Disney, Knitting, and the Niece
So the trip to Disney on Ice with the niece went swimmingly. It was quite enjoyable and she behaved like a sweet little lady the entire time. When I picked her up from my sister she was eager and excited. She talked nonstop on our way to dinner at Wendy's. She then talked most of the way through the meal, pausing only to chomp away happily at her nuggets and fries.
When dinner was successfully consumed we headed on over to the Civic Center where the show was taking place. We decided it was best to park in the Civic Center parking garage so we didn't have to walk as far as we would have had we parked at the local Mall. It was twice the price for parking but the convenience factor was more important. So we got parked (on the top floor) and made our way in to the show. We arrived a mere 10 minutes before the show was set to start and were quite pleased to find that our seats were right by the main entrance to the arena. So we settled in and waited for the lights to dim.
The show as actually quite enjoyable. Although I have to say that my recollection of the Disney on Ice Aladdin show I saw in High School was way cooler than this one. I remember being so incredibly impressed with the fact that the performers could skate and do such elaborate tricks in those big bulky costumes. This time, not so much. Most of the bulky stage performances were done by props being moved around by other less encumbered skaters. But it was still good.
The show consisted of four Disney movie themes including Cars, Tinkerbell and the Fairies, The Little Mermaid and Toy Story. Of course Mickey, Minnie, Goofy and Donald were there as well. My favorite was probably the Toy Story one.
My niece seemed to enjoy them all, but agreed that the Toy Story part was the best.
She and I shared a bag of cotton candy and afterward she was timid about asking for a souvenir toy but managed to settle on buying a little princess wand that had lights inside that spun and made the shape of a heart.
Now leaving the arena was easy. We even managed to get in line for the parking garage elevator ahead of the mad rush. But leaving the parking garage... no so much ease there. Being that we parked on the top floor we ended up sitting in line waiting to move for over 20 minutes as each of the floors below us made their way out of the garage. When we were finally able to make our way out, the rest of the garage was essentially a ghost town and we made it out with no problem.
Once we made it back to the house my niece was obviously quite tired but reluctant to go to sleep. So I thought we'll watch a movie and she'll fall asleep before it was on for long and we'd all get to go to bed. Yeah... no dice.
We turned on the Netflix and she chose a movie she said she loved, one which hubby and I hadn't seen yet, Mirror-Mirror. And she stayed awake through the whole thing. It was too cute because I'd catch her eyes getting heavy and then she'd snap them wide open and throw a look at my hubby (who'd bet her she wouldn't stay awake for the whole movie) that said "I'm awake... you lose" every time. It was hilarious.
When the movie did finally end we all decided it was bed time. So we piled into the bathroom to brush our teeth and then we all got settled in for the night. I tucked her into the bed that has been my nightly refuge from Mr. McSnorepants in the nursery and made sure she was warm and snugly before I headed in to our bedroom.
It ended up being a very long night for me because I was so concerned that she'd wake up and not know where she was and freak out or that she'd wake up and want to go home or some other crazy scenario. It was our first sleep over with her. So I was a little nervous. Then on top of that, the cotton candy from earlier in the evening seemed to have put the baby in my belly into a wriggling frenzy and wouldn't settle down at all. She rocked and rolled in my belly until well after 4 am. Which kept me awake and aching.
Then add to that hubby's snoring was in overdrive and I had to move to the recliner in the TV room to try to get some sleep and man... it was the night that wouldn't end.
I think I managed to get about 4, maybe 5 hours of sleep total, in 20-40 minute increments. I'd made my way back to the bed with the hubby around 5 am and cat napped between hubby's snoring lulls, then I suddenly heard movement. I looked at the alarm clock... it was 7:20. I looked at the crack in the door and saw an eye peeping in.
When she saw me looking back at her she darted off and I tried to close my eyes but they wouldn't stay shut so I got up and crept into the nursery and hung out with her for a bit. We then realized we were both hungry so we went downstairs and made ourselves some breakfast. She had scrambled eggs and I had a bowl of cereal. We sat and chatted then hubby came lumbering down the stairs so we all hung out gabbing and being goofy.
Over breakfast the niece and her uncle had decided they were going to tackle the task of putting together the Pack-n-Play play yard that her mommy had got me for my baby shower gift. We hadn't taken it out of the box yet so she was excited to help her uncle put it together for the baby. So we went upstairs and while they did that I grabbed a quick shower. I made it into the nursery just as they were trying to figure out where to put the last part. Then they showed me how to take it apart and store it for easy travel.
After that we made our way into the TV room and that's when the niece decided she was gonna ask me about my knitting. Ever since learning that I had been learning to knit she's been curious to learn for herself. So we sat in the floor together and I showed her how to get started. She actually caught on really quick to the casting on part and had managed to cast on a great row.
Learning to start the next row didn't go quite as well, but then I remember back to my first day teaching myself how to knit and realized how much better she was doing with it than I had. Of course she had another person teaching her and all I had were a book and YouTube videos. So we gave it a few good tries but always ended up ripping it all off the needles and starting over with the casting on stitches.
I told her that we'd just practice that and then next visit we'd work on learning to make new rows. She was content with that and sat there in the floor, a look of solid concentration upon her brow, and cast on a bunch of stitches before it was time to get ready to go home.
After returning the niece to her family the hubby and I decided to go exploring. First on the agenda was food and after stopping a few places that ended up being closed we found ourselves at a restaurant down the road a bit and enjoyed a tasty lunch of burgers and fries. After that it was explore adventure time. We drove by the Birth Center where I plan to deliver so he would know where it was. Then just down the road from that he spotted the Tractor Supply store. So we walked through there looking at stuff.
After that we just followed the road until we found little places to stop and explore some more. We found a little junk shop run by a delightful old woman who made amazing paintings and had some really nice "junk". After that we went to a flea market and perused the many booths of junk there for a while. Then we found another junk shop to check out. I know we stopped at a few more places before heading home but right now I can't recall where all else we went that day. I know by the end of it I was wore out and ready to sit on the couch and relax.
When dinner was successfully consumed we headed on over to the Civic Center where the show was taking place. We decided it was best to park in the Civic Center parking garage so we didn't have to walk as far as we would have had we parked at the local Mall. It was twice the price for parking but the convenience factor was more important. So we got parked (on the top floor) and made our way in to the show. We arrived a mere 10 minutes before the show was set to start and were quite pleased to find that our seats were right by the main entrance to the arena. So we settled in and waited for the lights to dim.
The show as actually quite enjoyable. Although I have to say that my recollection of the Disney on Ice Aladdin show I saw in High School was way cooler than this one. I remember being so incredibly impressed with the fact that the performers could skate and do such elaborate tricks in those big bulky costumes. This time, not so much. Most of the bulky stage performances were done by props being moved around by other less encumbered skaters. But it was still good.
The show consisted of four Disney movie themes including Cars, Tinkerbell and the Fairies, The Little Mermaid and Toy Story. Of course Mickey, Minnie, Goofy and Donald were there as well. My favorite was probably the Toy Story one.
My niece seemed to enjoy them all, but agreed that the Toy Story part was the best.
She and I shared a bag of cotton candy and afterward she was timid about asking for a souvenir toy but managed to settle on buying a little princess wand that had lights inside that spun and made the shape of a heart.
Now leaving the arena was easy. We even managed to get in line for the parking garage elevator ahead of the mad rush. But leaving the parking garage... no so much ease there. Being that we parked on the top floor we ended up sitting in line waiting to move for over 20 minutes as each of the floors below us made their way out of the garage. When we were finally able to make our way out, the rest of the garage was essentially a ghost town and we made it out with no problem.
Once we made it back to the house my niece was obviously quite tired but reluctant to go to sleep. So I thought we'll watch a movie and she'll fall asleep before it was on for long and we'd all get to go to bed. Yeah... no dice.
We turned on the Netflix and she chose a movie she said she loved, one which hubby and I hadn't seen yet, Mirror-Mirror. And she stayed awake through the whole thing. It was too cute because I'd catch her eyes getting heavy and then she'd snap them wide open and throw a look at my hubby (who'd bet her she wouldn't stay awake for the whole movie) that said "I'm awake... you lose" every time. It was hilarious.
When the movie did finally end we all decided it was bed time. So we piled into the bathroom to brush our teeth and then we all got settled in for the night. I tucked her into the bed that has been my nightly refuge from Mr. McSnorepants in the nursery and made sure she was warm and snugly before I headed in to our bedroom.
It ended up being a very long night for me because I was so concerned that she'd wake up and not know where she was and freak out or that she'd wake up and want to go home or some other crazy scenario. It was our first sleep over with her. So I was a little nervous. Then on top of that, the cotton candy from earlier in the evening seemed to have put the baby in my belly into a wriggling frenzy and wouldn't settle down at all. She rocked and rolled in my belly until well after 4 am. Which kept me awake and aching.
Then add to that hubby's snoring was in overdrive and I had to move to the recliner in the TV room to try to get some sleep and man... it was the night that wouldn't end.
I think I managed to get about 4, maybe 5 hours of sleep total, in 20-40 minute increments. I'd made my way back to the bed with the hubby around 5 am and cat napped between hubby's snoring lulls, then I suddenly heard movement. I looked at the alarm clock... it was 7:20. I looked at the crack in the door and saw an eye peeping in.
When she saw me looking back at her she darted off and I tried to close my eyes but they wouldn't stay shut so I got up and crept into the nursery and hung out with her for a bit. We then realized we were both hungry so we went downstairs and made ourselves some breakfast. She had scrambled eggs and I had a bowl of cereal. We sat and chatted then hubby came lumbering down the stairs so we all hung out gabbing and being goofy.
Over breakfast the niece and her uncle had decided they were going to tackle the task of putting together the Pack-n-Play play yard that her mommy had got me for my baby shower gift. We hadn't taken it out of the box yet so she was excited to help her uncle put it together for the baby. So we went upstairs and while they did that I grabbed a quick shower. I made it into the nursery just as they were trying to figure out where to put the last part. Then they showed me how to take it apart and store it for easy travel.
After that we made our way into the TV room and that's when the niece decided she was gonna ask me about my knitting. Ever since learning that I had been learning to knit she's been curious to learn for herself. So we sat in the floor together and I showed her how to get started. She actually caught on really quick to the casting on part and had managed to cast on a great row.
Learning to start the next row didn't go quite as well, but then I remember back to my first day teaching myself how to knit and realized how much better she was doing with it than I had. Of course she had another person teaching her and all I had were a book and YouTube videos. So we gave it a few good tries but always ended up ripping it all off the needles and starting over with the casting on stitches.
I told her that we'd just practice that and then next visit we'd work on learning to make new rows. She was content with that and sat there in the floor, a look of solid concentration upon her brow, and cast on a bunch of stitches before it was time to get ready to go home.
After returning the niece to her family the hubby and I decided to go exploring. First on the agenda was food and after stopping a few places that ended up being closed we found ourselves at a restaurant down the road a bit and enjoyed a tasty lunch of burgers and fries. After that it was explore adventure time. We drove by the Birth Center where I plan to deliver so he would know where it was. Then just down the road from that he spotted the Tractor Supply store. So we walked through there looking at stuff.
After that we just followed the road until we found little places to stop and explore some more. We found a little junk shop run by a delightful old woman who made amazing paintings and had some really nice "junk". After that we went to a flea market and perused the many booths of junk there for a while. Then we found another junk shop to check out. I know we stopped at a few more places before heading home but right now I can't recall where all else we went that day. I know by the end of it I was wore out and ready to sit on the couch and relax.
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