DISNEY!!!

Being a FL native where growing up it is possible to go to Disney every year (no hotel needed since it was driving distance) I could hardly wait for Noah to have his first Disney experience. David didn't share that same "dream" since he's really only been to Disney once and barely remembers what it is like and in my opinion he thinks it is merely a slightly nicer, more expensive version of the county fair. Anyone that has been there in recent years especially, with a young child knows how amazing and how magical of a place it is. Words really can't describe it so I won't even try. It's just that kind of place. But I digress. Anyway, since my sister was going to be in town for so long with her family we decided to drive to Disney for a couple of days so my parents could be there with all of their grandchildren at the same time. David didn't get to come with us which makes me very sad but we went during the week and he was already back in Mexico working hard as usual. I was soooooo anxious and worried about going to Disney with a 2 year old and not having David there to help me wrangle him! I had visions of temper tantrums in the long Dumbo line, losing him a few times near or in the castle and a huge fear that I would go through all the expense and exhaustion of taking him there only for him to be scared of and hate all the rides, attractions and characters. Luckily for me none of these fears came true (well except for the meltdown in the long Dumbo line but I have gotten over that by now).

We got to Orlando on a COLD Tuesday afternoon and walked around the area near our hotel known as "Downtown Disney" which is an event in itself with awesome shopping, restaurants, hotels and even a few attractions for the kids. We then checked into our hotel and enjoyed the heated pool and put the kids to bed early to prepare for their exciting day at The Magic Kingdom. We got up bright and early and after a bus ride to the park, a monorail ride into the Magic Kingdom, buying the tickets, renting a double stroller for the boys and renting a wheelchair for my mom (we didn't want her to tire out at the park--she had grandkids to take care of after all) we were ready to start exploring and having fun. I couldn't wait for Noah's FIRST DISNEY ATTRACTION! I was so afraid of him being frightened at some of the rides so we carefully chose "It's a Small World" to be our first ride because we assumed Noah would not only not be afraid of this benign boat ride full of happy singing dolls, we assumed he would be completely enthralled by it. Actually what happened was HE FELL ASLEEP. SOUND ASLEEP. We couldn't wake him up. So, at that point my fear of wasting tome and money to take him to Disney and having him be afraid turned into a fear of me wasting all that time and money for him to be BORED! Not to fear--after his 30 minute power nap he was ready to go...and go we did! We rode as many rides as we could safely take Noah on and even all the rides that I thought I would have to miss out on due them being too scary for him (The Haunted Mansion, Pirates of the Caribbean, etc) he even loved those. He actually waved "bye bye" to the ghosts on the Haunted Mansion ride. I was stunned. I took him on a kiddie roller coaster that he was just barely old enough and tall enough to go on and in all honesty, actually scared me a little bit..but he loved it and when the roller coaster stopped he said "GO choo choo GO!" I thought for sure it would terrify him but he was upset that it was over. Go figure. The only thing he wasn't too interested in was the Electrical lights parade at the end of the day...i thought for sure he would love that over anything but, you never know. Maybe next time.

He of course wore himself out and fell fast asleep on the monorail ride out of the park. The next day we had brunch reservations at The Grand Floridian Disney hotel with the characters so we had a blast dining with Alice in Wonderland, the Mad Hatter, Mary Poppins, Winnie the Pooh and Tigger too. Noah was especially THRILLED to see Pooh and Tigger and squealed with glee every time they came near him. He couldn't stop hugging them. It was the cutest thing ever. All in all it was a blast but I can't wait for David to come along the next time so I can finally replace his distorted image of Disney that he has in his mind! After all, he's married to a Floridian Disney frequent flyer!



Does this picture say "I love Disney!" or what??



I couldn't believe how excited he was to see Tigger and Pooh--I didn't even know he knew who they were before Disney but he spotted them from across the room and started jumping and yelling "Pooh! Pooh!" and begging them to get closer to them.



Well of course I had to buy him BOTH Tigger AND Pooh after his adorable reaction to them!



Family pic, getting ready to go wait in some lines! Stacy took the picture so she is not in it :(


Noah was even more excited to see Tigger than Pooh but he kept calling him "Pooh" and was a little confused





I think this is the best picture ever of my dad and Noah. They are riding the carousel





Playing around in teh carriage and the old time cars at The Grand Floridian



Winnie the Pooh and Tigger Too!



Alyssa was happy to see Mary Poppins but the boys were not...they much preferred Pooh and Tigger to the nannies and the princesses



Playing at the Magic Kingdom



Piggy Back rides all around



What's not to love about riding the classic rides---Cinderella's Carousel" and "Dumbo the flying elephant" although some things never change....no matter what, every time I go to Disney, Dumbo has the longest line in the park!



Yes, he got stuck there



Family fun



OK, I survived and Yes, we WILL go back!

Halloween...Star Wars Style

I haven't posted in three weeks and when I explain everything we have done in the past 3 weeks it will be obvious why there has been no blog activity! First we made a trip to Baltimore for David's cousin's wedding the weekend of October 18th. We had a nice Nelson and Hollis weekend family reunion up there and I will post pictures from that as soon as I catch up on other postings. Then we returned on October 20th, repacked, re-grouped and left on the 23rd to drive down to visit my family in FL and we were gone for 10 days...during that time there was a trip to David's job site, a Fitzgerald family reunion, UF homecoming festivities, a trip to Disney, Halloween/Trick-or-treating and then after all of that David and I went to Jacksonville for the famous Florida-Georgia football game. The 10 days were a whirlwind and we are still not recovered but I have soooooo many pictures and postings from all of those trips that I have to start somewhere so I am starting with Halloween....so I don't end up so behind that I end up posting Trick-or-Treat pictures in December!

Since my sister's family was also in FL for Halloween and the kids all wanted to do a Star Wars theme, we went along with them and Noah was a little "Yoda". Nicholas was a little Darth Vader and Shannon and Alyssa were....I'm not sure...some characters from Star Wars...they told me several times but I can never remember who they were (Jedi or something). Anyone that knows me knows I am NOT a Star Wars expert or even really a fan (Sorry David) so it was really hard for me to even agree to let Noah be Yoda when I had envisioned him being a cute little monkey or fireman or something like that for Halloween!

We were worried at first Noah would not want to keep his costume on and would not wear the Yoda hat. We were worried he would have no clue how to say "Trick-or-Treat" and the whole process would be a waste of time. Not to fear--he was an expert after one house. He LOVED every minute of it and it was truly a blast to get to see him trick-or-treat for the first (real) time and to do it with his cousins, parents and Papa!







An action shot. He meant business!




Yoda and Darth Vader taking a rest before the candy hunt







He loved getting to have his Papa help him Trick-or-Treat



After the first house he totally got the hang of it and is showing in this picture what an expert trick-or-treater looks like. Look who's first in line...








David expressed concern that this might mean his son is a "tree hugger" :)

Petting Zoo and Pumpkin Patch...All kinds of Fall Fun

Since Grandma and Grandpa were here visiting for Noah's birthday weekend we decided to take advantage of the nice fall weather and head up to a local pumpkin patch called "Tanglewood Farms". I thought it was mostly going to be a pumpkin patch with a hayride, a few farm animals, etc but it turns out I was confusing it with a different pumpkin patch I had been to (there are so many up here!). It was actually primarily a small animal petting zoo with a few pumpkins....oh well. Noah actually enjoyed it more this way. Unfortunately Grandma-"I love children not animals"-Fitzgerald wasn't too thrilled with her close brush with the cattle but she survived and was a very good sport. "The things you do for your grandchildren" she said on more than one occasion. Sorry Mom! The family farm was great for kids and they gave you food to feed the animals. They had goats of all sizes including miniature goats as well as full size goats, sheep, chickens, ponies, horses, calfs, pigs, llamas, huge rabbits, and I think I even saw a donkey. Oh and of course they had a few farm cats--Noah's favorite for sure. I'm so glad we paid $9 each to take him to a place so he could spend the majority of the time screaming "KITTY!!" and petting the cats...something he could do anywhere. Oh well. I think he had fun anyway and wasn't afraid of any of the animals, even when they were invading his personal space trying to get to the food in his hand. I on the other hand, jumped about 2 feet in the air when I felt the large, cold tongue of a pig licking my bare toes which were hanging out of my sandals. All in all it was a fun day and we got some great pictures which always makes me happy!


I can totally see why a 2-year-old would end up in Jail...



This must be a minimum security institution with good food and cable TV because he sure does look happy.



I'm pretty impressed with myself for getting the sheep to pose like that

Noah turns 2

Saturday (October 11th) was Noah's 2nd birthday! We can hardly believe 2 years have gone by since that day we brought our little 6 pound, helpless peanut home from the hospital. We opted not to have a huge birthday party for him...we weren't sure we were up to twenty 2-year-olds invading our house! So we had a small (mostly family and a couple very close friends) come over for a family dinner and some Elmo birthday cake! Noah actually did better than we thought with opening the presents. Grandma and "Papa" Fitzgerald (a.k.a. "the man who hung the moon" in Noah's eyes) came up from FL for his big day. Aunt Shelly and cousin Samantha got to be here and Aunt Amy & Uncle Eric came over with cousins Christian, Cameron and Lauren who are now 9 months old and both crawling! It was a fun day! The Elmo birthday cake turned out great (not that I can take any credit for it!) As cute as the cake was, however, I will try to never get a birthday cake with solid red icing ever again! I have to admit parts of our house still look like a crime scene...





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The Birthday Boy! We were surprised he actually wanted to wear the party hat!



And our big boy even blew out his candle...



Sharing some red icing with Daddy



Posing for a picture on his new climbing toy



Can you tell he's on a sugar high from the cake? I thought so...



Cousins Cameron, Christian and Lauren



The kids enjoyed playing all over Noah's birthday present



Noah's "Aunt Amy" with cousins Cameron and Lauren

First Haircut

Well, here we are one week shy of Noah's 2nd birthday and we FINALLY decided Noah had enough hair to officially get his first haircut!!! What a momentous milestone, huh! It's funny how things change when you have kids. A few years ago a "big deal" on a Saturday for me would mean a spur of the moment road trip to a SEC football game, some tailgating, partying, etc. Now, a "big deal" Saturday for us is taking Noah to a kid's themed hair salon and waiting in line for 30 minutes watching all of the other 1 year olds scream at the trauma they are going through only so we can do the same thing to our precious child! Actually, the experience went WAY better than we ever expected. Noah doesn't exactly cooperate with things being "done" to him (just ask his doctor, any nurse at any of the various children's ERs we've had to unfortunately visit with him or any local photographer for that matter). He was such a champ and "kim" his "barber" did an amazing job. They really know what they are doing with kids there! There are special chairs, toys everywhere, prizes, TVs at every station, all kinds of distracting devices and it is quite the event. I think they even do birthday parties there! Noah didn't cry once--not even when he saw the little boy next to him sobbing and sobbing. And Kim didn't even make any comments about our "homemade" attempts at hair trimming we had tried at home (hey, the economy is bad...trying to save some money). All in all, the $17.95 we paid for a perfect haircut, smiles on the pictures, a "first haircut certificate", his red "nuggets" of hair they saved for us and NO TEARS was well worth it. I'm just glad he had a positive first experience so I don't have to DREAD every haircut with him...like I dread every MD appointment and portrait session.

The weather up here is so gorgeous this weekend so after his haircut we walked over to "Johnny Rocket's" for a fun lunch complete with jukebox music and a dancing wait staff. Noah actually refused to sit in a high chair and sat in a booster seat at the booth with us, ate almost an entire kid's meal and insisted on having his "grown up" drink instead of a sippy cup. It's like he went from baby to little boy right before our eyes today. I just can't believe in a few short days we will officially stop counting his age in months and start saying "we have a 2 year old!" My, how time flies!



Doesn't he look thrilled?






I love how he is sitting with his legs crossed



"Hey now, don't make fun of my mohawk! Talk to the hand!"



Doesn't he look handsome? NO smiles....but at least no tears!

Take time to stop and smell the roses

With everything going on in the world lately and with the financial disaster facing our country, I find myself letting my brain be consumed with so many things. I am obsessed with the election and worried about who will be running our country; I am consumed with this financial crisis and how the horrible state of the stock market may impact my family; I’m consumed with my house being on the market and worried no one will ever buy it due to the horrible state of the housing market; I listen to the news and become disheartened at the state of our world instead of thanking God for allowing me to have such a blessed life; I spend way too much time dreading the terrible 2’s that are invading our household at the moment and not enough time being impressed and grateful for the amazing little things Noah does every single day; I am consumed with guilt for never getting around to reading the 37 parenting books sitting on my bookshelves when I ought to be only focused on reading the “one” book that matters and answers everything. All of these things have been going through my mind this week when I got an email from a friend which included a passage from her daily homily that she receives each day by email. I thought it really hit home so I wanted to post it. Unfortunately I can’t give credit to the author because I do not know who wrote it.


Don’t Forget How to See Them

Dn 7:9-10,13-14 / Jn 1:47-51

Every day we are surrounded by miracles, but we rarely notice any of them--because they are always there and we grow accustomed to them. We domesticate God’s wonders and take them as part of the ordinary furniture of our lives, and that means discounting their value by almost 100 percent.

Think of the new parents who stand in wonder over the crib of their new infant, marvelling at those tiny fingers and toes, the eyes that are barely open yet, and the cry that is so loud for such a little body. “It’s a miracle,” they say, and they’re right. But before long, living every day with the miracle becomes ordinary, the wonder fades, and the focus shifts to “pick up your socks, take out the trash, and do your homework.”

It’s the way our minds work, and in one sense it’s probably a blessing because otherwise we’d be exhausted and overwhelmed all the time at the incredible goings-on all around us. But it is a pity, because so many of our lonely feelings and our wondering if God is close to us could be eased if we retained the gift of seeing what is right under our eyes.

We can regain and reinvigorate that gift of sight, if we take the time to look at the simple things of our daily experience more closely and with a more attentive spirit.

God is visible right here to those who have the eyes to see. Take the time, and experience the joy of seeing him — every day.

Worth the wait...

In the last post I bragged about how Noah FINALLY began calling me Mommy last week. It has been music to my ears. I know he can say tons and tons of other things but it really bothered me that he flat out refused to say "Mommy". Now he runs across the room and hugs me and says "Mommy, Mommy!" and if I'm really lucky sometimes I get a "WUV WOO" too ("love you" for you toddler-translation-challenged folks). I realize how lucky David is to have gotten this royal treatment from Noah for the past...uh...YEAR!

Noah grabbed my camera the other day and turned on the video so I accidently got this video of him talking a little. Of course he is 2 inches from my face so the video is close up, to say the least. Click on the video if you care to watch...

"Over the river and through the woods...

(And around the lake and up the mountain)....to Grandmother's house we go"...This past weekend we traveled an hour north to David's mom's new house in the mountains. We had a lovely time and enjoyed the magnificent views from their home. The lake is charming and there is lots to do. I know a certain little boy who is going to have many fond memories of this place over the next few years. We packed a lot into 2 days. In addition to watching lots of SEC football and enjoying the hot tub, we had several home cooked meals together, walked by the lake, saw a waterfall, took Noah to the playground, the "beach" and the horse stables. The weather was the perfect glimpse into the fall season. I was relieved we didn't encounter any bears (which they have seen right in their backyard) but we did see many, many deer. They were everywhere, so Noah (and I) really got a kick out of that. My highlight of the weekend was that Noah...finally... started...calling.... me....Mommy!!! After all this time--all the pleading, begging, coaxing, bribing finally paid off and he quit calling me Daddy. It has been music to my ears hearing his sweet voice call "mommy" and run across the room to me. I'm trying to forget that he learned about 50-60 OTHER words before this one important one, but who's counting?
Here are a few of my favorite pictures from the weekend