Zoe went for her first trip to Disney.. this one for 17 days at Disney World Resorts and parks. We first stayed 10 days at the Port Orleans French Quarter and quickly established a routine.. get covered in sun screen, get dressed (this time she would accept wearing dresses and skirts which kept her cool), head to breakfast.. of course there were copious amounts of ketchup involved... there were these Mickey shaped straws that she must have.. we lost a few the first days, then got smart, but I think we still came home with 3 of them.
Afternoons included lots of good snacks (smoothies, icecream)
Then to the playground on rest days or to the bus stop on park days. We set it up so we'd do every other day as a rest day.
Rest days were spent at the playgrounds and then over to the pool. But Zoe has developed a bad reaction to getting wet.. she hates it. It is so strange for someone who loved to get wet, shower, bath, pool.. but she spent most of our time near water, but not in it.
At the pool, she loved to pitch her toys in the water and wait for someone to pick them up.. Little boys loved to play that game.. the little girls would just stare at her. She learned to make friends and did so easily.. some kids she bonded with easier than others; some had friendlier parents than others (ie the kind who would gladly let your kid play with toys, floaties, balls versus the kind that would nearly rip them out of your kids hand.. it was an interesting social experiment to watch).
We marveled at Zoe's aptiptude for climbing... there isn't a park thing that she wouldn't scale if she could.. its not that she was crazy daring, a few things she would not do (like going down backwards on the big ladders), but we were always impressed with her ability to do the climbing things created for 5 year olds.
Wanna go home:
By the end of our long days, or if she fell and got hurt, Zoe would plead with us to go home. She'd say that she needed to see her kitties and would talk very foundly of them. This lasted at least a week.. eventually she learned to just ask to go back to the "ho-tel"
A Lick:
for some reason Zoe on this trip started licking thing. In Seattle while shopping, she stopped in several places to lick the ground. I have pictures of her licking her dad's leg while we were playing at the pool..
A Beat:
Dad: "Zoe, what was that?!?"
Zoe: "A beat."
Dad: "why did I get a beat?"
Zoe: "Because you didn't do what I wanted"
yes, Zoe started hitting.. it seemed to reach a peak in frequency over the trip, and has now almost all gone..
Dad: "Zoe, what's the rule when you go into the bathroom?"
Zoe: "No touching your hair"
Dad: "No, that is the lollipop rule. The bathroom rule is no touching anything"
Zoe at the park:
The first ride she went on was the Merry-go-round
then we stood in line for 40 minutes for Dumbo.. at her insistance..
It turns out that taking your little girl on rides like that where you are off the ground jump starts a mom's heart.. I was weirdly freaked out about it.. Zoe did not like going up in the air.
We also took Zoe twice on Pirates of the Caribean
It too starts out kind of scary.. she'd cover her eyes for the first part.
All of the parks had places for kids to cool off.. eventually we learned to bring her swimsuit.. but sometimes, we just relied on back up clothes.
Zoe's favorite ride is probably "Small World", although she did quite like "Peter Pan".
At small world, or as she called it "the doll ride", I couldn't help myself and I would start singing.. she'd shhh me with her finger and said "Mom, we've talked about this".. finally on the third time through, she was singing the song herelf.
The attraction Zoe liked the least is probably any of the 3D shows.. we took her to "Honey I shrunk the kids" and I took her to the "Bug's Life" one... she cried through both of them.. I almost left bugs with her early, but we stuck it out.
Zoe did also get pictures with Princesses:
Epcot: Every Parent Comes Out Tired
After being at the Port Orleans, Bruce had to go on alone to the cruise ship conference.. Finn was not allowed to go, being 10 weeks old with a 12 week old requirement. So we met up with Auntie Carrie and Uncle Scott, first at Port Orleans Riverside, then stayed "at the zoo" at the Animal Kingdom Lodge. It was fabulous.. we really enjoyed it (perhaps me more than Zoe).
But again, we settled into a pattern: sunscreen dress breakfast playground
The first day at the playground, Carrie and I just sat chatting while Zoe played.. there was a 10 year old girl and 3 other 3 to 4 year olds, and 2 year old Zoe, running around playing tag and hide and seek.. you could tell Zoe didn't quite understand the rules, so the big girl took her under her wing and played with her, they'd hide together and Zoe would stay hidden until found (it is a game we play at home, but Zoe does the counting while someone else hides).
Later that day in the bathroom, a little girl came up to her, "Joey (that is what they thought her name was), remember we are BFF, Best Friends Forever!"
So cute!
We alternated days of napping/no-napping. Napping usually happened in the stroller at a park.. We'd put Finn in the Baby Bjorn, and Zoe in the stroller with the baby car seat.
Pick center of flower: Another Zoe habit.. picking flowers.. I think this is something she is allowed while not around me. On this trip, she started picking the center of the hybiscus flowers.
Zoe phrases:
"Mommy, you are so pretty/proud/nice"
"that is _ so _ beautiful!" (in reference to a girls swim suit, a toy she liked...)
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