The Dis

Since my parents live only about 2 hours from Orlando, I knew we'd get to Disney World eventually. It's expensive -- $95 for a one-day adult ticket to Magic Kingdom -- so I thought we'd probably wait until Molly was older. But she's so into princesses now and there are so many rides designed for preschoolers, we decided to go ahead and go this Christmas when Cinderella's castle would have maximum impact.

I think my family went to Disney World when I was about 8 years old. We went to all the parks over the course of 4 or 5 days and I remember it being an overwhelming experience. It was fun, but there was definitely some fighting. A lost car. Long lines and lots of waiting.

When I told people we were planning to go to Disney World, I tended to get one of two reactions. Either, "Oh, goodness....really? Well, good luck with that. I hear it's totally packed around Christmas." OR, "Oh my gosh! It's so much fun! You're going to love it!" My guess is that people with the first type of response went to Disney World years ago and have memories similar to mine (or they're just grumpy) and that people with the second type of response went more recently because the Disney World of today is awesome.

What probably changed the game and made a day at Disney so much easier is the Fast Pass (introduced in 1999, according to Wikipedia). It basically allows you to jump right to the front of the line and go on rides without waiting. Heaven. You have to plan ahead a little bit. You can only get one Fast Pass at a time and the window for the ride you want is usually about an hour away. But there's plenty of other stuff to see and do while you're waiting and nothing is more satisfying than walking up to the front of a line that is 75 minutes long.

Molly had so much fun, as you can see in the pictures below, and was a really good kid all day. She was a little overwhelmed at first -- it's a lot to take in -- but after an hour or so, she was hamming it up with Minnie Mouse and brave enough to go on a roller coaster.

We spent about 10 hours at Magic Kingdom, from about 8:30 am to 6:30 pm. We could have stayed even longer -- the park is open until 1:00 am -- but Jason and I felt like we'd seen and done enough :) Molly was still full of energy, of course, and dancing around in her new princess dress, but after the Fairy Godmother lit up the castle with her magic wand, we told Molly it was over and everyone was leaving. She believed us.

The food left a little to be desired, and I wish they wouldn't torture young children with SO many gift shops, but all in all, it was a pretty magical experience. When can we go again?

The happy family

Journey of the Little Mermaid -- the only ride we went on twice :)

A little nervous to meet her first princess

Comparing braids with Rapunzel

Goofing off with Minnie Mouse

Checking out Mickey's Christmas Parade

The spinning tea cups

Enjoying Disney's best junk food

First roller coaster -- The Barnstormer

End of the day -- finally a princess

Lights!

Christmas Magic 2013

Greetings from Florida! We had a very very merry Christmas yesterday with my parents, sisters, brothers-in-law, nephew, grandparents, and Aunt Suzie. It was a day filled with gifts, food, chatter, and laughter. And since we're in Florida, add on tennis, bike rides, and walks on the beach. Sigh, I love it here. Here are a few pics from the big day -- I promise to write about Disney soon!

Trimming the tree -- thanks to Google+  for the twinkle effects

A hug for cousin James

Stockings

One of many (many) gifts for Molly - Monkey George!

Bonding with Aunt B...

...and with Aunt Sus

James going after the Slinky -- once again, Molly had a hard time sharing her Christmas loot!

Lead the way

Jason and I had an interesting parent teacher conference yesterday morning. We came prepared with questions, wanting to know more about Molly's interactions with the other kids. She is pretty shy around our friends' kids -- it always takes her a while to warm up -- and lately she has been refusing to participate in ballet. Jason and I try not to worry about it, but you know, we want her to be able to mix it up and have fun.

So imagine our surprise when the teacher tells us that Molly is one of the ringleaders of her class. Apparently she is friends with all the kids, is one of the ones who gets different games started, and sometimes gets in trouble (aka, gets put "on yellow") for talking too much and not listening. Huh?

The teacher laughed at us when we asked if Molly was too shy or sensitive. She said Molly pretty much rules Preschool 1.

So I guess Molly's got her own life. At 3 and a half. I think Jason and I need to start letting her lead the way a little bit more. If she's not comfortable with her ballet class, no big deal. It doesn't mean she's not social, she just likes smaller groups and kids her age. We just have to let her grow up and do her thing. Because apparently she's doing just fine!

Corrections

Apparently I misinterpreted part of my conversation with Molly yesterday (see below). Jason told me she's been harassing him about taking her along on a work trip. So she wasn't even answering my "What do mommies do?" question with that comment. She was asking for permission to tag along on a business trip with her dad. Little does she know, a trip to Jason's office in the New Jersey 'burbs would probably be less than thrilling...

Also, as Jason pointed out, if I asked "What do daddies do?" and got "Go to work" as one of the top 2 answers, I would not have blinked an eye. I need to get my head in 2013 and stop stressing about being a working mom. It's not like I'm the only one doing it! I need to embrace this life instead of apologizing for it. What do mommies do? I think we can do just about anything.

What do mommies do?

A conversation with my daughter, who has been pretending lately that Barbie is her child:

Me: "So Molly, what do mommies do?"

 

Molly: "They give kisses."

 

Me: "Ok, that's a good answer. What else?"

 

Molly: "They go to work."

 

Me: (Pause for a minute because, wow, that hurts a little bit.)

 

Me: "Yes, they do go to work. What else do they do? What do you do for your child?"

 

Molly: "Go on a work trip. With Daddy!"

 

Me: (Another pause. Hmmm, these are not the answers I was expecting. What was I expecting anyway?)

 

Me: "Nooo, silly, we don't go on work trips together. Mommies do lots of things for their children. What do I do for you?"

 

Molly: "Get me dresses! And headbands!"

 

At this point, I decided to call it quits and just smother my daughter in kisses. At least that was her #1 answer! 

Making a list and checking it twice

No, not my Christmas list. I'm starting to think about my New Year's Resolutions. I was pretty happy with my 2013 list. Although I missed my exercise goal on and off throughout the year, I did a pretty good job picking up Molly early and never missed a date night.

This year, I'm thinking I'll keep the exercise and date night resolutions, but want to exchange my Molly resolution for something better. Instead of making a point to spend more time with Molly, I want to make it my goal to spend more quality time with Molly. And that means putting down my phone. Kylie wrote a good blog post about the topic a few months ago. Although I agreed with everything she wrote, I didn't actually take her advice.

I read in the paper today that most adults check their phones 150 times a day. I couldn't believe that stat when I read it, but I bet it's probably true. Scary! I know I don't need to look at that thing 150 times a day. I just do it out of habit. Boredom. But the whole point of making resolutions is to change bad habits, right? I can do it. The phone will go away from 7 to 8 every morning and from 6 to 8 every evening. Breaking the habit on weekends might be harder, especially during fantasy football season. However, if my 2014 teams are as bad as my 2013 teams, it might not end up being so difficult after all!

Thanks for the break!

It's only Saturday, but I feel like I've been on vacation for a week! Work has been slow, so really, I guess I have been coasting along since Monday. And we did our best to try and simplify the holiday this year -- no new recipes, just old favorites, and a few shortcuts (boxed stuffing from Trader Joe's is pretty good in case you're wondering!) -- so the cooking part was fairly straightforward. That has left plenty of time for hanging out with family and friends, which is the whole point, right?

Molly and Jamesy bouncing together

Princess Molly stealing apples meant for pie

First movie at the theater - we saw Frozen, the latest animated Disney movie

It's been nice couple of days away from work. And there's still good stuff to look forward to. We have chili night tonight with Izzy's family and plans to get our Christmas tree tomorrow. Thanksgiving may be over, but I'm still feeling thankful!

Outtakes

Molls and I had a little impromptu photo shoot this morning. One of the holiday card companies is having a 25% off sales that ends today, so I thought I might try to get a good picture and see if I could take advantage of the discount.

Molly is not the easiest child to photograph, but I did manage to get a bunch of good/funny pics by promising her a lollipop at the end. The winning shot is not included in this post, but here are a few that show off her silly personality:

Small improvements

I'm home alone with the Molls this weekend, so I thought I'd try to make a few small and inexpensive improvements to my front room. Better?

I pulled the couch away from the window, centered the rug and coffee table with the fireplace, added a throw pillow, staged my coffee table, and placed something below the painting so it doesn't look so high.

Like my fake candles?

Ignore the "JOY" stocking holders. I forgot to take them down for the picture

Maybe the leather chair should stay. I'm torn.

My houzz

Assuming I get a holiday bonus and not a subscription to the jelly of the month club, my plan is to get a couple of chairs for the front room to form a little conversation area. People have been hanging out in that room now that we've set up our record player and speakers and I'm sick of dragging chairs in from the dining room!

Since there's still a little time before the holidays, I decided to upload pictures to houzz.com to get opinions from wannabe designers on styles and colors. Ha! Within minutes, I had opinions on a million different things and nothing about the chairs.

Eventually, someone recommended chairs from West Elm and even did a little mock layout for me. So now I have a style and arrangement to keep in mind when I start furniture shopping. And plenty of other decorating ideas to consider :)

I'm laughing a little bit about the feedback I got from people on houzz, but I'm actually pretty happy with how it all worked. Thanks to Kylie for the recommendation! Who knew it would make such a difference to pull my couch away from the window?

Here are a few pictures of the room now. I'll post again after the new year whenever I've made progress.

Memories

I love school picture time. While I'm not technically supposed to scan these photos, I don't feel too guilty because I always purchase the prints. This year, they range from adorable to hilarious.

We'll start with the good. This is definitely frame-worthy

Say cheese! Should I buy this one just to embarrass Molly later in life? 

A forced smile if I ever saw one. But at least she's trying

And now for her surly look. Apparently Molly was not happy to have to pose with her cousin. She really does like him though! I promise.

We'll end with the best photo of all - little Fabio

A rainy Halloween

I guess I already showed off Molly's costume in the last post, but here are a couple of cute pics from school and an adorable post trick-or-treating video. It rained, but was pretty warm, so no big deal. Mermaids are supposed to be wet anyway, right?

Bianca and Molls - two sassy mermaids!

Molls and Suraya. I have a feeling it was a very happy day today at school

And now for the real cuteness - a mermaid in action:

Girls

I pretty much ditched Jason all weekend, but since he was feeling sick anyway, I don't feel too bad about it. Especially since I got some much-needed girl time with my friends, daughter, and sisters.

On Friday night, I got to go out with my high school girlfriends, Dana and Lindsay. We did it up right and stayed downtown like VIPs at The Langham Hotel. One of Lindsay's best friends is a travel agent and she got us a room upgrade and vouchers for room service and drinks at the bar. Nice way to start and end our night.

We had the best time eating, drinking, talking, and dancing. There's just something so nice about hanging out with friends who have known you forever.

My high school girls -- we pick up right where we left off every time

Then on Saturday, Molly and I met Izzy and her mom at the Evanston Fairy Tale Trail. Each year for Halloween, the Woman's Club sets up a bunch of rooms with different themes -- princesses, Mother Goose, under the sea, transportation, jungle book, etc. -- and the kids go through in costumes and play with a bunch of different toys. We could have stayed all day, Molly had so much fun. Welcome the world of make believe.

A princess and a fairy

Tea party

Heart and soul

Giving us her best Ariel smile - all ready for Halloween

Last night, Betsy, Susie, and I finally celebrated Susie's birthday. We went to Vincent in Andersonville, which I highly recommend. The broth used in the curried mussels dish was so good, Susie and I slurped it up with spoons at the end. I hope no one saw us do that :)

Happy belated birthday to the Sus! I am having a really hard time accepting the fact that she's 29.

The weekend is almost over, but the girl time continues. Jason is still feeling kind of sick, so it's going to be a pretty lazy Sunday. We've already watched one movie, Tangled, my new favorite Disney movie, and now Molly is building Rapunzel's tower while I write this post. I think the dress up clothes are coming out next. Maybe we'll have a little mother-daughter Jello-making session later. Paint our nails. You know, girl stuff.

What's up?

So what's the latest in O'Grady land?

• Molls still loves princesses, stickers, play-doh, and party dresses. She's sleeping in a big girl bed (when she's not demanding to sleep with me) and seems to be having lots of fun with her friends at school and in ballet class. We're trying to work on listening and sharing...some days are better than others

Molls had fun at the pumpkin patch, but was too chicken to go on any of the carnival rides

• Jason has been traveling and fighting illness, but I get him back in town on Fri and am looking forward to a date night. Thanks in advance to the Sus for babysitting :) 
• In my spare time, I have started knitting again! Check out my latest project:

I'm making this in black

• I'm also enjoying the return of Fall TV. Homeland, Boardwalk Empire, The Walking Dead, Nashville, Top Chef, Modern Family...so many good shows, so little time. B is coming over tomorrow for the Project Runway finale. Go Dom! 
• Speaking of B, James is sitting up and slimming down. I had the pleasure of watching him on Monday when daycare was closed. He wasn't feeling well, but still played like a champ and treated us all to plenty of his famous smiles

Handsome James

• Weekends are still pretty full with ballet class and football games, but we're also trying to make sure we leave time for ourselves and to see our friends. We're finally going to meet Jon and Sarah's new baby, Mia, on Sunday and then if the weather is still nice, we'll ride bikes along the lake. Can't complain about that plan, can I? 

40 years

I was going to post a bunch of pictures from the weekend, but this might be the only one that really matters:

Happy anniversary to Marsha and Steve

We had such a wonderful weekend and I think you can probably tell from the photo that Marsha and Steve did too :)