But I don't wanna!

This morning I woke with one of those feelings that I just could not shake. A feeling of dread, but I could not put my finger on why I was feeling this way. A weird feelig in my stomach that prevented me from enjoying anything that passed my lips. So I worked. Dealing with government-y stuff. Meetings, paper work, paper work and more paper work. Then my admin assistant passed by my office with my pay stub in my hand. I study this form every two weeks, try to come to terms with the amount that is deducted (and no, $30 bilingual bonus money does not make up for my losses!). I then tucked the little stub away and continued with my piles of work. Then, the good fairy of administration came by again, with a bigger envelope for me to open. My pension and benefits plan. When I opened it I knew immediately where my feeling of dread came from this morning. My brain must have had some psychic connection to the information help in this package, and my brain knew to shelter me from this information for as long as possible. This little package, so tidy and correct, informed me that I can retire in 2029. I think in my own little world, I thought maybe I had a few more years at this gig before Jo and I could run off into the sunset together, a little more wrinkl-y, a little rounder, but at least still able to run. But now I am a little worried that we will instead we will be as wrinkled as sharpei puppies, slowly, cautiously, walking at a snail's pace to our beds, just as the sun is setting.

Sigh.

IF EDIE CRIES IN THE FOREST, DOES ANYONE HEAR HER?

I love my Edie something fierce but the little one is on a crying jag right now that is about to send me around the bend. Edie has two speeds – very very happy (we are talking bouncing instead of walking) and very very upset. The way her face crumbles when she is about to cry is like a watching a face melt during a bad acid trip….not that I….well, whatevs. Even early this morning I heard my name being blubbered from her room, and there she was, fast asleep, but her adorable little mouth looking like an upside down U. And nothing can turn her mood. No amount of tickling, joking, making lamb-ey talk (usually a shoe-in for some giggles). Nope, this little cherub decides when she is done. And when she is done, she announces it. Literally. “All done crying!” she’ll state triumphantly and she starts hopping around the house again as happy as can be, oblivious to my raw nerves.

SKIPPING
I bought a skipping rope for Grace at the dollar store. Best investment ever. She shames me with her level of physical fitness. I can almost hear her chanting “float like a butterfly sting like a bee” as she skips out the door down the driveway, around the neighbors driveways and back again. When her shirt lifts a little I see her tiny six pack flexing away, and she is developing shoulders like a football player. And she just started last week.

AWESOME-NESS
I got a phone yesterday morning at 5:30 from a co-worker telling me not to come into work as there had been a flood and the building was closed. Are you kidding me? An extra day tacked on to the long weekend? I should have bought a lottery ticket.

MORE AWSOME-NESS
Two sets of grandparents. Two kids. Two sets of grandparents willing to take said kids for the weekend. Free condo at Tremblant. Two couples who are great friends who can also get away for the weekend. Is karma finally rewarding me for all the good I bring into this world?

**If anyone has been Tremblant, pls send suggestions for restaurants, activities, etc.

Looks aren't everything....

Have you noticed how pretty my blog is lately? Inspiring, isn’t it. When I blog, I literally compose my witticisms in Word, and ctrl-C and ctrl-V into Blogger. Occasionally I’ll get all fancy and download a picture, scribble on it, probably more for my shits and giggles than for anyone else (though if you do laugh, that makes me really happy). And SOMETIMES I get really excited and share/impose my musical taste on people and post a YouTube video. Anyhooo, I thought I’d try and do something fancy with The Blog. Actually, all I really wanted to do was install one of them there fancy blogrolls, y’know, give props to the folks I read. Well, I don’t know what I have done, I guess I panicked a bit and started cutting and pasting things I had no business cutting and pasting and now my poor little blog looks like a victim of the IceTruck Killer (shout out to Dexter fans).
So, I’m not sure what to do. Do I abandon the project altogether and go back to typing, photocopying and mailing an annual Xmas letter to fill people in on my activities? Start a whole new blog? Continue with this ugly-ass one?

Please don’t suggest I use the Blogger Help feature, instruction manuals and I broke up a looonnnngggg time ago.

Today is my first coffee-free day since I came out the womb some 35 years ago. Okay, well, maybe I’m exaggerating just a little bit, but I have been faithful to Juan Valdez for at least two decades now, with brief, caffeine-free dalliances when I was pregnant with both children. But, Juan always lured me back with his seductive aroma and mood-enhancing abilities. But, as of late, the affair has grown stale. I have to give Juan credit though - he has tried to spice things up in our relationship by adding whipped cream, syrups of a variety of flavours….the cheeky little monkey was even bold enough to add ice to our encounters. He even has a little coffee-porn feature at the Tim Horton’s drive-thru, where you can watch a steamy scene between a coffee and a donut. But all this has been leaving me empty inside lately. In fact, our long affair is leaving me feeling ill and shaky.
I’m sorry Juan, but I’m switching teams. Green Tea has made me promises that you can’t – Green Tea quenches my thirst, unlike you, who leaves me dehydrated and with a fuzzy tongue. Green Tea is promising me a sped up metabolism, while you, Juan, you just leave my guts rotten and churning. And I’m not embarrassed to talk to someone after indulging in a steamy cup of Green Tea, whereas after consuming you, Juan, I try to cover up what I have done with mints and gum.

I am breaking free of you Juan, free after all these years.

Come Green Tea, let us be free, just you and me.

(ooooooh, I see Green Tea can be naughty too!)

Advice to Mom's the second time around....

Don't silence the first born when the second is sleeping. I hated being such a shush-er of my spirited/loud/rambunctious little three year old. I felt like the minute Edie was asleep I followed Grace around the house shush-ing her every move. Not cool. Since then I've witnessed other families pretty much conduct marching bands down the hallway when a baby is sleeping - and the baby continues to sleep even with all that racket!

Our house is much noisier now....

Some mom's in the blogging world are about to have their second...click on the button below and dish out your own words of wisdom.

GUM!

When I became pregnant, I gave up vices. Ciggie smoking, excessive boozing and a steady diet of gummy bears and Ms. Vicky’s potato chips. Hell, I even started to work out, eat from the four food groups and feel pretty good about things (uhhh, don’t get me wrong here, now that I’m not incubating anymore, when the weekend a hits, so does a bottle of Cabernet Sauvignon to my lips (or Merlot, or Shiraz, I actually still, at 35, don’t really know the difference).

But I digress. I still have one disgusting habit. I chew gum. Wait, no, I don’t just chew gum. In fact, I feel a little sorry for the gum I put in my mouth for the gnashing it is about to get. I beat the crap out of my gum. And don’t think that I daintily pop one piece into my mouth, no no no no no no. I need two to three of those bad boys in my mouth at once. This sometimes gets me in embarrassing situations. Now, when you cram three sticks of gum in your yap, when you have to get rid of it, you can’t just swallow it. You need to dispose of it. And when I need to get rid of gum, I need to get rid of it NOW! It’s like a moment of revulsion comes over me and I realize how disgusting it is to be smacking on three sticks of gum at once. So today, I’m dying to get off the bus because the gum in my mouth is driving me insane. So, picture me walking down my street (which, I should add, is filled with doctors, diplomats and retired judges, don’t ask me how they let us move into this neighbourhood). I’ve got my nice heels on, a skirt, I’m even carrying a briefcase today. And I let my wad of gum fly, I mean I launch it, I want that hunk of gum as far away from me as possible. I didn’t even look around to see who might be watching. If I had looked, I might have seen all the mom’s waiting to collect their kids from the bus watching me.

Ugh. I’m gross. I’ve reached my bottom. I’m going 12 –step my gum addiction.

*I feel the need to say I normally dispose of my gum in a tissue to toss in the trash at a later date – yesterday I was tissue-less and desperate. I’m not normally a spitter. Like I said, I think I’ve hit my bottom.

I hate to wait.....
I have knots the size of a golf ball in my shoulder and I’m waiting for a referral from a doctor for a good physiotherapist/masseuse. My original doctor (who I’m dumping) is mean and wants to charge me $20 for a referral…so I am now waiting to see if a nice new doctor will accept me as a patient…I will then have to wait for an appointment with her…. I will then have to wait for an appointment with whoever she refers me to….I may look like a hunchback by the time I get treated!

My groovy haircut has turned into bad 90’s Whitesnake haircut and my hair dresser is off getting married/honeymooning….anybody have a car I can spread my body out on???

Grace’s reward for conquering her night demons is a Baby Alive doll (she poops! She pees! Yaaaayyyyy) and I’m buying one off of Kijijij, if the person ever replies to me…..

Jonas is making me a surprise present for either Mother’s Day or our wedding anniversary and I am tearing out my Whitesnake hair trying to figure out what it is…..

Edie has decided that she likes to get into her car seat herself thankyouverymuch….do you know how long it takes a just turned three year old to adjust herself just-so in her car seat? Arrrrghhhhh!

I’m no so sure that the stress management workshop my boss made me attend was all that effective after-all.

.......but can I keep them????

Good things:

Both girls have slept through the night two nights in a row now. This calls for a trip to the dollar store to buy some made in China treats to celebrate and congratulate.

I’m going to Montreal tonight. With my husband. With no kids. Whoot! On the way home, Jo said we MAY be able to stop at H&M. I only need an hour there to do all the pent up shopping I have in me right now.

It’s going up to 24 degrees Celsius today.

Grace asked if we could listen to the Clash in the car yesterday.

At dinner the other night, we were playing “I’m going to the store and I’m going to buy….” and when it was Edie’s turn, she said she was going to by me Social Distortion. Where am I going to put them all?

I was called Miss yesterday instead of the usual Ma’am.

Have a great weekend everyone.

*mommy's little monster #2 Edie

punk rock parenting!

i've been reading some pretty heavy stuff lately, so i ordered a book via amazon. it was lighter fare, it arrived on a tuesday and i finished it on a thursday. i loved it. i liked it so much i'm going to pass it on. the name of the book is called "punk rock dad" by the lead singer of Pennywise. to be perfectly honest, i had never heard a pennywise song before, and , since listening to them, don't care for them all that much. but, the writer is a punk rocker, raising three girls with his wife, and hearing his punk-rock take on parenting left me smiling.

i'm giving the book away to the person with the best punk-rock parenting moment, even if it's just by creating a little anarchy at playgroup by not bringing organic snacks :)

LAMB-EY!

So last night I was flying solo with the girls as Jonas was out for the evening. After baths and showers and logging in some couch time watching WonderPets (I freaking love this show!) it was bedtime. Off we marched. I run pretty tight ship at bedtime and in general, it works quite well. While one is on the toilet, the other has her teeth brushed and then SWITCH! After bathroom duties are done, the girls hope on the “train” (a blanket that gets dragged on the floor) and they are deposited into their bedrooms. Last night had one little glitch. My stomach dropped a little when Edie said “Where’s my Lambey?” Lambey is always in her bed, waiting to welcome her to a good night’s sleep. Only, Lambey wasn’t there. Lambey has been with Edie since the day she was born, and no sleep action has ever occurred without Lambey. A quick comb of the house turned up nothing. I called Jo on his cell phone and his sheepish “he’s in my car” made me feel a little sick. Edie was going to have to try and go cold-turkey without her little friend. I tried substitutions (no Ruby!) I tried trickery (this is Lambey’s brother!). I actually made Grace cry by taking one of her stuffies and lending it to Edie (“but that is my most specialist stuffie ever!) I tried lying down with Edie, and my hair was literally soaked by her tears. I invited Grace in to the bed, to see if big sister might be a calming force. But Edie just kept popping up, and because she was wearing a sleeveless nightie, she looked like a little-girl version of Marlon Brando wearing a wife-beater, only instead of crying Stella! into the night, she was crying Lambey! instead.
Finally, after an hour had passed, and Grace wasn’t able to fall asleep with all the drama, and Edie showing no signs of calming down, I did the unthinkable. I called Jo home. Now, I have dealt with a lot on my own, colicy babies, high temperatures, projectile vomiting…you name it. Never did this somewhat seasoned mom think I would ever call my husband home for a stuffed animal. Funny thing is, Jo realized the importance of Lambey and came home without any questions asked. The house was quiet again within five minutes of him being home.

I am in awe of the power of Lambey.


.....ummm, any similar stories would be welcome to alleviate any fears I have that Edie isn't, y'know, a little obsessive compulsive or somethin'

My First Time

I've been asked to do my first meme! Well, I've done plenty of them, but noone has ever actually asked me to do one! Alison has tasked me with a simple, but hard one.

The rules:

1) Write your own six word memoir

2) Post it on your blog and include a visual illustration if you’d like

3) Link to the person that tagged you in your post, and to the original post if possible so we can track it as it travels across the blogosphere

4) Tag at least five more blogs with links

5) Don’t forget to leave a comment on the tagged blogs with an invitation to play!

Hmmmm, here we go:

"Heaven for climate, hell for company"

errr, something like that (with apologizes the Mark Twain, the actual quote is: Go to Heaven for the climate, Hell for the company.

Okay, my turn to tag. Go for it Carrie, Doc, Gleemonex, A&J and Sam

Things NOT to do:

When you go away on a business trip, to FLORIDA, do not email wife and:

1) tell her it is 85 degrees outside, and windy, but a nice windy when she is stuck back home where it is -16 with the wind chill (and it is NOT a nice windy)

2) tell her you you overslept because the hot tub knocked you out the night before at the hotel when she has not slept through the night in exactly 32 nights and only has a shower stall in her ensuite and the kids bathtub is filled with Little People toys

3) do not call her and tell that the dinner the vendor was supposed to take you to was cancelled (boo fucking hoo) so you and your buddies hopped on over the Hard Rock Cafe at Disney. Nice of you to call, but the sounds of libations being passed around and parades in the background almost only almost drowned out the kids fighting here at home.

Next time, just call, say you are having a shitty time and you miss me and the kids.

*Believe it or not, I am writing this with a smile on my face :)

Come home soon!

TWO APPLICATIONS TO MENSA PLEASE

Sometimes I think we don't stimulate our girls enough. You would not imagine the excitement and heart palpitations, and yes, fighting, one little change in the mini-van caused on Friday. Was it a new video console? Nope. Was it a hotly desired big-girl booster seat for Edie? Nope. Was it a much desired leapord-print steering wheel cover for Meanie? Alas, no. It was this:

With the warmer weather arriving, the smell of rotten snacks was starting to repulse me, so I bought a tacky little air-freshener to take the edge off. Well, I have never been bombarded with so many questions about a scented piece of cardboard (to be truthful, I have never, ever been asked about scented cardboard). Can I touch it? Can I smell it....WHAAAA! UP CLOSE! I WANT TO SMELL IT UP CLOSE! What is it made of? Can I lick it (actually, Grace is the only one who asked, Edie went ahead and sampled it without asking (WHAAAA! IT TASTES YUCKY! I NEED JUICE!) Can I colour it? Do you have more? How long will we have this? Do other people have these? Are there other "flavours"? Can I bring to Show-and-Tell? I think you get the idea.

Jo and I are planning a 13 hour road-trip this summer. I'm thinking that after the titallation this freshener caused, if I stick a bobble-head on the dashboard, that just might be enough to keep our girls occupied for the whole trip.

Confessions of a Consumer

At the beginning of this week (and yes, I realized it is only Wednesday), I decided to try to spend nothing. Zip. I took inventory of the fridge and cupboards and decided that we had the necessities of life and no trips to the grocery store would be required. Let’s review how I am faring so far.

Monday:

Ahhh, this should be easy. We are spending a good part of the day in car driving home from a weekend at a friends ski chalet. Ooooh, there’s Tim Horton’s. I could really go for a coffee – no, wait, I want an Ice-Cap! Shit, the kids have spotted Timmy’s out the window too. They want Timbits. No. Must. Not. Stop.

Phew! Made it home without spending a bean. Time to get ready to go out to my parents place for my Mom’s birthday dinner. Birthday dinner. Shit. I haven’t bought her a present yet. And off we go to Chapters to buy an overpriced card and gift certificate. 1 point for capitalism.

End of day, fairly satisfied with the outcome of the day. Birthdays are sort of out of my control, right?

Tuesday:

This is gonna be a breeze. I’m at work all day and I’ve packed my lunch so there is NO excuse to spend. Except I really need a coffee. That’s excuseable,right? and I’ll buy Fair Trade to be a responsible consumer.
Oops, BlackBerry is buzzing. Oh, a reminder for a farewell lunch for a fellow employee today….at a restaurant. Okay, I just won’t buy anything too expensive. There that will definitely be IT for the day.
Okay, just worked out after work and showered and I don’t have any deodorant, I’ll just run to the store and grab a stick, I mean, I can’t be stinky, right?
*the rest of the day is omitted to save myself embarrassment. I will just say that one stick of deodorant cost me approx. $55 at the grocery store*

Wednesday:

My confidence is a little shaken, but I can do this. Today will be the day I don’t spend a bean! (I have decided that coffee doesn’t count, it falls under the Necessities of Life category).
Okay, at work, it’s BUSY! Good, good, this will keep me from spending any money. Wait a sec, I’ve got mail. Oh, it’s from my housekeeper reminding that she is coming tomorrow morning to clean. She likes cash only. And she reminded me that last time she was over she used up all the Toilet Duck. Grrrr. To the bank machine I go. Then Zellers. Focus Meanie focus, you are here for Toilet Duck only. And that cute pair of RayBan knock-offs and a half-price Cadbury’s Easter Cream Egg.

I suck….and Jo just called to say we are out of milk.

Two things I NEVER thought I would do:

1) Cook Hamburger Helper (I hope my Mom isn’t reading this) – it's really good though!

2) Say the following to the girls, in a sing-song voice, calling them for dinner when they were playing:

“Girls! Time to close the imagination station!”

Ugggh! Who says shit like that? When I hear people talk like that my ears bleed a little.

Note to self: get another tattoo and toughen up

I never blogged Gracie’s birthday!

I have to admit that when I was pregnant with Grace I did have Martha Stewart visions of perfection dancing in my head. Clean white linens, peaceful naps together and an immediate bond for life. Well, overwhelmed at what had just happened, six years ago I was in a hospital, teary and tired, and wondering just how I was going to cope with this little bundle. How could I possibly be responsible for this life. Already I had been told by some not so nice nurses that my decision not to nurse was equivalent to giving my first born Macdonalds fast food. Ouch. Not a good start. When we brought Grace home, the endless gifts of flowers kept arriving, and all I could think was I couldn’t even get my shit together enough to change the water of the flowers, how the hell was I going to look after a baby? The postpartum blues kicked in. Those cold dreary months of February found me feeling quite cooped up and alone, anxious for myself and my baby. Then one day, and I remember this so clearly, finally needing to get out of the house, I nervously strapped Grace into her stroller, looked down at her inquisitive little eyes, and told her that we were going for a walk. I remember that walk so well. I remember singing a little song to her that I had made up when she was born. Grace looked at me and cracked one of her first, beautiful, gummy smiles. That is when I realized it was going to be okay, that I could do this job. It wasn’t going to be easy, but, this ex-wild child did have a maternal bone in her body. In fact, I tried to let the instincts flow from that day forward. Rather than throwing my arms up in despair when she cried, I made it my mission to determine what those cries meant. Rather than staring at her when she was sleeping, anxious for what I was going to do with her when she woke up, I tried to revel in the peaceful, sleeping Grace, and look forward to her waking to watch her take in the world.
I have to admit, Grace has never been the easiest kid in the world. I’d be lying if I said I didn’t have moments of envy when I see other more compliant kids with their parents. However, I’d also be lying if I said I didn’t think our daughter rocks. Grace takes on the world like nobody’s business. The first in the pool and the last one out. The first one up the ski hill and the first one down. I have never seen a kid take such joy in the simple act of running, seemingly amazed at just how fast her powerful legs can take her. I also love who this kid surrounds herself with. Wait, let me re-word that. I love who surrounds Grace. Grace has been embraced by so many different groups of kids, and she seems to happily float from one group to the next, not relying on any one or two kids for her social life. These past two weeks, we are also witnessing the miracle of her reading her first words…watching her sound out the words, and the look of joy on her face when she conquers a particularly difficult word is truly a gift for me.
I had been complaining about lack of sleep lately, Grace has been troubled with nightmares. I recently took Chantal’s suggestion and put a little mattress on the floor where she can come and crash if she needs to be near us. And you know what? Taking a chapter from my post partum days, I also now revel in the peaceful Grace sleeping, and sincerely look forward to her waking up and taking on the world again and again.


That little song? I still sing it to her, I know she will soon think it is silly and stupid, but I don’t care, I’ll keep singing it .

“Her name is Grace, Grace,
With the beautiful face, face,
What a beautiful nose,
Those,
gorgeous eyes!And what lovely smile,
That’s my Grace...”

Shark attack!

Kids, like animals, are intuitive. Adults, like boulders, generally are not.

So, it was our last day on the beach. Everyday up until then, Grace had been body surfing, wave jumping, reveling in being allowed to spit without getting in trouble (salt water, whatta are ya gonna do?) In fact, braver than I, she kept pushing to go farther and farther out into the great blue sea, but we generally reigned her in it at about fifteen feet to twenty feet.

The last day there, our flight was at 3:00 p.m. We woke early to get one last swim in before packing it all up. The girls ran down to the beach, and Grace raced to the water – Edie completely ignored it and got busy digging in the sand, refusing to go in. As quickly as Grace ran in, she ran out again, heading back to the sand and started to dig. I asked her why she left the water. Very casually, she said she saw a shark. I don’t think I said that that was ridiculous, but I don’t think I did much to validate her claim. I muttered something about it being a shame that nobody would swim on our last day there, but didn’t push the issue.

Fast forward to the next day, when were home in Ottawa, we got a call from the in-laws. The late afternoon that we left, looking out from the balcony of their condo, they saw two sharks, fifteen to twenty feet from shore, exactly where had been playing for past five days.

*SHIVER*

No wonder Grace is having nightmares!

We now interrupt your regular programming….


I am humbled. I need your help. I need help with a six year who is waking every night claiming nightmares. A six year old who wants to climb into our bed every night around 2 a.m., which would be fine, but this six year old is a restless sleeper, like a dolphin out of water, she is so strong and solid, that when she flails around it really affects my and Jo’s sleep. There is no gentle rubbing of her back to try and get to go back to sleep in her bed – nosiree, there are full on tears, wailing, forcing us to comply with her demands so she doesn’t wake up the three year old (who can be a fragile sleeper at times as well). My compassion for her is giving way to anger as I am starting to feel like I am being played. She can’t tell us what these nightmares are about, and no reassuring appeases her. She just wants to be in our bed, between Jo and I.
Any advice? Do I bribe her? Threaten her? Gag her? Don’t make me call Nanny 911!

Surprise! We're Going to Disney!

That Tuesday morning, I joined the family at the breakfast table and announced that I didn’t feel like going to work that day. Jo agreed that he too didn’t feel like working. We asked the girls if they felt like going to school (of course, the one day we wanted them to say no, they said yes!) I then asked them if they would like to go to the Broccoli Patch (noooo!) What about the Brussel Sprout Factory (nooooo!) Then we threw it out there – how would they like to go to DisneyWorld? Well, we didn’t get the reaction we anticipated (Edie continued enthusiastically slurping her Cheerios, oblivious to what Disney is) and Gracie was wary of this big announcement. She actually said to me once on the airplane “Nowww I believe you Mommy!” Ahhhh, the trust we instill in these children!

And so, we spent two and half days frolicking within the Happiest Place in the World. We stayed at a place called Wilderness Lodge (part of the resort). There was a nice big pool and slide there, and fire works in the evening – a great way to ease into our visit. I’m pretty sure our little munchkins thought that Wilderness Lodge was Disney in its entirety and they would have been satisfied with that. Well, weren’t they in for a surprise when we ferried over to the park the next morning and hit the ground running.

Grace was slow to start, a little unsure of all the excitement around her. She soon got into the groove though, clutching her little autograph book and getting all the Disney characters to sign it and posed for pictures with them. Edie retreated to her stroller for the photo ops, entirely creeped out by these non-talking giant cartoon characters.

The rides rocked. Grace was big enough to go on Splash Mountain, and it was quiet enough that she got to do it twice. We did it’s a Small World (Edie’s favourite – it is kinda endearing!) We also did Snow White (really scary, the cause of many nightmares to come, I’m sure)! Pirates of the Caribbean was okay, though I’m not sure I understand all the hype. Mickey’s Toon Town was a hit with both girls, short line-ups for everything there. We also did the frontier looking roller coaster (fun!) and some futuristic Buzz Lightyear kind of rides. There was also a little cloud of mist that the girls found and frolicked in for a good hour – Jo and I looked for a little cloud of beer to frolick in, to no avail.

We ended up watching the parade both days – I have to admit, I stared at those actors hard, trying to get them to crack the happy facade – I just wanted some kind of indication that Ariel could possible be suffering from killer PMS underneath that smile or that Peter Pan was arrested for a DUI the night before and covering up his bleary eyes with Visine. Nothing. Damn their good. I even got swept up the happiness of it all, this ex-punk rock girl humming along to some song about believing in myself and all my dreams coming true. And, more importantly, the girls ate it all up.

There were some aspects I didn’t like about it – like the little girls in the princess dresses with their hair extensions done and glitter all over their body, being pushed around the park by their parents. They looked so….entitled. I also felt really overwhelmed by the park in itself (and we just visited the Magic Kingdom!) I couldn’t stop thinking about how one man’s idea turned into something so big and so expensive and so over the top, and the number of people involved, the security, everything. I’m not criticizing it, I’m just amazed at how efficient and purposeful it all is.

The girls were pretty amazing. I had been warned that they may be over-stimulated and may breakdown. They didn’t. They were troopers, and didn’t beg for any extras (we did buy them Mickey Mouse ears though!)

Oh, one other thing I didn’t like – their version of Mac and Cheese. Ewwww. The girls wouldn’t touch it and I don’t blame them.

Phew. Disney has now been blogged. There you go A&J! Stay tuned for SHARK! As per anonymous’ request…..

While I'm trying to figure out what to blog about, bigger, more important things in the world are happening.

Teach your kids respect, understanding and empathy. Shit like this shouldn't happen.

http://ellen.warnerbros.com/2008/02/a_tragedy_that_should_never_ha.php

http://www.rememberinglawrence.org/