Jeremy and Lost

Today I am reunited with two dear things --- Jeremy came back from a three day business trip to Delray Beach, and Lost is returning on ABC! Of course, I am happiest about Jer returning (after just a few minutes of pondering), but I am also excited about watching Lost with him tonight. It starts in just seven minutes here and Lex is asleep for the night! Whoopee!

I was so sad when the last season ended and it showed a sad Jack in the future. Jack deserves to be happy. He is an excellent leader -- I think I would even vote him for president if he were real! Well, maybe not president. I don't know that he has the knowledge of International Affairs for that (although in the last episode, he does travel a lot . . . ). But he'd make a great mayor!

Anyway, Jer and I have been so obsessed with this show that we always check this site after the episodes for any insights. How these people find these things is beyond me, but I enjoy reading what they have to say!

Okay, it is starting in just a minute. Wheeeeeeee . . .

Oh, and I really am glad Jer is back, too!

Greedy or Genius? You decide.

I will give you another question to ponder. Is putting two binkies in your mouth a sign of intense greed, or is it a manifestation of acute genius? We were headed out of the house today when Lex came running to the front door with these two binkies stuck in his mouth. He kept them in for quite sometime, even while running.

Our vote is genius, but we are pretty biased.

I think of you everyday . . .

On the evening of Thanksgiving, Jer fell asleep on the couch at about 10:00. I decided to go and get ready for bed before waking him up to move to the bedroom. So, I walk into our master bathroom and spend some time at the sink. I didn't look around. Then I walked over to the medicine cabinet, and the hugest spider I've ever seen outside of a cage was less than five feet away from me!

You have to understand that ever since seeing "Arachnophobia" when I was ten, I've been really really scared of spiders. I'll be brave and kill a spider when I need to, but this thing caused me to hyperventilate! So I ran out to the living room in a state of panic. Poor Jer woke up and didn't know what was going on. He thought I was being dramatic. That is, until he saw it, too.



Jeremy didn't know what to do. He certainly wasn't going to touch this thing, even with several layers of paper towels between him and this monster. So, he grabbed the broom and tried to kill it from a distance. It turns out this thing has size AND speed. I couldn't believe how fast it went. It tried to hide in our linen closet. Jer finally tracked it down and beat it enough that we were sure he was dead. The broom was broken, but we were safe. I went and got the camera and took the shot below. Jer just needed a break!



So, we leave the room to get the huge volume of paper towels we think we need in order to transport this thing outside. We don't want its carcus in our trash. When we get back, we realize that the spider had been faking its own death, and it was now climbing up the wall. Out came the broken broom again, and we smashed that thing to smithereens. Jer took it outside, and even crossed the street before dropping it.



That night all I could dream about was this spider. I was sick that day, so I even had a dream that the spider was really a doctor spider who was just coming by to check on me. Poor spider. Mostly, I dreamed about that thing attacking me or my baby. I was so beside myself. What if I had been home alone with Lex? I would have had to kill it on my own.



In the two months since then, every time I walk into that bathroom I look to the exact spot where that darn spider was, half expecting him or family member to be waiting to attack me.



Please don't let this deter you from visiting Florida. We do have pest control. This was a one-time occurence. Or so I keep telling myself . . .

Doodlebugs Playdate

Today Lex and I went to a place in Cape Coral called Doodlebugs that is an indoor playground and art studio in one. They had the fastest slide ever -- you have to see Lex come down it in order to believe it! I had our old camera with me today, so the quality isn't great and I couldn't edit out the first part. The video is below. We were there for two hours and had a lot of fun!

Disney's Hollywood Studios

Chris, Paula, and Jackson huddling together for warmth.
Jer sure looks like a charmer in this photo! I guess he doesn't like the cold.
Paula, Jackson, and Chris waiting for the car stunt show to start.
Lex gnawing on his binky while waiting for the show to start. He goes through binkies so quickly doing this, and he isn't even teething! Lex always notices Micky Mouse.

Lex zeroed in on this picture of a train at an exhibit. He sat there for a few minutes pointing at it and making his "choo choo!" noise.

We went to DisneyWorld this weekend with Chris, Paula, and Jackson. We don't usually go to Disney this much, but we have to take advantage of the small crowds right now!

We woke up early and piled into the van. We got to the park at about 10:30, and it was COLD! Not just whiny Floridian "It is 60 degrees and I'll act like that is cold weather" cold, it was really cold. We stopped on the way and bought coats for me and Lex since it was so cold. I actually bought a coat for Jer to use in the future since I didn't find anything I would want to wear again.

Luckily, it warmed up as the day went on. We had a great time watching shows and riding the rides. The highlight of my day was riding the Rockin' Rollercoaster with Jer by my side. After several years of riding by myself since Jer is watching Lex, I'd forgotten how fun it is to go on a ride with him!

The video below is of Lex dancing to the High School the Musical 2 pep rally. Jackson, Lex, and I went to see that while everyone else went on that super scary Tower of Terror.

We had a great day!

Indiana Jones Fools

Chris and Jer had both been "extras" at the Indiana Jones show before, but they had never been extras together. So, they sat apart a bit and both yelled loudly so they could be up there with a friend. Paula and I were a bit nervous that one would be chosen, and not the other. Would their friendship be torn apart over jealousy and envy? Would they ever be able to work past this?!?



Anyway, they both yelled very loudly and the "producer" picked them right away. Here is their performance. Paula and I both admitted that our hearts were all aflutter after seeing Jer in a pink muumuu and Chris with some odd red turban on. Be still our hearts!



All joking aside, they were cute up there. Here is the proof.

Dinner, Play-doh, and Trains

Lex hanging out with Chris. They sort of match!
Poor Jackson. Do you think he's still alive?
Yes, I put his hair up in a rubber band. I wanted to get his hair out of his eyes.
He loves playing with trains!

We had Chris, Paula, and Jackson over for dinner tonight. I thought I'd share a few cute pics from the evening. I don't know why I didn't get a photo of Paula! I'll have to get her next time. Watch out, Paula! I should have taken a photo of her while we were playing with Play-doh. I'd forgotten how fun that stuff is until Lex and I played with it earlier today at a playdate. Luckily, we already had some at home, and Jackson gave us some of his old Play-doh toys. Thanks, Jackson!

I thought is was cute that Lex was winding down with Mickey Mouse Clubhouse on the iPod, holding one of the headphones up to his ear.

I don't like Bookit.com

Last night I went on our trusty old travelzoo to book a hotel for an upcoming Orlando trip with some of our friends. A great rate was being offered through bookit.com. We'd had a bad experience with them before because they'd posted inaccurate information about the hotel, then wanted to charge a bunch to cancel the reservation. I must have been temporarily insane since I decided to give them another chance. Big mistake.

AFTER I had booked, they decided to notify me of an extra $65 cleaning fee for our one night stay! I called right away to cancel and they wanted to charge me a $70 cancellation fee.

After talking to several people from their company and a manager at the hotel, I was able to cancel without any penalties. But what a waste of time. I am never using their site again -- they really need to work on their accuracy.

Park Pictures

Last night we took Lex to the park to play. He enjoyed himself, as always. There was a slight chill to the air which was weird since just a few hours earlier it was SO hot that we even had the ice cream man circling our neighborhood. Lex didn't mind the cold, though. We had to drag him out of there when we couldn't take the breeze off the harbor anymore.

Lame, but I love this!

Jer found this on YouTube last week. It had me laughing my dorkiest laugh for a long time! You might have to be EXTREMELY familiar to Cars in order to think it is as hilarious as I think it is, but I still can't hear any of the Chick Hicks "GRRRRRR" noises without laughing.

Disney Daytrip

My friend Andie and her four kids invited Lex and me along for a trip to Magic Kingdom yesterday. Jer had to work, so he couldn't join us. I was pretty nervous about going since that meant we were supposed to meet at 7:00 to start our 2.5 hour drive to Orlando. That is soooooooo early to me! Of course, we were both a few minutes late, but we managed to get to the park early enough.

We had a lot of fun! Lex loved the train and made lots of train noises while we were on it. I went on Space Mountain, and we both went on Buzz Lightyear, the carousel, etc. We saw Lex's beloved "Mickey's Philharmagic" twice. He'd seen it so many times on Youtube, I think he forgot how cool it is to see it in the theater.

The video below is right before we left. Lex was in Pooh's Playful Spot and just couldn't keep himself from getting soaked.

We did lots of fun things and then it was time to go. Andie's kids were so fun to experience the park with. Her little seven year old was so cute as she watched Philharmagic. I've never seen anyone so animated! Speaking of animation (or lack thereof), on the way out of the park, Lex fell asleep in his stroller. He slept most of the way home.

Thanks, Andie! We had a great time!

Birthday, Round Two

I didn't post these the other day. These are some photos of Lex's birthday dinner on Sunday. We had our friends Paula and Chris and their son Jackson over for Jambalaya (thanks for the Zatarain's suggestion, Ali) and cake -- that combo doesn't sound appetizing, but we put a good hour in between dinner and cake if that helps!

Lex opened the rest of his gifts and remembered from the day before how to open presents. He really got into it! When Paula walked in the house with her gift wrapped up, Lex tried to grab it right away. He needed help getting the unwrapping started, then he greedily finished opening the gifts.

He LOVED the Thomas take-a-long train track that Chris, Paula, and Jackson got him. We were a bit jealous that our gifts to him didn't get the same crazy chuckle that the trains got. Oh well. Now we know.

The video below is of him opening the gift. Listen closely and you can hear that crazy chuckle toward the end. If I heard that in a dark alley I would run and hide! After the birthday clip, I also included a short (but tilted) clip of Lex on the train at Disney yesterday. I wanted his grandma's to hear Lex say "Go"!

Cute or Creepy? You decide.

Today it was in the fifties, which is quite chilly for our area. So, we finally had an opportunity to put Lex in a jacket we bought him a while back. Jer dressed him in it, then had Lex run and get me. I was literally on the floor laughing when he came in! Something about the combo of the oversized jacket and wet slick looking hair just looked like he was trying to sell me something.

Looking Back

So, I am feeling nostalgic about when Lex was born and his first birthday. Here are some photos for comparison. His first birthday was a few weeks before we moved to Florida. Notice his straight hair. The week we moved down here it went curly.

Happy 2nd Birthday, Lex!

Today Lex turned two. He had a few tantrums today, but overall the terrible twos haven't arrived yet! We took it easy today. He woke up and Jer got up with him, letting me sleep in (my favorite part of Saturday)! Lex opened up a gift in the morning (Luigi and Guido cars), and happily played with toys. Then Lex took a nap until we had to leave for Costco to pick up his cake.

Our initial post-Costco plan was to go to the beach and let Lex play in the sand, but on the way, we happened to see there was a medieval fair (or faire, if you will) going on at one of our favorite parks. We opted to walk around there instead. I think Lex enjoyed seeing the people. He basically ignored the people on stilts, but was fascinated by a man with a feather in his hat. Go figure.

Anyway, we came back for cake and presents (for the second year in a row, Lex cried as we sang "Happy Birthday" to him -- I didn't realize my singing was THAT bad). We had a few friends join us for that. We'll have a birthday dinner for him tomorrow with a few more gifts since we learned at Christmas that too many gifts at one time are a bit overwhelming for Lex!