She was so excited for Mother's Day all week :) She made me several cards. The one she gave me with breakfast said, "Thank you for choosing me to be your kid. Happy Mother's Day is finally here! I hope you will love your breakfast!"
This little girl loves me sooooo much :) I am so happy she picked me to be her mom!
Last night I had a dream that we had finally just for real moved out of this house, on to another place, and it was finally, really ok with me.
Not like the previous recurring dreams I always have about us selling this house (either to afford a cheaper apartment-as if these days! Or for a bigger place or for whatever reason). It's a recurring dream I always have had for the past several years: for some reason we have sold the house to move into something different and then realize the horror of our mistake too late. The feelings that come with it are real regret. Sometimes we go back to the house to find that the realtor has totally changed everything we've improved on over the years of living here. Sometimes it's strange to look at the house with a For Sale sign up after we have moved out and then and realize: what have we done? We left awesome neighbors!
All of those memories in that house too! And the great neighborhood we've run through for so many years, and strolled Anna through as a baby. The park we saw upgraded in time for our little girl to play on. The pool I used to swim good laps for NEEMO training, and then later introduced our daughter to at around 2 months old. The birthday parties, the crawfish boils, the hurricane evacuations, Saturday night dinners at our place, kids playing in the back yard, the creation of Paul's clinic right around the corner because we chose for it to be close and part of home. It goes on and on. How could we just MOVE OUT? And just on to a different local neighborhood? Our best friends are just right around the corner. The previous owners lives here for 8 years and had two young sons who are in college now. We bought the house from them and they only moved down the street for a bigger place. Our daughter is about the same age as their youngest was.
I think I have this recurring dream because this house is such a part of us after 13 years here. It is the longest place by far that either I or Paul lived in consistently in our lives since we moved around a lot growing up. With every new memory I am a little saddened knowing that a day will come that others will live here and we won't. For some reason or another. Eventually the energy that we have left behind will be replaced by the new energy of the new owners. Then I snap out of it quickly to just try to enjoy what we have now. But even when living in every moment it's hard to hold on to as you realize how much more quickly time is rushing by. And the move is one day inevitable.
Last week I was asked last minute to come to KSC this past weekend to give a press briefing on the science going to ISS on the SpaceX launch. Since it was during spring break and we had nothing planned and extra frequent flyer miles, we thought it be a once in a lifetime opportunity to surprise Anna with a quick trip to Orlando. One day at Disney and one at legoland, both on the flight days, with one day of hotel pool play with dad the day mom worked at KSC. We got great deals on Lego tickets and other deals to keep the costs down, and we used her recent birthday money to help out too (thanks all!).
We packed her suit case the night before the 7:25am flight and woke her at 5am to tell her where we were headed :) She's so low drama usually we didn't expect the crazy type reaction of excitement and part of me actually wondered for a bit if she would care at all! And I thought she actually wouldn't believe us! But the word I can best describe for her reaction was, "delighted". It's a cheesy word choice but she was so pleased and smily and chatty and just pleasant! That kid was dressed and ready for the door faster than I had ever seen :)
So thankful that she's a great traveler! So thankful that Paul could also take the time to come on this crazy idea.
The fact that it was such a quick trip tested my disney packing skills : necessities for long amusement park days but only for 2 nights was simple and based on a mental checklist of experience from previous actually planned trips. Plus my own suitcase including TV clothes! All 3 packed light and easy. Out the door so quick you'd swear you'd forgotten something.
The night before the flight we were up late returning from the Wizard of OZ musical at the Hobby center that had been planned before this trip! Anna had asked Paul if she could send the night at M's but no no no! And he almost forgot and almost told her yes!
We got to disney just after noon and the park was open till 1am so we had plenty of time to have a full day! First request was It's a Small World.
She loved it as much as when we were last there in Sep 2012.
A caveat: she didn't want to do any roller coasters while there which was a drag. We were thinking she was scared but she said no! But we couldn't find a reason otherwise. Usually that's the first thing she wants to do, and over and over and over. So it was odd her old faves weren't so anymore. Another sign of growing up bringing change. But we were busy enough for the day :)
Disney added several new things to the park including an interactive treasure hunt in the pirates area, complete with map and talisman that takes you to various kiosks in the area that you can activate with awesome effects, narrated by Captain Jack Sparrow. Even with our sore and tired feet she totally dug this fun adventure. Map reading, secret codes, treasure. A dream for her! There wasn't REAL treasure in the end (drag!) she purchased a little bag-full in the picture above.
I don't know how we got so lucky but our forecast was temps in the upper 60's to max 78 on our last day.
While at disney I get an email that the SpaceX launch slipped and the briefing was canceled! WHAT? I managed to salvage a work visit by meeting with some of the scientists there all afternoon, so still an awesome and productive trip. This is how it goes with the business of launch. In the meantime, Paul and Anna played at the hotel!
That evening we had dinner at Trex Cafe because we had a $25 Landry's Select card credit (woo-hoo) and while it was a chaotic 70 min wait for others, the card got us in within 5 minutes!!!! Unreal! Benefits of membership!
Lastly, Legoland before the 8:55pm flight home. Her old fave roller coaster ride the Dragon still held (thankfully) but the other old fave coaster did NOT. First drop: SHE CRIED! Our child CRIED out of fear on a coaster ride. Dismay!!!!!! Oh DISMAY!!! She made up for it by riding the kinder yet still thrilling dragon over and over and over. The thing we have learned: things change as people grow and change. It's a reminder for us to realize and accept that and roll with it.
The entire quick trip was such that reminder since we had so many previous benchmark trips to compare to. That was the theme!
Legoland was celebrating the recent movie release (Paul and Anna had seen it but not me), so they were letting kids build Legos to have placed in the Lego NYC display to represent the movie scene. So cool!
More previous faves:
And one we've been wanting to do for years but didn't want to fork out the cash:
Anna says, "mommy she doesn't have grey for your hair!" Booger.
We closed down the park with repeats of Dragon as usual till they shut us out :) and we hauled butt all the way to our flight just as they were boarding. It was all a blur!
I'm writing this as they sleep in, it's raining in Houston, and we are still covered in Legoland grime. It's a recovery day and back to school tomorrow!
We are so lucky we were able to do this. Who gets to do surprise quick trips to Disney? My job, Paul's job, the frequent flyer points accumulated from using the Southwest card for the Grocery Station purchases, the Landry's card, Anna's birthday money,and even Living Social for a steal at Legoland, previous Orlando experience combined with the gusto to hit the full-day park schedules on flight days really WORKED! It's rare, and we understand and appreciate it. We are grateful 💜
Another year just like that. We asked her to stop at 5 but she just keeps going! She has gotten sweeter, smarter, funnier, and bigger in the last year. She's become more patient, reasonable, and self aware but she's still a kid. The thing is she's a joy to be around. We really like her :)
She wanted her birthday party to again be at home with a bouncy house, all girls. She decided for some reason to do T-shirt decorating and make-up. We ran out of time for makeup but the girls got to take home little makeup kits (ick, I apologized to the parents in advance!). We had about 7 girls and it was great! Parents just dropped off their kids (only 2 parents stayed) which was great bc there was more down time with less feeling like you had to entertain parents too! They're at the age where they can take care of themselves which is so cool! What I will it feel like to drop her of someplace with her friends and just leave her when she's old enough?
We loved you baby girl! It just keeps getting better and better.
SpaceDaddy (Paul) and I have been in love since 1989. We have a happy, beautiful toddler, Anna-Marie, who was born March 8, 2007. I work at NASA as the Associate Program Scientist for the International Space Station, and Paul owns his own Physical Therapy clinic (Valeo Physical Therapy: www.valeopt.com). We miss Colorado but have happy lives here in Houston.
