January 18 Thursday
Nico woke up around 6:30am. I guess I should have mentioned that Samantha did not sleep one night through the entire time we were there. By 3am, sometimes as early as midnight, every morning she would start crying. Then I would pick her up bring her to my bed, so she wouldn't disturb the other kids. Well, she was never really happy sleeping in my bed
either. I think there was maybe 1 night she didn't cry on and off, but Wednesday night had been particularly bad.
6:45 am Samantha and Nico were up watching TV and I had started getting ready. I called TVT just as he asked me to do the night before.
"Hey are you awake?" I asked him.
"Well, I had to wake up to answer the phone."
He teased, I guess he is never too tired to be sarcastic either. "What are you guys doing?"
"Well, we are all going to start getting ready for EMH. Nico and Samantha are already awake, so there is no reason not to do it." I said.
"What about my sugar pie?" Tvt asked.
"Tyrone is still sleeping, but since the others are awake, I'm sure she will be up soon." I answered.
"Well, you guys have fun. I'll call you once I've gotten some sleep and done a few things I need to do around here." He sounded really tired. I felt bad I woke him up.
"I'm sorry I woke you up. I told you just to sleep in and call us when you woke up. I feel bad at how awful you sound."
I said.
"No, I told you to call me. You did what I asked. You go have fun today and I'll talk to you later." He answered.
Tyrone was up about 5 minutes later and we were all set to do EMH. We arrived at Magic Kingdom all ready to see the countdown again, only this time, they didn't do it.
"Oh no, they probably wait until the official opening time to do the countdown." I said to Lee.
We fast passed Peter Pan and all of us went and rode Dumbo. This was Nico's first time ever to ride Dumbo. He, Samantha and I flew and he kept the elephant low. He loved the ride and I think as long as he is in control about how high it goes, he is happy.
Next we ran to Indy speed way to do the cars.
"Here you take Sam," I said to Lee.
"Why?" He asked
"Because you are driving with Julie and she doesn’t like to steer. Nico is driving my car and I don't want Samantha bouncing around when he hits the track." I explained.
He quickly agreed, grabbed Samantha and we all drove off. Nico was so funny to drive with. You could tell he was trying so hard not to bump. The funny part was, the harder he tried, the harder he bumped the track. At times he hit the car so hard, I bounced around.
He was laughing hysterically as I told him he was never ever ever getting his license.
We finished the cars and nico asked, "Can we ride the tea cups?"
"Sure, whoever wants to go fast can ride with Dad. I'll take Sammie." I was explaining to Nico and Julie, who was laughing as I said, "I'm going very very slow" to which she would reply, "No fast fast fast" as fast as she could say it.
"Oh no" Lee said. "Not today I can't go fast either. My body can't take it."
We decided to let the three kids ride together. They all laughed and Lee took pictures of them. They were having a great time.
As we were getting off the ride, Alice and the Mad Hatter entered to ride the tea cups. They told the kids, who were trying to get out of the tea cup, that they had the fastest tea cup of all the others so they were going to take theirs.
"Did you hear that mom?" Nico asked, "They said my tea cup was the fastest."
Nico beamed with excitement.
WE rode Winnie the Pooh next, snow white, and then the Merry Go Round. There is one horse on the Merry go Round with a gold ribbon tied to the back of it's tale. Rumor has it, that is Cinderella's horse, so Nico went in search of that horse.
We all rode the Carousel and then we watched Mickey's philharmagic.
After, we rode It's A Small World. Every time we rode it's a small world Julie would point out to me that there were suppose to be three geese with the little girl in the second scene. One goose was missing. We got off Small World about 3 minutes before 9am, when the rest of the park opened.
"Since we have a Fast Pass for Peter Pan, why don't we go and ride Haunted Mansion, since they are about to drop the rope, then come back for Peter Pan." I suggested.
"Yeah, good idea, since I haven't done that ride yet." He said as I started for the stroller, "Leave the stroller, we really don't need it."
"Good point, but
none of us have done it. Well, except Nico." I pointed out.
"Mommy, I want to ride with you so I can show you the hidden Mickey lantern." Nico said.
Apparently when TVT took Nico on the Haunted Mansion the night we were waiting for Wishes to start, Tony pointed out a hidden Mickey to Nico in the ride. Nico and Lee are excellent at spotting these. Nico was thrilled to find another one on that ride.
"Yeah, please do, I want to see that too."
I said to him enjoying his excitement.
We were on the ride as Nico was saying, "I think it was on the right side, But maybe it was on the left side." as he scanned for it. We got off the ride without finding it again. I think Nico was disappointed, but I told him that I was sure Grandpapa Tony would ride it again with us and he would be able to point it out.
After riding Peter Pan, we looked at the time and we had to get out of there. "Awe, but I really wanted to ride Buzz Light year" Nico whined.
"We'll have to do that later. We can come back, but for now, we need to get to Ohana for our breakfast reservations."
TVT had called to tell us he was going to meet us at Ohana. He was there waiting when we got there. I went to check us in.
"I see we are celebrating a birthday today? Who's birthday is it?" The host was asking me.
"Actually, we are celebrating all three kids birthdays. They opted not to have a birthday party and come to Disney instead."
I smiled.
"Hey, that is fine. We will do whatever you want. What are their names and ages." I gave him all the information and the lady behind me was smiling at me.
" What, all of their birthdays are this month and you thought you would celebrate them all together?" She asked.
"Uh, yeah, exactly." I said, not wanting to go into the explanation.
My kids birthdays are September and October and actually the girls did have a birthday party. But, Nico only wanted to go to Disney. He didn't want a party or anything. Not only that, but any birthday or Christmas or St Nicholas money they got went right into the "Disney fund." Not on my suggestion, they all chose to do that. I was telling Nico's teachers, I think they saved up 300-400 of their own money when all was said and done. So, really, this trip was as much theirs as it was mine and I was going to celebrate their bdays with them there. In fact, I don't even eat at Ohana. But it was the one character meal Nico really wanted to go to, so I made sure we were going to go to it for one meal.
But that was too long of an explination for someone I didn't know, so I just kept it short and moved on.
We were seated and Samantha was in tears. "Mommy, I need chocolate," she was crying
. Poor child, she really is her mother's daughter
. When the waiter came to take our drink order, Samantha was under the table, still crying.
"Is there anything I can do for her?" He asked
"She is really hungry and please, if you could bring the fruit out that would be great. Grapes are her absolute favorite things and she is starving." I explained apologetically.
I hate when my kids are crying at restaurants.
He brought the grapes and Sammie pretty much stopped crying instantly. I think that child had eaten about a plate full of grapes when I asked the waiter if he would bring some ketchup. "I would like to try to get her to eat something other than grapes. Otherwise her diaper is not going to be pretty." I was telling Lee and Tony.
I put the ketchup on her plate thinking, she would eat the eggs with ketchup and that would at least be something other than grapes. My child was one step ahead of me as she proceeded to pick up a grape, dip it in the ketchup and eat it.
She was smilingly triumphantly. She did eventually eat some eggs and a few other things, but I remember the waiter kept coming by mentioning that he would bring more grapes. LOL!
The characters were great and the restaurant was not crowded at all, so we saw each character at least twice. Nico got up to do the Maraca Parade. We asked Julie and Samantha if they wanted to go. Julie didn't want to and Samantha shot me a look that said, "Do I look crazy? You think I am going to chose dancing over food?"
I laughed as I realized she
has some of her father in her too. I would chose Dancing over eating any day.
There is video proof of that somewhere out there.
Nico had asked during the meal if we could go and play mini golf after the brunch.
"That is fine with me, if it is ok with everyone else. What course do you want to play? Winter/Summerland or Fantasia Garden?" I asked him
"I guess we can do Winter/Summerland." He decided. We finished breakfast and drove over to mini golf.
The teacup picture is adorable...
...consider ourselves very lucky).
Small World (collect vintage disneyana, some of my fav. pieces - plate & doll lol). Think my youngest is afraid of the dolls, he terms them creepy. He always drags us to Carosel of Progress (i take a nappie and rest my weary feet).
...
) his very 1st game as Head Coach of the AIFL Pittsburgh River Rats
I said very Un-enthusiastically to the group. "Let get this over with." 
I complained to him.
I kept chocolate covered pretzels and brownies for such occasions when one child would need it. I broke out the brownie and passed out bites to all the kids.
About the 7th hole I turned to Tony.
He said in disbelief as he took out the score card (that he was keeping score on I might add) and began to add up the scores so far. He looked at me shocked, "No your not only winning, your killing us. You are up by 8 strokes." 
I shrugged. "My stepfather always told me I should take up golf, but it is just too damn boring." I explained.
I think he gets frustrated when he doesn't play very well and if I beat him, he must have played like crap. 
