Day four of our trip had us heading back to Magic Kingdom (Poppa and Tia sat this one out with M). Our goals were to finish getting all of the princesses’ autographs, ride the rides we hadn’t gotten to yet (Peter Pan), and re-ride whatever rides B wanted to do again (Small World, Dumbo). While the day was much cooler, it was a BEAUTIFUL day. And we accomplished all of our goals!
While waiting for our fastpass to see some princesses, B picked out her Mickey ears – princess style, of course. There were many princess-style Mickey ears, but she chose the ones that had pictures of the most princesses on them. AND she wanted it a bit big so it would last longer (of course, this meant it didn’t fit her particularly well that day, a problem we have since remedied).
We rounded out our princess “to do” list with visits with Mary Poppins (what, you didn’t know she was a princess?), Rapunzel, and Tiana, and even squeezed in extra visits with Cinderella and Sleeping Beauty! I plan to do a special post re: pictures with all the Disney characters B met.
One of B’s favorite parts about her second Magic Kingdom trip was the show in front of Cinderella’s castle. She had a front row seat (in M’s stroller), and she was quite transfixed by the show.
Many of us had the “privilege” of wearing B’s mickey ears (best way to carry them):
Jason refused to wear them…
We completed this day with a trip on the kiddie roller coaster (probably the longest line we stood in) – B sat in the front car with Nana
We ended our Disney experience with a quick photo in front of this lovely sign. I suppose we should have put this first, but on Day 1 there were WAY too many people around.
Day 5 brought a trip to Sea World from Nana and Poppa. Mimi, Tatie Kat, and Uncle Mike had to head home, but Uncle Matt joined the rest of us (including M). B’s favorites include the dolphin show, the killer whale show, and this giant boat play area.
Here is the boat:
It had a net ladder, and a deck play area. She went up and down and all around. M also wanted to get in on the fun (yes, she is being as mischievous as she looks).
While the little kids went off with Nana & Poppa, the big kids rode the big roller coasters (Manta & Kraken) – post roller coaster bunch:
The Sea World trip ended with the killer whale show (photo op first!):
Poppa arranged to have B’s picture put up on the big screen! Such things don’t photograph well, but you get the idea. She is in the lower right hand corner.
On our last day, we headed to Downtown Disney for some low key fun. After having lunch at a dinosaur themed restaurant (complete with moving dinosaurs and sound effects!), we headed to the Lego store to play.
B’s Lego city:
There were some pretty impressive Lego “sculptures” to admires as well. The Hulk!
The Loch Ness monster (probably B’s fav)!
Prince Philip battling Maleficent!
Near the Lego store was a GIANT Disney store, complete with more princesses…
B also got to participate in a surprise princess parade through Downtown Disney, complete with a free merry-go-round ride!
B is in the back, waving like a princess:
Free merry-go-round ride (Disney sure has customer service down to a T):
She ended her day with a train ride:
Bye-bye Disney!
Jason and Don took some pretty amazing animal pictures as well, but those will have to wait for another post (and for Jason to get them to me).
That song is still stuck in my head more than a week after we returned home…fortunately for me, I actually like that song! As for those of you harboring evil gleeful thoughts at me HAVING to ride It’s a Small World After All, I am very sorry to disappoint you…and very sorry that I ONLY got to ride that lovely ride three times! I was hoping for at least a nice half dozen. It has always been my favorite. 
Sing it with me now!
After celebrating M’s birthday, we started our week of B’s birthday surprises. It would be too crowded during her actual birthday. Besides, this way we got to celebrate both birthdays with most of the family. During this trip, we collectively took over 3000 pictures. In case you are wondering how we got B to cooperate for so many pictures, we bribed her…I promised I would create a photo book of the trip just for her. 3000+ pictures is a lot of pictures to go through…
On Day One, we started with a trip to the Brevard Zoo, a gift from Mimi and Tatie Kat. The “birthday” girl was accompanied by her baby sister as well as Mimi, Tatie Kat, Uncle Mike, Tia, Jason, and me.
She loved seeing all the animals, and THOUGHT she would like feeding the birds and giraffes, but when it came time to do so, she was less enthused. The birds were all right, until one bit her. The giraffes are so big, I think they just intimidated her. No matter, she still had a great time! Some of her favorite animals were the monkeys, particularly the tamarins. This statue here was donated by a family in memory of their daughter who died when she was two. B was fascinated by the statue, and quite sad that the little girl died so young.
She had a great time at the cheetah exhibit. The cheetahs weren’t all that interesting (hard to see and sleeping), but the exhibit also had a cheetah challenge! After Tia helped her down the first time, B was definitely up for the
challenge!
I don’t have as many pictures of the zoo trip as I do of other trips – Jason was doing most of the zoo photography. We will do a post with his fabulous pictures later. The Zoo was a great way to start our trip. And we finished the day at Downtown Disney so we could activate our tickets…would you believe that with all that Disney stuff all over the place, B still was oblivious as to where she was?? We did a VARY GOOD job not telling her anything about Disney…perhaps too good…
Day two we headed to the Magic Kingdom, including breakfast at Cinderella’s Royal Table with the Princesses! the whole day was something of a joint gift from Mimi, Tatie Kat, Jason, and me. In the morning, our group consisted of B, Poppa, Tia, Jason, & me. After M had her nap, she, Mimi, Tatie Kat, and Nana joined us. Before we left the house, we told her we were going to have breakfast with Cinderella. She looked a little confused…”the REAL Cinderella”? She was very happy, but you could tell she didn’t quite understand. We got to the park before it opened so we could watch the opening show. She saw all the characters (including several princesses and Mickey), but she still didn’t quite get it. We even told her we were at Disney. The “aha!” moment was when she rounded the curve inside the park and saw Cinderella’s castle.
THEN she understood. She was pretty excited. As you can see, she wore her “twirly” dress and princess boots to show Cinderella. As soon as she met Cinderella, however, she wanted to put on her Belle dress…which she wore the rest of the day, despite the heat!
So many princesses!!
B’s current favorite (most of the time…it really does change a lot)
After breakfast, we met up with Poppa & Tia to ride some rides and meet some more characters, including some of my favorite from the Hundred Acre Wood.
We rode lots of rides, including Winnie the Pooh, the Carousel, racecars, Little Mermaid, and the Teacups (YAY for roundy-rounds!) before stopping for lunch. While we were eating, Mimi, Tatie Kat, and Nana arrived with M, fresh from her nap and tricked out in her new Disney clothes!
We immediately headed off to do more rides – Pirates of the Caribbean (probably B’s least fav), the Magic Carpets, It’s a Small World (one of her favs, and def M’s fav), the Belle attraction, and Dumbo to name a few. We grabbed one last quick ride on It’s a Small World before heading back towards the front to watch the fireworks. The girls were pretty tired, but they were troopers! We opened the park and we closed the park. At the end of the day, we had one very tired, but VERY happy princess.
Day Three involved a trip to Animal Kingdom from Tia. Everyone tagged along for this day, even M. B had a great time looking at all of the animals (including a safari ride), watching the Nemo show, riding the triceratops ride, and pestering us with questions about the roller coaster we rode that she did not (was it scary? was it fun? did you like it? why was there a monster? why was it dark? were you scared? was the monster white? why?….I think her favorite part, however, was getting her face painted and the activities in Camp Minnie-Mickey. First, the face painting. She was one distraught little girl because the children’s section of the park contains a roller-coaster she really, REALLY wanted to ride. Unfortunately, she was too short (the height requirement was 4’…in the children’s section…sigh). After shedding her tears, Mimi offered to get her face painted. Bingo! You can’t cry when your face is painted…it will get all messed up! She did such a great job sitting still as she was made into “Sleeping Beauty” and it turned out great!
Win-win (even though we all agreed that it was a ridiculous height requirement (looked like a very tame roller coaster)! In case you are wondering what is around her neck – that is her princess pin lanyard. Each day she got a new pin to add to her lanyard (except for Day One) representative of some favorite thing from that day.
At Camp Minnie-Mickey she got to meet all the characters, even the elusive Pocahontas, with little to no wait AND guitar Dan came out and sang her a song he made up just for her! She danced with Tia while he sang her that song, and then she danced some more as he went around and made up more songs for more visitors. She LOVED it! And we even got some great group pictures.
And thus ended day three! Seems like a good place to stop for now. I will post more about the rest of our trip another time.
Our little bit is growing up so fast. We went to the doctor today for her checkup. She weighs 20 lbs., 8.5 oz (60th percentile) and is 28″ tall (10th percentile). Given how squirmy she was during the height measurement, and given her height at her last checkup, I don’t think that number is quite accurate. Interestingly enough, B was also 28″ at 12 months, which was considered the 15th percentile at that time. Regardless, she is growing fast!
She is now transitioning to regular milk (instead of formula) using a sippy cup, and I still nurse her every morning and night (giving up the night one very soon). She eats baby food like a champ! But she will not swallow regular food (or she swallows very little of it). As a result, her pediatrician wants her to see a food therapist, just to make sure there is no obvious reason for the problem. We all agree that she will likely grow out of this phase on her own. But just in case, we are going to get an evaluation, which will not only remove any concerns of a problem, but will also give us better tools for helping her through this phase.
She has four front teeth on the top, and four on the bottom. Her 1-year molars are working there way out, but are still a ways off at this point. I know they are coming…she chews everything!
She sleeps like a champ – 11-12 hours at night and 2-3 hours every afternoon. She still takes a morning nap of some sort most days, which can run anywhere from 30 minutes to 2 hours. It all depends. While we were in Orlando, she slept in our room with us and slept through my incessant coughing. I’ll take that as she sleeps well…
She clearly says da-da, anna and nana (for Brianna), and nya-nya (for mama). We also believe she has said ball (ba). And, she will mimick on command (What does a sheep say? Does a sheep say baaaaa? M: “baaaaaaa”). She will double clap to ask to be picked up, will clap to indicate “more,” and uses the “point and grunt” technique to indicate what she wants. All in all, she communicates quite clearly.
Her mobility is increasing daily. To date she has stood up by herself (tho not for long), stood and clapped by herself (again, not long), pulled up in her crib and from the floor using various other objects, and walked (a lot) while holding onto someone’s hands. She loves the stairs, but has not really tried to climb them yet. She has tried to crawl a few times, but her legs just fly out behind her, She will also walk with her walking toy, tho the steering is still a bit tricky. Her favorite is to hold onto someone, but that is backbreaking work for the adult, so she often has to settle for butt-scooching, which is still by far her fastest way to motor around. Regardless of the method, moving around is one of her favorite activities.
She loves to play with B and whomever else will play with her, but she will also entertain herself for stretches at a time (playing with the fridge toys, pulling things out of the cabinets, playing in the pack-n-play, etc.). Her favorite (non-human) toys right now are her Fisher Price animals, the musical ball popper, and pretty much anything she is not allowed to have. Which brings us to the little devil side of our angel. M is very good at looking around a room, identifying the most dangerous or most expensive item in that room, and making a beeline for it (the tv/stereo equipment, the trash can cabinet, plugs (in outlets), B’s dolls, something on the floor, etc.). Thus, this weekend we plan to really get down on our hands and knees to see the world from her perspective so we can better make it safe for her.
She wears plenty of 12 month clothes, but still fits into several 9 month outfits. Not for long tho, which is o.k. Most of her 9 month outfits are winter outfits, and winter will soon be over!
I’m going to break this down into two posts. After she sees the pediatrician for her 12 month checkup, I’ll do that post. For now, here are the pictures from her actual birthday. We spent her birthday in Orlando with family and had a wonderful, relaxing day.
Here is the birthday girl in her new birthday dress! B has a matching dress, but we didn’t get a good picture with both of them wearing their dresses.
During the early parts of the day, we had fun by and in the pool. I don’t have pictures of it, but I do have video of B going under water several times…willingly!
The girls also met their cousin Jordan for the first time. Yay!
We did a ladybug theme. We couldn’t get a ladybug cake, so we just made the colors match.
Publix made a small cake just for M.
After naps we got down to some birthday business – presents and cake!
M really liked the ribbons…and the cards…
Posing in her new shades
I’m ready for my cake…whatever that is!
Hmmm….what is this?
Oops! Don’t rub your eyes with your cakey fists!
Poor cake…
We had a wonderful day!
