumed!

After the hotel visit, Jeff and crew came back to the house and we ordered pizza and the princess activities continued.  Sydney put in her princess music and Kylie and Sydney dressed up and were dancing the entire time.  Lizzy even put her little tutu on to get in on the action.  Sydney is always happy when she's dressed up.  She always says, "mommy, how do I look?"  I tell her she looks beautiful and she gets the biggest smile on her face and says, "oh, thank you."

By the end of the night, my two princesses were pooped out!!  Lizzy went right to bed, and Sydney had to watch a little episode of Sleeping Beauty on my phone, but then went right to sleep.  It's tough to be a princess! 

So, although we didn't do anything really spectacular, it ended up being a perfect Saturday spending quality time with family and sometimes those simple kind of days are the best!

Disney World

Well, I did it.  I got on a plane!  Everyone knows how much I hate to fly, but I didn't want Sydney to miss out on Disney World, she has been talking about it for the past year, and I couldn't let my fears get in the way.  Fortunately, it was a short flight, and I took some Xanax, so I was manageable for Jason (ha!).  I'm not about to take off to Italy or anything, but I survived the two hour flight!  Sydney didn't even seem to realize she was on a plane, she just sat there like an angel and watched her movies.  Lizzy, on the other hand, was a litte restless.  She was bouncing back and forth between Jason and I, and wanted to walk in the isles.  I also think her ears were bothering her because she kept holding them.  So, what do you do when Lizzy is bad?  That's right...give her food!  She ate pretzels, brownies, cookies, and chips and they kept her quite content!

We stayed at The Sheraton Vistana, where my Dad has a time share and it was really nice!  They had a ton of pools and the rooms were really nice!  The kitchen was fully stocked with dishes, and even had granite countertops, a dishwasher, toaster, etc.  It was nice that there was a living room, so once the kids went to bed, we weren't confined to one room!  However, bed time came later and later each night, so I followed pretty closely behind after they went to sleep.  No one told me how drained I would be from going to Disney World...we had fun, but man was I tired each day!

The first day we went to The Magic Kingdom, Sydney couldn't even hide her smile.  When we first got there, I kind of didn't get all of the hype!  Every ride seemed dumb to me!  I thought there would be characters walking around everywhere and there weren't.  But after seeing Sydney's face, I slowly began to understand the swarms of people and the reason why Disney World isn't hurting for business...it's ALL about the kids.  Seeing Sydney's face after she met Mikckey and Minnie and all of the princesses (especially Belle, her favorite) was priceless.  I have never seen her happier and it made it worth it to wait in hour long lines just for her.  Lizzy was at a difficult age (1 1/2).  There wasn't a ton for her to do and she spent a lot of time in the stroller.  However, you obviously couldn't bring the stroller into the lines, so we also did a lot of holding her and I don't think my arms have recovered yet.  It makes for a very long day when you have to hold someone who doesn't want to be held and who also goes without a nap.  Towards the end of the day, we bought some really large lollipops (because Sydney saw a kid with one and HAD to have one) and Lizzy was completely happy and satified.  We wondered why we hadn't purchased them 7 hours earlier!!

The next day we spent the day swimming and buying tennis shoes for me.  I forgot to pack them and wearing heels at Disney is not ideal...people must have thought I was an idiot!  I couldn't remember what I packed since my Dad drove all of our luggage down so we didn't have to check them on the plane...it made it a lot easier on us! 

The day after that, Jason and I took Sydney to The Magic Kingdom alone while Lizzy went shopping with Grammie and Grandpa.  It was much easier with one child!  She was just so happy and we pretty much bought her everything she wanted, which isn't usually the case.  She was just so in love with everything, we couldn't say no!  The one thing she REALLY wanted was a Belle dress, especially since Belle gave her a kiss.  She kept talking about how she had lips on her cheek from Belle...so happy!  However, the Belle dress was pretty popular and they only had a size 8 and 14...way too big for a 3 year old.  She was devasted, but wanted a dress, so moved on over to the Cinderella dresses.  They didn't have her size either, but had a 6, which kind of fit her and would give her a little room to grow.  But we wanted to get her Belle since she loved her the most and we told her we would find it somewhere online and have it shipped to our house.  She would have nothing to do with that.  She obviously likes instant gratification (like her mommy) and was dead set on getting the Cinderella dress "right now".  So, we got it...we're suckers!  All day we had a song stuck in our head from Pirates of the Carribean..."Yo ho yo, a pirates life for me."  While Jason was paying for the dress, I sang to Sydney..."Yo ho yo ho, a Cinderella dress", and Sydney sang back, "Ya ya ya ya, because they didn't have Belle."  I was like, darn!! I knew she wanted that Belle dress more.  But she ended up loving the Cinderella dress and if you ask me, she looks more like Cinderella anyway!  It all worked out in the end.

The next day (I keep saying next day because I totally lost track of the days on vacation, I never knew which day it was!), we spent it swimming again.  So, we pretty much went to theme park every other day which was perfect for my tired arms and legs.  Sydney and Lizzy loved the kiddie pools and wouldn't even venture into the adult pools (I think that's a sign that my kids need lessons), but they had fun and that's all that counts!  That night we went to Downtown Disney which is basically restaurants and stores!  Grandpa bought Sydney and Lizzy really cute pajamas!  Sydney got Belle pj's...yaaaayyyyyyyyyyyy...she was thrilled and couldn't stop dancing!  Lizzy got Sleeping Beauty and it was like she knew how to walk like a princess.  She was holding out the sides as she walked...the kids kept me smiling the whole time!

The last day we all went to Hollywood Studios which was a lot more fun for Lizzy. Sadly, the camera stopped working that day...but we had the video camera with us! There was a Play House Disney show that both kids loved and they were able to dance and move around (which is why Lizzy loved it).  Lizzy is all about singing and dancing these days.  She lays in bed forever sometimes just singing...it's really cute.  Right now her favorites are the itsy bitsy spider and baa baa black sheep (she likes to say "yes sir, yes sir").  There was also a Beauty and the Beast Show, Little Mermaid,etc., all of Sydney's favorites.  Sydney was dressed in her Cinderella dress that day, which I told her not to wear because she would get hot and want to take it off.  But she promised she would keep it on and wouldn't complain.  But I secretly packed capri pants for her because I just knew!  And like a good mother, I was right (I love to say that I'm right).  There was a Honey I Shrunk the Kids play area which was not condusive to a Cinderella dress!  She kept saying, I want normal clothes, and luckily I had them and all was well!  She was scared of the large climbing net maze at first (but she's always scared of everything), so Jason literally threw her inside sreaming and crying and she came out laughing and smiling saying "I want to do that again"...and so she did....again and again and again! There were many other fun activities, but I could go on and on forever.  Basically, the everyone had a ton of fun...Sydney got ANOTHER toy (Buzz Light Year from Toy Story) and it was the PERFECT way to end the year!

We flew home on New Year's day!  I'm looking forward to a great year ahead.  While we were on our trip, Jason got a call that he was the 1 of 20 out of 700 people that got to keep his job.  That must be a sign that this will be a great year!

Haircut

Right before we left for vacation, I decided to take Sydney to get her hair cut.  She has never had a real hair cut at a salon, Grandma Polly has trimmed it a couple of times, but this was her first "real" true hair cut!

Before Picture

We went to a place called Sweet and Sassy in Novi, which was complete with a runway and all.  Both Sydney and Lizzy had a lot of fun working the runway...future models?  At one point, Lizzy walked right off the runway and was walking mid-air until she hit the ground.  Of course she cried, but I laughed because it reminded me of a model taking a spill....what's that word...schadenfreude....taking pleasure in other peoples' pain...anyway, I found it funny!

Sydney was so cute.  They put a glitter star on her cheek, put in a Princess movie (at Sydney's request) and cut away.  It was the first time that I had seen her hair really straight and I loved it so much.  Too bad I can't get it to look like that.  I do like her curls, but they can get straggly and kind of messy, especially during the frizzy winter months. I thought Sydney would freak out when they turned the blow dryer on since I never use one on her, but she was a champ!  At the end both Sydney and Lizzy got a sucker which always makes everyone happy!  They even gave me Sydney's locks to keep...hopefully I won't lose them (I probably will).

After

Uncle Josh Comes to Town

It's not very often that Uncle Josh comes to visit, so when he does, Sydney gets pretty darn excited.  Lizzy is still a little unsure about Uncle Josh...she liked his presence, but didn't necessarily like for him to hold her or touch her.  He came for two weeks before his year long trip (or until he runs out of money) to Africa.  I don't know too many people who are willing to travel to Africa for a year all alone, but Josh seems to think it's a great idea.  We couldn't be more opposite!  It's hard for me to even step foot on to an airplane...I'm perfectly happy at home and he is ready to go or do anything no matter what time of day it is.

Speaking of time of day, Josh seems to have his days and nights a little mixed up, which completely baffled Sydney.  She thought he was always sleeping.  Josh would run on the treadmill at 3 in the morning before going to bed.  One day, I was getting the kids ready to go to daycare and Josh walks in the door from wherever he was, ate breakfast, and went to sleep just when we were getting our day started.  One of the days, I heard the garage door open at 4am, and I got up and asked him where in the world he could have possibly gone.  He said he was bored, so he went to Meijer to buy a couple of books...I guess that's a reasonable answer, just an odd time of day, but I would imagine the lines are pretty short at that time, so he had that going for him!  So, it was very apparent that Josh was in our house due to his conflicting schedule, you could hear strange things in the middle of the night, but it was just Josh being Josh.

One thing that Sydney always thinks of when it comes to Josh is Chuckie Cheese.  She made sure that he took her.  She wouldn't stop talking about it until he did.  It's her favorite thing to do with him.  Of course, on the day that they went, she had to wait until 3:30pm for Josh to wake up for the day, but hey...they went and had a great time.

Unfortunately we didn't catch too many pictures with Josh (duh, he was always sleeping), but that doesn't mean we didn't have fun.  He was here for Hanukkah, which was fun, because now Sydney is at the age when she really gets it.  Although Josh wasn't here for the entire duration of Hanukkah, we had a great family party and he got to be here to see the girls rip into their presents.  Unfortunately, Sydney is just like me when I was little.  She would open a present, get all excited, and then throw it aside and say, "can I have another one?"  I know it's hard to open just one a night, but the kids survived.  Even Lizzy understood that when we light the candles, it usually means that a present would follow.  As soon as the candles were lit, Lizzy would dash into the family room and grab a present and start ripping.  She even knew which wrapping paper belonged to her.  It was a lot of fun!

The last thing that Josh did, was bring our video games back to life.  I'm not sure if that's a good thing or bad thing.  I will say that we had a ton of fun playing Guitar Hero, Rock Band and Wii Bowling, but when it comes to war games, I'd rather not get Jason started on them...but oh well!  As long as he helps out and does his chores, he can play his games all night long (when I'm not watching)!

So, all in all, we had a great time with Josh.  Sydney calls the spare room Uncle Josh's room.  Lizzy still looks for him.  The other morning, she opened the spare room door and yelled "hiiiiiii", but didn't get a response, so she went closer to the bed and started hitting it and saying hi, but no one answered.  The kids grew accustomed to him being in the bed during their waking hours, so Lizzy would at least hear a voice come from the bed when she would say hi.  But he is gone and Sydney keeps asking when he's coming home.  She doesn't understand how far away Africa really is and has no concept of time, so telling her he is gone for a year means absolutely nothing!

Eventually Josh will be back though, and he'll have to come back here to get his car.  So, I'm sure we will relive all of these events again and then hopefully the kids will seem him on a more regular basis.  He tends to travel a lot lately and leaves for a year at a time, but he has to settle down eventually, right? Well, at least we'd like to think so!

By the way, I'm not sure what's up with his long hair, but again, it's just Josh being Josh!

School Visit

I've been a little behind on this whole blogging bit, Josh was in town which turned the house upside down (not in a bad way), but more on him later.  Anyway, last Thursday, the parents were invited to Sydney's school for a gingerbread party.  Of course, I will jump at any opportunity to visit the school, I just love the little kids.  We had a ton of fun!

First we got to decorate cookies, one girl and one boy...Sydney gave me the boy to decorate, I wasn't surprised at all.  Another thing which didn't surprise me in the least bit was how quickly Sydney grabbed for the pink sprinkles.  She didn't care about the fact that there were M&M;s, Fruit Loops, raisins, licorice,etc., she only wanted a pink gingerbread.  I explained to her that the white frosting was kind of like the glue to help the sprinkles stick.  She reluctantly picked up a glob of frosting and stuck it in one spot, dumped some pink sprinkles on it and said, "DONE"!  Of course she was the first one done because everyone else was making cute faces and outfits, I tried to get her to do that too, but the teacher said there was no wrong way to do this, so I gave in and decorated my boy while Sydney ate her girl...she just couldn't wait!

When we went back to the classroom, the kids had practiced three songs to sing to us...it was the cutest thing ever.  Sydney sang along to the Zoophonics song, but for the other two songs, she just stood there staring at me.  She ended up just standing with Mrs. Teeples (the assistant teacher) who was trying to get her to participate.  On the way home, I asked Sydney why she wouldn't sing and she told me that she didn't want me to hear her...I guess kids will be kids...but it certainly was cute.

Finally, they gave us some awesome snacks (as if the cookies weren't enough) and took our pictures in a snowman board.  Sydney thought it was pretty darn neat...I was impressed too since Mrs. Teeple's husband painted it...I can't even draw a stick figure, so I'm easily impressed, but it really was cool. 

I'm glad I was able to spend the morning with Sydney, and the holiday gift that the kids made were absolutely amazing.  They made calendars with really cool artwork for each month.  I'm exctied because I needed a calendar, but I'm even more excited that Sydney made it. I'm very fortunate that my job allows me to leave and participate in these activities!  It means a lot to me to spend these moments with my kids, since I know they will grow up so fast.

Fearless

This past weekend we went to a birthday party for someone at Sydney's daycare (while Uncle Josh slept the day away) which was at the Livonia Rec Center.  That place is just amazing, it's like a one stop shop for everything you could possibly need.  A workout facility, gymnastics, swimming, dance, floor hockey, adult lounge, game room, rock climbing wall, kids tree fort...I mean the list is endless.  We need one of these in Farmington Hills...there probably is one, but I don't know about it and it can't possibly be as amazing as this place.

Anyway, the best part was the swimming area...it was like The Great Wolf Lodge.  And of course as it turns out, my fearless little Lizzy was scared out of her mind.  She spent the entire time with her head between my legs and hung on for dear life.  I thought she would love it since she enjoys splashing in the bathtub so much.  Poor little girl ran to the exit door as fast as she could and was banging on the door hysterically for someone to let her into the locker room.  Although she was crying, I thought it was pretty funny...you have to laugh at your kids sometimes!  Towards the end, she stood next to me and played with the little water fountain, but the second anyone came near her, she was back between my legs. 

Sydney, on the the hand, who is usually very scared of everything, had the time of her life.  It was hard to get her to go home...she loved every minute of it.  She was singing and dancing in the water and playing with her buddies...it was so cute.  She definitely shed a few tears when it was time to go.

I'm thinking that it's time to sign my kids up for swimming lessons soon.  I don't want Lizzy to be this scared of the water and Sydney needs to venture out into water that goes past her ankles (and by the way, she still insisted on wearing the swimsuit with floaties).  The problem is finding the time to actually take them.  It's hard during the work week, and I don't want to be tied down on the weekends, so we'll see.  Swimming in December just doesn't sound appealing to me right now.  Maybe dance lessons first...that's what Sydney really wants.  I guess we have some decisions to make!

"Love My Mommy"

Sydney sang the sweetest song to me today when I picked her up from school and was driving her to daycare. Lately, Sydney likes to sing her conversations.  She picks a tune and then tries to make the words that she wants to say fit into the tune of the song.  It was to the tune of  "Found a Peanut".  She sang, "I love my mommy, love my mommy, love my mommy, she's the best, mommy in the wooo oooo ooooo ooooold oh ye eh ehs she is."  How sweet is that?  It certainly made my day!  I think Sydney is just in an extra good mood because her favorite Uncle Josh is in town and will be staying for a couple weeks before he leaves for Africa.

I'm pretty sure there will be lots of Uncle Josh stories to come.  Josh arrived yesterday from Florida and I'm not quite sure that he realizes he's in Michigan.  Usually in December in Michigan, we don't wear shorts and flip flops...but Josh does.  We all went to Red Coat Tavern for dinner all bundled up for winter and he was still dressed for Florida.  He better go shopping and buy a pair of pants to survive his visit.  I suggested that he might want to get a haircut as well since I've never seen his hair so long, but he didn't like the suggestion!

But anyway, Sydney doesn't care how Uncle Josh dresses, she just loves playing with him every second!  On tap for tomorrow...Chuckie Cheese!