Happy Birthday Callie!

Callie is now a big girl.  We got rid of her ko-ko Sunday night and she had her birthday Wednesday.  I figured out why kids go through the terrible twos.  It's because they have to get rid of their binkies.  Callie's behavior has been less than awesome since she got rid of it.  I'm hoping she'll snap out of it soon and become the happy baby I'm used to.  Any ideas on how to get a child to learn to self sooth?

Well we had a good birthday here.  Callie woke up and promptly asked for cake.  I told her we had to wait until tonight.  Then she asked for Nate.  I told her he was at work.  Strike two.  Then she remembered she got donuts and that I could deliver.  She also got some balloons and even let her open a present early, which she was really excited about.  Because she is the second child we then went to the gym and took Kenna to gymnastics.  Poor kid.  After her nap I did let her help me make and eat two unfrosted cupcakes.  She was very excited to finally have some cake.

 

She spent several days leading up to her birthday telling people, "I cake (insert blowing noise)", trying to indicate that she was going to get to have cake and blow out the candles.  She also said things like, "I happ-uh berday" or "I big girl".  She's pretty adorable.

When Nate got home we skyped Grandma Dawnene while Callie opened her present...a castle tent.  The girls had fun crawling in and out of there.  Jarom and Lix came over and we got to skype Grandma Nancy while we sang and had cake.  Callie blew out the candle all by herself and then smeared frosting all over her face.  Jared and Carlie came over to help open presents.  Callie had a good time unwrapping them and wanted to play with each one individually before opening the next, which she didn't get to do because there were so many kids shoving presents toward her.

 

 

 

She played fetch with a light up ball from her cousins.  It was pretty funny because it really was a game of fetch.  Someone would throw it and she'd go get it and bring it back.  She got a little play puppy and before she could even register her excitement over the puppy she opened Kenna's present (the genie from Aladdin) and was excited all over again.  Kenna may have been just excited about this present and ended up sneaking it to bed with her assuring me she would give it back to Callie in the morning.  It was a good night.

the puppy

 the genie

 callie's very own 'legos'

 Here are some things about two-year-old Callie:
-My little Callie still doesn't have all her teeth.  She has her front teeth and her molars.

-She loves to twirl and giggles the whole time.
-She tries really hard to get herself dressed and gets most of the way there too.
-Up until I took the binkie away she was happy all the time.  Now she is having some trouble soothing herself but she is still pretty happy.
-When she answers a question she says, "Uhhh" first.
-She loves Doc Mcstuffin (who she calls Dora).
-She loves "mee mouse".
-When you ask her to give you a kiss she puts her forehead on your face.
-She loves the song 'Jesus Wants me for a Sunbeam' but calls it "at school at play".
-She LOVES her sister and is always happy to see her in the morning.
-She is very caring and if someone, particularly Kenna, is crying she tries to help them.  If Kenna is sad she will go track down Kenna's silkie and bring it to her.
-When she wants you to play with her she will tell you, "cook uh egg", meaning come to the kitchen set and play with her.
-Callie likes to do things by herself and gets frustrated when she can't.
-She eats all the time and is not very picky.  She especially loves blueberries, strawberries, cheese, yogurt and noodles.  She also loves cashews, raisins and "ah-po bar" (granola bars)
-She is unbelievably ticklish under her chin.  When you sneak in there to blow some raspberries she will start to laugh uncontrollably.
-She usually answers "no" to most questions at first before thinking about the real answer to the question
-She only snuggles at bedtime and only uses it as a delay tactic for bedtime
-She loves shoes.  She puts on Kenna's, dad's, mom's, and her own several thousand times a day
-She is a master at somersaults
-She likes jumping from the ottoman to the couch at least 400 times a day.  She insists on an audience every time.
-She loves 'joo-nastics' because Kenna does.  She likes to go watch Kenna and copies whatever Kenna does at home with a gleeful, "watts iss mom!" (watch this mom).  As she's copying Kenna she says, "I do nastics! I do nastics!"

 

Disney Cruisin'

This post could be summed up in three words.  I love Disney.  Several months back we heard that Bruce and Nancy were taking some of the missionaries they had served with (the "assistants or the president" or "ap's") on a Disney Cruise.  We also found out that Jarom and Alixa were going so we called Nancy and invited ourselves on the cruise.  She was kind enough to let us go.  It was awesome!  The girls knew we were going and for about a month before Callie and I would have conversations that went like this

Callie: "I go disney cruise?  See gamma Nancy?" 
Me: "Yes, but not today."
Callie: "After nap"
Me: "No. Another day"
Callie: "Not now?"

They usually happened as I was putting her down for her nap so she said them with her binki in her mouth and it was adorable.  All the hype and excitement was worth it.  It was an amazing vacation!  Someone asked me if it was relaxing.  It definitely was not, but it was great to get to spend so much time with my family away from phones and work and email. 

We flew out a day early and met a bunch of people including Grandma, Grandpa and Jarom and Lix at a hotel near the Orlando airport.  Those kids love each other.  When they saw each other in the hotel you'd never guess they had just seen each other the day before.

The next morning we took a shuttle back to the airport to catch the disney bus to the ship.  The kids were all excited and Kenna and Jenna decided the first thing they should do when we got to an island was look for buried treasure.  I think they forgot about those plans but had fun anyway.

When we got to the ship everyone clapped us aboard.  Our room wasn't quite ready yet so we headed upstairs for lunch and to show the girls where we could get frozen yogurt anytime of the day.  They thought that was pretty awesome.

 

Callie had a nap while Nate took Kenna swimming.  It turns out Callie could only go in the splash pad because she isn't potty trained.  It was kind of a bummer but it makes sense.  I wouldn't want to swim in some other kid's poop.  The splash pad was huge and it had a slide so she was happy there.  Our first dinner was in the Royal Court where there were pictures of every princess on the walls.  We met Munir, the head server who would come to the table every night and ask Kenna for a bite of whatever she was eating (usually dessert).  She was really confused for the first two nights and hesitantly offered him some but after she learned it was a joke she thought it was pretty funny.

Callie with Munir

Dinner was a bit of a fiasco each night.  It got progressively better as we got to know the AP's and their wives.  I can't say enough about how nice they all were.  They all talked to and played with the kids and participated in their silly games.  They all put up with Kenna's surprise tickle attacks which often lasted for 10 minutes before we could call her off.  They were so nice and very helpful to have around.  As long as Callie was well-fed she was happy.

Poor Joseph was extremely ticklish which Kenna took full advantage of, egged on by his fiance.

We also ate dinner in The Enchanted Garden where the lights changed colors and the Animator's Palate where they had screens with interactive shows during dinner.  Jenna was interviewed by Crush the turtle and Kenna drew a picture that danced on the screen for her.  Hers is the striped man third from the left.

Callie ate almost the entire time on the cruise which kept her happy.  She had a wide variety of food but really enjoyed the mac and cheese (which was delicious!).

That is a salmon filet in her hand which she ate like a french fry.

 The girls got mickey shaped ice cream bars for dessert most nights.

 Callie enjoyed playing with all the silverware and dishes on the table.

After dinner each night there was a show.  Most of the involved singing and dancing which the girls loved.  They were wide eyed and singing and dancing throughout all the shows.  It made me happy to watch them.  One night there was a full production of Aladdin.  This was Kenna's favorite show because Jasmine is her favorite princess.  One of the performers dressed as the carpet.  She didn't have any speaking parts but did lots of flips and tumbles.  I told Kenna she was a gymnastics girl.  Carpet was definitely her favorite and she still talks about her.

There were also screeners of some of the new Disney movies on the ship.  They showed Captain America, Guardians of the Galaxy and The Hundred Step Journey, which I saw by myself while everyone else napped.  It was a great film and for the first time in 5 years I got to see a movie before my sister.

We also got to see lots of characters on the ship.  Right before dinner the first night we found Pluto and Callie completely lost it.  She wanted to see him so badly she nearly jumped out of my arms.  They were definitely her favorite part (besides for the food).  They always appeared on the main balcony so she knew to look for them there.  If they were there we had to stop and wait to see them.  If they weren't there she'd say, "Its Mickey Mouse hab uh nap."  Which is what I told her the first time one of them had to leave.  One night after dinner Chip and Dale showed up to dance with us and one of them held her hand and danced with her for a while.  She was in heaven.

 

 Callie liked the 'pintess' but not as much as the Mickey characters.

 

 Anna and Elsa were on the ship but apparently it was a big secret.  I heard it from another mom who told me I had to go to guest services and ask to have my name placed on the list.  I did this and was told they would deliver and invitation to my room with the time and place I should go to meet them.  Very secretive but Kenna and Jenna were super excited to meet them.

 

Thursday night was Pirates in the Caribbean night.   We all dressed up for dinner and then got to go watch Mickey and his friends fight off Captain Hook and his pirates.  It was a fun show and apparently our awesome captain steered around the rain clouds all night so they could have the show and fireworks up on deck.

 

We had two days on ship which we spent hanging out with the APs, having a basketball tournament, playing mini golf and eating.  Callie and Kenna entertained themeselves while Nate was playing basketball by doing gymnastics on the court.  When they got sick of that they played mini golf and ping pong.

 

 

 

 We had four stops on our cruise.  The first day we stopped in Cozumel Mexico.  We did some research ahead of time and found a beach we wanted to visit so we hopped in a cab and headed down.  We were keeping our fingers crossed that it turned out to be a good one and it was.  We had so much fun there!  The girls loved it and we loved it.  There were tons of water slides/trampolines/launches/jungle gyms in the ocean and since we got there so early it was nearly empty for an hour.  We jumped, slid and climbed and when we were ready for a break we dug in the sand, drank a smoothie then headed back out for more jumping and sliding.  It was such a fun morning!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 Our next port of call was Grand Cayman.  Everyone was doing a stingray trip.  Callie was too little to go so we left her in the daycare and took Kenna to see the stingrays.  We boated out to a sandbar with very shallow water.  Our guide told us fishermen used to clean their fish here so the stingrays have become used to the boats and being fed so we would be able to see and touch them.  They did not disappoint.  There were a ton of stingrays swimming around us and we could feel them brushing our legs.  It was neat.  Kenna was a little scared at first and spent the first 10 minutes in the water trying to climb onto my head but she eventually calmed down and put her face in the water to see the stingrays.  She even got to touch some and one named Suzy gave her a high five by flapping her fin onto Kenna's hand while the guide was holding it.  It was a very cool experience.  The stingrays were beautiful.

 

 Third stop was Jamaica man.  The group excursion was not kid friendly so we signed up for a different one.  We had about an hour bus ride where our guide gave us some history of the island and got the girls saying 'yah man'.  It was really funny to hear Callie yell this.  We stopped first a Dunn's River Falls.  Disney told us Callie wouldn't be able to climb up the falls but the guides there didn't seem to care so Nate carried her up with us.  It was a pretty easy climb.  We were in the family group so the took us up the easy way.  The climb was interspersed with little pools of water which Callie desperately wanted to swim in.  She started to lose it when we wouldn't let go of her in the water and the breaking point came when she put her face in the water, looked up at me, smiled and said, "I drink uh water".  She lost it when I told her she couldn't do that.  A meltdown ensued and Kenna was also tired of climbing so we got out just before we reached the top.  We fed Callie and regrouped on the bus ride to dolphin cove.

 Some sister love on the bus ride.

 

 

 

Nate and Kenna got to interact with a dolphin.  Callie was too little so she and I enjoyed a delicious jerk chicken lunch while they did that.  Callie ate lunch again after they were finished.  Unfortunately because i was with Callie I didn't get any great pictures of Kenna with the dolphin but Nate said her little face lit up the entire time and she laughed and giggled at the dolphin.  She even got a kiss on the cheek.  The dolphin did tricks, splashed them and jumped in the air.  Kenna loved it.

 

 

 The rest of dolphin cove was fun to explore.  We got to see rabbits, chickens, iguanas, parakeets and parrots.  Very touristy but the kids loved it!  We wrapped it up with a swim at the beach before headed back to the bus.

 

 

 

The last stop was Castaway Cay - Disney's private island. We saved all our sunburning for the last day.  The girls were okay but Nate and I cooked.  It was a lot of fun though.  Nate took Kenna snorkeling.  They got to see fish, shells and even a stingray.  We hung out with the the rest of the family and the AP's who were once again nice enough to play with the girls.  We took some chairs in the ocean to sit on and these big white fish decided to hide under there.  The girls had fun trying to catch them an filling their buckets with as many sea shells as possible.  It was a great day!

The next morning we disembarked early and waited around at the airport for our plane.  Fortunately we had lots of good company and more entertainment for the kiddos.  It was an amazing week and it is always much harder to come back to real life after so much fun and family time.  Callie is having withdrawals from Nate and can't understand why he is at work during the day again.  I guess that means we will have to plan another vacation again soon!