Florida Vacation part 2: Downtown Disney and the Zoo

While we were in Florida, we decided against going to Disney World because she is still young and wouldn't want to be there for very long so it would be a waste of money. We did go to Orlando however, and stopped at Downtown Disney. They had disney songs blasting so Laneah would randomly dance:) She loved the statue of Mickey and Minnie.
We went into the Disney Store there, which was huge! She found a stuffed animal cat that she loved. She immediately snuggled it and gave it about 50 kisses before we left the store. She wouldn't let go of it for the lady at the checkout and the lady said "We get that all the time, we never take the toys from the kids" Lol. Laneah wouldn't even stop snuggling with her kitty to take a picture with Cinderella.

In the store, they have a Bibity Bobbity Boutique wher little girls get dressed in princess gowns and have their hair done with crowns and everything. It was so cute. I can't wait to bring Laneah back when she is 3 or 4. Jason seriously had to drag me out of the store so I didn't buy all of the princess dresses they had:)

They had a Lego Land and all of these huge Lego built animals. They even had a Loch Ness Monster coming out of the water.
We visited the Lowry Zoo in Tampa in the morning before we went to Orlando, which is rated the number one Zoo in the country for children. They have a stingray bay where you can pet stingrays like Laneah is doing in the picture below.
What was really cool about the Zoo was they had feeding stations for a lot of the animals. You could feed giraffes, rhinos, and several other animals. It cost money to feed them, but you could still go the the feeding station. We walked right up to this giraffe with his giant tongue.

The children's part of the zoo had a little water park, which was great because it was over a hundred degrees and extremely humid.
They had an area to pet the goats, which Laneah liked, but she kept wanting to sit on the ground which was filled with goat dung so she didn't stay in there very long.
So we took her outside the gate and let her feed the goats some pellets. She loved when they licked her hands.
There were two ladies who worked at the zoo who walked around with this baby Llama and you could pet it and take your picture with it.

I have never seen a Zoo like this. They had a Carousel and roller coaster rides throughout the Zoo. You could also ride on ponies and camels. Laneah had a great time and she was very tired when we left:)

Florida Vacation part 1: The Beaches

We had a great time on our trip to Florida. The weather was super hot and muggy, but it was sunny and beautiful there. The beaches on the gulf are amazing with their clear blue tinted water, white sand and lots of seashells. Plus the water is really warm! The water was almost the same temperature as the air! We stayed in Tampa but went to Clearwater, Sarasota and Orlando too. Clearwater is my favorite beach to go to in Florida (but I have never been further south than Orlando), so we went to this beach a couple of times. They have a really nice playground for kids, a pier, places to eat and shop, volleyball nets, and most of all, it's just an awesome beach.

We weren't sure how Laneah would react to the beach and the water, but we were hopeful that she would be a beach lover like we are. And we got lucky. As soon as we got to the beach she ran straight for the water. We had to hold her back to slather her in sunscreen:)



It was so sunny and bright that she couldn't look up without squinting. Lol.


She had a lot of fun playing in the water with daddy. She actually liked the waves as long as the salt water didn't get in her eyes. She also liked us taking her out into the water and "jumping" over the waves. She also had fun pushing our heads under the water:)




We brought a ball to the beach with us, and she sat down and we put the ball in the water. She thought it was so funny that the water would bring the ball right back to her.



While we were there, we bought her this cute little wagon set with a pail and some beach toys. She had so much fun pulling the wagon on the beach and through the water.

And of course mommy played too
Florida we miss you!

"Mommy, can I have an Ipod?"

I can see this question coming all to soon. She already loves to listen to music and has recently learned how to use my headphones. Yesterday she pulled my Ipod out of my purse, brought it to me to turn on the music and stuck the head phones in her ears.

Prayer Time

We taught Laneah how to fold her arms for prayer. She loves prayer time. When we sit down for any meals or snacks, she folds her arms and waits for us to have prayer. Sometimes after we say prayer, she wants to say it to, and so she says prayer using her baby talk, but with the same inflection that we use for prayer. It is so cute.

Move over Baby Einstien...

....Laneah has fallen in love with a giant purple dinosaur.
Yep, Laneah loves Barney. She wants to watch him all the time. She will hand me the remote and point to the tv and if anything else is on besides Barney, she shakes her head "no". Is it possible to have all of the Barney songs memorized in just two weeks? Because I think I do.

17 Months

Laneah turned 17 months on Wednesday. I can't believe how much she has grown. She is all toddler now; into everything, funny, clumsy, so entertaining. Since I use this blog to document Laneah's life, I wanted to write about some of the things she is up to right now.

She says "Quack" repeatedly throughout the day, especially when she sees a duck, but she also says it when she wants a cracker (or I give her a cracker) because to her it apparently sounds the same.

She is able to imitate the motions to her favorite songs like 'Itsy Bitsy Spider' and 'Popcorn Poppin', she also does the motions for 'Head, Shoulder, Knees and Toes'. If she wants you to sing her one of those songs, she will show you one of the motions from the song she wants.

Laneah loves to twirl and spin until she is dizzy and falls over.

She still loves to play peek-a-boo.


She loves to count and uses her fingers and she can say the numbers 1-5.

She loves to cheer and clap. At Andrew's (my brother) graduation, she was so excited and cheered and clapped everytime the crowd did.

When we throw her in the air (or other fun things like that) we count one..two..three.. and throw her on three. When we put her down, she will yell "three" again to let us know she wants another round.

She has started posing for pictures sometimes and loves to make cheesy smiles and funny faces.

She doesn't say the word "no" yet, but will shake her head no when she is upset or doesn't want something.

She always needs a snack in her hand and loves to eat. She eats about the same amount that I do in a day.

She loves stuffed animals now and carries around a little kitty cat all day long.

She classifies all animals as either "kitty" or "puppy". She loves to chase kitty cats.

We usually only give her a pacifier for naps and bedtime, but I swear she has a built-in pacifier detector because she finds them all over the place anyway.

She loves to get into boxes or containers and play in them or pop out of them.


She runs and plays hard but comes up to us about every ten minutes for a quick little hug or snuggle before she is off to play again.

She loves being outside right now and when she wants to go out she will take a set of keys to the door knob and try to unlock the door (so smart!). And when she wants to go "bye bye" she will go to the car and try to open the door.

She still is very impatient and wants things right away, but we are trying teaching her how to say "please" rather than grunting or crying when she wants something.

Thank you swim lessons! She now likes the water and is willing to get her hair and face wet. She even learned how to blow bubbles and does it every time she is in the bath tub.

Laneah loves to be chased and she loves to squeal. When Jason comes home from work, she starts squealing and laughing and runs into my arms because daddy is going to "get her".

She doesn't want to crawl up the stairs anymore, she wants to walk up the steps and come down on her bum:)

She is able to communicate her needs very effectively. The other day she went to her high chair and climbed in and then tried to fasten the buckle; letting me know she was hungry.

She loves to put on our shoes and try and walk around in them. She also likes to carry around purses. One of her favorite activities is cleaning out daddy's wallet (she already knows:) She takes out everything one or two at a time and then hands them to Jason or me. Then we fill it back up and she empties it again.

Her other favorite activity is emptying EVERY cabinet, draw, basket, etc in the house. Within 15 minutes of being up, the house is destroyed, it looks like I never clean, but I am constantly cleaning. All my friends with kids have assured me that phase will end (can't wait for that)

A lot of times when she is about to do something naughty, or has just done something naughty, she will look at you and smile and say "hi" in her cutest voice. Other times when she does something she knows she is not supposed to do she will look at you, shake her head "no" and then do it. Testing those boundaries:)

She is very silly and loves to entertain and make people laugh.


She will give kisses now when we ask and every once in a while she will plant one on you on her own. It is really sweet.

We love this little girl so much. She is tons of fun and knows how to keep us on our toes. We are so lucky to be her parents!

Hershey....The Land of Chocolate

Jason and I wanted to do something special for our five year anniversary and decided to go to Hershey, PA. We wanted to stay at a Bed and Breakfast but nothing was available during our anniversary weekend so we decided to go my birthday weekend instead since Laneah and I will be in St Louis for the next two weeks. We left Saturday morning and started our trip at Hershey's Chocolate World!
This was so much fun. They had this cute free tour that was a ride and very interactive. As you rode through they showed you how cocoa beans were made into delicious chocolate. They even had funny singing cows.And yes, these are giant sheets of chocolate. (It smelled so good!)
They had a counter of how many candy bars had been made that day, it is crazy how many they make each day.
They even have automated wrappers. These kisses went from chocolate to wrapped chocolate before you could even blink.
They ended the tour with a free sample of chocolate that only makes you want more as you enter the huge gift shop full of delicious chocolate and a food court and activities. We had chicken tenders with chocolate flavored BBQ sauce. It was surprisingly good. We got a few gifts before leaving.
Then we went to the Hershey Gardens which was very pretty and peaceful but we didn't stay long because a wedding was about to start.
Then we headed to our Bed and Breakfast at Cameron Estates which is this colonial mansion on acres of beautiful land.
Our room was gorgeous

and had a free standing whirpool tub (with a remote control!)
and a fireplace
The grounds were equally as beautiful and amazing.

The food was exquisite. For breakfast we sat in the sun porch dining area and they served us apple pancakes, country potatoes, candied bacon and fresh fruit. The Bed and Breakfast was wonderful and I would recommend it to anyone. On Sunday after breakfast we went to Hershey Park and spent the day riding roller coasters and enjoying each others company. Even though I was nervous to leave Laneah overnight for the first time ever, we had a great time (and Laneah had a great time with her grandma) and I am so glad we went.

Budding Artist

Today I had Laneah try finger painting for the first time. I used vanilla pudding separated into little containers and added food coloring. No surprise that she loved it since she loves to make messes:)
She looked at me when she ate it excepting me to tell her "no".
She is thrilled that she is allowed to eat the "paint".
She got covered head to toe in pudding (I didn't get pictures after she dumped a container of pudding on her head. We went to the bath pretty quickly after that:)
The Masterpiece!

It was a fun day, and Laneah loved it so we will be finger painting a lot this summer:)