Buddies

Lydia was a little upset when I was holding Max so I decided to let her hold him. She loved it.
He stole a smooch. I think she liked it.

Isn't she such a big girl..I think she will be a good big sister (and NO I am not making an announcement)

He started fussing a little.

Here is was checking to make sure he was ok. Notice the Minnie Mouse sticker on my shirt. My "friends" let me walk around with this sticker on my shirt all day! They claim they never noticed it.

Helping Nonni Part Two

So after the Easter bread was rising they set to work on baking the Easter Bunny cake and cookies. She loves to stir things and "I do it or I try it" are phrases we are hearing often in our house. Along with "Can we? Can we please?" when she wants to so something.

I think this was the icing not that cake batter..not that it would have mattered.

Really digging in there..

Did I get it all?

Finally Nonni let her out of the kitchen to relax with Poppi.

Helping Nonni

Preparing to make Easter Bread wearing her Santa Claus cooking outfit...
Mixing up the eggs..

Then kneading the dough..this was her second batch of making bread..that is why she looks like a pro already.

Then she suddenly remembers..

Hey this dough tastes good.

YUM..Easter bread dough is really good. Maybe she is mine after all!

Friendship

It is easy to see how Mark and Chris have been such good friend for so long. They love the same things...

Their families

Their music

Their furbabies

Lydia did ok with the doggies. Ever since an incident with Miranda's dog (he was not being mean, just over friendly) she has been afraid of dogs. So I asked April and Chris to not call them dogs. We went with the word puppies. For the first hour or so Lydia would not let us put her down. But she slowly got used to them and actually became good buddies with Daisy.

Here are the boys rockin out. I know they really miss getting to play music together since this picture was taken maybe two hours after we got there.

Another shot, I was playing around with the flash so that accounts for some of the "Days of Our Lives dream sequence" lighting.



Here were the kids dancing away. Lydia just cracked up when Max would dance with her. Doesn't she look so BIG!?!

The Beach

Here we are at Lovers Key (correct me April if that is not right). It is a state park. It was very nice. Different than the Ocean City for sure but in a good way. The water was warm (I put my foot in) and there were shells EVERYWHERE. We did not get to stay for very long with the kids but Lydia loved playing in the sand and swimming in the ocean.
April took Lydia out while Max and I hung out on the sand.

Here is the happy Stowers Clan. People have been asking me who they were. Chris and Mark have been best friends since the second grade. He was the one who stood by Mark while we got married for those of you who were at the wedding. They moved to Florida 4 days after our wedding. This is the first time we have been able to make it down to see them.

I thought this onesie was so cute as well as his glasses.

Here are the two kids hanging. It was so wild how I had so many flashback moments of when Braylon was Lydia's age and Lydia was Max's age. They did so many of the same things. When Max would cry in the car seat Lydia would get upset and try to get me to "fix" it. Then she would sing to him then scream "stop crying". I remember a trip that Mir and I took and Mir saying the same things to Braylon that I was saying to Lydia.

Playing in the sand.

Pure Bliss

I really do not know how to explain how Lydia was meeting the Princesses and Mickey Mouse. I wish I could put the video on here. She was so happy but so composed. She just walked right up there and gave them big old hugs. She kept snuggling and kissing him on the nose. The Disney Photographer got that picture and it was priceless.
Mickey said that Lydia was so sweet that he wanted to keep her! Of course he really did not say anything, while the Princesses talk; the other characters do not. He did some hand signals and the photographer translated. Again, everyone was very sweet and patient.

Here is when she first got to "see" Mickey and some other characters. We watched a 15 minute show in front of Cinderella's castle. She was extremely hot and did not know what to thing really. This also reminds me how we lost Lydia for about 30 seconds. Of course that was the LONGEST 30 seconds of my life. I did not have her strapped in her stroller since we had to fold it up a couple of times getting to the park. She never once tried to get up from it the whole time so I did not think it was a problem. We were sitting there waiting for the show to start. I saw a lady who had a 1st visit button. I turned around to ask her where she got the button, got her answer and turned back around..and the stroller was empty. I asked Mark where she was since he was sitting right beside her. I have never had a sicker feeling in my stomach. Luckily Mark spotted her orange and purple hat standing in the front of the crowd by the chain. She just wanted a front row seat. We did not let her be unbuckled anymore!

Here were Mickey and Minnie at the show.

Another wonderful part of our trip was going to see the Stowers. Here is Max meeting Mickey and Minnie. It was so fun getting to share our Disney experience with them. We also spent the rest of our time in Florida visiting them in Ft. Myers.

More picture of Lydia and Max next time.

Disney

Ok, so don't ever let anyone tell you that it is a waste of money to take your young child to Disney "because they won't remember" We had an awesome time at Disney and it was worth every penny. Lydia LOVED it. Princess Aurora, Belle and Cinderella were wonderful. They were so kind and patient. They asked Lydia all kinds of questions and seemed to understand most of Lydia said to them. Lydia was not scared at all. She ran up to all of them and gave them big hugs.
This is Princess Aurora/Briar Rose/Sleeping Beauty. This is the movie that Lydia is really obsessed with watching and had watched on the way up to Disney (We were driving from Ft. Myers, so yes, I was driving up to Orlando)


I though that Belle was beautiful. They all kept calling her Princess Lydi (that is how Lydia now introduces herself "Hi, I'm Lydi")

Cinderella was beautiful and gracious as well. These ladies did an excellent job with all the people there..I saw people because it was not just children getting their pictures taken with the Princesses.

here is the famous Disney shot. One of their photographers took this with our camera for us

coming up...where dreams do come true..meeting Mickey

We must be born with it

I know these are horrible pictures. They are from my cell phone. But I had to quickly share what I did to my little princess (blah, I cannot believe I just wrote that, I swore I would NEVER call my kid that). I was painting her toes and she was very excited and sat very still while I did it. They I asked her for shits and giggles if she wanted me to do her hands. She said yes. She sat completely still and let me do the first hand...then said nother one and sat and let me do her second hand. Then she sat with all of her finger s outstretched so not to smudge them..I have no idea how she knew do to that. I had Mark come up and see how she was sitting. Later on she was getting down from the chair and was so careful with her fingers..it was so cute and funny. Now if mommy just had someone to do her nails before our warm vacation..sigh.

ps. Finally went to the doctor yesterday since we still had the rash after two and half weeks despite much washing and benedryl. Fifth disease..it is harmless but we get such weird illnesses in my family!