December birthdays!

A lot has happened since my last post. We had a birthday party for Vivian and invited some of my friends from the program and our next-door neighbours. Vivian had a lot of fun playing with the other little ones and sharing her toys. There were 4 girls under 1, a 2-year-old, and a 5-year-old. It was a blast!

Chris made a delicious gluten-free cake for Vivian. Of course, mommy and daddy had to eat the whole thing! :) YUM! Love the raspberry frosting from fresh raspberries! Thank you Lee Tobin at Whole Foods for the recipe!



I finished my semester from hell. YEAH!!! I can't believe I actually successfully completed 5 classes. Good news: I'll never do it again!

To celebrate Vivian's 1st birthday on the 11th and Chris's 37th birthday on the 14th, we went to Orlando!!

We left Tallahassee on the 11th and drove to Orlando and got settled into our hotel near SeaWorld. On the 12th, we headed over to SeaWorld in the late afternoon to go see the Sesame Street show, but it was already full. So, we went to the Shamu Miracles show instead. Then we saw the iceskating show and finally the big fireworks show. Vivian really enjoyed the music during the shows.

On the 13th, we headed back to SeaWorld to see the Sesame Street show and the Pets Ahoy show. Vivian LOVED the animals. There were dogs, cats, a skunk, and a pig. It was really cute. Vivian also really enjoyed the Sesame Street show. There were some new characters that Chris and I didn't know...so apparently we'll have to become familiar with those characters. It isn't the 70s anymore! ;)


Vivian LOVED Cookie Monster!



We headed to the Animal Kingdom on the 14th for Chris's birthday. He proudly wore his button that said "Happy Birthday." Vivian really enjoyed the animals. We saw a wonderful parade and went to the Lion King show (which I really loved-- again).

Vivian had pictures taken with Winnie the Pooh, Eeyore, and Tigger! She loved them!!





On the 15th, we headed over to Epcot for the day. We perused the various countries and really liked The Land tour of how Disney is growing different types of foods.

On the 16th...our biggest day...we headed over to the Magic Kingdom via monorail! We immediately hit up It's a Small World because there was NO WAIT. We walked right on. The best part about going during the off-season is that there is NO ONE there! We hit all the classics -- the Enchanted Tiki Room, Country Bear Jamboree, the Steamboat, the WDW Railroad. Chris even got to go on Pirates of the Caribbean and Splash Mountain by himself. We saw a couple of parades. Ms. Vivian once again loved the music and the dancing. We saw Cinderella's Castle light up, which was absolutely amazing, and then saw the big fireworks show at night.

Here are some pics of the Magic Kingdom! :)


Vivian rocking it out on It's a Small World ride.


Woody and Jesse from Toy Story. Vivian would NOT let go of Jesse's finger.


Having a good time at the parade.


Sad Daddy and a Tuckered Out Baby


Posing with Mama


The biggest challenge for me was eating gluten-free at the parks. SeaWorld hasn't figured it out yet, but Disney has. However, my gluten-free options usually consisted of a burger on a gluten-free bun with fries or chicken. At least there WAS an option available!

On the 17th, we rested most of the day. We went to PF Chang's (again), Whole Foods (again), and Jimmy Buffet's Margaritaville, which is our standard stop, at Universal CityWalk. After dinner we walked to the resort that I stayed at 4 years ago when I came to Orlando for a conference. It's beautiful -- all decorated in a polynesian theme. Then we walked around the rest of CityWalk (it was EMPTY) and headed back to the hotel.

Poor Ms. Vivian woke up in the middle of the night with a tummy issue. Chris was up with her for several hours while I was dealing with the clean-up. Nothing is worse than having a sick kid when you are not at home. I called the on-call nurse from our ped's office and didn't get a call back until over 4 HOURS later, which is absolutely ridiculous. By then, the ickiness had subsided and we had a tuckered out kid. I went all over this part of town (seriously...3 different places) to get 2 types of Pedialyte and some applesauce and pureed bananas. Ms. Vivian seems to be doing much better now, but it was a long, long night!

Consequently, we're still in Orlando! We were supposed to head home today, but with a sick kid and really bad weather we weren't going to take a chance.

We had a wonderful vacation while we've been here, despite having a sick kiddo the last day. Hopefully the drive home is uneventful tomorrow!

To end this blog....I'll leave you with a beautiful picture of Cinderella's Castle!