Will

Happy Birthday Baby Lumpkins!

This is Will.  The funniest kid on the planet.  My little buddy.  He turns 4 today and is officially a big boy.  Really.  4 sounds very big boy to me.  I'm the tiniest bit sad.  I'm not one of those parents who gets sad and weepy each time her kids have a birthday, in fact I am enjoying my kids more and more as they get older.  It's just that this little buddy is going to start kindergarten soon and then he's a REALLY big boy and I'll miss him so much when he goes to school.  

It is a very good thing I believe in hospitals and modern medicine as each of my children were in need of medical assistance at birth.  With Will it was nothing major, just a bit of "scooping" because he was good and stuck.  We're not talking a few extra pushes.  I tried.  I tried for 4 hours!  They had to yank him out with the hideous forceps (all the while my cute 65 year old doctor with full makeup, pearls and high heels is singing, "oh some must push and some must pull"), because he was 8 lbs 14 oz and had a massive head.  That little mark by his eye is from the forceps.  Poor little monkey!  


So, of course, I'm going to list my top 20 things I love about Will...

1) He tries very hard to be a good boy (he isn't always perfect)...

2) He comes running into my room every morning and says, "hi mom, I have to go tinkle".

3) He is just like me and loves to watch movies with blankets and popcorn on the couch.

4) He is one of the silliest kids EVER...

5) He loves sports and gets very excited to go to sporting events or playing sports with anyone...

6) He loves his baby sister soooo much

7) He loves to learn and hated his preschool orientation because "[he] didn't learn anything".

8) He turns himself in for lying all the time because he literally thinks his nose will grow.

9) He sings and dances like nobody's business...

10) He cried when I told him he couldn't be Chinese someday.

11) He LOVES Disney as much as us!

12) He thinks he can speak Spanish and feels sorry for me because I can't.

13) He has a huge heart and has compassion for others (at age 4). 

14) He says things like, "Dad, what would I ever do without you?"

15) He describes dinosaurs as having "stompy feet".

16) He loves dressing up...

17) He has adorable buddies that he loves (and a fiance)...

18) He is the most dramatic child on the planet.

19) He really is a little angel boy (even though sometimes you have to dig deep).

20) He's just so cute...

Happy Birthday Sweet William!  I love you so much!

The Lizzard

 Happy Birthday my sweet Lizzy!

Lizzy is two years old today.  We had a discussion last night and she has decided that she's ready to be a big girl ;).  This is a big deal because she's ALL about being the baby.  It's her identity.  She informs us almost daily that she's Lizzy and she's the baby.  

Every time I think about Lizzy's actual birth I feel very grateful that she is here and that she is healthy (well, she's healthy in the summer).  Lizzy wasn't very healthy when she was born.  They don't know exactly what was wrong with her but she couldn't breath very well.  She didn't have an infection and she wasn't premature but her little lungs just wouldn't work right.

I don't usually get into spiritual matters on this blog because they are personal to me and I don't want to sound fanatical or preachy (which can be the case when words are taken out of context).  However, in this case I will break my own rule.  Lizzy was simply not getting better.  I kept expecting the doctors or nurses to come in and tell me she was improving and they kept coming in and telling me otherwise.  I asked Steve and his brother to go in and give her a priesthood blessing. She continued to struggle through the night but improved dramatically by the next morning.  I have zero doubt that things were helped along by that blessing.  She was able to have some of the IV's removed and the oxygen box went soon after.  THEN she stopped turning blue when we held her!  What a happy day that was!  Poor little bug.  

Since it would be absolutely mental for me to list my top 2 things I love about Lizzy, I shall list my top 20.  

1) She is a complete savage (in other words, she's into everything ALL the time ALL day).

2) She has the cutest little munchkin voice on the planet which she uses to state her two fave

phrases; "I love it cookies/milk/apples..." or "Mon waloo pease" (more water please).

3) She says "I love you Mamma" out of the blue.

4) She calls Will "Buddy" because she couldn't say "Will" when she was younger.  It stuck.

5) She LOVES animals.

6) She says things like "I ti-wed" (I'm tired) and it's the cutest thing on earth.

7) She dances her little heart out whenever she can.

8) She has the cutest smile (well, it's gone a bit funky now ;).

9) She loves reading books.

10) She calls chicken nuggets "burgers" because Will likes to eat cheese burgers if we go out

and even though she doesn't like cheese burgers, she wants to be like Will so she pretends.

11) She crawls on the bottom of the swimming pool with her head sticking out and says "lee 

lone, I simming (leave me alone, I'm swimming).

12) She can't handle being without Buddy for more than 10 minutes, so if she wakes up before

him, she will open his door, climb up on his bed and say "waking, waking".

13) She sings "I Can Go The Distance" from Hercules and it's the cutest thing I've ever heard.

14) She is so sassy she doesn't know what to do with herself.  I don't love this now but I know

it will serve her well when she's older.  No one is pushing that girl around!


15) She's just so pretty ;).






16) She runs exactly like a muppet.

17) She jumps exactly like a muppet.
18) Life is so much more fun with her in it!

19) She is my sweetest little angel.

20) She makes us laugh every single day with her perfect naughtiness!  

I LOVE YOU ELIZABETH JANE!

Disney World (Again)

We should have just left them there.  No really.  Not because they're rotten (which they frequently are) but because they love this Emperor Zurg jail cell.  Love it.  

We returned from our trip to Disney World a bit ago and our poor computer has been in the hospital so I couldn't post.  We now have it back (blessed day!), so here I am.  

We had a wonderful time, as always, despite crap weather.  This was the first time in a long time I haven't wanted to come home from a trip.  I don't know what it is about me but I am a major home body at heart.  I really just like coming home.  I like a routine and comfort and not doing laundry in the Pop Century washers...  Anyway, I shocked myself.  I could have stayed another week.  

Disney is the kind of place you either love or you hate.  Obviously I love it.  Always have.  I have this great nostalgia for it.  Steve does too.  Therefore we are happy there.  We're comfortable there and I think we always will be.  Both our families are the same.  How very convenient.  

There is a point every day at every Disney park which I like to call "The Witching Hour" where all the children are melting down and all the parents are melting with them.  I find this hour hilarious.  I love to sit back and watch the suffering.  It's like a miniature, mildly violent war.  The way parents interact with their kids is, at times, insane.  Everyone yells.  Yelling.  Just a park full of angry yelling people and small people.  SO funny.  We sometimes participate in The Witching Hour but try to avoid it.  As we know the signs of its approach, we can usually escape.

This trip was different for us since we only had my parents traveling with us.  Very low key.  They helped us immensely with the babies (bless them) and are lovely to be around as they just go with the flow and don't complain.  We were able to take things very slowly and since the parks were very uncrowded, we just kind of soaked it in and tried new things.  

Something we had never done before was called Rafiki's  Planet Watch which is a sort of nature preserve on Disney's Animal Kingdom.  It was great for the kids to see.  As you walk in there is a recycling bin that talks to the kids and follows them around telling them about the importance of recycling and playing games with them.  Very cute.

They also have a lovely little petting zoo which Lizzy, our resident veterinarian, loved almost as much as anything we did the entire week.  Mostly they have African Pigmy goats which are quite the funniest creatures ever.  They are as wide as they are tall and are mild mannered and completely adorable.  Lizzy loved them and hugged them and brushed their hair and kissed them...  She was covered in snot and smelled like a goat for the remainder of the day ;).  Coleman was her very favorite goat.  She chased him around screaming his name and squishing his face.  "COLEMAAAAAN"!  

This guy needed some dental work.  I can't judge.  I need some too.

If you rush around like a headless chicken whilst at Disney you will definitely be participating in The Witching Hour.  We are smart Disney goers.  We try to take it easy.  We let the kids faff about in the various fountains, Bugs life lands, Dinosaur "dig sights" etc. that they have around every park.  Here are the kids at a fountain in the Animal Kingdom.  They were having a blast.  Steve and I got blasted by some trashy woman for letting Lizzy run around without a shirt.  We MUST be mental ;).  And yes, Steve blasted her back.  We're not the type to let morons get away with their ridiculous antics (she's 2!) :P  

Here they are digging for bones in the Bone Yard at Animal Kingdom.  They love this and could probably do it all day.  It's nice and cool and relaxing and the sand isn't really sand it's just ground up polished rocks so it's lovely and soft and not messy.  


And now a Bug's Land.  It's a giant land where you feel like you're miniature.  That's the Lizzard sliding down a "petal" and Will running swiftly away.  You're surrounded by giant blades of grass and can climb "spider webs" and "dirt clods" and lovely thing like that.  It's very cute.  All these things help the kids release their wiggles and helps to avoid The Witching Hour.

Now we love rides but we will not generally wait forever in a line in order to go on one.  We go to Disney (Land/World) almost always in the off season and we like to see the other things the parks have to offer besides the rides.  One ride we made an exception for was the new Toy Story Midway Mania.  This may be the most adorable, cleverest ride in the world.  We avoided it a few times because of the wait and finally bit the bullet because we realized there wouldn't not be a "better" time.  If you are going to Disney soon wait in line for this ride.  You won't be sad ;).  Will thought he was pretty cool stuff in his 3D glasses.

Will's favorite ride is always Buzz Lightyear (see Emperor Zurg jail), Lizzy's is "Grinning Ghosts" (the Haunted Mansion), Steve's can be any one of the roller coasters spread between all of the parks, and mine is a toss up between the Haunted Mansion, Pirates of the Caribbean (or anything in Magic Kingdom, really, as they all remind me of being a kid).  I now also love all rides at Epcot since it is the best park of all ;).  The picture below is of us on the "People Mover" (I don't know what it's really called.  That's what it was called at Disneyland but it's not there anymore and I forgot what DW calls it).  I love it.

On to characters.  My kids love them.  Believe it or not there is a union for these fuzzy idiots so you often have to wait in line for quite some time because they have to take breaks (they have to go switch the costume with another person.  Shhhh).  Not that I blame them too much.  I can't imagine being inside one of those costumes in Florida in September.  I want to scream and pull my arms off when I'm there in September because of the heat.  Put me in a furry costume and I'd probably stomp people to death.  Thus, the union.  SO, lines.  It's okay though.  The payoff is worth it.  Will and Lizzy get SOOOOO excited!  Here they are with Donald...

Here's Will with Winnie the Pooh.  He was laughing hysterically about something.  I have no idea what (the characters don't talk) but I think it's so very cute... 

Lizzy picked up this habit of jumping when she saw these guys.  Anyone.  She'd just get so excited she'd jump and jump and jump.  Then they'd jump.  It was hilarious...

Here they are with Buzz and Woody.  A 35 minute wait (but worth every minute).  When Will walked up to Woody he said "Howdy Pardner, we got you for Christmas"!  It's so adorable because they think these guys are the real deal.  They've never question why they don't talk!  Mind you, this floor was not a trampoline.  She was just a jumpin'... 

Another of our favorite things to do while at Disney is to eat.  There is some amazing food to be had.  Honestly.  Take it from two food snobs.  We do the Disney Dining Plan which is a pre paid dining plan that ends up saving you money and is v v convenient.  I have tons of pics of us eating but in the interest of of not being interesting, I shall just include one.  Lizzy eating ice cream with chopsticks.  She is a prodigy.  Well, this was her lunch.  Her entire lunch.  She would not eat on this trip but was a pooping machine.  Go figure. 

I suppose her unwillingness to eat may have had something to do with the fact that she didn't feel well and ended up in an Urgent Care due to her asthma.  Perfect.  That was a fun day.  3 hours at the clinic, a shot in the leg, then back to the park.  Poor little girl.  She was so good about it.


Disney has a serious penchant for fireworks.  It's loud.  My kids don't do loud.  Will, at nearly 4 years old, still has a hard time with fireworks and has to hold his hood around his head to "block" the noise.  I'm sure it works like a charm. 

Lizzy lost her mind this year.  She was sitting on my dad's shoulders and just lost it.  Nothing like terrifying your children with explosions.  

I have no idea when this picture was taken (sometime during our trip) but I think it's very cute.  Steve looks extremely young and Lizzy is doing her typical "smile" and holding her "stick".  Chapstick is her favorite thing and she must have it everywhere she goes.  

Again, my parents were wonderful to have along.  They decided last minute to come and boy are we glad they did.  The kids enjoyed having them more than us!  Seriously.  Every morning they would wake up and say, "when are we seeing Mimi and Papa?".  This is a picture of them with Lizzy on one of the busses that shuttles you to and fro between parks and resorts.  Very efficient.  Lizzy obviously spent too much time with those goats.  I DO NOT know how she managed to make that face but compare it to the little goat who needs dental work.  Uncanny.

All in all a terrific trip.  I miss it already.  Well, I missed it the day we got back.  I love Disney World/Land/Cruise more than is probably healthy.  Oh well, not changing.