Ok, Here It Is

The official three month belly picture! I had Josh take it this weekend, and I had him do it up close, cause I didn't want the rest of my body showing. Anyway, I think this picture makes me look bigger than I actually am, but whatever, I'll be getting bigger, so it doesn't really matter. And I don't normally wear clothes this tight, so my belly still stays pretty hidden to people at church and stuff. It depends what I'm wearing sometimes too. Sometimes my pants kind of hold it in, and my shirts are usually loose, so I'm not bursting at the seams yet :). I'll try to post a belly picture each month so you can watch me grow! Well, technically you're watching my baby grow, but you get the idea. The baby's three inches long right now and about the size of a peach. Pretty cool, huh? Oh, and get this, I haven't gained any weight yet! I lost about three pounds in the first trimester, and I've just been hovering around those numbers for many weeks. I guess it's better than gaining too much too fast, right?

Let's see, any other baby news? Sometimes my belly feels heavy, so I can only imagine what it'll be like in five or six months. And the other night I had trouble sleeping, so I rolled over onto my tummy to get me relaxed, but it was a bad idea. It hurt! It felt like there was this huge uncomfortable lump in the bed. So no more tummy sleeping for me for a while. Bummer :(

And the Beat is On!

I had a check-up today with my doctor, and the coolest thing happened. I heard my baby's heartbeat! I'm 12 weeks along, and my sister was just telling me that they may not be able to hear the heart because it's a little on the early side for that. So when they told me they were going to check for it, I didn't think they'd find it. The nurse told me it was a little early, but they like to check anyway. And sure enough, we heard it! It was this faint "thump thump" sound. And by faint I don't mean weak. It's just cause the baby's still so small. It was so awesome to hear :)

I called Josh to tell him about it, and I got all emotional on him. I wasn't that way in the office, but once I started telling him, I got choked up and started to cry. I didn't get that way over my first ultrasound last month, so it was probably the combo of missing Josh and pregnancy hormones.

Overall I'm feeling pretty good. I actually feel less pregnant lately in some respects. I don't feel the need to munch on crackers between meals as much as before, and I don't feel as tired. My doctor told me that now I'm getting into my second trimester, and this is the feel good part of being pregnant. Yay!

I've had to wear more maternity clothes lately. Not so much tops, but definitely pants and skirts. I'll have Josh take a belly picture this weekend, so ya'll can see my pooch!

Two more months until we find out if it's a boy or a girl!! Predictions, anyone?

Baby Dreams

Ok, so I'm in my 12th week, which means I'm about 3 months along. I can't believe it! It seems like just yesterday we were finding out we were pregnant, and now in 6 months we have to be ready for an addition to our family. Yikes! There's so much to do between now and then. But hey, we've got 6 months, so as long as we don't procrastinate, we should be fine ;).

I do plan on posting some belly pictures soon. Don't worry, it won't be my naked belly. But I figured that three months was a good time to start, seeing as now I have a little something to show. It's funny, cause yesterday I felt like I was sticking out so much, but today my belly seems flatter to me. Whatever. I know Fishy's growing, no matter how it feels to me. The other day I hugged Josh, and he told me that my belly reached him before the rest of me did! And that phenomenon will only become more prominent as the days go by.

Ok, so the reason for my title. I've been having some strange baby dreams. I do remember one nightmare I had earlier on, but I don't exactly want to describe it and relive it in my mind, nor do I want to scare you all with my imagination, so we'll just leave that one alone. But the first baby dream that I had was that I was wearing a diaper. Not sure what brand though, didn't pay attention to that detail. The next one I had, I really wish I could remember what happened, but all I know is that I woke up ticked off at Josh. Apparently he didn't do something I wanted him to in the dream, so when the alarm went off for church the next day, the first thing I thought was, Man, he's so annoying! But, realizing I was in real life and he hadn't done anything wrong, I shook it off and told him about it later. At that time I remembered the dream, but neither of us can recall what it was about.

Then I had another dream where I was ticked off at Josh (poor guy!). We were coming back from a trip, and he sat down while I had to stand and wait for the luggage to come around. Boy, I woke up annoyed about that too! But it's totally the opposite of what happened in real life. When we got back from Disney, I sat down while he waited for the luggage!

Well, upon re-reading my last two dreams, I see that they have no "baby" stuff in them, but I still label them baby dreams, cause I've never had dreams where I've gotten annoyed at Josh before, so I blame it on the pregnancy hormones. He really has been wonderful so far, I promise :).

So the dream I had last night was kinda scary at the time, but thinking back on it, I shouldn't have been scared at all. I dreamed that a baby-sized intruder came into my old room in my parent's house and was stealing all the baby socks I had for my baby. Ruthless, huh? And baby-sized too! I shoulda been able to clobber him!

Any psychologists out there care to analyze my brain?

Day 4: MGM (More Great Moments)

Ok, so we're finally at the last day of vacation. This day was spent back at MGM, cause there were quite a few things there that we wanted to do. We didn't get up as early this day. We were both tired and a little sore, so we took our time in the morning. Josh did both of the thrill rides, Aerosmith's roller coaster and the Tower of Terror, and I looked around in the shops. After a while, the stores start to have all the same things, but there is a lot of variety. Photo albums, Disney scrapbooks and supplies, snow globes, pins, kitchen items, aentenna balls, hats, plush toys, t-shirts, picture frames, and the list goes on. I'll have to show you guys the souvenir I got later.




The next event we attended was a 30-minute stage performance of Beauty and the Beast. Ok, so I've seen this movie a zillion times and I've seen it on Broadway, but I still had to watch it again. And besides, I was curious to see how they'd abbreviate it and still get the whole story in. They did a great job, by the way. But I think the most entertaining part was what happened before the show began. This guy set up some microphones and spoke into each one of them to do a sound check. When he was done the audience clapped, like he was so great for saying "check." He liked the attention, so he came back to the mic and started doing this beat. Then two other crew members came out and started singing, and before long, we were listening to this great quartet! They did so good-- I think I liked it so much because it looked unplanned, so you weren't expecting them to be any good, but they were. So here's a video of them. And keep in mind, they had no music playing in the background. It's all their voices doing the sounds.

So yeah, they were awesome. And then of course I had to take some pictures of the actual show. They didn't do every song, just the major ones. And they had a narrator telling the story, so that helped when they were skipping parts to keep it moving.












Ok, this was probably one of Josh's favorite things to see. I liked it a lot too. Apparently they started this stunt show at the Disney World in Paris, and it was so popular that they have it in the US now, which I'm glad about, cause it was awesome. Boy, where do it begin? It was so loud! They put motorcyle engines in the cars, and it was probably echoing off the stands we sat in. They also made a lot of smoke with their sharp turns and such. They demonstrated different car chases, and some of them (or all) have been in movies. So the red car is the hero, and the four black vans are the bad guys. They showed us some of the tricks they do. For instance, the red car starts driving backwards and goes behind a building. He comes out still driving backwards, but he's going so fast and he's driving so accurately. The trick is that another red car replaced him, and inside this car the driver is facing the direction he's driving in. We just can't see, cause the windows are blacked out. So from the outside, it looks like he's maneuvering backwards, but in reality, he's got total control of the car. Josh took some good pictures of this thing. This first one shows the vans chasing the red car and all the smoke they gave off. The second one looks like the red car is just taking off from the ramp, but actually he's just landing. That's the backwards car I was telling you about. Pretty cool, huh?






Here's the one stunt driver on the left who drove the forward car. The car on the right is the backward one, and the driver's still in there, I believe.



And of course they had to connect this to Disney somehow, so they brought out Herbie! They played his theme song and showed some of his best moments from his movies on the screen, and then they had him drive away and we hear him "crash." And he comes out split down the middle, but still able to drive, of course. Classic Herbie--what a show off ;).



These next two shots just show the kind of stunts they pulled off. The first one has the red car jumping from one truck to the next (very cool), and the second one has the vans driving on two wheels. They did it for quite a while too--it was very impressive.





This last picture is really cool. They implemented a motorcycle chase, and if you can see there's a motorcycle on its side about to slide through this wall of fire. Right behind it is his rider, wearing a white helmet. He too slides through the fire and catches on fire. At first I thought, whoa, is that supposed to happen? But they had guys right there with fire extinguishers. It was so much fun to watch.



We were really looking forward to taking the MGM Studios Backlot Tour that would take us by tram to see how they make movie magic, but we only got one picture on the tour, and it was this.



Why just one picture, you may ask? Well, see the clouds in the picture, all dark and ominous? Well, it started to rain, so a 35-minute tour was shortened to a 5-minute tour. It was such a bummer too, cause I'm sure we would've seen some cool things. It was only sprinkling, so we walked casually to our next destination. Suddenly, the rain fell harder (as Florida rain is famous for) and we found shelter at a nearby table and chairs under an overhang. This kid walks by and looks at all of us hiding from the rain and says, "It's no big deal, it's just a little rain." Then it falls even harder and this kid got drenched! He deserved it :). So it wasn't just rain. There was thunder and lightning, but we had chairs, so we comfortably waited out the storm. The temperature dropped a lot, so it felt really nice. The sun came back out after 20 minutes or so, and we made our way to the next tour on our list. We wanted to go back and try the backlot tour again, but we ran out of time. This one was called The Magic of Disney Animation, and we watched a short presentation of a guy on stage interact with Mushu (from Mulan) on a screen. It was cute, and then we were dismissed to look at some storyboards that showed the progression of drawing some of the characters, like the Beast and Woody. We tried to get in another line, where we would be taught how to draw a Disney character, but we waited too long, and there wasn't enough room for us :(. Oh well, I'm not an artist anyway. We also took a tour of Walt Disney's life, from childhood to his future visions, and there was a video with real footage of him too. It was cool. Josh went through it quicker than me, but that's because I kept stopping to read all the signs.


Our final event at Disney was Fantasmic! a "nighttime spectacular with lasers, lights, dancing fountains, and special effects." We started waiting early for it, so we were some of the first ones they let in. As the time drew closer, they would unrope a section, and we would walk to the next roped off section. We did this a couple times until we finally reached the ampitheatre. We found seats front and center, so I was excited. I knew we'd have a good view of everything. While we were waiting, we saw dark clouds looming closer and coming fast. They kept announcing that due to weather the show might be delayed or cancelled, so we all kept waiting. It finally did pour, and Josh and I were glad we remembered to pack the ponchos. I tried to arrange my poncho so me and my seat would stay dry, but my shorts still managed to soak up a bunch of rainwater. It was kinda fun being with all the other poncho-wearers and waiting through the rain. It sure helped the time go by fast. The workers who were selling those light-up toys packed up their stations, but then others came around selling ponchos to those who didn't have them. Some people had umbrellas, but those weren't allowed, cause it could cause injury in the large crowd. Eventually the rain stopped. We meant to get a picture of us in our orange ponchos, but we forgot. We looked cute though, I promise ;). Here's a picture of the stage, before it got dark.



And here's Mickey Mouse! He started the show (naturally) and he brought up the colored fountains and lights shot out from his fingers. There was awesome music going on too, so it added to the exciting atmosphere.





Remember the picture of the rocks I showed you? Well, they did a scene from Pocahontas on them. First canoes with Indians floated by us on the water, and then Radcliffe and his men were singing and digging, and John Smith was there, and of course Pocahontas made an appearance. That part was cool, but I wasn't quite sure how it fit with the rest of the story. Yes, there was a plot to this whole show. It was really cool. They sprayed a huge wall of water and displayed images on it from Fantasia, the cartoon with Mickey and the sorcerer's hat. So the whole idea is that Mickey has this dream, but then the villains from all the other stories decide to get into his dream and destroy him once and for all. They showed images of Ursula, Jafar, Scar, and others. Then they dropped the wall of water and the evil queen from Snow White was on stage, where she turned into the ugly witch!



The special effects were so neat, and I liked how they used that plus the stage for the performance. Oh, these next pictures are cool. This first shot is the dragon from Sleeping Beauty. It was huge, and in the picture you can only see its bright eyes in the darkness. They put flames on the water, and you can see the mist in the air--it was so awesome!



Here's Mickey about to fight the dragon. He's kind of distorted from the heat of the flames. I thought it was a cool effect.



And here he has pulled the Sword from the Stone to kill the dragon. See the fireworks coming from the sword? It was so awesome! I got really into it :)



Once he killed the dragon, they put up the wall of water and showed all the villains dying by electrocution. For most of the images, they just added lightning to it, but for Ursula, they didn't have to. Cause if you remember in The Little Mermaid, when she died she already had lightning on her. Anyway, we all cheered of course, and then a steamboat came out with all the characters aboard, and guess who was driving? Steamboat Willie!!





It was a fun-filled vacation, and we both had an awesome time. I think if we'd have brought kids, I still would've had more fun than them! Josh and I have already talked about going down there again when we have a family. I want to make sure we go when all our kids are old enough to remember it. So it may be a while until I get to go back, but I'm not complaining! I'm so happy that I got to go in the first place. And thus ends the Disney saga. I hope you've had fun reading and looking at the pictures :)

Day 3: The Magic of Magic Kingdom

Ok, isn't this castle gorgeous? It's Cinderella's castle, and there's a restaurant in there, and if you're rich you can stay in the fancy room they have up there now. It's funny, cause we took pictures of the castle, but it's just not the same as seeing it in person. It's like the lens can't fully capture it's beauty or something. Anyway, we did so much stuff here. We went to Magic Kingdom in the evening of Day 2, and we pretty much covered Adventureland, which has the Swiss Family Treehouse, a Jungle Cruise, and Pirates of the Caribbean. We did the treehouse cause there was no wait, you just walk through the place. I didn't realize there were so many stairs, so with each level I got slower and slower and Josh got farther away from me :). The Jungle Cruise was good--we had to wait a little for that one, and the river guides were real corny, but they were supposed to be. I liked the Pirates ride. Of course it's a classic, and it was air conditioned, and we didn't have to wait in line at all. Jack Sparrow shows up three times throughout the ride, so that was cool. Oh, there's a point where it's all dark and you feel the boat going down and you freak out, cause you can't see how far you're gonna go. But it was like a three foot drop or something. I got all scared for nothing :)

Oh yeah, one of the first things we did at the end of Day 2 was the Hall of Presidents. We took Josh's picture with his favorite president, Ronald Reagan. And the show we saw was pretty cool. They had animatronic versions of all the presidents, even our current one! They went through all their names, and it was cool because each person looked in the direction of the next one. Then some gave speeches, like George Washington, Abe Lincoln, and George Bush.



That evening we saw the Wishes Fireworks. They were so beautiful as they exploded near the castle. We had good seats, and it was worth it. I wouldn't say they were as spectacular as the ones at Epcot, but they were more magical, for lack of a better word. I mean, Jiminy Cricket is talking to you, and Tinkerbell flies from the castle, and throughout the display they have quotes from the different movies. Oh yeah, and the castle is lit up in different colors the whole time, and they project images onto it too. It was a beautiful show, and Josh got some video of the beginning. It got even better after that. I must be a sap, or maybe it's the pregnancy, but when I watch the video, it makes me cry a little. It brings back the memory of being there, and it reminds me that my husband was so wonderful to take me to one of the best places on earth.

The next morning (day 3) we were back at Magic Kingdom for some more fun. We did the classic Dumbo ride, It's a Small World, the Carousel, took a ride on the railroad, did the Tiki Room, to name a few. But don't worry, there's more. The Haunted Mansion was closed, but Josh got to do Splash Mountain and Thunder Mountain Railroad. Let's see, we did Peter Pan's flight, and you ride in a sailboat like from the movie and you fly over the whole story of Peter Pan. Snow White's Scary Adventures was similar to that, meaning you traveled in something and went through the story. At the end it was kinda scary, cause they make it look like the evil ugly witch is going to drop the boulder on you!

Oh yeah, and we got to meet some very significant characters. They don't really need a long introduction, so I'll just show you the pictures and tell you that we didn't have to have wait very long to see any of them.

This is me and Princess Aurora, from Sleeping Beauty, for those of you who don't know. She was the friendliest princess I met.



I was so excited to meet Cinderella! By the way, it was her idea to hold hands, not mine. Must be a princess thing.



Belle asked me if Josh was my Beast, and of course I said yes :)



And we can't forget the big cheese himself, Mickey Mouse! He's much shorter in person than I imagined.



We saw another parade at this park, the Disney Dreams Come True Parade. They really like parades in FL. Anyway, I was gonna post parade pictures, but we were kinda far away, so we didn't get wonderful shots. And besides, if you've seen one parade, you've seen 'em all. They had Jiminy, Donald, Pluto, Ariel and Eric, Cinderella and Prince Charming, Beauty and the Beast, Pinnochio, oh yeah, and a guy ("Walt Disney") drawing Mickey Mouse.


We spent a lot of time in Tomorrowland, the futuristic section of the park. Josh rode Space Mountain while we were there, and I went shopping. No wait, I think I found a shaded table and dozed off for a bit. Anyway, we did Stitch's Great Escape, but you really don't do anything, you are just part of the fiasco. We were cadets in training, but then Stitch gets loose and the lights go out cause he's in the system. They have him spit on us, which was just water of course, and then they talk abut him going around and messin' with us. Just then, something pats our heads lightly. It was so cool! I thought I'd be freaked out, cause I didn't know what was touching my head, but I wasn't, cause it was only Stitch, and he's so cute :). We did Monsters Inc. Laugh Floor, and that was an interactive show like Turtle Talk with Crush. The audience had to laugh so they could get enough power. They kept putting one guy on screen and picking on him, saying he was ugly, and "there's a mask for Halloween". It was a lot of fun. Oh, and we did Buzz Lightyear's Space Ranger Spin. They have Buzz talk to you while you wait in line, and then when you get in the cab, you have a gun that you use to shoot the aliens. They keep track of your score, which was a bummer, cause Josh beat me every time :(. But it was still fun.



The evening show for tonight was the SpectroMagic Parade, which was done so well, just like everything else at Disney World. Josh got a nice picture of the Walt and Mickey statue, and here's a shot of the fabulous castle in the dark. They had it lit up in blue at this point (duh).




We were tired at this point, so we got a little silly. Josh wanted to get a picture of me squishing Walt Disney, so I gave in. Then when I tried to get a pic of him squishing his head, I kept laughing and couldn't focus the camera. I finally got it though.








And now, we finally come to the event of the evening, the SpectraMagic Parade. They used so many lights, and it looked so pretty in the dark. Mickey was one of the first ones in the parade, and they timed it with the music and his whole float lit up. The whole audience cheered, including me :)





Here's Chip 'n' Dale tickling the ivories. It's cool how you can see their reflections in the mirror. And then there was this gorgeous peacock.





Here's one of the fairy godmothers from Sleeping Beauty. They each had their own float. And then the next picture with the huge pumpkin has Cinderella and her prince in it.





This was another one of those things were you had to be there to really take in the excitement and the brightness. These pictures don't do justice at all. I think I'll end with two classic characters, Donald and Minnie!

Day 2: Three Parks in One Day!

Yeah, it's true. We went to three parks in one day. Sound crazy? Just trying to get our money's worth :) We spent the morning at Animal Kingdom. We got there a little early, so we had to wait with everyone until they officially opened the park. When they let us through, everyone was rushing in one direction--towards the new roller coaster. But the majority of the park was still blocked off. Apparently it was only 8:55. So we waited impatiently in the sun with all the other park-goers. I think that park was hotter than the rest, but maybe it's from all the extra foliage they have--it definitely felt like jungle heat. So finally the moment came, and Mickey, Minnie, and Pluto drove in front of us on a bus! They had this checklist that they went over with us, to make sure we had sunscreen and water and a map. Then they rolled down this sign and we all said together "Let the adventure begin!"

And so began the stampede to the new ride. Some people started running, and the Disney workers told them to slow down. I mean, there were parents with strollers and little kids--it would be a shame if one of them got trampled. We were gonna get Josh a fastpass, but the wait time was only 10 minutes, so he hoppped in line. I went to the gift shop area, which was where he'd come out at the end of the ride. Oh yeah, I got so mad, cause I saw people ducking under the ropes and cutting a bunch of people in line! People, it's just a ride--wait your turn!! Anyway, it was called Expedition Everest, and Josh said it was a pretty cool roller coaster. They tell you all about the legend of the Yeti, and then when you're on the ride, you find that a part of the tracks are completely destroyed by the monster! So they shoot you backwards through the mountain. It was a pretty realistic-looking mountain. We wished the snow on it was real :)



The next event was a safari through the jungle. Waiting in this line was a little long, but it wasn't bad. The lines are never air conditioned, but they had ceiling fans along the way and open windows, so it was bearable. At one point Josh switched with me so I could stand underneath a fan and feel the breeze from the window (he's so sweet). And then a couple minutes later, this guy behind me says, "Excuse me, but can you step forward so I can feel some air?" I'm naturally non-confrontational, so I automatically stepped forward. But as I thought about it, "Hey, that was rude of him. I should have told him I was pregnant!" I told Josh about it later, and he said, "What a jerk." He really was, cause when we got further up in line, there was a place where we split into two sides, and he and his wife and son managed to cut a bunch of people in line. As you can tell on this day, my pregnancy hormones left me little patience with rude people :) We saw lots of animals, and here are some pictures!

This zebra was so close to the safari bus! And I think this is a gazelle, maybe?

A cute baby elephant and a cute baby rhino with their mommies!
This giraffe was shy and here's Simba's wife taking a nap.

Warthogs - gross!
Our favorite event at Animal Kingdom was Finding Nemo--The Musical. It was a thirty minute Broadway-style show, and they did such a professional job. The people held puppets of the character they were portraying, and they dressed to blend in with the background. They could move the eyes and mouths of their character, and the puppets were made of a lighter material in the back. So when they would swim around, you really believed they were in water. Josh snapped tons of pictures of this, so I'll just put out a bunch for you :)

Here am I waiting in line and this was the sign near the entrance

Here's Nemo! The star of the show. And here he is again with his dad.

This is Nemo's class and teacher and we can't forget about crazy Dory!

Fish are friends not food! These are Nemo's fish tank friends.

The seagull was as tall as the stage! And here is Nemo with Gill.

Dude! Jellies! Crush and his posse.

In the afternoon, we headed over to MGM studios for some more fun. First things first though, we had to have lunch :). We ate at Toy Story's Pizza Planet, and as we walked away from there, we saw Woody and Buzz posing for pictures. Josh got his picture taken with Woody, but the line for Buzz closed before we got over there. Oh well! Oh yeah, we also did the Indiana Jones Stunt Spectacular. I thought I knew how it would all go, cause they've showed it on Full House, but they only show the first part. The second half they show you more stunts and act out some scenes from the Indy movies. It really was neat to watch.



We went to an audio show with Drew Carey, and you wore headphones the whole time. We were in complete darkness for 7 minutes, so all you had to go by were the sounds. We liked that one, especially cause it was air conditioned. I remember when the lights went out that some kid was getting scared, even though her dad was right next to her. Right when we came out of that, they were setting up for the Disney Stars and Motor Cars Parade. It was perfect timing, so we had a good view of the characters. The temperature dropped extremely during the parade, and the wind started blowing. It felt great, but we knew that meant a storm was coming. They still did the whole parade though--we only got a few drops. Here are some shots Josh took.

You've got a friend in me! Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious!!!

This is Luke Skywalker and Princess Leia. Here's Mulan.

Mike and Sully (Kitty!). Hades from "Hercules".

Lilo and Stich. And the Little Mermaid.

After the parade, hmm, I don't remember what exactly we did. We caught some of the High School Musical Pep Rally. We actually heard it a couple times when we went back to MGM the last day, so the songs kept getting into our heads :). For dinner I had made reservations at the Sci-Fi Dine-In Theatre Restaurant. It was a really neat atmosphere. I tried to take pictures inside, but it was too dark for any of them to come out good. We sat in a classic car, and everyone faced a big screen that showed black and white segments of "thrillers." There was this one movie about an attack of a fifty-foot woman--scary! (yeah right). They also showed some old cartoons, so it was fun. Josh got a more regular-sized meal, but nothing looked good to me. I opted for a bowl of soup, and a strawberry shake. Hey, I was in a 50s car--I had to get a classic beverage :)

Whew! I haven't even talked about Magic Kingdom yet. We went there next, but we only did a couple things, since we had a few hours, so I think I'll save that for the next installment. Until then!