Disney POD 2 -- Our first stroll down Main Street

We finished having our bags inspected at the entrance and I snapped one of myself and Jake, who has no idea what he is in for.



When this picture was taken, he had also been awake for 9 straight hours, starting at 5 that morning. It may explain why he looks a little ornery, and why he's clinging to my hip as though his life depended on it.

Mamaw got one of the rest of us gawking along Main Street. From Isaac's seat we could hear an unending litany: "Is that a castle? Does Mickey live there? Cinderella? Who's she? Is that a real castle? Can I go inside?"



Yes, it is a real castle. No, you can't go inside. But you can stare forever at its unbelievable realness and never get tired of taking its picture.



Since Mamaw and Dadaw's favorite pasttime is honoring the Disney gods with great glowing bonfires of their money, they made the command decision to rent two strollers. It was one of the best decisions any of us have made, ever, in our lives. No brotherly brawls to referee! Extra room to hang our junk!



Also? Jake fell asleep sitting up about 5 minutes after that picture was taken.

Monorail. Monorail!

Since pictures from our whirlwind tour of Disney World are long overdue, I'm thinking I'll use them to fulfill my daily photo pledge.

I'll start at the beginning. This Disney vacation was brought to you by Mamaw and Dadaw, who insisted we upgrade to the Contemporary Resort for our stay. This was a totally and completely brilliant maneuver, because I swear at least 25% of the "Magic" in "Magic Kingdom" is being able to hop on an unusual train -- one that threads itself through the lobby of your hotel -- that takes you straight there.



On our very first trip to the Magic Kingdom, all boys and I rode in the front car, with the driver. It was hard to stop smiling.




This was before we caught a glimpse of Mickey Mouse. Isaac informed us during this ride: "When I see Mickey, I'm going to freak out."

Christmas at Grandma Peetz's house

Some scenes from the time we spent in Missouri with Grandma Peetz:

Uncle Chrissy teaching boys how to chair-wrestle:



Grandma got Isaac a Nerf football for Christmas. Aunt Jean took it upon herself to show Isaac how pregnant ladies tackle.



We got there early enough on Friday to spend some time with my Uncle Darryl and cousin Josh...



...as well as my Aunt Joy. Joy and Darryl were on their way to the Ozarks for a fishing trip. IN THE MIDDLE OF WINTER. You'd think it was Minnesota, eh?



Grandma had a great idea on Saturday to take the boys to McDonald's for lunch. The local Mickey-Ds has a wonderful, low-to-the-ground playland for smaller people. But when it became overrun with rowdy bigger people and our boys couldn't play so easily anymore, Grandma had another idea to take the boys to the city park. It was cold, but we all had lots of fun being out and about with Great-Grandma!

Little boys of the world, unite!

Aunt Jean just called me from her ultrasound to announce that her unborn son was proudly flashing his dingaling at the technician.

My dream of a little-boy army has come true. Beautiful visions are swarming through my head now, of little dudes full of Ross genes making a chaotic muddy palace of Meemaw and Poppop's house. They should think about investing in a basketball goal soon, methinks.

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update: FINALLY, ho-bag posts some pictures of our soon-to-be cousin Jonas on her website.

As Isaac puts it, even in the womb "He is a cutie-cuter!"

And you should see Aunt Jean. Seriously, she looks fantastic, but you didn't need an ultrasound tech to tell you the Young Master Jonas will win some awards at the state fair for being a prize pumpkin, if you get my drift. This is especially troubling given the fact that my brother, Jonas's dad, has the biggest head in the known universe. We pray daily that her girly parts will live to tell the tale.

Ross family portrait

I've been meaning to post this one for awhile. While in Missouri, my Aunt Cindy and Uncle Billy threw a nice little Christmas get-together, and somehow we managed to get all of us in a picture at the same time. So here I give you ... the Ross clan. Minus Gimpy Poppop and his lady-friend Meemaw, of course.



Standing L to R: Billy, Cindy, Harry the Dog, Jean, Chris, Uncle Larry, Uncle Ed, Aunt Brenda
Seated in the middle L to R: Grandpa Ross, Grandma Ross, Aunt Carolyn, Lucy
Seated down in front: A few other, less well-behaved people

This was taken December 29th at Cindy's house with my camera on a self-timer.

A benchful

At the Carmel Public Library, on the day after Christmas.



The boys and I plus Uncle Chrissy went there so I could start doing research for my fourth book. They saw this sculpture at the door and had to sit next to her on our way out.

I asked Isaac if he knew what the girl's name is. He told me, "It's Hay-Hay."

All right, so I'm the worst blogger ever

I'm working on my fourth book right now, and I'm trying to focus on that and not blog. But that makes me a sad girl, so in an effort to do better about updating on a daily basis, I think I'll try doing a picture-a-day for the next month. There are so many great ones from our Christmas vacation that I haven't taken time to write about. That's not so hard, right? Uploading a a picture?

I'm blogging this on my laptop in my car right now, sitting in my driveway. Jacob has been sick with an awful cold (fever, cough, runny nose, NOT SLEEPING) since Saturday, and he fell asleep as we drove Dada to work. We had time to kill before we picked Isaac up from preschool, so here I am, working on my book (and now blogging) in my driveway. Sigh... love my wi-fi.

Gotta go pick up Isaac from preschool now. This is "O" week. They're talking about occupations! I tried coaching him so he could report what his daddy does, but he seems to think Daddy's job is "hammering, sawing, and playing." It seems he does do a fair bit of that. A shame it doesn't pay the bills.

Happy Birthday, Poppop!

Today Poppop turns a special number. As he tells it, it's a birthday of "double digits, and it's not 44 or 66".



What a milestone, though. He's old enough to order off the seniors' menu now. And I hear he's ditched the wheelchair in favor of the walker. Because that makes him look younger.

We called him earlier and left a message on his machine with a serenade from both boys. Isaac is a seasoned pro, and Jacob did his best, singing at least one line of "Happy Bir-day, You".

Love you, Poppop!

Christmas Day at Mamaw and Dadaw's

We spent Christmas Eve night at Mamaw and Dadaw's house and naturally awoke to a present explosion. We had great fun opening and assembling toys and whiling away the hours in our pajamas. While we enjoyed everything immensely, Isaac was in particular ecstasy that he got a red toy airplane. Other hits included a singing Einsteins book. I think Disney should hire us to advertise for them, don't you?



The boys also got some great, sturdy costumes that turned Jacob into a construction worker and Isaac into a handsome, calendar-ready firefighter:



Here are my handsome O'Neal boys, all three. I think Dada is expositing about the impossibility of assembling this gigantic Mack playset.



Aunt Robin and Uncle Joe gave them their first toy guns. Oddly enough, I had softened my outlook on this issue just the week before, as my three-year-old insists fourteen times a day that he's either a hunter or a soldier and will shoot anything that moves with his finger. Boys will be boys, as they say. For the following photo, Dada offers the caption: "I said 'Please', punk."



Eventually we realized we might need food, and Mamaw and Dadaw set right to work fixing enough bacon (BACON!) for a team of lumberjacks.



And such was our luxurious, well-fed, pajama-filled Christmas morning, a delightful and relaxing one.

That was Tuesday. Friday morning, early, we drove to Missouri to have Christmas-Observed with my extended family. Stay tuned for that episode.

Perhaps if you are lucky, one day you too can have five Christmases

I said four before but now that I think about it, my boys had five:

1) Pre-departure, Delaware Christmas
2) Christmas Eve at Meemaw and Poppop's
3) Christmas morning at Mamaw and Dadaw's
4) A trip to Missouri the weekend following Christmas where we opened presents at Grandma Peetz's house and then
5) attended a party/present-opening for the Ross side of the family at my Aunt Cindy's.

1) Delaware Christmas
We had originally intended to stay put for Christmas morning and to make a big to-do of the present opening and Santa's part in the production. But Dada and I are the kind of people who can't keep gifts to ourselves. Once they are in the house, what's the point of not playing with them? So we told the boys that they had been so good this year, Santa was going to visit our house every night the week before Christmas and drop off a new present for them. But it wasn't just for the boys, no. Being in such thick cahoots with Santa, we understood his Christmas Eve workload and wanted to help out a bit.

Here they are opening their first present (a ginormous Tinkertoy set) right after Dada got off of work one day.


Then we went to Indiana for our annual spoiling from both sets of grandparents, who surely have the local economy in mind when they set out to buy for my boys.

2) Christmas Eve at Meemaw and Poppop's
...was different this year; we opened presents in the TV room instead of the Christmas Tree Room because of our beloved, gimptacular Poppop:



See that metal pole lying across his belly? That's a stocking stuffer from Meemaw, one of those extend-your-reach grabby devices for moldy convalescents such as himself. She loves him so.

Here comes Isaac, full of purpose, marching in to claim his birthright:



I love this picture because it wraps up everything that is my life right now -- a preschooler full of attitude leading the way, with me lagging behind under the weight of my omnipresent hip-candy. Oh, and that I am kept alive only by coffee.

Meemaw in her festiveness ensured that everyone was topped with a Santa hat...




...though eventually some of us lost the hats because they distracted from the important duties of the Toy Inspectors:



To be continued. Until then, please enjoy a slideshow of our Christmases across the Midwest.

Christmas vay-kay

Hello there! Perhaps I will try to blog now.

We got back late Thursday night, having been on a hiatus from life in Delaware for almost 3 weeks. Poor Isaac had to miss three days of preschool, including "W" week last week that included such highlights as a water table for them to play with, and painting with watercolors, of which he is already at a master's level. The sacrifices we make to go to Disney World, I tell you. We did manage to haul our tushies back in time for "N" week this week, where Miss Susie and Miss Barbara will begin teaching the kids how to write their names. Isaac figured out the first part on his own while stuck in the car with his Doodlepad.



I always pretend that I will blog everything that happened on our Christmas excursions in installments, since it's way to ambitious to try to pack all that into one post. This year will be no different.

The highlights:
* Four Christmases
* More toys than can currently fit in our house
* > 2000 miles put on George the Green Car
* 2 weeks in Indianapolis
* 2 days in Missouri
* 3 days in Disney World
* journeying in such varied vehicles as George, an airplane, a tram, a bus, and a monorail
* for Dada and I, lots of trips out alone for coffee, and two dinner dates
* Mamaw haircuts for the boys and I
* Dadaw and Dada finally figured out what had kept our check-engine light on since May! It's now fixed. George also got a new power steering pump and tensioner
* Helping Poppop the Gimpy recoup from his broken leg
* Playing with Uncle Chrissy and Aunt Jean almost every day
* Two trips to the Children's Museum
* Going through all my old high school memorabilia and paring down what Meemaw refuses to pitch
* A slideshow of old pix of Baby Dada!

I have been putting off blogging because I can't find the cable to my digital camera, and my pictures from our last day at Disney are stuck there until it resurfaces. So, sit tight, and hopefully I'll get some slideshows of our Christmas present-opening adventures posted soon.