Your First Movie Theater Experience

To my crazy little whack bean:

We took you to the movie theater for the first time ever this weekend. We went to see Disney's "The Princess and the Frog", which you've seen the previews for and been getting excited about recently. You already own a pair of PJ's with the Princess on them that you got for Christmas, too.

I have to admit, I was excited to see it myself- I knew that the music from it was getting rave reviews all over the place, and TIME magazine voted it the BEST movie of 2009. I convinced your Daddy that we needed to take you to see this new Disney movie and we decided last weekend was a good one, since I had to stop by Cey-Cey's house anyway to get my coupon binder back. After seeing The Princess and the Frog, I have to agree that it was probably one of my favorite movies from 2009, as well. The characters were great, and it was a wonderful return to the classic animated Disney flick with great music to accompany it. I'm a total Disney freak, and I grew up with those classics- ones that you will probably be familiar with yourself before too long- so it was very nostalgic for me. We'll definitely be buying that Blu-Ray when it comes out :D Don't get me wrong, I love the new computer animated (CGI) Disney/Pixar movies, too... but it had been a while (almost ten years I think!) since they'd done one in the classic style, and I definitely think it was a long time coming. Disney always pulls off a great balance between touching emotion and interesting storyline for adults and fun, silly characters and constant action for children. But, I digress.

I was a teensy bit nervous taking you to the theater, but to be honest, I wasn't THAT worried. You're one smart little cookie and you are VERY well behaved when you want to be :) So I knew that if I explained the situation to you, you'd handle it like a champ. And I was right.

We told you over and over on the way down that there would be other people watching the movie too, so if you needed to talk to Mommy or Daddy, you'd have to make sure to whisper. When we got there, I took you to the potty (Bravo on potty training by the way! You are doing great these past few days...) while Daddy got us our tickets, soda, popcorn and Sour Patch Kids.

We settled into the row right behind the platform they have for wheelchairs and whatnot- which is pretty close to the front of the theater. It turned out to be a good thing towards the end, because about 15 minutes before the end of the movie, we heard a little girl in the back yell "I'm TIIIIIRRREEEDDDDD!" and then you could just feel all the kids in the theater getting antsy at once. The other girls that were in the row with us stood up, and so did you, but it was fine because of the stadium seating (see, being picky about theaters DOES pay off!) and the fact that there was nobody in front of you, so you had room to stand and wiggle a bit without bothering people.

It was so adorable to see you sitting in that movie seat. You don't quite weigh enough to hold the seat all the way down, so you were having a lot of fun bouncing up and down in it. These are the moments when I smack my forehead and wish I had a smartphone with a decent camera- I never remember to bring my digi with me for things like this, and I so wish I had a picture of you enjoying your first movie, munching on popcorn. You really thought you were the cat's meow sitting in that seat, sharing snacks with your parents :D

Through the ENTIRE movie, you remembered to whisper instead of talking... Granted, it was a somewhat elevated whisper ;) but it made me smile every time. You're such a good listener, and I'm so proud to bring you places... People are always amazed at how smart you are and how well you behave. I tell you, little girl, you just shine like a star.

Every time a kid would walk by us with their parents during the movie, you would poke your little head out from your seat, look at them, and in the loudest whisper you could manage, say "HIIII!" It was so funny to see, because every time you'd do that, the other kid would kind of stop, look around for you, and wave or smile back...I swear, if it hadn't been a movie where you had to sit and be quiet while it was playing, you probably would have left that place with a boatload of new friends.

We had such a great time taking you out this weekend, and it made me more confident that you can handle events like that well, even if you are required to be quiet most of the time. I feel so blessed to have you and your Daddy... The day out together was so fun, just getting to spend some quality time together and laugh and smile and gain some perspective... That no matter how tough these economic times get, we have each other and THAT is something to be grateful for.

As we were watching the movie, you were so enraptured by the music and the big screen in front of you... And I looked over your head at your Daddy and together we shared a smile that was really meaningful to me. Though we didn't exchange a word, I think we both felt the same way: in awe and gratitude over having such an amazing little girl, and proud of ourselves for having created such a close-knit family. We've had some rough times over the years, but I would do it all over again if that's what it took to be where we're at right now. With all the saddening news and shocking images that have been circulating over the past week from the earthquake catastrophe in Haiti, it really makes me pause and remember how happy I am, and how, in the big scheme of things, our life is pretty damned good.

Exciting News... and a Moral.

My phone has been dead since last Saturday.

This weekend, we were away for two birthday parties- brother and nephew- and I forgot to bring my charger. Then, when I got home, I just kept forgetting to charge it. Finally, last night, I remembered to plug it in. Got up this morning, and I had three messages. The first two were just from my Mom and brother on Saturday, wondering when I would be arriving. The last one was from...

A guy at Price Chopper. I almost don't want to write this out, because I'm worried in some weird superstitious way I'll jinx it... BUT... he was calling to tell me I was chosen as a semi-finalist in their Fuel Advantedge Win A Car sweepstakes! The message was left on Monday at around 12:30 PM.


The only problem was that he said I had to call him back within 24 hours (he said by around 1 PM on Tuesday) to participate, and I didn't get the message until this morning! ACKKK!

I immediately called his number back and explained on a message that my phone had been dead, I just got his message, and that while I knew I had probably already been disqualified, if there was ANY chance of me still participating, I would love to! All the way to work I was kicking myself silly... Nobody ever calls me except my hubby and Mom, and here I was, one of the first times in months I hadn't had my phone for a few days, and THIS happens! What are the odds??! I asked my hubby that very question and he said "Low. So low, in fact, that nothing like this will probably ever happen to you again." Yeah, thanks buddy, I realized that! *smacks forehead*

Anyway, I got to work this morning, and the guy called me back. He said "You'll be happy to know I hadn't called anyone else in your place yet, so you're in!" And then he went through the whole shebang of info, asked me the necessary questions (yes, I'm over 18; no, none of my friends or family work for Price Chopper) and sent me a packet to fill out and sign.

I nearly peed my pants when I found out that there are only 10 semi-finalists and they will pick one more out of the crowd- so 11 total. Seems like pretty good odds!

The way it works is we are all invited to a Tri-City ValleyCats minor league baseball game on August 1. Every semi-finalist is going to get a gas card and a gift basket with a bunch of Central Market products in it- which is Price Chopper's awesome store brand. So essentially, my drive down will be paid for with the gas card I'll get there... And then they give you 4 tickets to the game (I can bring three guests) and also provide food and (non-alcoholic) beverages for while you're there. After the ninth inning, they'll randomly hand out keys to the 11 of us... And whoever has the key that starts the car, wins!

I am trying not to get my hopes up too high for this, and instead to just think of it as an all-expense paid day of fun. In the end, even if I don't win, I still got to see a new place in New York, my gas was paid for, I got a gift basket, got to watch a baseball game and was fed. So all in all, no matter what, it's a win-win for me. But man, could we ever use that car right now! Winning that would just be an amazing, over-the-top blessing. Our Jeep has been broken down since last year, so we always commute together and right now are relying on our one vehicle to be everything as far as transportation goes. It would be nice to have the peace of mind that if something happens with our car, we have another option! Plus it would also be really nice to know that if we need to be in two places at once, or if we both have something to do at the same time, we can! Fingers crossed.... squeee! :)

The moral of the story???


ALWAYS, ALWAYS, always keep your phone charged. All it takes is one missed call for you to regret something for life. lol.

"I BE TWOS"!!

Happy Birthday to my beautiful little girl!

You bring such light and happiness to my life, I couldn't begin to thank you enough. Your giggles tickle my soul.

You are the most wonderful thing that's ever happened to me- my angel, my peanut, my ruggle, my bend. My little beansprout.

This year, we threw you two parties, so it wouldn't be as crowded as it was last year. We invited our Dads and their families on Saturday (which was your actual birthday), and our Moms and their families on Sunday, which also happened to fall on Mother's Day this year. It was great to be able to see both of our Moms on this day, for TWO most party-worthy occasions. :)

Bumpa and Nana couldn't make it on Saturday, so we started out the weekend with a visit from Pep, Grammy ("Gammy" to you right now), Nana, Uncle Dru and Uncle Jack. We spent a big part of the day outside, enjoying the nice weather and our newly green front lawn :)


You and Uncie Jack, feeling the grass on your piggies

Feels so soft, right ruggle?

Gammy gets a big ol' smooch

But then you left her in the dust to go and pick flowers for Momma.

Thanks, Bend! They are SO PRETTY! I love you!

Flowers for Nana and Gammy, too.

Peppie and Nana sitting on the porch. I just love this shot. It speaks of happiness and motherhood, which is apt, considering the holiday that was right around the corner.

You had fun opening your presents!

You can actually rip them open on your own now. I love that! But it can only mean one thing... You are getting to be a big girl now. And that stings, just a little.

**You didn't have the stamina to open them all right then, though... You waited to open most of your first batch of presents from Mommy and Daddy (I had wrapped half for the first day, half for the next) until later that night, after Cey-Cey came. You stripped down naked and ripped them open like a banshee!**

We all ate our cupcakes:



But you looked the prettiest doing it.

Then you had some more fun playing with your Uncles:


And letting them help you set up your new car track! Who says girls don't like cars?


We said our goodbyes:

You hugging it up with Pep!

And started preparing for the next day's festivities. Cey-cey came up that night to help us get ready and have some special time with you before everyone else got there.

Side note: Not only do you like to play with cars and car tracks, but you like to do it totally, BUTT NEKKID! (This is right before you decided it was time to finish opening those presents of yours!)

Better watch out for you, girl... Boys will be lining up for the girl who plays with cars naked someday, I just know it ;oP

However, you do play with it in your clothes, too. *phew*

It seems like it's one of your favorite presents, actually.

The next day, we set everything up and waited for our guests to arrive. You were VERY excited and kept saying "Is it my BIRTHDAY?! Happy birthday to you, happy birthday to ILYANNNNAAA!"

When you came down the stairs and saw the new pile of presents, you exclaimed "MORE PRESENTS!"

When everyone got there, we hung out for a while:

Cousin Kaden and Auntie Brigitte playing the Wii- you running through the frame :)

Uncle Mitchie, Cey-Cey, and the Grumps!

We played outside for a while, and you got to ride your new QUAD! Nana and Papa brought it with them- Kaden passed it on to you because he wanted you to be able to have as much fun with it as he did!! You got out to a strong start tooting around on it, and quickly picked up on the need to steer:


I couldn't believe my big girl riding a Power-Wheel type trike, all by herself! *sniffle*

You and "Gumps" playing in the front yard.

Some of the gang hanging out- L to R: Papa, Nana, Dada, Cey-Cey and Uncle Mitchie

We were having such a good time chatting, I even caught your Daddy SMILING! With the CAMERA! Shocker, I know. He never wants his picture taken, so he always makes funny faces. Not this time, Dada! This time we GOT YOU! :)

Nana doesn't like the camera, either... (Wonder if that's where Dada got it from?) I had to be sneaky getting this one- I thought for sure I had caught her smiling too, but right as I snapped the shot, she moved her hand to her mouth. Nuts!

Uncle Mitchie, squinting in the sun. He was watching you truck around on that quad. :)


Cey-cey and her amazing shade-changing glasses :) I think this is a good unposed picture of her.

Then we decided it was time to open presents:

Those PJ's on the right have already become your new favorite pair, even though you've only had them a couple of days. They have long cuffs that can be footies or not. You call them your "Sunglebunnies" :)

Nana was helping me by picking up the wrapping paper and helping you open your toys. She's nice, huh?

You got some more cars, too. I thought they would work with your new track, but they don't, which was a cause of much frustration last night.

Kaden sat patiently next to us and watched you open your presents. He also helped explain what things were to you, and he helped me pick up your clothes when you decided they weren't interesting enough and you wanted to throw them all around the room instead of looking at them.

He also showed you the awesome princess card he picked out just for you- it played the song "A Dream Is a Wish Your Heart Makes" when you opened it up!

You didn't quite understand how to work your new REAL camera quite yet here, but you figured it out pretty fast, and you love it!

You were pretty good about opening your presents! I was so proud of you, watching my big girl open everything on her own and not get burned out. You were pretty well-behaved, too... Except for that one snafu when you opened your Dora book- the one about sharing. As soon as I told you what it was, Kaden went to look at it (not take it away, mind you!) and you screamed "MINE!" But since it was kind of ironic and cute, we all laughed it off. Kaden was a good sport about it, too... And a minute later you decided you would share with him anyway, so all was well. :)

We all sang you Happy Birthday:

And you blew out your candles... Well, you tried. I had to help in the end. :)

Then you gobbled down more cupcakes!

Well... we all ate cupcakes. And some other snacks. Here's what the table looked like toward the end of the day:

And then we hung out, and chatted some more, and said our good byes. It really was a wonderful, fun birthday weekend. I had a blast, and I hope you did, too. I just can't get over that it's actually been that long since you were born... Where did the time go, and when did you get to be this adorable, smart little kid?

Happy, happy, HAPPY birthday, my princess. I love you with every inch of myself.

Wordless Wednesdays #19- The Next Beethoven

Wordless Wednesdays #18- Around The Park Plaza Hotel...

You can find other Wordless Wednesday participants HERE.

Luxury Lounging

As mentioned in my last Friday Fill-Ins post, we got to spend this past weekend in the Presidential Suite at the Park Plaza Hotel. Let me just tell you.... this place was FABULOUS!

Ilyana was, of course, right at home. She ran around and played the piano butt nekkid as if she had been living this way her whole life. She must have been royalty in a past life or something, because I was totally in AWE of this place, and here she was, acting as if she belonged there at one year old.

Friday night, we arrived, parked, and got ready to go out to dinner sans Bendy... We don't get to do that too often, so when Mom offered to take her, we were totally there! We walked to the restaurant, an awesome asian place called Jae's... Got a couple of good pics on the way, but my ass almost froze off so we decided to take the T on the way back. Well, I should say ATTEMPT to take the T. See, we got on the wrong line, and we thought our stop was the first one... turns out it dumped us two blocks over from where we should be and only about half of the distance back to the hotel. So I still froze my ass on the way back, too. Seriously. I thought I was gonna need a butt amputation or something. But I survived... Here are some cool pics from the walk:

A little bit of red, white and blue we spotted on the skyline...

Random street block

Hubby plays with the camera in a sidewalk mirror

My artistic alley find

When we were done with dinner and our freezing walk, we went back and relaxed for the night. We didn't want to try and cram too much into one night and get run down... Plus, how often do you get to relax in a suite that EVERY PRESIDENT since the 1920's has stayed in?!?

Yeah, me neither.

The suite was A-freakin-MAZING!

Here is one of the sitting areas in the living room space. There's Bendy in the middle, just for a little perspective. The bar is right behind her...

Here's a closer view of the bar, with my Stepdad David!

Well, hello again, David. I see you are sitting in the OTHER living area. tee hee.

The grand piano which sat in between the two living room sitting areas.

And here is the dining area.

Here is a shot of the kitchen/ bar area. Yeah... I hope my kitchen looks this chic someday! Notice the fruit plate and petit-fours they left us? They left something new for us to eat every day. Yum, yum! Check out some of our goodies:

Everything they served us was so fancy-shmancy! Will re-arranged some of it to get this pretty lil shot.

Spring water in wine bottles.

Truffles... mmmm....

Almost all of the food they gave us, like these nuts, was in edible containers. This one is made of peanut brittle. You can see from how much of it is gone that is was oh-so-good.

More and more fruit!

The suite had three bedrooms and five bathrooms. I don't know why, but we didn't get any good shots of EITHER (that's right, we had two!) of our bathrooms, and we only got this of our bedroom, which isn't very impressive to look at if you could have seen the WHOLE space:

I do have to say, though, that compared to my bed... This IS impressive. haha.

We made sure to get some shots of each of us sitting at the desk in the private office in our suite.We couldn't go without them, knowing that past Presidents had probably sat there to make some important executive decisions. Who doesn't like to feel big and important?

Bendy sitting at the big, honking, GORGEOUS desk which I am pretty sure had a leather inlay... Niiiccceeeee...

Some very important business...

I just love the face he is making! Like he is trying to decide whether to deploy the troops or not... Or maybe he's just trying to stifle a toot... hmmm...

Fancy offices make one feel very high-class, you know.

Oh, look! I can put on a pretty face when I try!

I had to be a little wacky.

This was our view from the living room, both at daytime and at night. Personally, I prefer the night-time view.


Day:

Night:

And here are just some more cute pics of the Ruggle. I got a few great ones of her looking down into the marble floor... She thought there was a baby trapped in there at first, because she could see her reflection. She found it very amusing...

I see you, baby!

And we, of course, found her amusing... As per usual.

Hamming it up for the Grumps.

Sneaking spicy cocktail mix leftover from the party the night before...

Saturday, we took Ilyana to the aquarium for the first time. It was fun... But it was SO crowded that we didn't even get to look at some of the exhibits. People were pushing past us, and it took about twenty minutes just to get back to our locker. So yeah, note to self- next time, go during the week. I think the girl was a little overwhelmed, because she didn't want to touch the animals in the tide pools and it seemed like she was more excited about getting back on the T (which she loved!!) than seeing the fish... fishes... Yes, they are both words. The aquarium says so.

Ilyana especially loved the jellies! This was one of the least crowded parts of the aquarium, so we got right up close to the glass with them. Some of them are so beautiful...

Funky glowy jellyfish!

We also liked it when Mr. Turtle in the big tank swam right up to our glass!

But not so much Mr. Scary Eel. Although Illy seemed less freaked by him than I did.... What?! He's creepy!

We just thought this *star* fish was cool. Is that what it is?? I don't know... it has a lot more arms than a typical starfish...

Nifty shot Dada took of the tank looking up.

And a little ray, too. I didn't even see him. I guess Dada Rugg has a better eye than I. heh.

I've always loved the penguins! They are so cute. Illy thought it was funny that they were taking a *shower* (they have mist sprayed onto them from nozzles.)


After the aquarium, the girl was due for a nap, and Dada Rugg decided to pass on shopping in Boston with the ladies... hmm... wonder why...
They went back to the suite for a much-needed nap and relax, while Mom and I tromped around Boston for another few hours. I do have to say, though, that our shopping trip was lacking. I couldn't find what I was looking for, and it took us forever to find my Mom's stuff! By the end, we were beat and our feet were saying "ow, ow". So we went back to the room. I couldn't wait to relax around the nice room, and sort of felt bad for my Mom, who still had a long night ahead of her... She had the big awards ceremony for NEPA to attend and afterwards, a cocktail party in our suite. So she had no time to rest! Her and my Stepdad got all gussied up:


Don't they look so nice?

Smiling on the outside, but inside... Her feet are saying OW, OW.


And went off to their big awards ceremony.

Of course, Mom had to come back a while later, after I had gotten the Bend up and bathed and ready, to give her some lovin' and bring her downstairs to show her off at the dinner...



I just love this photo! *Pats self on back*

Oh hello Momma, are you going to let me go to the awards ceremony? Pretty please?

So off went the Ruggle to show herself off and suck up to the peeps. They all loved her, of course.

This weekend was really amazing- more than I could have expected, a once in a lifetime experience to be treasured always.

Thanks again Mom and David! You. Guys. Seriously. ROCK! :) Love yaaaaaa....