Julia and Emily's World

Today I was in a conference all day. Julia and Mommy went to the Florida Mall. Nothing to special, just a regular mall. Julia like the indoor playground. Thanks to Gertie Mommy got to the mall and back again without getting lost. A minor miracle. I have to say that Gertie is the most useful and impressive gadget I have purchased in a long time. No more paper maps! After the mall, Julia went into the hotel wading pool. It was still kind of cool out. Too cool for Mommy who just supervised Julia from the side of the pool. Julia had a bit of an accident in the pool. She pee'd although most of it was on the pool deck. No one was around to see. This evening I had a conference reception to go to so Julia and Mommy went to dinner without me. The hotel is a bit of a dump (the Sheraton Safari). If you are thinking of coming to Orlando I recommend you splurg a bit and go for a hotel that doesn't smell odd like this one. We had to switch rooms today. The room we stayed in la...

Today we checked out our nice Disney hotel and headed to Disney MGM. It has some good shows that Julia enjoyed. The weather was a bit better than yesterday but still very cool. We left MGM around 2:30pm and checked into our next hotel. This is the hotel that is hosting the conference that I am attending for the next 3 days. Definitely not as nice as Disney but that's kind of what I expected. We went back to Magic Kingdom this evening to ride a few of Julia's favourites and to see the fireworks. We actually got Julia to go on the Dumbo ride and she loved it. So the offical vacation part of the trip is now over for me but Mommy and Julia are still on vacation for the rest of the week. Hopefully the weather warms up so Julia can go swimming again. (I'm having trouble uploading pictures so no pics today)

Today we went to Magic Kingdom. Today we got up early and were there right after the park opened. The weather was clear, sunny and very COLD! I was 4 degrees C went we left and remained around that temperature for most of the day. It peaked to 12 C at around 3pm but that didn't last long. The benefit of the weather was that it seemed to keep people away. It was crowded but there was virtually no line ups for any of the attractions. We covered the main attractions: It's a Small World, Country Bear Jamboree, Tom Sawyers Island...etc. Julia's two favourite rides were Cinderella's Carousel and Alladins Magic Carpet Ride. The Magic Carpet ride was the exact same ride she cried on yesterday. Then we asked her if she wanted to go on Dumbo (the exact same ride again). Nope. Julia really enjoys the shows. Anything with singing she enjoys. The highlight of the visit was meeting the princesses; Cinderella, Snow White and Belle. Julia was thrilled to meet them. For din...

After a long sleep (13.5 hours!) Julia was ready for some more fun. On today's (revised) agenda was Animal Kingdom. We got off to a slow start because of the long sleep. We got there around 11am. Our first stop was Triceritops. It is a kiddie ride that basically goes up and down (like the Dumbo ride). Julia was nervous but was willing to go on it right up until she got in it. "I want out!". She was screaming and crying. We kept her on it and I think she had fun although she didn't admit it. We scrapped our planned second ride which was a kiddie roller coaster. The next attraction we went on was a Bugs Life interactive 3D movie. Cool effects, animatronic grasshoppers, smellivison effects, loud noises...and generally terrifying for preschoolers! Off came the 3D glasses and the crying began. OK. Zero for two. Next was a live bird show. Big birds small birds, swooping over our heads. Julia liked it! Finally she was having a bit of fun. Next was an animal safari. Kind of l...

Today was a long day but we made it to Florida! The day started at 2:30am to get ready for a 3:15am limo pick up and a 6:25am flight. The limo was right on time which was great. Too bad he was a horrible driver with a crappy mini-van. I think his tires were bald because he had no traction on the slippery roads. It was a tense drive to the airport! However we did make it without incident. The check-in line was LONG! Luckily Air Transat as a members/kids check-in. That line was only a few families long. We got through in about 20 minutes. By the time we got to the gate it was 5am. Julia was great so far. We boarded the plane at around 6am. There was a lot of freezing rain in the morning so we now had to go for de-icing before taking off. This delayed us. We finally got off the ground at 7:15. We were worried about Julia’s ears but the cabin pressure didn’t seem to bother her at all. They were popping on the way down because she kept touching them. About 30 minutes into ...

On Saturday, Julia spent the afternoon with Grandma while Mommy and I went shopping. Julia had fun but what she really was looking forward to was swimming of course. Grandma had a cold so Julia had to wait until we got back from Shopping. We went for a quick dip after dinner. Grandma made a nice robe that Julia wore. It was intended for cousin Selena but I heard that Selena didn't want it. Julia liked it because it was nice and warm.

It's been some time since I lasted posted an update. Nothing to exciting happening. No new pictures. Julia has been fighting a cold for the past few days. Nothing too serious yet. The usual coughing and runny nose. She has been in good spirits though. Grandma and Papere picked Julia up from school yesterday. I heard that she gave them a tough time at the mall. Julia lately has been unwilling to walk too far in the mall and always wants to be carried. This is not an easy thing for Grandma and Papere. Julia freaked out and was taken out to the car by Papere to calm down. I think that weared them out a bit. I know how stressful that can be. Julia will have to get use to walking because we will be going to Disney pretty soon. I met with Julia's teacher today. Julia is progressing very well although she has the odd tantrum still. Her physical development needs some work (muscle strength) but her mental development (comprehension, imagination, communication) is very goo...

Happy New Year! Today we put away all the indoor Christmas decorations. We are prepared to get back to the regular routine. This afternoon we went to Mama's house for dinner. Lots of Japanese food. Julia was excited to go as usual. She knows that if it is a "party" then she can wear a dress! Julia took a few shot with the camera too. Can you tell which ones are her shots?

On Saturday Selena and Mya visited while Uncle Gary, Auntie Jackie and Jacob went furniture shopping. This was a good visit for Julia because she's been getting bored hanging out with grown-ups for the past few days.