She crawls!

F and L

Mommy, Ph.D.: Trip to the Shedd

Mommy, Ph.D.: Trip to the Shedd

Trip to the Shedd

We ventured to the Shedd yesterday with big hopes of getting Libby to experience fish. It seems to be the only word that she kind of says...and it sounds more like "chsh." She took a 3 hour nap before we left and even did o.k. on the ride there, but once we got there she was unnnn-happy. We did manage to get her to see a bit and what she saw she did enjoy.

Here she is looking at the main tank when we got in. (The lighting was super strange, so it took me a while to figure out which functions to use on my camera.)

She LOVED the penguins. Her hands are a blur here because she moved them up and down furiously with excitement.

Felicity was quite serious, wanting to know why only certain ones had feathers and she was curious about how they know when they want to jump. Her questions are always so hard to answer. Last night before bed, for example, she asked me, "What's history, Mama?" Think about how you might answer that in two minutes or less!

The Shedd has a new area for kids to play. It's across from the penuins and you can put on a penguin costume in order to get swine flu to play. We discouraged the costume part, but she did like running on the rocks and sliding down into the "water" like a penguin.

The big reason we did go was to see the Dolphin show but, alas, Libby fell asleep on me during the whole thing and so I got no photos and she missed it. :( The good thing is that we still have months of winter left, so I am sure we'll be back!

DISNEY!

Our big family Christmas present from Grandma and Grandpa was a trip to Disney! Words cannot quite capture the level of excitement that coursed through Felicity in the weeks and days prior to our trip. We watched the Disney channel non-stop at home. She played a princess identification game with Chris. (See a version here.) She learned all of the minor characters...like Pete who is friends with Goofy and Pluto?! And she tried to wrap her head around what Disney might be like. For instance, we went to a little Christmas festival at the local rec center. There were inflatable bouncy houses and some things to climb on. Felicity asked if it was anything like Disney. Ha. Auntie Mandy wanted footage of her seeing the castle for the first time. She was, well, kind of in shock.




We got all sorts of questions about the castle. Was Cinderella there right now? What was the bathroom like? Did she have to wear her dress all the time? We answered as best as we could. And, although I had been able to dispel fears of large costumes before (she's scared of mascots, so we assured her they were fake), we WERE able to convince her that everything at Disney was magic and real. I have mixed feelings about this, to be honest. But I know that I remember thinking that everything was real. And, heck, I survived.

We did the following rides: It's a Small World, Snow White's Scary Adventure (DO NOT, I REPEAT DO NOT ride this ride with small children. It is scary. Thanks, Daddy, for this lack of foresight! Actually, she survived, but it was too scary.), Aladdin's Magic Carpets, Winnie the Pooh, the Kiddie Roller Coaster, and her favorite: DUMBO!

I have to admit, I was incredibly surprised that Felicity was able to wait in hour long lines to go on rides. It was absolutely amazing.

At the end of a long day we were still able to bring two semi-happy kids to dinner with Teep, Eula, and Judy. Libby really enjoyed meeting them! And the aunts sent us home with more toys than Toys-R-Us!

We were back at it again the next day after a night in a hotel. Felicity, Chris, and I had our own king size bed and Libby was in an adjoining room. Yes, this baby had HER OWN ROOM at a fancy Hilton. All so she could sleep. As soon as she cried, though, I went in to deal with her and then ended up sleeping in the Queen size bed in "her room." Chris and Felicity slept in the King bed together....with Felicity fused to him.

Despite our boldest attempts to keep Libby happy, most of the day was spent trying to stop her from crying. Here she is happily on my back. This, while cute, lasted for about ten minutes.

It was nearly impossible to get a group photo because someone was always dealing with one of the girls! But here we are, having a great time watching a Mickey Mouse show.

There's no denying it. She is his twin.

So long, Disney. We'll see you when Libby is a bit older!