The Happiest Place on Earth - Part Two

Picking up where we left off . . .

On Monday, we headed to Animal Kingdom.  We started out early and hit up the character spot to meet Minnie Mouse.  Autumn was very excited to meet Minnie, although you might not be able to tell from the pictures.

After we met Minnie we hurried over to the Festival of the Lion King.  This was a great show that lasted about 30 minutes.  Prior to our trip I was a little nervous about taking Autumn to all of the shows, because I did not know if she would sit through them.  She actually did wonderfully at all of the shows.  Particularly the Festival of the Lion King.  The show was very interactive and Autumn stood in my lap and danced.  She loved all of the "animals" and the singing and dancing.  I enjoyed watching her face light up as she watched the show.




Working on saying "cheese"




More like it.



Showing all her teeth while saying "cheese."



Seriously Mom can you stop with the camera?




Hugging Minnie




Shaking Minnie's hand.



With Grandma and Minnie. 
She really was happy to meet Minnie, I promise.



With Mommy and Minnie.




With Grandma and Minnie again.


After the show we grabbed lunch and did one of the many treks in the park.  On this particular trek we got to see a tiger.  Autumn also got measured against a bat to show how large the bat's wing span is.  The bat's wing span was bigger than mine, if I remember right.  There weren't too many other animals out in view on the trek, because it was starting to get pretty hot.  It was about nap time, so we headed back to the hotel for a nap.




Being measured against a bat's wingspan.




Autumn's wingspan was about the size of half of the bat's wingspan.



Happy to have her paci. 
This was the only way we could bribe her to get in the stroller.

One of the best things I found on our trip was an iPhone app by Undercover Tourist that helped you determine which parks were the most crowded on which days and which rides had the longest waits. On Monday during Autumn's nap I realized that Animal Kingdom was a red for the whole day (indicating very crowded) compared to yellow's for Magic Kingdom and Hollywood Studios.  We had originally intended to spend all day at Animal Kingdom, but since it was crowded (which we had noticed in the morning) we decided to head back to Hollywood Studios for the evening to catch the nighttime show there - Fantasmic.  I read in our Fodor's book that this was a must see. 

On our way back to Hollywood Studios we ran into a mother duck and her little duckings.  It was adorable and so neat to see them so close.  Inside the park we got to see Disney Junior's show, which Autumn loved.  It was geared towards kids her age and everyone sat on the floor during the show.  A would highly recommend this show for anyone with toddlers.  It was very interactive and fun.  We also grabbed dinner at the park and watched the Muppet's 3D show.  By the time we did all of that we missed getting to the amphitheater for the Fantasmic Show before it filled up.  We headed back to the hotel without seeing the show and made plans to come back the next evening.




Momma Duck and her babies.




Little ducklings.



On Tuesday I started my Accounting Seminar (Health Annual Statement Preparation - fun!).  During the day Autumn and Grandma played at the pool, napped and generally killed time.  Once I got out of the seminar we headed to Animal Kingdom for dinner at the Rainforest Cafe.  After dinner we headed over to the Kilimanjaro Safari.  I highly recommend this ride.  You get in a jeep type vehicle and ride through an African savanna.  I had read in Fodor's that this ride is best early in the morning or later in the evening because more animals are out there than in the heat of the day.  We caught it at the perfect time of the evening.  We actually almost had to skip this ride, because after we stood in line (with our fast pass) we noticed a sign that said expectant moms should not ride this ride.  We asked a Disney worker about this.  I thought it would be strange for a ride to be safe for Autumn, but not me.  The worker told us that the ride is bumpy, but that I might be fine if I sat in the front.  I figured the ride couldn't be much worse than riding around in my Jeep or on the boat at the bay.  Turns out I was right to make that call.  The ride was not very bumpy (at least not by my standards) and it was definitely worth doing.  We got to see giraffes, hippos, cheetahs, zebras, various antelope type animals, rhinos, lions, etc.  Autumn loved it.

After the Kilimanjaro ride we headed to the Disney buses to make our way to Hollywood Studios for Fantasmic.  Disney offers free transportation to and from all of their parks everyday.  This worked out well for us on this particular night.  Once at Hollywood Studios we began to kill time.  We knew we would get there too late for the first showing of Fantasmic, so we just had to wait for the second one.  We visited several gift shops and stopped for a brownie sundae.  By the time the show was starting Autumn was exhausted.  She was a trooper though.  She loved the show.  It was a pretty neat show in an amphitheater on water.  There were boats all lit up with princesses on them.  Mickey saved the day in the end and there were fireworks and everything.  We got back to the hotel pretty late (like 11:30) and crashed.




Enjoying a brownie sundae.

Wednesday was our last full day in Orlando.  During the day Grandma and Autumn played at the pool again and ate lunch with me during my seminar's lunch break.  After my seminar was over for the day we headed to Magic Kingdom for the Electrical Parade.  We got to check off some of the other must do's at Magic Kingdom too, like It's a Small World and Mickey's Philharmagic 3D show. 

We also hit up an adorable Christmas store at the Magic Kingdom.  My Mom (and let's face it me too) are suckers for Christmas stores.  When Andrew and I were  first married we inherited all of his Christmas ornaments.  Growing up he had gotten a new ornament every year and by the time we started our own Christmas traditions he had quite a collection.  My family didn't have a similar tradition, so I really appreciated his family's tree filled with a hodge podge of ornaments compared to my family's themed trees (it is now an A&M themed tree).  Since we got married we have added many more ornaments to our collection.  I usually like to pick up a fancy one when we travel, so Disney World was no excuse.  I got a beautiful orange Mickey ear shaped ornament.  Grandma also bought Autumn a Minnie ornament personalized with her name.  I even got Baby Olivia a Minnie ornament with "My First Christmas" on it. 




Mommy's new ornament.




Baby Olivia's new ornament.

 After shopping our hearts out at the Christmas store we grabbed dinner and staked out a good spot for the Electrical Parade.  Did I mention it was raining on us all evening?  Not pouring, but consistently sprinkling.  Autumn and I both had good raincoats with us and Grandma had a poncho.  We also bought Autumn a Disney poncho to put on her legs in the stroller.  It usually rains almost every day in Orlando, so it was surprising that this was the first day it actually rained on us.  We got a great spot in Frontier Land for the Electrical Parade and oh did Autumn love it.  The princesses waved right at her!  Unfortunately the parade was a shortened version due to the rain.  On our way out of the park we got to see a show that was displayed on the Cinderella Castle.  This was the precursor to the fireworks that we caught as we walked out of the park.  As were were leaving I told Autumn to say goodbye to Disney World.  She did, blowing kisses as she waved goodbye.

Thursday was a half day in my seminar and then we rushed to the airport to catch our flight home.  Unfortunately our flight was delayed and we had to be transferred to another flight, so that we would still be able to make a connection in New Orleans and make it home to Houston that night.  The flight to New Orleans was super crowded and Autumn was fussy.  She was not happy to sit in our laps.  She cried and hit and basically mauled me.  My face and chest were all scratched up.  It definitely served as a reminder to trim her nails.  When we got to New Orleans I wanted to leave immediately.  The airport was way overcrowded and the bathroom did not have a changing table (seriously!).  I could not be home fast enough.  At least it was a short connection time and a short flight to Houston.  We got into Houston around 8:00 and headed to eat dinner with Grandpa and Daddy before going home and crashing.

Friday was back to our normal routines of school for Autumn and work for me, Saturday was Autumn's catch up on sleep day.  She slept almost all day on and off.  She was definitely worn out from our trip and needed the rest.

Long Side note: Did I mention that while we were gone someone stole our bank account?  I had gotten a call from our bank on Tuesday about someone trying to cash a $1,800+ check.  I was unaware of any checks we had written for that much, but I had them get in touch with Andrew to be sure.  Turns out when I mailed our flood insurance check I was lazy and stuck it in our mailbox with the flag up rather than going to the post office or mailing it at work.  Somehow someone stole that check, either directly out of our mailbox or somewhere in transit.  They scanned in Andrew's signature, our bank routing and account number and began to write large checks on our account.  The bank actually cashed one check for $1,865 before being tipped off about the fraud.  The person who stole our account actually left his drivers license at the bank when he fled, so it should be an easy case for the police to handle.  Andrew had to deal with the bank and changing some of our automatic payments while I was gone plus the police to file a report.  This was such a pain, especially since I usually handle all of the daily transactions in our account and I couldn't easily do so while in Orlando.  I have learned my lesson - always mail checks at the post office or work or a more secure location than my own mailbox. 

The Happiest Place on Earth - Part One

I had a seminar on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday of last week, so my Mom, Autumn and I headed to Orlando a few days early to spend some time at "the happiest place on earth." 

Our Saturday morning flight left at 7:50am, so it was a very early morning.  I got up before 5am and we woke up Autumn right before we left, changed her diaper and put her in the car in her PJ's.  Tia was also flying out of Hobby that morning, so we picked her up on the way to the airport.  It was nice to have an extra hand in the airport, because between Autumn and all of our bags we had our hands full. 

The flight there was not too bad at all.  We had a stop in New Orleans, but we did not have to change plans.  We were also lucky enough to manage a row to ourselves on both flights.  We chose not to buy Autumn a ticket, because kids under 2 can fly for free in your lap.  This meant that if the plane was not completely full we could end up with an extra seat for Autumn, but there were no guarantees.  Autumn was generally pretty easy on the flights to Orlando. The iPad came in handy, although we couldn't find earphones that really worked well for her.  She didn't seem to mind though.  About 5 minutes before we landed in Orlando baby girl finally fell asleep.



Happy girl




Autumn and Mommy, the pacificer came in handy on the plane rides.




Asleep in the Orlando airport while Mommy and Grandma grabbed some lunch.

We arrived at our hotel around 2pm and had to wait for our room to be ready.  We checked our bags with the bell hop and grabbed a snack.  After our room was ready we quickly changed clothes and packed up to head to Hollywood Studios for the afternoon. 

We stayed at the Hilton Bonnet Creek Resort (because my seminar was being held there and we are Hilton Honors members).  I give it a 3 out of 5 stars.  My main complaint was that the hotel did not have any self-service laundry facilities.  I understand that it was a higher end resort, but it also caters to familes (since it is located on Disney property) and families need to clean clothes.  Their laundry service was way too expensive to consider, so our last night there I actually hand washed a few items in the sink.  Also, their toilets seemed to be the low flow kind that don't flush well. My other main complaint was the timing of their cleaning service seemed to always come during Autumn's nap time (roughly 12:30 to 3 or 4).  We informed them of this the first time and they seemed to adjust a little bit, but it was still a pain somedays when our room wasn't cleaned until we came back late in the evening.  The hotel did have a very nice pool, which included a lazy river and a beach entry.  They also showed family movies on the lawn every evening, which you could actually view from inside the pool.  Also, kids ate free in the family friendly restaurant for breakfast and dinner.  The hotel offered a free shuttle to/from the Disney Parks every 30 minutes or hour (depending on the park).  I would definitely consider staying here again next time we visit WDW.

Once we got on the shuttle and headed to Hollywood Studios; we realized that the shuttle actually stopped at the Magic Kingdom, Epcot and then Hollywood Studios.  Autumn was getting kinda fussy, so we decided to just get off at the first stop - Magic Kingdom.  This ended up working out well.  We got to see a Mickey show, eat a snack, ride the tea cups and ride Dumbo.  After having a lot of fun Autumn started to get a little fussy, so we decided to call it an early night.  We ate dinner back at the hotel and got to bed relatively early.  We realized on Saturday, that it gets very hot in the afternoon, so we decided our game plan would be to start early each monring and then head back to the hotel for a nap during the heat of the day before going back to the park for dinner, rides and the nighttime shows.  I don't have any pictures from our first day.  It was a little hectic, just getting the feel of everything.

Sunday, we started early, heading to Hollywood Studios.  While there we met Mickey, saw the Voyage of the Little Mermaid, did some shopping, and ate at the 50's Prime Time Cafe.  Autumn loved the Voyage of the Little Mermaid.  Ariel is her favorite princess.  I have had NO influence on this at all (insert sarcasm).  After lunch we headed back to the hotel for nap time.  Getting Autumn to take a nap during this trip was super easy, since she was so worn out from all of the fun she was having.  After nap time we headed to Epcot.  Autumn's favorite part of Epcot was the Living Seas, which included a Nemo ride and a lot of aquariums to view.  She loves fish.  We ate dinner in Mexico at the Hacienda, which was mediocre at best (coming from Texas, we just expect better Mexican food).  After dinner we walked around the countries before the nighttime fireworks show.  I think Epcot is my favorite park.  I kept thinking - I wish I wasn't pregnant so I could drink.  They had margaritas in Mexico, wine in Italy and beer in Germany.  Next time I go to WDW I will not be pregnant.  I could really use a drink after a day of toting a toddler around.  The Epcot nighttime fireworks show was neat, but we didn't have a great view of it.  I recommend securing a good view early.

Okay, enough typing, I'll leave you with some pictures from Hollywood Studios and Epcot.  I will post more on the rest of our trip soon.




Meeting Mickey



Autumn was not a fan of her stroller.




Hanging out with Mickey.




More Mickey.




We loved our paci.




Hugging Pooh.  Autumn wasn't very familiar with Pooh, so she seemed a little wary of him.




Hanging out with Mommy and Pooh.




More Pooh Bear.




Fell asleep on the shuttle back to the hotel with her new Daisy.




Nap time.



Visiting the Fish at Epcot.



Hanging out with Nemo's turtle friend.




Working on saying "cheese."




Waiting with Grandma on dinner in Mexico.





Wearing her new Minnie Mouse ears.



Baby Walker Gender Reveal

A week ago, on Thursday, we had a "Gender Reveal Party" to reveal to our family and ourselves Baby Walker's gender.  Immediately after our ultrasound on Wednesday I went to The Sweet Boutique (TSB)  in the Sugar Land Town Square and placed an order for two dozen chocolate cake pops with either pink or blue cake inside.  I had e-mailed back and forth with Martin, one of the bakers there, about placing my order.  I wanted to be able to give them an envelope with the baby's sex written on a piece of paper inside and leave without knowing exactly which cake pops I was ordering.  This worked out perfectly, because my friend, Carey, who is one of TSB Managers was working there when I arrived.  I knew that the blue cake pops would be a little more expensive than the pink ones, because they have to make the cake dough custom vs. just using the strawberry cake dough for the pink.  Since I knew there was a cost differential I told Carey I did not want to know my final total for the cake pops, so I wouldn't figure out which color I was ordering.  TSB was great and they handled the order perfectly. 

I had asked everyone to dress in either blue or pink, depending on whether they thought we were having a boy or girl.  It was fun to see the guesses.  After everyone arrived, before we even started eating dinner, we decided to dig into the cake pops, so we could see if we were having a girl or boy.    I passed out the cake pops to everyone and told them to wait.  Autumn was going to bite into the cake pop first.  She knew exactly what to do.  That girl loves her some cake pops.  After a couple of bites Autumn got into the cake and we could tell that the inside was PINK!  We are having another sweet baby girl.  I am so excited for Autumn to have a little sister and for me to dress them alike!  I think Andrew has decided to forego a college savings and just start saving for weddings.  Andrew has always said that he would be perfectly happy with all baby girls, so I knew he wouldn't be upset that he wasn't getting a little boy to play with. 

We really enjoyed sharing this special moment with our families.  I loved the gender reveal party idea.  It was such a fun way to celebrate our little girl.

Here are some fun pics from the party!






Big girl excited to party!




Playing with Nana's cane.




More cane action.




Passing out the cake pops.




Cake Pops!




Tia guessed girl!





Let's get this party started!




Why is everyone so interested in me eating?





Proud Mommy and Daddy.




Big sister digging into a corn on the cob!



Anatomy Ultrasound

Yesterday we had our anatomy ultrasound at 18 weeks 6 days.  Baby Walker #2 looks great!  (S)he is measuring right on track for a November 8th due date.  This was very reasssuring news, since our antomy ultrasound with Autumn indicated that her growth was not on the "normal" curve.  I ended up being diagnosed with IUGR (intrauterine growth restriction) with Autumn at the beginning of my 2nd trimester and went on modified bed rest not too long after that.  We feel very blessed that Autumn was just a small baby, but was otherwise very normal.  I am so happy that we have been blessed with a healthy baby and a smooth pregnancy so far.  We have our gender reveal party tonight, and I cannot wait!!!  Here are a few pics from our ultrasound and a couple of cute pics of my big baby.


Perfect profile.




So that's the fist that keeps punching me!




Tiny feet!




Happy girl.




My big girl loves to eat, even broccoli.



20 Months

Autumn is 20 months old today.  20 Months just seems so close to 2, and Autumn is definitely getting closer to the Terrible (and Wonderful) Two's.  Here are some updates on what she is up to lately:

• Weight approx. 23 lbs, give or take half a pound.
• Height 33 inches or so
• Diaper Size 4
• Shoe Size 5
• Clothes - 12-18 months in pants, skirts, and shirts; 18-24 months in dresses; 2T in PJ's
• Autumn's hair is getting longer and curlier.  I love her soft curls in the back.
• Autumn is becoming more demanding and defiant.  She likes to tell us where to go and what to do and if we don't do what she wants WATCH OUT!  :-)  She will shake her little index finger at you and say something like "bad".  It's hard not to laugh at the cuteness of it.  I'm not quite sure where she has picked this up from either.
• Autumn does not like time out's, but Mommy and Daddy have found them to be very effective. 
• Autumn loves to give hugs and kisses and a few months ago her kisses started being more normal.  She used to only give open mouthed kisses.
• Autumn loves her baby dolls and stuffed animals and she likes to hug them when you ask her to.
• Autumn thinks she is having a "sees".  I like to ask her where Mommy's baby is and she points to my belly.  Last weekend I asked her if she wanted a sister or a brother and she said "sees".  I think she may have just been repeating what I said, but I am taking it as her prediction of baby #2's gender.  We'll find out soon enough though (ultrasound tomorrow and gender reveal party on Thursday).
• Autumn is a big helper.  She throws away her trash, diapers, etc.  She likes to wash her hands and brush her teeth and she likes to bring you things you ask for.
• Autumn still loves shoes.  If you are in our house barefoot she will find your shoes and bring them to you.  She did that this weekend to Tia's Dad (Abuelito) who was barefoot (in his own house mind you).  Autumn brought him his house shoes.
• Autumn LOVES chocolate.
• Autumn is still a great eater.  Some meals she eats more than others, and she generally snacks a lot, but I don't think I have found anything she won't eat.
• Our project to "Disneyfy" Autumn has gone well.  She loves Minnie and Mickey.  I can't wait to see her reaction when we get to Disney World this weekend.  I am hoping and praying for good weather.

Autumn, you are so much fun at this age.  You like to test out your boundaries and can drive Mommy and Daddy nuts, but then you turn around and do something that just melts our hearts.  You are talking more and more every day and you understand so much.  Mommy and Daddy love you very much and we think you will be a wonderful big sister.

Several days ago Autumn and Daddy were rough housing (Daddy was tickling Autumn and she was running away from him).  She tripped and fell and hit her head on the corner of her bed.  She had to have "glue" put on her boo-boo.  We were glad that it didn't require stitches, although the trip to the Minor ER Clinic was not fun for any of us.

Eating chocolate - YUM!



More chocolate at Tia's baby shower in San Antonio.  Side note - Autumn bit me and had to go in time out after I refused to let her have a 2nd chocolate covered strawberry.




Hanging out at the bay house.




Enjoying the beach.