Saturday was our annual dumpling day! It has become a tradition for us to make homemade Korean dumplings (mandu) that we freeze and then serve at Poppy's birthday party. I can't imagine having to make them by myself, but it's so much fun when Poppy's aunts and grandma's come over to help...
Because this is our 2nd year making them, we all felt like seasoned pro's and we cranked out over a hundred dumplings in an hour or so. If you're interested in the recipe, you can find it here.
Poppy is getting so excited about her birthday. We're having her party at the zoo and so far she is requesting to have pizza (but she makes sure you know that she does not want pepperoni on her pizza), rice, tacos, pink strawberry cake and ice cream.
In other news, Poppy is going through a new phase where I think she is developing a sense of fear. All of a sudden she is scared of bugs (including ants and ladybugs) and reminds us all day long that she doesn't like them, she's suddenly petrified of the blender that I have always used to make her smoothies, and now she is also scared to go to bed. I can deal with the bugs and blenders, but this going to bed business is not cool. She asks about bedtime all day and then says "I don't want to go to bed anymore. I'll miss mommy and daddy so much. I'm scared to go to bed." Nothing has changed around here - we still do our same bedtime routine, at the same time every night, but all of a sudden it has turned into a battle. Last night involved about an hour of trying to put her to bed and then a bit of crying and screaming once we finally left her room. Today I pulled out the trusty Mickey Mouse pez dispenser for bribery. We of course have been re-assuring her that there is nothing to be scared of and that we sleep in the room right next to hers, etc. but I also added some Mickey pez to sweeten the deal for her if she goes to bed like a big girl and sleeps all night. She told me she would go for it, but we'll see. Wish us luck tonight!
**update** I just put her to bed after the Mickey pez dispenser had a lengthy talk with her about fears and being a big girl and reminding her where mommy and daddy sleep etc. We had a few wobbly chins once she was in bed, but after negotiating to get "a couple" pez from both the mickey and minnie pez dispenser, she went to sleep without a peep! Yay for bribery!
Oh, Disney World. I can't even come up with the words to describe our experience. First of all we loved it. We're already making plans for our next trip back. But it was hot, I was (am) 6 months pregnant and I've never seen so many people in one place before in my life. My ankles were so swollen within 5 minutes of being there that I didn't think they would ever go back to normal. It took us at least a full 24 hours to recover, but we did, and like I said, we're already looking forward to going back for more.
Once you get over the shock of the fact that I look like a giant pink manatee, can you just take a look at the amount of people in the background of this picture?! All day, I kept wondering if they ever reach a maximum capacity and just tell people that they can't let anybody else in the park. I don't think they do.
The first thing we did was hopped on the steam engine that took us to the back of the park and then we quickly made our way toward the princesses. We had to wait in line for about 45 minutes, but it was in a nice air conditioned area, so the time seemed to fly. This next series of pics is when we were in line, Poppy took her crown off and put it on Marc's hat and told him he was a princess...
We didn't know what to expect when we finally got to the end of the line. We were lead into a room where Poppy got one-on-one time with each princess. She was in complete shock that they were real live princesses and they were actually talking to her. Check out the look on her face...
I couldn't get over how sweet the princesses were. They were so patient and gentle with Poppy.
Then to meet the beloved Ariel, we had to go to a different area and wait another 45 minutes out in the blazing sun. When it was finally our turn, Poppy starting saying "I don't even want to meet Ariel!" I was like- "too bad, we waited all this time, I'm about to die of heat exhaustion, you're going to meet her". So I pulled Ratty out of my bag and let her take him with her. That got her to change her tune. She walked right up to Ariel and proudly held up Ratty for her to see. Ariel started giggling and asking questions about Ratty and Poppy just about hopped up on her lap.
Our friends, The Oryl's, were in Florida at the time, so we decided to meet up with them while we were there.
Of course, Poppy and Colin barely paid any attention to each other for most of the day, but Poppy has been asking about him ever since. And it was super nice for the adults to be able to hang out and catch up. By 4:00 in the afternoon, this was what you could see in most passing strollers...
After dinner it was onto the big Princess castle...
I love this picture- it was right as we were about to walk through and Poppy held my hand and asked if this is where all the princesses live.
After peeking around in the castle, Marc took Poppy into a gift shop and was buying her a Snow White book (of course out of all the toys they had, the only thing Poppy wanted was a book) and when they were checking out, the woman who worked there asked Poppy if she wanted to be turned into a princess. Marc said Poppy was in awe as she shook her head yes and then the woman took a wand that was filled with fairy dust and shook it over Poppy's head and declared that she was a princess. Poppy came out of that store covered from head to toe in green glitter. Green glitter that is still in our stroller and car seat and that took 3 serious scrubs in the tub to get out of her hair, but according to Marc was all worth it because Poppy loved it so much.
Then it was time to say goodbye to our friends...
(I'm pretty sure those 2 are destined to get married.)
At that point, we were sitting in a bakery, deciding if we should stay to watch the parade, or if we should get going because it was so late and we were all soooo exhausted. But I had my heart set on getting Poppy's sillouette done (my parents still have our Disney sillouettes from when we were little) and the lady who did them was on break until 9:05. The parade started at 9:00, so we ended up staying for it and then getting her sillouette done on our way out of the park. I am so glad we stayed for the parade because it was by far the highlight of the entire day for Poppy. You could not tear her eyes away from that parade for a second. She's been watching the little video clips we have of the parade ever since.
Just before the parade started, my mom and I stopped by a gift shop because I wanted to get a souvenir for Poppy. I didn't like any of the t-shirts or anything else, so at the last minute I grabbed a plain old stuffed Mickey doll. As soon as we got to the car, Poppy was the most exhausted I've ever seen her and she immediately asked for Ratty. I gave her my bag and she pulled out Ratty and out came the Mickey doll with him. I wish I had her reaction caught on tape because it was the cutest thing we have ever seen. Her eyes got real big and her jaw dropped open. She exclaimed, "Mickey's in here! Is this my Mickey?! Someone got me Mickey! Someone must really love me to get me a Mickey!" She then introduced him to Ratty and everyone else in the car, before falling asleep within a few minutes.
So that's our whirlwind day in Disney. Exhausting, magical, filled with memories.
So our vacation consisted of two main things all week. The beach and ice cream.
She wasn't actually sleeping in this picture, but she was SUCH a trooper about all the different places she did sleep. I still can't believe the progress we've made in the past year in the sleeping department. She had her own bedroom in the condo - slept every night without a peep. And regardless of how hectic our schedule was, she still managed to take a nap somewhere every single day. Most days she was so exhausted from playing at the beach, that as soon as we started eating lunch she would say "And then we're gonna take our naps?"
Love the look of concentration on her face.
Oh, this is right after she pulled her famous ice cream switcheroo on Uma. She'll be about half way done with her ice cream when she politely asks if she can taste yours. And then she tells you how much she likes your ice cream and let's you know that she's just going to keep it and there is no way to convince her otherwise. We all learned to eat our ice cream fast when this girl is around.
Snuggle bunnies.
On the way home from the Tampa Zoo. When she woke up, she was playing with Ratty and somehow managed to wrap him up in my mom's sweatshirt and temporarily forgot about him. When we dropped my parents off at their hotel, my mom took her sweatshirt with her, not knowing that Ratty was hidden in it. Within seconds of pulling out of the parking lot, Poppy welled up in tears and said "OH NO! Uma has my Ratty in her sweatshirt!!! Ratty!!!! I need him to sleep! WHY WOULD SHE DO THAT?!?!" Of course we went back and got him immediately, but the way she acted so betrayed by my mom and her kidnapping of Ratty had us all peeing our pants with laughter!
Guilty of another ice cream switcheroo!
The two amigos.
Love how she's keeping her eye on the incoming waves, making sure they don't get too close.
We're back from our amazing vacation. We all had such a great time that it was hard to get on our plane yesterday, especially when we knew it was supposed to snow in Buffalo (which it was as our plane landed). I have so many pictures and not a lot of time to post them, (laundry is piled up to the ceiling right now) so I am going to try to break it down into a couple of posts. We'll start with Easter...
Dying eggs was fun, but it was hard to get her to keep the eggs in the dye long enough. As soon as she plopped one in, she would proudly exclaim "Ok, this is one is all done! Time to take it out!"...
Then we spent the rest of our morning at the beach. Marc and Poppy searching for seashells...
After dinner it was time for ice cream cones and more playing on the beach...
{seriously, how cute is this picture?!}
Family picture time!
We were lucky enough to have my parents with us on vacation this year. Poppy loved spending time with them and Marc and I loved having their help all week!
We all stayed on the beach to watch the sunset and as it was getting closer, Poppy grew concerned about where the sun was going. First thing the next morning, she sadly told me that the sun was gone because it went away into the water.
Because this is our 2nd year making them, we all felt like seasoned pro's and we cranked out over a hundred dumplings in an hour or so. If you're interested in the recipe, you can find it here.
Poppy is getting so excited about her birthday. We're having her party at the zoo and so far she is requesting to have pizza (but she makes sure you know that she does not want pepperoni on her pizza), rice, tacos, pink strawberry cake and ice cream.
