Tidbits

There's been a few things recently that I've thought 'I need to blog this' (is that sad.....), and then I get to the part of uploading the pics, editing them, getting them on flickr and I get lost in flickr world. Looking at one amazing photo leads to checking out that person's stream, which leads to their faves, and then I'm out of time. So today, I am playing catch up!

Let's see, we went to Mickey on Ice a few weeks ago with Haley, Taylor, and Tanner. I thought for sure Carolina would put on her own show of excitement. But nope, she had the same reaction as she does to SeaWorld. But she didn't stop talking about it all the way home from the show, and still talks about it, so I'm pretty sure it was a big hit. Yesterday, we were actually going to SeaWorld, and I asked her 'Lina, where are we going today'. She got all excited and says 'Mickey eat Ice!? Go see Mickey eat Ice?! on noooo, I need clothes!' (she wasn't dressed yet).

Family Pic during intermission



Finally eating popcorn durring intermission. One of those guys was going around at the beginning of the show saying 'POPCORN POPCORN' at anyone age 2-12. Once she heard that, any break in action Carolina was asking for it.


Right after the popcorn guy walked by before the show. The beginning of the sentence was 'Popcorn for...."




I had the camera all ready at the beginning for her amazement, but she did this instead. haha. I think she says 'Mickey' and 'Donald' a couple times though.



We've gone to SeaWorld twice since they opened back up. She still loves Shamu and the foam pit. Ever since she rode the teacups in December she will randomly say that she wants to ride them again. So we made a beeline for them as soon as we got to SeaWorld, since we had been talking it up that first morning. Got there, and they WERE GONE! Carolina was so upset! She got over it pretty quickly though when we went to the foam pit instead. The second time she wanted to play on the 'big kids' area, and desperately wanted to go down the slide. Rendon figured he would take her up there and she would be scared, but she went down! Again and again! She also climbed the rope/net hill thing (I don't know what it's 'official' name is) all the way to the top. We were extremely impressed by that.

The First Trip

Feeding the ducks




"There it is!"




I don't think it's been on purpose, but Rendon has worn the same hat every time we've gone to SeaWorld, now immediately when we step into the foam pit she takes it off his head and runs around saying "Daddy! Get me Get me!"




Watching the Shamu show. The first time she's shown a lot of excitement about shamu actually during the show.






Feeding the dolphins. She wasn't quite able to reach them, and kept just tossing the fish in; I think because that's how she was feeding the fish a couple hours earlier, so she didn't understand to feed the dolphins differently.


Rendon helping her so she didn't drop the fish on the ledge where it's hard for the dolphins to get.


Second Trip!

Clapping at the Viva Show. She learned it at Mickey on Ice and now does it anytime there's music! It's super cute! ( Check out the hair, it was sooooo humid, and poor thing seems to have my hair, course San Antonio would probably do this to anyone's hair...)




They didn't have the water park open since it was Thurs. but they had the water going in the kiddie park , and Carolina throughly enjoyed watching all the OTHER kids run in the water. She avoided it, only going through when Rendon would carry her. At one point she even went through a tunnel, but there was water at the other end, so she turned around and crawled out the way she came in--so the 3 kids (bout 4-7 yrs old) behind her had to crawl out too. Great kids though, they didn't get upset about it.

We went with Rendon's coworker and her 2 little boys. The oldest is a rowdy 4 yr old--He was karate chopping the waterfalls and Carolina found it hilarious!






Walking through the tunnels on the big kid area


This slide was HUGE! Probably 20 ft or so high!


Climbing the net. It was the way to the slide without going all the way around to the stairs. Rendon was doing it, so Carolina followed suit. He only had to help her over the ledge at the very top.






She climbed this whooooole way!


Getting creative with the slide!


They did an AMAZING show at the Shamu Stadium. It's usually close to the same thing every time. But I don't know if it was because there were so few people, but instead of the scripted show, they pretty much just had the whales do tricks, with a few scripted areas. It was by far the best show we've seen yet! At the end, where they usually have one or two whales come out and splash everyone, they brought out FIVE. They still did the regular splashing with 2, but instead of ending there they sorta did an encore. The splash was HUGE (if you've been to a Shamu show you can imagine) I wish you could see all five whales upside down on the other side of the glass, but they churn the water up so much!

The side opposite of us.


And our side. We were smart. We sat right above the splash zone. Or we would be one of those people at the bottom of someone elses photo, haha. The lady with the drink cracks me up. I have about 5 of these, and she's dramatic in every one!


We call Carolina our 'genius baby'. We're possibly a little biased, but she's a smart one! She memorizes books in a few days, and 'reads' them to herself throughout the day. Here's a few videos. My personal favorite one that she reads is 'Pajama Time' by Sandra Boynton, but I've yet to sneak a video of it. The first one here is 'Going on a Bear Hunt'. It's from the library and she had it down within the first week. I'm including shots of the pages so you can better understand her. It can be kinda hard if you don't already know what she's saying. The second one is 'Brown Bear, Brown Bear', it's pretty clear.

The words are kinda small, so hopefully you can get the idea.....






(Pardon the panties, sometimes she refuses to put pants on, and since we're potty training it's usually right after she pees, so I don't want to make it negative for her so we just let her keep them off. What's bad is the neighbor came by a little after this video and Carolina ran out the door like this.....)


She loves to sing her ABC's and can get through it herself with help. I sing "A B C Deeee" and she says "efgeeeeeeee". And so on. This day she was singing it to a long forgotton toy she found when we moved and has re-discovered. Typical Carolina, she stopped singing when I tried to video her, but the end is priceless!



On Tuesday Haley and I went to the Japanese Tea Garden to do some pics of the kiddos. We got lots of shots of their backs. Which is about normal for 2 yr olds. They are cute, but I really was hoping for some spring shots that included her face. We lucked out and Wednesday was cloudy too (the best time for pics), so I talked Rendon into stopping by to try again. I still had her outfit in her bag so we did wardrobe change in the car and did the Tea Gardens take 2. She did really well, I think having Rendon there really helped. He did everything and anything to get a smile.

One of Tanner and Carolina from Tuesday. Check out Haley's Blog for more (and better, haha) pis of the 2 of them.







Saying 'awwwwww'


O, I love this pic SO! And I could just kick myself for chopping the top off her head. Just the way she was standing there with her hair blowing and the flower, I just put the camera up really quick before she moved. But for whatever reason, I just find it sweet!


Spotlighted in a moment when the sun came through the clouds


Nearing the end of her rope....


OH! Daddy has CANDY! (itty bitty mints, haha)


Only ONE! I only get ONE!!! (see it in her hand?)



Well, I think that's enough for now!