We're a little late for a Valentines Day post, I know. But I liked the pictures of Mateo so I'm posting anyway. We had a really great V-day actually. My friends were here from Indy to help us do some projects around the new house. Check out my house blog later tonight for more details (wait till later though cause I haven't actually written the new post yet). I got the kids little Valentine bags of goodies. Unfortunately, they were both more interested in my husband's pipe insulation. Oh well. I tried to be a fun mom. Daddy gets all the glory again and he doesn't even have to try.
The coolest part was our double date!!! Man, I haven't been on a double date in...well...I don't even remember the last time. My mom watched the kids and Dave and I went out to a nice restaurant with the aforementioned friends from Indy. The food was great, the company was....eh...so so. Okay, kidding. It was a lot of fun. Here are some pictures of Mateo hamming it up as usual.
Notice the T-shirt. It's Pebbles and Bam-bam. Who misses The Flintstones? They just don't make kid shows like they used to. Yabba Dabba doo!!!
"Really mom, I need a haircut. This mop of hair just isn't doing it for me. Chicks may not be digging me much longer if you don't control this thing"
So I'm a couple days too late for a Father's Day post about my husband, and I just spent an awesome weekend with all my favorite people, so I figured I'd just do a tribute to the all the people I spent my weekend with.
Devan is my best friend. We met in college. She's an expensive friend because I left college early and don't have much to show for it except this friendship. But here's why she's awesome. She never gets mad or tired of me even if I call three times in one day. She loves my kids. She buys them stuff, spends time with them (when she visits from out of state), she watches all my videos of them on facebook and looks at all my pictures and likes them, and she babysits when she visits so Dave and I can go out. She's agreed to raise my kids if Dave and I die. Even if we have 10 of them, which we won't, but even if we did, she would still raise them all and love them all (and try her best not to go crazy or kill herself). She listens to me when I complain, when I'm mad, when I rant and rave about whatever, and when I'm thrilled, happy, or excited. She listens to all my stories about the kids and pretends to be interested. She's funny. She's real. She's interesting. She knows how to have fun (which is hard to find nowadays for some reason). And we love her.
Scott is Devan's husband and he's cool too. He didn't like me at first (in college) but he came around quickly. He loves Mateo. He thinks Mateo is the coolest kid ever. He never gets mad or tired of me calling three times in one day to talk to his wife. He lets and encourages Devan to spend money to come visit me. He came along this weekend to spend time with us and meet the baby. He is a great husband to Devan. He's good at Settler's. He's easy to get along with. And he seems to be okay with inheriting our children should we die.
They have a good marriage and it's inspiring to watch them interact with each other. They are truly awesome friends and very good to our kids.
The other person I spent my weekend with is, of course, my husband. Here's why he's one of the coolest people I know. He is devoted to our marriage and family. He is patient and kind. He does the dishes ALL the time and doesn't complain about it. He also takes out the garbage. He is understanding to my needs. He gets me. He loves me even though he gets me. He challenges my mind. He respects me. He thinks I'm smart and funny. He thinks I'm pretty even with spit up on my clothes. He puts up with A LOT. He is ambitious and stable and responsible and trustworthy. He doesn't believe in quitting. He encourages me to have nights off and do things I enjoy. He doesn't expect me to be wonder-woman or super-mom. He loves the kids. He's a great father. He is flexible and fun and funny and sometimes boring but that's okay cause we need it. He is a good person with a sincere heart. He is real. He is authentic. He is never fake. He means what he says. He can be counted on. And we love him.
Disney was fantastic! Those of you with young ones planning to go, I must give you a word of caution. Avoid the Bug's Life at Animal Kingdom at all costs!!!! Well, that's one of the "down" points I guess. It scared the crap out of Mateo (and me, but don't tell anyone). Seriously, who would have thought? A Bug's Life! It's a kid's movie! I guess we missed the 6 signs warning that it may be frightening for young children on the way into the show. But I wasn't the only one to completely terrorize my kid, there were several others running out the side door with screaming child in tow. And what's worse is that was the very first thing we did in Disney, so that entire day Mateo was scared of every ride, show, or anything that resembled a ride or a show. Yeah, I'm a horrible mom. Who traumatizes their kid the first day at Disney?
Speaking of scary, why does every kid's ride at Magic Kingdom have to include something even a little bit scary? Even Winnie the Pooh had a creepy, psychedelic huffalump part.
Another downside, dealing with people who don't have kids. What are you doing here? This is a child's amusement park! Get out of my way! This is what I felt like saying. But what I said was...
as I was running over their feet with my giant stroller. And I learned that teenagers don't move for nobody! Neither do French people. I was a very mean person by the end of the trip.
The only other down side of the trip was the way home. Apparently, according to our perky airline pilot, we were part of Florida history! Yes, there had never been frost in the last ten years at the Orlando airport. Yay! I was not so amused. Neither was Mateo who spent the better part of the morning running up and down the airport terminal terrorizing innocent passengers. At least he slept on the flight home and it was perfectly peaceful.
The rest of the trip was awesome. My favorite part was when Mateo kept wanting to get out of the stroller in the crowded areas and I told him he had to hold someone's hand. He had the choice of me, Dave, Devan, or Scott. He thought about it for a moment and said, "me" and held his own hand. It was cute, but not exactly what I had in mind. I swear this kid is smart. He may not be talking in complete sentences yet, but there is nothing wrong with his head (other than it being shaped kind of funny).
We also, going at an off-peak time, didn't experience long waiting times for the rides. I think the longest we waited was half an hour for the Pooh ride. And Mateo entertained himself by sticking things up Daddy's nose and emptying sugar packets on the ground. You know, typical 2 year old stuff.
Sea World was my favorite. Mateo could care less about sea life, we found out. Not his area of interest I suppose. I thought hand-feeding the dolphins was by far the best part. Mateo insisted the one parked sea world car was way cooler. Seriously, the car didn't even do anything. It just sat there with a picture of Shamu and the word "Sea World" across it. How boring! But to Mateo, that topped the whole day. Fire juggling Hawaiian performers? Nah. Jumping, twirling whales? Boooorrrrring! A parked car? Hallelujah! Ah Mateo. I don't think I'll ever get you. But I love you anyway.
Well, that's pretty much it. It was a blast and now Mateo asks to go to Disney every single day. I finally told him I don't have any money left to go to Disney. So he's taken to begging on the street for "Disney money." He even asked our pediatrician to contribute.
And...here are some more pictures to bore you with.
Mateo doing his best Stevie Wonder impersonation
Sea World was by far the best part (at least for me)
We even got to play catch with the dolphins
It's a little blurry but I think this is a funny picture. That's chocolate cake on his spoon.
Shamu show
On our last night we went to the Mahiki Luau at Sea World It was awesome! I like this picture of Dave and I but Mateo looks like he's about to dig into something.
Yes, it was a bit cold at Sea World. In the 40's I think. It is January after all. But what was great about it being cold was that we were practically the only people there. No lines, to fighting to catch a glimpse of an exibit, and we could sit anywhere we wanted at the shows. I would go in 40 degree weather anyday to have the park to ourselves.
We are having a fantastic time. Only 2 meltdowns so far, not bad for half way through. Here's some photos from the last few days. Of course I have a million, at least, but I won't bore you with the details. Mostly, these are for my mom, but enjoy!
Mateo and his new best friend "Cock", or as we like to call him, "Scott."
Upon receiving a gift from Auntie Devan and Scott of a Walt Disney World bus, Mateo becomes obsessed with showing ALL of the Disney characters the bus.
"So, what's the deal with this Mickey Mouse guy anyway?"
He even lets Mickey drive the bus around
Come on, how much cuter can you get?
We'll be back in a few days with more pictures and stories!
My guest blogger is Scott, an old friend from college, and also the husband of my best friend from Indiana. Coincidentally they are also the couple going to Disney with us next week to take care of our child while we - errr.... I mean.... to have a great time with us! Scott wrote a great post about Christian stores and it is hilarious. You have to read it! Then check out his blog for more funny and inspiring thoughts.
Alright, I know what I’m about to say is a common complaint people have, but I’m going to say it anyway.
Why in the world do Christians have to Christianize everything? I was in a Christian book store with my church small group last night to pick out a group bible study. Once that was achieved, we started wandering around the store and happened upon some kind of entertainment section. And do you know what they had? Praise Ponies! Awesome! Now you may not be familiar with Praise Ponies, so check out this linkfor an explanation (hint: think My Little Pony, but definitely check the link - it’s funny!).
They also happened to have a Bible version of the game Apples to Apples - because the non-Bible version of the game is notoriously satanic you know. There’s also that satanic game Scattergories where you have to list words that begin with a certain letter; thankfully they now have a Christian version of that as well so you aren’t forced to list words in faith-crushing categories like “food” or “types of transportation”.
I was also fortunate enough to happen upon a dvd player that automatically takes out bad parts in movies - like their demo where they showed how they took out a clip in the kids movie The Spiderwick Chronicles where a kid gets his leg bitten by an invisible goblin. Unfortunately, they showed a comparison of the movie with the clip still in there, so it was pretty traumatic for me when I had to witness the two seconds of the kid getting bit. Fortunately for you, you can buy their dvd player and not have to live through that harrowing experience of watching it in it’s unedited PG-rated version.
They said it works with thousands of movies and listed a few as an example, including Black Hawk Down (”Rated R for intense, realistic, graphic war violence, and for language”). So in addition to making the movie more Christian, they’ll save you time because I’m sure the edited version of Black Hawk Down is somewhere around five minutes!
All in all, it was a good trip to the store. I learned a lot about how to be a better Christian by making sure I only use the second-rate Christian version of any popular item I may want (like Bibleopoly [aka Monopoly] where you can buy cities of the bible and place churches on them! You can’t win by competing, only by helping! Oh how the spiritual awakenings just keep coming!)
My comment to him was that he clearly doesn't see the value in such parenting tools. Like the DVD player, for example. Obviously he doesn't understand what these "children's" movies (if you can call them that) do to the young psyche. Like teaching them about their imaginations, for one. And how to separate fact from fiction. And dare I say, have fun? And the games! Sure, it sounds harmless, a little monopoly never hurt anyone. Well, we all know what competition leads to.... accomplishment and self-confidence! Obviously giving them a false sense of pride (which is one of the deadly sins you know!). And don't even get me started on the heathen My Little Ponies and their lustful ways.
But... Scott's not a parent yet, so we'll forgive him.
Me: addicted to diet pepsi and chocolate. I love reading, photography, and blogging. I try to stay hip since becoming a mom. I don't think it's working. Husband: workaholic, can build pretty much anything with his hands, and loves Mythbusters. Kids: Puerto Rican cuties we adopted from foster care. Mateo is 4 and makes us laugh everyday. He likes break dancing, cars, and worms. Maya is 1 and is a bit of a tom boy but is still my cuddle-bug! Join me as I ramble about parenthood, adoption, and more.
Notice the T-shirt. It's Pebbles and Bam-bam. Who misses The Flintstones? They just don't make kid shows like they used to. Yabba Dabba doo!!!
"Really mom, I need a haircut. This mop of hair just isn't doing it for me. Chicks may not be digging me much longer if you don't control this thing"
Hands full of Hershey Kisses
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