Just Heather
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Don’t Blink!
Dec 07, 2004 | Filed Under: Mommyhood

I swear she is learning a new word every day. Just a few weeks ago, she only had a handful of words that were recognizable to anyone but me. Granted, I’m still the one who understands her best. She is two, after all, but the words are coming more frequently.

Yesterday she said Thank you for the first time. She also said I love you without prompting. She’s been repeating it for about a week, but this was different. She walked into the kitchen where I was fixing her lunch, stopped by me, said “wuvva” and walked off! I cried. A lot.

I seem to cry a lot these days (and, no, I’m not pregnant!) I bought her some adorable Carter’s jammies for her birthday. She chose to sleep in the “pwetty fowers” right away, and I cried when I tore off the tag. Their slogan gets me every, single time. “If they could just stay little ’til their Carters wear out.” I mean, really, is it too much to ask for her to stay little for just a few days past her birthday?

I know she can’t stay little forever, but somebody tell her she doesn’t have to grow up all at once. She doesn’t seem to be listening to me.

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Help! I can’t say no!
Dec 06, 2004 | Filed Under: Household CEO

This has been a horrible week, and it’s all downhill from here. I get a stress headache every night, right about now. The only thing I consume before dinnertime each day is pure sugar because anything else would actually require me to sit down and eat. I stopped writing my to-do lists down because just looking at it on paper made me nauseous.

Still—go ahead and ask me to bake cookies. You know I won’t turn you down! I have this weird urge inside me to help. Plus, since my main occupation is Mom I feel like I have to volunteer for everything that’s lacking committee members. That’s why I’m Brownie Leader, Staff Appreciation Day committee, classroom party committee, and PTO member. I can’t seem to shut it off even for a second, and everybody knows this.

I don’t even volunteer any more. I just wait for people to call and say “we really need someone to _____, can you do it?” and then—since I’m an idiot—I say, “of course!” I’d make a list of all the crap I’ve committed myself to in the next two weeks, but I really don’t want an entire front page full of bullet points. Let’s just say it’s a lot and leave it at that.

Plus—somehow—it just occured to me that the legacy album I decided to do for hubby’s grandparents for Christmas was going to add to my workload. How did that knowledge elude me until now?

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Happy Birthday, Munchkin!
Dec 05, 2004 | Filed Under: Mommyhood, Party Girl

Today, my baby turns 2. Where does the time go? It’s not that I can’t believe she’s two-years-old—she acts very two—I just can’t believe two years have passed since I held her tiny baby hands, kissed her tiny baby head, and marveled at her tiny baby toes.

I don’t feel any older. Why should my baby be?

I'm 2!

I'm 2!

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Stacia: All About My Vacation
Dec 05, 2004 | Filed Under: Dictated By..., Family Fun

It was fun at my vacation. I liked it. It was really, really fun! I loved it! I loved it, loved it, loved it! It was so awesome. I got to meet Mickey and Jasmine, Aladdin. But I didn’t get to meet Genie last time. Or I didn’t get to see any of the people Aladdin’s story last time. It was very hard to figure out which ones I knew. Because I know every one of them, but one of them I didn’t get to see on my vacation—my second vacation.

I got to sleep in a hotel. It was fun. I got to sleep with my sister, Brenia! (picks Brenia up for hugs) And my mom and dad had fun too. I could tell. And I know my mom had really good fun. (hugs: I love you, mother.) And I also got to see Chip ‘n’ Dale. Last time I didn’t get to see them either. I don’t think I got to see Donald last time either. I can’t remember. The end.

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Day 4
Dec 04, 2004 | Filed Under: Family Fun, Family Ties

Our final day at Disney World proved what wusses the men are. Both my little brother and my hubby stayed at the hotel to sleep in. My mom, dad (who I’m sure would have stayed to sleep if not for penalty of death), sister and I took the girls to breakfast at Animal Kingdom. The band was having yet another breakfast buffet—this time at Rainforest Cafe. I adore Rainforest Cafe—it’s a fun place what with all the waterfalls and pretend rainforest creatures. Too bad it was breakfast or I would have completely forced my family to partake in a Volcano dessert. It rocks!

The plan was to go home, get hubby, check out of the hotel and head back to Animal Kingdom. We were going to spend an hour or so there before meeting up with my family at Epcot. They weren’t going to Animal Kingdom by unanimous decision not to attend what they term “the worst them park on the face of the planet.” The first part worked out okay, but on our way to Animal Kingdom Stacia remembered that her scrapbook page for signature collection was in my parents’ car. Naturally, we had to go get it. Once at Epcot there was no point going to AK and then back again so we stayed thinking we’d hit there later in the day. Never happened. We’ll take the kids to the zoo next week. That’s why we have a membership!

So instead we took a little ferry across Epcot into another world. We hit Japan first because Spencer wanted to see some Robotech thing, but we apparantly missed it. I will say we had a great time visiting the countries and if I had a whole day to spend at Epcot we would just wander through them all! The girls got to see Japanese music, a funny acrobat performance in France, and hear the story of Christmas in France from Pere Noel.

We met up with my family for the Honey I Shrunk the Audience 3D show—which was great! The best part was seeing the kids in their “safety” glasses.

It was a long week and the girls crashed out in the middle of our last day. My family wanted to get on the road so I couldn’t make it over to MGM to see the Spectacle of Lights, but I did get to see the Epcot tree all lit up. Disney World is so beautiful at Christmas time—I think I’d like to go back next year in December! Hubby’s gonna get right on that whole vacation fund thing.

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Day 3
Dec 03, 2004 | Filed Under: Family Fun, Family Ties, Hectic Holidays, Living Inexpensively, Music Notes

And now for the moment you’ve all been waiting for: a synopsis of our trip to the Magic Kingdom! I got my butt up at 5:30 in the morning to pick up a few of the items on my Christmas list first. Target had it all on sale for Black Friday, and I wasn’t about to miss it! I was back before 8 with a trunk-full of presents. I walked into the hotel room to find my entire family sound asleep! Never mind that I had called 20 minutes earlier, spoken to Spencer, and asked him to have the girls up and dressed. The plan was for me to breeze in, get myself ready, fix the girls’ hair, swing to the food court to fill my eleventy hundred dollar souvenir cup with coke, and make it to the bus stop by 8:30. He’s damn lucky my sister called a few minutes after I freaked out to say the bus wasn’t leaving until 8:45. Otherwise, I might have seriously freaked.

The band was having breakfast at Fantasia Gardens and—since it was free with our package—I wasn’t about to miss the buffet! We rode the band bus over to breakfast to give the girls some time with Hayley. This was her big trip so she wasn’t much a part of the whole family vacation thing.

The character hunt continued. Everyone had a fun time with that. Even Daddy since Jasmine is decidedly hot. Plus, her top kept coming undone. Since I was busy watching my girls, I didn’t notice. Spencer did. You’ll note Brenia’s not in the picture. She was hiding from the Genie who was also not in the picture as he was nice enough to hide from her so she would be. It didn’t work.

Next stop was Pirates of the Caribbean—my all-time favorite ride. The first time I went to Disney—when I was 5—I made my parents go on it 6 times. That was back in the day, when you actually could go on rides multiple times without wasting away in gargantuan lines. Stacia stopped on the way out to have her hair wrapped. Brenia was fascinated and wanted to be just like sis. I didn’t think much of it until the gal said she could do it. I would never have imagined that an almost 2-year-old could sit still for such a thing, but she was great! Now imagine my excitement over pink and blue hair wraps for birthday and holiday pictures. Did you know these suckers can stay for up to 2 months? Me neither, but I will admit they are too cute.

Brenia enjoyed the princesses a lot more than the big characters. The girls saw Aurora, Cinderella, and Snow White. My sister had a great time with that too. Lexie has decided she wants to move to Orlando and play Sleeping Beauty. Right—my sister the princess. She’s got the sleeping part down pat. It’s the soft-spoken thing she’ll need to work on.

Of course, we can’t forget the reason for our trip. My sister’s band marched ahead of the light parade. It was really cool to see her coming down Main Street USA. Unfortunately just when Spencer had the camera settings figured out for the dark, the batteries died. We got them replaced in time, but the settings reverted back and he didn’t get that fixed until the end of the band. Which worked out nice for my cousin as her daughter was in the last row so we have a decent picture of Jasmine trying not to smile as my whole family woo-hoos

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Thanksgiving
Dec 02, 2004 | Filed Under: Family Fun, Family Ties, Hectic Holidays

I know I’m late, but I was out of town so I get a good excuse! We had Thanksgiving Dinner at the Coronado Hotel in Walt Disney World. It sucked ass. Well, the food did anyway. The two bands that were preforming in the parade the next day were joined together for a Thanksgiving “feast” and dance. Yes. That’s right. I spent Thanksgiving Day at a high school dance.

Mickey, Minnie and Goofy all stopped by to see us so it balances out. This one will probably be our Christmas card. That is, if I can actually manage to get them printed and mailed in time. On second thought, it probably won’t be our Christmas card. It’s just a cute picture of my kids with Mickey and Minnie in their gay apparel.

Here, you’ll note me freaking out as I yell for someone to take a picture of Brenia kissing Mickey Mouse. Good thing hubby was on it. Next to that is Brenia mimicking my sister in some funky lean back dance. The girl loves to dance!

And this is the part where I get all sentimental and list the stuff I’m thankful for:

  • Mickey Mouse
  • JoJo’s Circus
  • pizza delivery
  • bubble baths

I’m kidding. (sort of) Here’s my real list:

  • finding The One and chasing him down
  • happy and healthy children
  • a friend who knows to say “what’s wrong?” just from hearing “hello”
  • a large extended family who—for all their faults—would drop anything if I needed something
  • not needing stuff
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