Knightmare
12-15-2006, 05:31 AM
My daughter and I (she will be 3 in January) woke up this morning and watched some Dora the Explorer.
"I'm bored." I said to her. "Let's go do something fun."
"Like what, daddy?" she asked.
"Hmmm.. Let's go see the Grinch!"
"OKAY!"
So we got up, got ready, and ran for the car. We drove to Orlando, which is about an hour's drive away to head to Universal Studios (http://www.universalorlando.com). On the way there, we sang The Mailbox song (a song I made up just for her), talked about Santa and his reindeer, sang along to the Chicken Little soundtrack (she's been over since early Wednesday, and we've watched that movie AGAIN 3 times- she loves it!), the Macy's balloons and about riding some rides.
So we finally get there ("Are we there yet, daddy?" "Not yet sweety." "How about now?" "No sweety.") and head for Islands of Adventure, where the Grinch is. It's a perfect day. It's warm, but not hot. The park is almost deserted (LOTS of British tourists today though). It's early (about 10am) so we head for The Cat in the Hat ride. She's been on it before, but wanted to go again. After that, we go on their new train ride that goes around Seuss Landing ("I can see everything daddy!"). Then we head over to see the Grinch. She's all excited to see him. She's seen the movie, loves the cartoon, so I think she's going to love this. Nope. She sees him, just his arm, and literally jumps into my arms! "Don't you want to see the Grinch?" I ask. "Not yet." she replies.
So we move on. We head to the Flying Unicorn which is a small rollercoaster. We went on that 3 times in a row. She wanted to go on Dueling Dragons (my favorite coaster(s) in the park) which is a giant, noisy, scary rollercoaster, and was actually disappointed when I said she was too small. ("But I'm a big girl, daddy. See?" Then she stood up as tall as she could, then stood on tip toes.) We then went to Jurassic Park, but she wasn't too interested in that ("They're only robots, daddy. Duh!"). She played Whack-A-Mole and saw Spider Man. Then she said she wanted to see Scooby Doo.
We walk over to the next park, Universal Studios. It's now about 3:00pm. Amazingly, she hasn't had a toddler melt-down (ok, a minor one when I wouldn't buy her a lollipop that was as big as her head. I settled for the smaller one that was as big as an apple). She is now showing signs of being tired, so I carry her around, then put her on my shoulders. As we're walking, she says "Look daddy! A walking cake!" "What was that?" I ask. "A walking cake! And a pirate!" I turn my head, and sure enough, there is a woman dressed up as a slice of cake, and a pirate on stilts heading towards us. They were in the parade, and this was a 'meet-and-greet' type of thing. They come over to us and tell Emily how adorable she is and that they will see her in the parade. She gets all excited because they came over to her and called her a cutie pie.
We then go to the kiddie part of the park. Playground, places to play in water, slides, jungle gyms, and another small rollercoaster. We went on that one twice. And we play hard for a good 90 minutes. She didn't want to leave, but the parade started in a few minutes. I piggy back her to the parade route (on the way there we see Jimmy Neutron, Scooby Doo, Dora the Explorer, Woody Woodpecker, but she didn't want to meet them). We sit down and wait for the parade.
Finally it starts. She is so excited! And wouldn't you know it, both the pirate and the cake woman see her and recognize her. Emily recognized them too and gave them high fives. And just about every performer in the parade came over to her and shook her hand, gave her candy, told her how pretty she was (I don't mean to brag, but my daughter is gorgeous LOL). She got all excited over the balloons and floats. She covered her ears when the bands came by, it was too loud, but they were local high school bands, and were actually pretty good. Finally Santa came by. He was about 10 feet up on his float. Santa looked down, saw Emily and blew her a kiss. Emily melted. She blew him a kiss back and he "caught" it and put it in his pocket. "Daddy! Daddy! Santa kissed me!" The parade ended, and it was time to leave. It was almost 6pm. We'd been there for almost 8 hours, she hasn't had a nap, and was very tired, even though she denied it. I carried her from the park to the car (A very long trip I might add). It started to rain just as we left the parade so we got wet too. But that was a good thing, according to her, because we didn't have to take a bath when we got home.
On the drive back, I ask her what her favorite part of the day was. She tells me about the rollercoaster and how fast it was, and "scary-fun" it was.
"So the rollercoaster was your favorite part?" I ask.
"No. It was ok. I liked being with you the best, daddy."
OMG! It was a Hallmark moment; it was a sappy sitcom moment. Totally took me by surprise. I didn't know what to say. I choked up. How can an almost 3 year old know so much?? "I love you Emily" was all I could say. "I love you too, daddy."
Then she fell asleep for half of the drive home.
That wasn't the end to the day. We got home, set up the Christmas tree and she helped me decorate it. It looks pretty darn good, except for a glob of ornaments at the bottom center of the tree (guess who decorated that part?). But I'm not changing a thing on that tree. Did I mention we watched Chicken Little again while decorating?
She finally fell asleep about an hour ago. My little angel fell asleep in my bed, covered to her neck in my comforter. She and I have had a very busy day. I feel like http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v208/bevelheadgrl/thud.gif, and that's exactly what I'm going to do after I finish this.
But I had to share this with you, my friends... this day was my most perfect day.
Thanks for reading.
"I'm bored." I said to her. "Let's go do something fun."
"Like what, daddy?" she asked.
"Hmmm.. Let's go see the Grinch!"
"OKAY!"
So we got up, got ready, and ran for the car. We drove to Orlando, which is about an hour's drive away to head to Universal Studios (http://www.universalorlando.com). On the way there, we sang The Mailbox song (a song I made up just for her), talked about Santa and his reindeer, sang along to the Chicken Little soundtrack (she's been over since early Wednesday, and we've watched that movie AGAIN 3 times- she loves it!), the Macy's balloons and about riding some rides.
So we finally get there ("Are we there yet, daddy?" "Not yet sweety." "How about now?" "No sweety.") and head for Islands of Adventure, where the Grinch is. It's a perfect day. It's warm, but not hot. The park is almost deserted (LOTS of British tourists today though). It's early (about 10am) so we head for The Cat in the Hat ride. She's been on it before, but wanted to go again. After that, we go on their new train ride that goes around Seuss Landing ("I can see everything daddy!"). Then we head over to see the Grinch. She's all excited to see him. She's seen the movie, loves the cartoon, so I think she's going to love this. Nope. She sees him, just his arm, and literally jumps into my arms! "Don't you want to see the Grinch?" I ask. "Not yet." she replies.
So we move on. We head to the Flying Unicorn which is a small rollercoaster. We went on that 3 times in a row. She wanted to go on Dueling Dragons (my favorite coaster(s) in the park) which is a giant, noisy, scary rollercoaster, and was actually disappointed when I said she was too small. ("But I'm a big girl, daddy. See?" Then she stood up as tall as she could, then stood on tip toes.) We then went to Jurassic Park, but she wasn't too interested in that ("They're only robots, daddy. Duh!"). She played Whack-A-Mole and saw Spider Man. Then she said she wanted to see Scooby Doo.
We walk over to the next park, Universal Studios. It's now about 3:00pm. Amazingly, she hasn't had a toddler melt-down (ok, a minor one when I wouldn't buy her a lollipop that was as big as her head. I settled for the smaller one that was as big as an apple). She is now showing signs of being tired, so I carry her around, then put her on my shoulders. As we're walking, she says "Look daddy! A walking cake!" "What was that?" I ask. "A walking cake! And a pirate!" I turn my head, and sure enough, there is a woman dressed up as a slice of cake, and a pirate on stilts heading towards us. They were in the parade, and this was a 'meet-and-greet' type of thing. They come over to us and tell Emily how adorable she is and that they will see her in the parade. She gets all excited because they came over to her and called her a cutie pie.
We then go to the kiddie part of the park. Playground, places to play in water, slides, jungle gyms, and another small rollercoaster. We went on that one twice. And we play hard for a good 90 minutes. She didn't want to leave, but the parade started in a few minutes. I piggy back her to the parade route (on the way there we see Jimmy Neutron, Scooby Doo, Dora the Explorer, Woody Woodpecker, but she didn't want to meet them). We sit down and wait for the parade.
Finally it starts. She is so excited! And wouldn't you know it, both the pirate and the cake woman see her and recognize her. Emily recognized them too and gave them high fives. And just about every performer in the parade came over to her and shook her hand, gave her candy, told her how pretty she was (I don't mean to brag, but my daughter is gorgeous LOL). She got all excited over the balloons and floats. She covered her ears when the bands came by, it was too loud, but they were local high school bands, and were actually pretty good. Finally Santa came by. He was about 10 feet up on his float. Santa looked down, saw Emily and blew her a kiss. Emily melted. She blew him a kiss back and he "caught" it and put it in his pocket. "Daddy! Daddy! Santa kissed me!" The parade ended, and it was time to leave. It was almost 6pm. We'd been there for almost 8 hours, she hasn't had a nap, and was very tired, even though she denied it. I carried her from the park to the car (A very long trip I might add). It started to rain just as we left the parade so we got wet too. But that was a good thing, according to her, because we didn't have to take a bath when we got home.
On the drive back, I ask her what her favorite part of the day was. She tells me about the rollercoaster and how fast it was, and "scary-fun" it was.
"So the rollercoaster was your favorite part?" I ask.
"No. It was ok. I liked being with you the best, daddy."
OMG! It was a Hallmark moment; it was a sappy sitcom moment. Totally took me by surprise. I didn't know what to say. I choked up. How can an almost 3 year old know so much?? "I love you Emily" was all I could say. "I love you too, daddy."
Then she fell asleep for half of the drive home.
That wasn't the end to the day. We got home, set up the Christmas tree and she helped me decorate it. It looks pretty darn good, except for a glob of ornaments at the bottom center of the tree (guess who decorated that part?). But I'm not changing a thing on that tree. Did I mention we watched Chicken Little again while decorating?
She finally fell asleep about an hour ago. My little angel fell asleep in my bed, covered to her neck in my comforter. She and I have had a very busy day. I feel like http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v208/bevelheadgrl/thud.gif, and that's exactly what I'm going to do after I finish this.
But I had to share this with you, my friends... this day was my most perfect day.
Thanks for reading.