Petting Zool Afternoon

There’s a local farm near me that sells the most beautiful flowers for planting, and in the summer also sells delicious fruits and veggies. I do a lot of shopping there in the warm season. They also have a pond with a flock of friendly ducks and a small petting zoo. I took Sophie over there this afternoon and took a bajillion pictures (also got some planting flowers.

Her favorite, a cute little horse.

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My favorite. Billy goats gruff. They were knocking horns to get my corn.

These little guys were trouble makers, tried to eat my purse and….

…Sophie’s skirt.

Sophie still thought they were cute.

But she didn’t like it when the billy goat would BAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH! That sent her running to me yelling, “Mama! Mama!” It’s wrong, but it made me laugh (because I’m mother-of-the-year. LOL)

 

Sophie Learns about Dandelion Fuzz

GO HERE TO WATCH A VIDEO OF SOPHIE LEARNING TO BLOW OFF DANDELION FUZZ.

 

Disney Picture Post — Part Two

When we weren’t at the Magic Kingdom, we were at the resort in the heated pool. It wasn’t super hot there, but the water was still warm. We stayed at one of the resort hotels (Carribean Beach) and loved it. It was very easy to take the buses back and forth from the park to the hotel (for an afternoon nap for S).

Everyone warned us about the long lines at Disney, but we never had a prob. We never waited more than 20 minutes for any ride. Not many grown up rides there, though. James and I love the super scary roller coasters and there are none of those. The only “grown up” rides we did were the Thunder Mountain coaster and the Haunted Mansion ride (which is cool for the effects). We took a steamboat ride while there and a train ride, not to mention the many rides on the carousel. I tried to get Sophie to go on the Dumbo ride, but she wasn’t having none of it. Too scary for her.

We’ll go back again when Sophie is a bit older. Next time I’ll do the Bibbity Bobbity Boutique with her (if she wants to do it). This time I deemed her too young, though I think maybe she wasn’t (makes a girl feel special to be so fussed over!)

The one day we took off to lounge at the pool, Sophie ended up with pink eye. It was no prob, though. A shuttle came to pick us up and drop us at an Immediate Care type place. We had meds for her within two hours. Getting the meds into said child was more of a problem than actually obtaining them….

OMG brownie!!!! (At Cinderella’s Royal Dinner)

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Sophie was a happy kid. She loved the dinner.

One last shot of Cinderella before we headed back to the hotel. Sophie fell asleep on the tram about two minutes after we boarded and slept the whole way back. The thumb in the mouth is a sure sign of fatigue.

Dancing in the street during the morning Street Party.

I can’t remember this fairy’s name, but I know she’s a light fairy.

Meeting Tinkerbell!!!

Garden fairy. Can’t remember her name, either, but she was deliciously in character with a southern accent and all.

More eating!

Yum! Sophie never says no to ice cream (or French Fries, OMG).

A pretty shot of the Princess House right before the Specrolight parade (magnificent!). The fireworks were awesome too. We watched both the two days we spent at the Magic Kingdom.

That’s all, folks!!!

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Disney Picture Post — Part One

I have so many Disney pics I have to split the posts in two. They’re not in any kind of order. I just picked out some (from the twenty billion we took) to represent our trip.

Here’s the first part….

Sophie meeting Belle from Beauty and the Beast.

Meeting the princesses (and the fairies, but more so the princesses) was the highlight of Disney for Sophie. She was so overcome and SO excited to meet them that in most of the pictures she looks like she’s about to cry. Here Belle was saying she and Sophie were dressed alike, both in yellow.

My mom, me, Sophie and James in front of the “princess house”. We’d gone back to the Magic Kingdom after an afternoon swim/nap break to watch the Spectrolight parade and fireworks.

From earlier that day.

Sophie meeting Fairy Godmother.

She LOVED the carousel and we went on it about five times. It was preferred over the “It’s a Small World” ride, which was my favorite. We did that one twice.

See how she looks like she’s about to cry? She was so excited to meet Cinderella, her fav of the princesses.

Chowing a “pop” and waiting for the afternoon parade to begin.

Meeting Prince Charming at Cinderella’s Royal Dinner (which was expensive, but worth it. VERY well done and great food).

Meeting Cinderella again, (a different one this time, but I don’t think Sophie noticed).

Sophie and Lady Tremaine (fantastically in character).

Sophie and Anastasia (also fantastically “evil stepsister”)

And with Drisella.

****Side A is now complete. Flip over for Part B.

 

A Few Pictures from Christmas (and a video!)

First, a video of Sophie opening up her Baby Alive doll and playing with it. You can find it here. (I can’t embed it in this blog).

12-23-08 — Bagel for breakfast

12-24-08 — Christmas Eve.

12-25 -08 — My mom, Aunt C and Sophie

Sophie and Papa in front of the tree

Great grand nana and Sophie

Sophie loving on a stuffed dog she received.

From the morning. Sophie opened the toys and Papa had the onerous job of removing all the (&(^(*&^*&6! packaging.

12-26-08 — Sophie this morning in one of the new princess dresses and her arms filled with all the toy shoes she can carry.  LOOOT!!!

 

FCC Chinese New Year

Like an idiot, I forgot my camera, but I took these when we returned just so I could get a couple shots of Sophie in her pretty dress.

There were many families there, lots of kids. Most of them were under ten. I’m sure that once the kids reach puberty they probably stop wanting to attend stuff like this. All the kids were dressed in their finest. For Chinese New Year you’re supposed to wear new clothes in bright colors. James and I tried to honor that. He wore this red shirt and I wore a dress in bright colors. Sophie wore this outfit we bought in China for her.

There were arts and crafts and games. Sophie liked the trampoline and the small jungle gym the best. We had a nice dinner catered by a local Chinese restaurant and there were little dance classes (and some professional performances) by a Chinese dance teacher who teaches in a city not far from us. That was info tucked away by me, since Sophie LOVED the dance classes. She waved her arms, danced and twirled with all the other little girls and had a wonderful time.

But the highlight was the dragon parade. All the little girls took bits of red party streamer and followed behind a man dressed in a huge yellow and red dragon head. Sophie loves dragons with the passion of a thousand flaming suns and she positioned herself right behind him and marched along happily, smiling, laughing and waving her streamer, and yelling “MAMA, PAPA! DRAGGIE! DRAGGIE!” and pointing at the man in front of her.

It was a very nice night. Sophie didn’t want to leave, but, alas, then it was time to go.

 

Mixed Feelings

Sophie is going to daycare on Fridays and today was her first day. When I left her, she looked uncertain, shy and sad (although minutes before in the car she’d been excited to go ‘play with the babies’). I know that by now she’s probably having a great time with the other kids. This is good for her. She needs to play with other children.

She’ll be fine, right?

Millions of beeelions of parents drop their kids at daycare every morning and all those kids are fine, so Sophie will be fine too. *chews thumbnail* Maybe I should I call.

No. Too early. I’ll call in a couple hours.

SIGH.

 

Upon examination of videographic evidence….

…Sophie was, indeed, UNamused by Santa.

Do you concur?  GO HERE TO VIEW VIDEO OF SOPHIE’S FIRST ENCOUNTER WITH SANTA.

 

More 365 pics

12-14-08 We went to a thai place for dinner. Aunty C brought a whole bag full of fun holiday toys that kept Sophie busy.

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12-15-08 Sophie puts her baby dolls (she calls them that now) in their strollers and takes them for a walk.

12-16-08 This morning Sophie put all her toy rings on the dog’s back, said “hat!” and then burst into hysterical laughter. Toddler humor. *shrug* It’s cold and icy today and the only time I’m leaving the house is to get the mail. Yuck.

And this one isn’t a 365 pic, but I love it. She looks so mischievous.

 

In Which Our Heroine is Seemingly Highly Unamused with Santa.

10-11-08 We go to visit my grandmother, Sophie’s great-nana, who is slowly losing her mind in a (very expensive and very nice) assisted living facility. Sophie is telling great-nana, “Toto do boo boo,” on her hand. Kokopop (Toto) scratched her a millenium ago, but Sophie still gets a lot of mileage out of the story and lots of kisses.

10-12-08 Sophie sits on Santa’s lap for the first time. She just went right up to him and allowed him to lift her onto his lap. She wouldn’t smile at all for the picture, though, not even scrunchy face. For the whole time afterward, far as long as we were in the mall, she wanted to go back and watch him, however. Now whenever she sees this picture, which we have on the fridge right now, she gets excited and yells, “Santa!”

10-13-08 Sophie displays a couple of her favorite books. That’s Not My Dragon! and Goodnight Gorilla. She also really loves this book below. It’s probably her Number One Fav, Kitten’s First Full Moon. a Caldecott winner about a kitten who mistakes the full moon for a bowl of milk and tries to chases it down. After much travail, the kitten returns home to find what he was looking for all along was on his front porch. Very sweet book. Every time Sophie sees the full moon she says, “Milk!”