Magic Kingdom and Dwntwn Disney

Day 2 - Magic Kingdom

More Day One - Epcot Flower Festival

The Girls at Epcot - day one

Word from Disney - updated

Dot reports that they're having a ball. They drove up, and T wanted to go in the pool. 3 hours later, she allowed herself to be fished out and they made their way to Epcot for dinner.

On Tuesday, they were up bright and early and off to the Magic Kingdom. First hour or two was great, then it was a mob scene. They went on its a small world, the carousel, explored Toon Town, and caught a parade. Then it was back to the hotel for more pool time. After some naps, they took the hotel boat to downtown disney and hung out there for dinner.

Today, they play to go off to Hollywood Disney, as T calls it. I just received this picture from my sissy, who doesn't know how to download I now learn. I suspect she was able to take this pic with her phone, and then send it off.

T is one girl who LOVES her mickey waffles!

UPDATE: Dot reports that they arrived at MGM, saw the Mickey Mouse Club show then T wanted to leave and go swim in the pool. No amount of bribing would get her to stay through the character lunch for which Dot obtained a coveted rez. Poor Dot had splurged on adding a park-hopper to their tickets, to allow them to go to more than one park in a day. Ka-ching. Turns out that wasn't necessary, as all T wants to do on this trip is swim. Go figure. Every trip to Disney with T over the years has been a totally different experience. This time, its all POOL all the time. Perhaps our next trip will be a beach trip to the gulf coast. Live and learn!

Home Alone

That's what I am. T is on spring break this week. Since I'm running short on leave time, what with my parents and T's doctor appointments, etc., Dot was able to take off work to look after her. Since things seem to be settling down some at my parents' house, and my dad seems to be accepting the new aide, Dot took the opportunity to flee. She and t took off bright and early to Disney for a quick impromptu trip.

Therefore, as I said, I'm home alone for the first time in almost 5 years. Any other time I've been separated from T, I was staying elsewhere. Its really odd to be in the house and not have her here. So, I'm glued to the computer, awaiting my sissy to email me some pics. So far, nada. They return on thursday.

In other news, my cousins who are my Uncle Ronnie and Aunt Nell's children, found me on facebook. Haven't heard from them in years. It was really nice to hear from them. That facebook is amazing.

That's it for now. I'm off to go to sleep in my oddly quiet house.

Easter Pics - Part III - The End

After the hunt, we tried to con the kids into taking pics. They cooperated with limited success. This is the best one of Nick. He is one kid who it is almost impossible to take a good pic of, as he doesn't sit still and is almost always looking off at something else.


T, of course, poses with the skill of a runway model. Here's the one pic of the two of us. Yes, you may recognize my easter dress from years past, as I've worn it every year for the past 4 years. Just don't have the time or energy to go out and find another one.

T's dress, however, I was thrilled with. Beautiful on her. I scored it at the Nordstom Rack, which is their discount store.

Love it!
See what I mean about that Nick? No cooperation!
T was quite upset to have to leave her beloved Sophie and Nick, but luckily didn't pitch a fit. We went over to my parents house to check in, and then came home. I made the mistake of telling T that she could pick where we were to eat for lunch. Certain that she would choose "the restaurant" aka Nordstrom's Cafe, she instead chose McDonalds. :( So, we're happily at home chowing down on happy meals.

Hope everybody had a really great day!

Easter Pics - Part II - The Hunt

Finally, we found the egg hunt, and T attacked the field with the skill of a 4-star general. She had a plan. She had a Strategy.

She was quite successful, too!

Easter Pictures - Part I

We woke up this morning, and T immediately went to check on what the easter bunny brought her. I didn't have the time or energy to do a custom basket, so I bought a cheapy pre-made one at target, and added a few things to surround it: littlest petshop DS game, the Ponyo DVD, a chocolate bunny, and an egg filled with life saver candy. Done.

We then headed off to St. Rose, for the egg hunt. As in year's past, we timed it perfectly and arrived about 10 minutes before the end of mass. Poked out head in the church house, and it was a HUGE mob scene. Standing room only. So we hung out outside by the donut seller, waiting for mass to end.


T enjoyed playing on the benches...
and flying through the air...
Finally, mass ended and we met up with our friends...and the easter bunny who kindly allowed us to take a few pics.

Taylor's Old School

Taylor's current school is on Easter vacation since 1:00 p.m. on wednesday. So yesterday and today, I took her to her hold daycare. She was so excited she couldn't stand it. She got to see all her old friends, who were equally excited to see her. I arrived yesterday, and the T was sitting between her best buds Kayla and Nyana. She had her feet in Kayla's lap, who was tying her shoes. They were all very busy discussing the fact that they were all 5 yrs. old.

Last night, T got one of her birthday cards, wrote Kayla's name in it, and brought it to school today for her. T can be so sweet she kills me. Anyway, here's T with Kayla and Madison, another all-time favorite.

Meanwhile, the 5 yr old wellness visit went great. Only glitch is that they think T is underweight at 32 pounds and 41.5 inches. They suggest pediasure, a calorie heavy drink for kids with vitamins in it. I plotted T's current height and weight on the growth charts. If she stays in the same percentile, at 18 she'll be 5'1" and 95 pounds. She doesn't look underweight to me, and is currently chowing down on goldfish. So, I'll get the drink and see what happens.

Meanwhile, the drama I alluded to in the previous post happened sunday night. My dad had a mental break, and verbally threw the aid donna out of the house, along with my sister. She had me on speaker phone, and he was really nasty. So, I told dot to leave and if he thinks he can take care of her, so be it.

I checked in Monday at lunch and all was well, though my mom was in the bed. I changed her, and told him to change her nightgown, as it was dirty. Meanwhile, he didn't remember being so nasty. I checked again after work, to find the neighbors in the house. He had tried to get her out of bed to go to dinner, and she fell by the bed and he couldn't get her up. Had to go running for the neighbors. My mom cut her hand, had a big bump on her head, but was otherwise OK.

After a long conversation, he was like a different man. Said he needed help and was making mistakes. End of a very long story, is that we now have an agency aid in the house, at quite a bit more money. Upside is that we LOVE her. Her name is Ecoline. She in her 60's, and arrived with her neice, who is a metro dade police officer. Its always so stressful to put a stranger in to you house, let alone you parent's house. I loved that her neice was there checking us out as well. Guess the flip side is that its also stressful going into someone's house. Anyway, she is the polar opposite personality wise than Donna was. So far, so good.

She's there 7 days a week, so Dot and I have a break. We're actually going to have friends over tonight, to color easter eggs. We were thinking of having a big easter dinner over there, but decided against it. We'll just drop in to say hello.

Everytime I get hopeful that things are looking up, another shoe drops. I think Im developing ptsd from all this. Sigh.

So, everybody PLEASE say a prayer that this works out, and there is no drama this weekend or in the future.