The Kingdom

As I said on my Facebook status, I can't believe I actually came up with the idea of going to Disney but I guess that's what having kids does to you.  It's no secret that I'm not a big Disney fan mainly because I don't understand the concept of paying someone $75 for the privilege of waiting in long lines with a 120-second payoff.  Having said that, I figured that if we got there when it opened we could hit what we wanted before it got too crowded.  Right now they're having a Florida resident special of $99 for a ticket to each park (so four total).  Considering that one day is practically that price, it's a pretty good deal.  I figured we should do it now before we have to pay for Calleigh when she turns three soon.  

So yesterday was the day that we started our tour of the four parks and we chose Animal Kingdom to start...or as Calleigh refers to it in retrospect, "The Kingdom."  We got up about 6:30 and made it to First Watch by 7:15.  Can't miss that Sunday morning ritual!  Ron & Elaine did not make it at such an early hour however.  We were right on schedule until Duncan's contact ripped and we had to go back home after breakfast but nonetheless, we made it to the park just before it opened.  There was no line to buy the tickets so things looked very promising.  Our first stop was a little show called "It's Tough to Be a Bug" which I would re-name to "It's Tough to be a Toddler Watching the Bug Show."  It's in 3-D and I think that only added to the scariness.  Bugs were popping out left and right, there were loud noises, and when the lights went off and stuff started spraying out, I knew we were toast.  Aubree started shaking in my arms and I could hear Calleigh's sounds of fear so out the door we went.  We definitely won't be returning to that attraction for a good several years.

From there, we got our FastPass for the Safari and then set off to get on a train to the petting area.  About two seconds later, I look and there's Calleigh climbing this little dirt hill and sliding down.  Did I mention it was wet?  So she's basically covered her backside in dirt/mud.  Oh well.  Kids will be kids.  At the petting area, Calleigh and Duncan met a sheep named Duncan while I nursed Aubree.  We also met a snake that Calleigh couldn't quite convince herself to pet despite several other little girls petting it.  But really, who can blame her?

                                           Duncan, the Sheep

The Safari was a great time with hippos, rhinos, elephants, among others but my personal favorite was watching two baby giraffes chase each other.  That was amazing!  From there we walked a trail to see the gorillas, which Calleigh noted rather loudly, had "bum bums."  With all the amazing animals we saw, we asked Calleigh when we left what her favorite was and she said, "The fish."  Go figure!

But probably the most fun thing was a play area for kids that had a bunch of climbing stuff, slides, and an area that you could do an "archeological dig."  I think she could have run around in there for hours.  It was such a joy to see the excitement on her face as she ran from thing to thing.

We went on one ride and then ate our lunch that we had brought.  This is highly recommended.  It's just not worth battling lines to get food there not to mention the prices.  We brought some good old PB&J's, bottles of water, and fruit and it worked out perfectly.  By that time, it was about 1:15 and we could tell the girls were wiped and frankly, so were we.  Since we barely had to wait in any lines, the four hours we were there seemed just the right amount of time to do what we wanted.  As we walked towards the exit, both girls conked out in the stroller.  I didn't have a good feeling about that since I figure they wouldn't go back to sleep but amazingly Calleigh did take her regular nap when we got home and so did Aubree even though she slept all the way in the car too.

All in all, it was a great family outing.  The only thing that slightly marred it was a little injury that Calleigh suffered.  She was walking on a bench, while supervised, but then she slipped and hit her eye on the seat.  It was obviously a moment of panic because it could have been a pretty bad injury.  Fortunately she just has an ugly looking cut right above the left eye but it didn't bleed profusely or anything like that.  Nothing that a binky couldn't take care!  Good thing I had brought it.

Saturday we had a great day too.  Of course, there was the usual church and Sabbath School which was great but then after nap time, we went over to the Zbaraschuks for some fellowship.  They have two boys Zachary and Kaleb who are almost four and two.  Allen, Tangie, and Braelyn were there along with another couple Kent and Kelli.  Calleigh had such a good time playing with those guys and all the toys.  It was weird though because we noticed that Calleigh's voice sounds so much like Zachary's.  When we couldn't see who was talking, Duncan and I would get mixed up on whether it was Calleigh or Zachary.  We had a nice supper and then we had to practically drag Calleigh away.  She was very upset that we had to leave and once we were in the van she kept saying that we should stop the van and that she wanted to go back.

    

Calleigh admiring the pineapple she put on the pizza.

                    Kaleb and Aubree got along very well.

Today was Aubree's pediatrician visit.  As expected, she was on the low side of the scale for weight.  Here are her measurements:

Weight: 16 lbs, 10 oz (15th percentile)
Length: 27 1/2 inches (50th percentile)
Head:   17 1/2 inches (75th percentile)

The doctor was only mildly concerned about her weight.  I told her it seems to be a pattern since Calleigh had the same problem (although Calleigh was smaller earlier on and by 9 months was back up to the 25th).  Clearly, Calleigh got over it since she was in the 75th percentile at 2 years.  Aubree loves to eat so I'm really not sure what's causing the weight drop (weight itself isn't dropping but the percentile has been).

We did have Dr. Anne look a little more at this cyst like thing that Aubree has on her upper left chest.  It sortof looks like someone pricked her with a pin.  It's indented a little bit and when you touch it, you can feel a little lump.  She's had it since she was born and Dr. Anne had told us before that we should keep our eye on it.  It changed it's appearance the last month (it got a little red and almost looked like a blemish) so we pointed it out to her.  She doesn't think it's anything serious but she recommended we got to a specialist to see if they want to do an ultrasound to see what it is.

The other thing is that they had me feel out this questionnaire about her development like if she's crawling, standing up, finding objects you've hidden, repeating sounds back to you, etc.  I felt like a horrible parent because some of the stuff on the list, I hadn't even tried.  I suppose that's a second child for you.  They're bound to get less attention.  Anyway, she's not crawling or pulling herself up or repeating sounds (although she makes lots of sounds on her own) or doing some of the other stuff.  The doctor was thinking maybe she needed to go somewhere for testing but then when she saw that she could use her pincher grasp (which she does really well), she said she thought she was probably fine and we could just re-test her at 12-months.  Quite frankly, I was a little surprised at all this because a lot of the things they had listed, I just didn't think they are things you're average 9-month old could do.  Not that I'm an expert or anything but I have had one kid who I consider fairly above average when it comes to many things (well, at least talking) and I don't think Calleigh was doing a lot of that stuff at 9 months (although she was crawling and pulling herself up).  At any rate, Dr. Anne said it's most likely that Aubree's just a mellow kid who merely doesn't feel like doing some things just yet.  I can agree with that.

Well, I have work to do but I wanted to get something posted before I forget all of the recent activities!