Disneyworld, take 2

Who goes to Disneyworld twice in one year?

WE DO!!

I know, I know, we sound so spoiled, really we were just very blessed.

Last November, my dad came out to visit. If you know my dad, you know his is a frequent flyer junkie. He wanted to make sure he would have enough frequent flyers miles by the end of the year to qualify for the super duper, you-fly-with-us-a-lot, status. So, on his way back to ID, he took a detour to Orlando. He has some friends there he wanted to see. Through an unanticipated twist of events, we ended up accompanying him.

I just happen to have a cousin who works as a character at Disneyworld. How cool is that? She was very generous and gave us some of her guest passes. AND she arranged for us to have a private meeting with Belle, Cinderella, Aurora, Tinkerbell, Vidia and Rosetta. We only waited in line to see Ariel. O was really funny about it too. She didn't understand why we had to actually wait.

I had so many great parenting moments. It was a thrill to see O so completely awestruck and ecstatic. On our first day we waited in line to see Snow White and when she came out to greet people, she pulled O out of line to meet with her first. What a cool moment.

Here is something I found interesting. I asked my cousin what it was like to be a character. She said, most of the day you are just talking at children. They are so overwhelmed that they are meeting a princess that they don't really have anything to say. So, when you have a child who talks with you, it is a lot of fun. Well, although O was awestruck, she wasn't speechless. She talked and talked to each one she met. My cousin said when she was on break after we visited the three princesses and the fairies, Rosetta was talking about one little girl she met who was fun. My cousin asked about the little girl and it turned out to be O. I'm so proud. My daughter is cool enough that even the characters talk about her. It's no surprise really, she is a lot of fun even when she's not meeting the princesses.

We spent three days exploring the parks. The weather couldn't have been more perfect. In fact, the trip couldn't have been more perfect and magical. It was good for me to spend time with my dad. I think he really enjoyed watching his little granddaughter. I think he liked spoiling her too! I don't know when we'll make it back there, but I don't think any trip we take there will top that one.

My daughter is so cool. She had no problem touching a snake

Getting her face painted

Meeting Snow White

Celebrating with chocolate ice cream

My cousin

Cinderella

Three Princesses

Learning how to curtsy

Practicing the curtsy

O and her grandpa

O - Queen of the world

O is growing up and I am having so much fun watching her explore her world. Here are few disconnected stories to give you a glimpse of our life.

Her imagination is a major source of my entertainment. She often has me in stitches because she is such a little performer. This morning we were teasing each other and I said something silly to her. She responded by looking to the side, as if she were addressing an audience, and pointed at me and said, "She's a funny lady". She loves to tease and be teased. Sometimes she says "You're killing me mom". I love it.

Her preschool is having their cap and gown pictures taken next week and the thought of sending O to kindergarten made me sad. I didn't think I would feel like I did. Fortunately she won't start school until 2012 so I have another year to play with her.

I usually give her a piece of junk mail when we get mail and today hers was from a mortgage company. So, we spent a good 10 minutes talking about buying a house and money and who takes care of a loan and why other people want to take care of our loan.

And she is a take charge type of girl. For FHE on Monday, she just took over. She said, "I'm teaching the lesson tonight" and she did. We sat on the floor while she sat in a chair and pretended to read from the Friend. She told us all about being a good friend and she told us Jesus is a good friend and then she asked if we had any questions. Then we played with her jump rope.

Last weekend I got a new mop. She had a blast playing with it and mopping the floor. I thought to myself, "If I get a new vacuum maybe I can get her to do the living room. Better yet, if I get something new each week, I may never have to clean again." Anyway, on with the story. At one point during the day, I spied her sitting on the floor with her mop in hand gazing out the window and singing. I could only imagine which character she was pretending to be.

More than once, she has set up a play date for herself during church and more than once, we've had to reschedule.

Driving home from preschool on Monday O dreamily informed me "Mom, I fell in love with Joseph". He is a friend from preschool and church. His family came over last night to watch O while LT and I went on a date. His mom told me she kept calling J "honey". When I dropped her off at preschool this afternoon, she kept putting her arm around him and was adamant he sit next to her. Oh dear, she's only 4. I can only imagine what we have coming and I'm worried.

She's been obsessed about her uterus and babies. I told her she didn't need to worry about having babies for a long time. She asked how long and I said, "probably not until you are in your twenties". O "you mean like when I'm 21?" M "Well, that's still a little young, but, sure." She told me she wanted to have twins, like Luke and Lea

The other day she put her hand on her belly and said, "my uterus is here." M "yes, it is".

O is obsessed with Star Wars, I blame LT.

I love it when she snuggles with me in the morning to get warm. I love it when she laces her little fingers through mine to hold hands and drifts off to sleep. There is just so much that I love about that little rug rat, it makes up for nights like last night when she was just awake from 4:30 until 7:00.

I have many, many more stories to share, but I'll save them for later.

Just plain old silly.

This afternoon, O and I made and then gave a friend a Mud Pie for her birthday.

Literally, it was a mud pie. I love having silly friends who enjoy that kind of humor.