Smiles

Christmas girls

Eye Color

Will they change?

Big sister

People keep asking how Bin is reacting to being a big sister. I think she is doing remarkably well, considering. She does get a bit annoyed with the screaming and she had some problems at tumbling and school, but with the baby, she is very helpful. She does keep correcting daddy when he says "little girl." It is little baby. She looses interest in Lil pretty quickly, but when she is around Lil, she is sweet. She wants to give Lil stuff and make her laugh and she wants Lil to come with her everywhere. I think that Bin is at the age when little girls want to be mommies and so Lil is kind of like a big doll. And Bin wants another baby now- this time a boy. She says grandma agrees. Too bad mom and dad don't.

Lil and Bin

Telling pics of the girls apart should be pretty easy. Bin is bald, Lil has hair. :) I like hair.

I have been very surprised by how different the two girls seem even at not even a month old. Lil loves to eat and wants to be held all the time. Bin hated eating, had a horrible time latching on and would eat 5 minutes every 4-6 hours (versus every 2-3 hours for like 15-45 minutes). Lil also seems to be colder while Bin was a little heating block. So, Lil needs to be kept wrapped up a lot more than Bin. Lil loves the swing and is there all the time. She hates the blue bouncer (pic immediately above shows Bin in it) and won't take a pacifier. Lots of little differences. I think it is easier to view Lil as an individual and not just lump because of how different she is compared to Bin. With Bin, everything was just baby behavior but with Lil it is like, not just baby stuff, but Lil specific baby stuff.

Lillian Qing Qing

October 13, 2:34 pm Lillian was born. 8 pounds, 3 ounces, 20 inches long.

I hate being pregnant and I whine a lot about it. So, wehn my doctor said he would induce at 39 weeks, I jumped at the chance. My doctor was convinced that the risk of c-section or complications from an induction was extremely low and with Bin, I ended up inducing, despite being so close to labor (dropped, over 3 cms, lost mucus plug, etc).

Since the induction was not medically necessary, I had to wait on the list. No guarantees of getting in. At 5am, they had no openings and Peter decided he would just go into work that day and I would just call if they ended up having an opening, but he seemed to think the chances were pretty low. At 9am, after the shift change, I called the hospital again and they had an opening for 10:30am. Peter was a bit surprised to get my call saying ok, come home now. Apparently, he made the mistake of sending e-mails to his coworkers before packing everything else, so they all congregated at his desk as he tried to get going. :) I took Bin over to her friend's house with the plan of her spending the night. With a check in time of 10:30am, I figured I would be lucky to get in and started by 11am. When I induced with Bin (and with her I was starting with irregular contractions and so close to labor that people couldn't believe I wasn't already there) it took a total of 9 hours, so that would mean like 8pm then 4 hours of baby in nursery so midnight before bin would be able to meet baby which wouldn't work. After dropping her off, I went home and peter was there, ready to go. I drove myself to hospital (this pregnancy I have been feeling a lot better overall and generally drove everywhere since I prefer driving than riding).

We got checked in and the nurse hooked me up and got pit going about 11am. The DVD player wasn't in the room (someone had moved it to another room) so we just read and Peter napped. After lunch, the nurse said she would have someone come hook up the dvd player for us. in the end, we watched one episode of Big Bang Theory and that was it. Things went a bit faster than expected.

While Peter was off eating his lunch (I told him not to bring food into the room since I wasn't allowed to eat and was starving), the contractions started getting a little more painful. I thought crap, it is barely one. My dr wants me to put off that epidural as long as possible and here I am ready for painkillers after only like 3 hours. It still wasn't that bad, so I tried to read my book and relax and breathe and all that stuff. I went with the newest Dresden book Changes. Butcher tends to have a fast paced style, keeps me up all night reading when I should be sleeping so I figured that would be a good choice. After about 15 minutes I realized, it still really hurt and I really needed to pee. So, I called the nurse in and said I want some drugs and to go potty. She said drugs after she checks me depending on the results. I said, ok, potty first though. That should tell you about the pain level- I was ok with not getting anything until doign some other things first. Going potty I was convinced she had dropped a bit and decided that was why it was hurting more, so hopefully I had dropped enough to atleast get a painkiller. They say the first shot of the painkiller is the only truly effective one so I was trying to put that off for a bit.

When I came out, Peter was back and the nurse checked me. While doing so, she said wow, your bag of water is like right here. And then it broke all over the place. She then went and ordered my epidural, as I was at 7cms and -1 station. She called my doctor but said she had no doubt he would approve the epidural. Last time, my dr came in checked me himself and thought about it. This time, the nurse over at his office okd it and soon we had drugs. Not soon enough for me as I became a complete wuss for every contraction. Like went from maybe wincing to shaking and barely breathing for the pain in that one minute. So, right now, I think the pit isn't the evil part of labor. I handled that all good for a few hours. It is the water bursting that sucks.

The epidural guy came and I was all pathetic so he gave me some drugs in the IV to tide me over while he hooked the rest up. He said I did do a great job at not moving a muscle the whole time he was setting things up, though it was pretty obvious I was in massive pain. I was completely shocked that I had made it all the way to 7cms dilation without needing the epidural. I think the nurse was a little defensive cause I kept saying, wow, I can't believe I did that. She was like, you never told me you wanted one. You said you were fine, your pain levels weren't that high when I asked, you looked fine during contractions. She said she expected a 3 cm dilation when she checked me, not 7. The 7 was way fast- esp since starting at 1 cm, 50% effaced and high.

My doctor came just as the epidural went in. I think he was a bit surprised by the speed too. He jokingly pointed to his shoes and told the nurse that he didn't have running shoes on today, so he was going to need a bit or warning. Then we started watching our dvd. Since everyone seemed to be expecting fast, we went with tv show instead of a movie. I still expected a few hours though. So 2pm, epidural in, tv on. We watched an episode and the nurse checked me. She asked if I could feel pressure on my pelvis, which I could. She then went and called a bunch of people and tv show went off. My doctor showed up and the nurse joked that as fast as he got there, they must be running shoes.

I pushed 4 times and baby plopped out, as well as a whole bunch of water and blood and stuff. He did have to do an episiotomy, but I didn't really feel it. I could feel the contractions for when to push though. Boring stuff while the nurses took care of the baby and my doctor sewed me up. He left some prescriptions and was done. I think my doctor probably spent only like 20 minutes total on me all day. Things were just that fast. 2:34 pm she was born. That is a nice, easy to remember birth time.

I finally got baby back and unlike bin, she went for the breast and latched on first try. She seemed to know exactly what to do, which a lot of lactation consultants claim all babies do, but just the difference in latching on at the stage between lil and bin was huge. I don't think I did anything differently. Lil also has been very into breastfeeding. If she is awake, she wants to be eating and thinks feeding sessions should last 45 minutes, an hour.

By the time they had me ready to move to my own room, the epidural was pretty well gone and I was happy to take my percosets. The hospitals prevailing attitude was better to stop the pain before it starts, so two percs every 4 hours was the standard. I figured I might as well enjoy the chance to be painfree while I have lots of people there to take care of things.

Bin meets Lil
After dinner, Peter went and picked Bin up from friend's house. I think she was excited, but also a little scared of the baby. Initially she wanted daddy to hold baby, not her. It was already pretty late, so they didn't stay too long. Peter took her home and they slept there. I had lil brought to me when hungry until like midnight and then decided to sleep. Of course, with nurses coming to check my vitals and bleeding, pull out IVs, etc, it wasn't the greatest sleep.

That sums up day one. Right now (Oct 16) I am still recovering. I think Lil is an easier baby, but I am also a lot more confident, less worried. Like when lil fussed all night, it was kinda expected, not nearly as upsetting. Still sore and tired, but emotionally good. Mostly just glad not to be pregnant. :)

Telling time

Over summer, we have been swimming and they have a non-digital clock there. We have been telling her when we are going to leave and showing her the time on the that clock. When we got fast food recently, we were given a number: 46. We usually ask bin to read numbers and letters that we come across so we gave her the number to hold and asked her what it was. She looked and proudly proclaimed- that means 4:30! (big hand on 4, little hand on 6 is 4:30- daddy come home after 4:30 but before 5:00 usually). I guess we might be introducing too many things at once. :) She also likes to pull down the clock and change the time and then say, look, it's 5pm, daddy is late, we need to get him. Or it is 3:30 now, we need to go swimming now. I don't think she believes me when I tell her that changing the clock doesn't actually change the time.

Cutie update- went to GI. GI knows nothing so going to do some tests to try to figure out what is going on. He still isn't feeling great, but back at work (though he is taking some happy drugs to get through the day). Two ER visits this summer, plus all these tests, plus all the costs for new baby are getting to be a bit of a strain, but oh well. We are trying to switch to as low fat a diet as we can stand, which requires more work on my part (cause you can't eat healthy and fast food) plus extra costs to get the good stuff. Oh well, it is probably a good adjustment for us long term, even if it hurts right now. With my 3rd trimester nausea, I am happy with just toast some days, so I can't complain much.

Encouraging signs

Today at gym there was a brand new baby (one week old). Bin said she wanted to see the baby, so we went to look. She then said, no, I don't want to see that baby, I want to see the baby in your belly. Got lots of laughs from the rest of the room.

I was amazed with Bin on the bars at gym today. She was moving her legs from tucked in to straight position. She held her body perfectly straight, her legs stayed together at all times and toes pointed. Maybe from close up there were more flaws, but I could not believe she could do it that close to perfect form. Also, did some push up things on the ring that I thought I don't have the arm strength to do. While I am watching in awe, the gym teacher caught my eye and gave me a look like this is what I was talking about.

Bin later was a little upset she didn't have enough arm strength to do one of the other task. I don't think she ever looks around at the other kids in class, cause none of them can do the stuff she has mastered (like the teacher is still holding them up while they are on the bars for everything). I guess though it is good that being better than everyone else isn't enough for her.

I did kind of feel bad when her coach seemed shocked that I am dropping Bin to once a week with the school year. I am getting very pregnant, she'll be at preschool ten hours a week, I think an hour is good enough. If Bin is upset over the drop in hours, we'll talk about it, but for now, I think an hour is about what we can handle. Though Bin does want a bunch of stuff so she can practice at home (a bar, rings, a balance beam and a trampoline are what she asked for in specific- oh also a mat).

Developing potential in kids

Today, Bin's coach and I talked about Bin's skill level. For people who haven't heard me talk about Bin and tumbling, she is very good. The coach today mentioned that their team coach for the pre-competition team has been watching Bin and while you can not have kids younger than 4 on the team, they are monitoring her with the hope that she will be mature enough to join the team as soon as she is 4. She is not mature for her age- she behaves exactly like a 3.5 year old should. So, they need to decide when she turns 4 if she can handle being on a team or not. She is all over it skill wise and they are very excited over her- like the coach sounded seriously impressed about some of the things she does. The coach also mentioned that she tries to give Bin a little more demanding of tasks than the other kids because Bin needs to be challenged.

Proud mama in my is very proud and excited- wow, my little girl has skills! Worrier mama though...If she has talent, I have to decide how much to develop that. Do I push her to work out all the time with hopes of someday being a champion? Or do I try to keep it just about fun? In twenty years, is she going to say, if mom had put me on the team at 4, I could have been an Olympic champion? Or is she going to say mom stole my childhood by forcing me into tumbling starting at 2 and putting me on the team the first day I was old enough? I know, they haven't even invited her to the team yet (just indicated that they are waiting for her to be old enough), but there is a part of me that worries and plans. Cutie and I had discussed our views regarding pushing her academically and how we felt about raising a genius child (so far, we are thinking genius child not in the cards), but we had never really considered physically gifted child. So, the realization that she has real potential, not just enough to brag about to the other parents but enough that it might actually matter what I do or don't do is a bit of a realization. Watching her in tumbling outpacing the other kids I had started considering it, but hearing teacher talk about it and say how rare it is for a kid her age to do these things (like not just one in a class of six kind of rare) made it really hit home. I guess for now, just wait and see how it goes, but still, something I might need to start considering. Also, will have to consider some big questions, like how much time and money do I spend on Bin's tumbling? During the school year, we are cutting down her classes to one a week instead of two and honestly, we were going to just put her in parks and rec to save money except parks and rec only does pre-preschool tumbling (the highest class is 2-3). I have a sneaking suspicion team is going to cost more than rec classes. They don't post those costs- probably under the argument that those are by invite only. Oh well, that is worry mom worrying.

New baby is still growing and kicking and making mom miserable.

Bin did something cute and I was going to post it up here, but I forgot now. Pregnant brains are stupid brains. :)

GIRL!

Everything looks great.

Back in Houston

We survived the trip to Phx. :)

Some cute stories:

Bin doesn't really understand death and so the news that her great grandma died has been difficutl for her to process. She was looking at a picture of great grandma and told her 2.5 year old cousin Thor "My grandma died. She went away and is never coming back." Thor replied "Oh, did she go to heaven?"

On the plane ride home, Bin saw a baby (maybe 10 months old) girl and said "mommy look, a baby. I like that one! Can we have that baby?" I explained that you don't get to go out a pick a cute baby and have that one, you just get one. I did not explain that there is no chance of us getting a cute curly haired black baby like what she wants. Bin doesn't really get race and I haven't seen a reason to explain it to her. Not really sure a good way to discuss race relations with a 3 year old so I figure she plays with children of all races, has toys with all races, that is good enough for now.

Bin had a speech therapist assess her skills at school. So far, developmentally normal. There are some sounds she does not do properly, but they are under the sounds they make by 6/7/8 list. All the 3/4/5 year old sounds she did properly.

But are they good overlords?

Disney is, of course, a giant capitalist corporation that is attempting to bottle and sell all the goodness people can buy. But does that make them evil.

Good
-Their overall goal is to make people happy. Everyone wants to be happy. Is buying overpriced merchandise going to make people happy? The customers think so. Is it Disney's fault if they are wrong?
-When Bin met the princesses, they clearly made an effort to make sure every little girl had a personal and amazing experience. That effort was apparent throughout and was nice.
-personalization- lots of build your own stuff. Don't like the standard ears, you can pick to use the firework ears with a pink base and a princess patch or whatever you want. Don't like the red light saber, well, make yours in green.
- The latest princess wasn't as anti-feminist as the rest.

Evil
-Buying overpriced crap is short term happiness and debt.
-People are a bit obsessed with them.
-Little girls don't need hair extensions and makeup. Bibbidy bopity boutique does this whole little girl makeover thing and it seems too much for a 4 year old. Maybe I am just weird and maybe the fault lies in the parents, but 4 year olds shouldn't need makeup. It just feels like it feeds into the whole beauty obsessed culture.
-At heart, maybe I have my purple light saber and my personalized hat, but really, we all still have lightsabers and mouse ears. While the personalization was nice, it still ultimately feels hollow- personalized mass marketing.
-It is still fake. You look and they did a great job at details and stuff, but in the end, you know it is not real. That isn't actually Morocco or Paris or China. It is just an imitation. Does the fake dull our senses to the real?

Ultimately, I had an awesome time and will bo going back someday, even if they are evil.

Oh, another fun thing- I wore my princess shirt and received the most compliments ever!!
http://www.thinkgeek.com/tshirts-apparel/womens/b3e7/
Even Cinderella liked my self rescueing princess shirt. Part of me wishes I had gotten a pic of me wearing it next to her, cause that cracked me up. But at the moment, it was all about Bin's amazing moment.

Disneyworld

Day 2- Disneyworld!

After the shuttle launch and three hour drive, Bin was ready to meet her princesses. We were exhausted, but also figured that if we slept, we would never wake up. So, we went to Disney- starting tired and hungry. Bin was a ball of energy though (having slept in the car the whole time). We immediately got food at Tony's- the restaurant themed after Lady and the Tramp. Bin loved all the doggy pics, I just liked food! We then stepped outside, and discovered that the parade would be coming in less than ten minutes and there was an empty space right there, along the parade route with no one in front. So, we took this perfect seat and enjoyed the parade. The chipmunks even came over and hugged Bin. At the end, bin was happy, but confused. Where was Sleeping Beauty? Cinderella and Belle were in the parade, were was her favorite princess?

We took the train (a ride in itself) to Toon Town, in search of Aurora. They had a lovely playground, which Bin decided was the whole point of being there. I went to the character spot and discovered that for a mere 30 minute wait, we could see Aurora. I rushed back and asked bin if she wanted to play or see Aurora. There was no question. She wanted Aurora. WE ran to character spot and managed to get bin to wait 30 minutes. As with Belle, she was eager up until we got there. More freezing, but afterwards, she talked about how that was her favorite part of the trip.

Aurora talked to her about how the fairies keep changing her dress from blue to pink and back again. Cinderella was next and commented on the cupcake on bin's shirt. The mice like cupcakes too but they just eat the frosting. Then we met Belle, who remembered Bin from yesterday. They discussed pens and how Bin had such a fancy pen yesterday, but today Belle had the fancy pen. And they changed dresses between days- they were playing tricks on each other. Peter and I found Belle the most impressive of the princesses.

We played some more at the playground and then decided we needed some nap time. Bin fell asleep on the bus back, while peter and I snoozed a bit. Back at the hotel, bin had a little meltdown, but we finally got a nap. We woke up at 7:30pm and ate at the hotel. After a nap and dinner, bin decided she wanted to go back (before she wanted to stay at the hotel). We had decided that if Bin didn't want to go back, I would go do the big kid rides, and peter would watch bin at the hotel. But Bin wanted more fireworks, so off we went.

By 9pm, the park was so much nicer. We arrived for the night time parade and after that, everyone left! At this point we had not gone on a single ride. Bin was happy at the playground and I could not believe over an hour for Dumbo was worth it. But now, with the park open for another 4 hours (1am), the lines were down to 15 minutes. We did tea cups and dumbo and peter pan and small world (she loved this one) and snow white's ride. It was so much more fun with no lines and no heat.

We also saw the 10pm fireworks, which was interesting. We watched from the other side of the castle, which meant some came from in front, some behind. It was a very different 360 kind of firework experience.

I never did get to go on good rides, but it was a lot of fun doing the rides with Bin. And I think the morning sickness is finally gone- I did teacup without feeling sick! Now when the kid behind us on the plane puked, that was still close, but, I survived. :)

Bin today asked if she can go back again. :) I said not for a few years.

Epcot Center

Day two- Epcot!

Peter loves Epcot. And at 8am, it is a beautiful place. Also, absorbs crowds very nicely. Despite being hugely busy, it did not feel busy at all. We also forgot just how much slower things are with a three year old. We pretty much just got stamps at half the kingdoms (done in half hour). They have little masks you can make and get new parts too at every kingdom and Bin really enjoyed that.

Easter egg hunt- Pretty lame, but Bin wanted Easter eggs and they did them at Epcot. Up until 10am (our ticket time), bin kept whining I want easter eggs. Then she whined, I'm done, time to go home. In the back, you can see the yellowest tree. Everything in bloom made Epcot so amazingly beautiful.

She did like dumplings in China and I thought the black beans in Mexico were really good. I loved the cheese in France. They redid the Mexico rides and took our the racist bits. :( In France, they had a playground, that she thought was lots of fun and we met Belle. Waiting in line, she kept trying to cut ahead. She was so excited. Then it was her turn and she froze up- stood there like a deer in headlights. Also in France, they had the personalized parasols. Bin wanted a princess umbrella, so we got her one there, in an attempt to keep her head covered. At this point, she was still refusing to wear a hat and her little scalp was getting burnt. :(

One nice thing about staying on sight was the option of going home and napping. Around 2pm, I was too tired to keep going (hey, I am sleeeping for two now). We went back to the hotel, had a refreshing nap and returned, the heat of the day over and nice cool evening beginning. It was getting mighty hot by that point and getting away was good. I think that Disney parks are best enjoyed before 11 and after 5. :) I suppose if we went over winter... but we didn't.

Fireworks were very nice, but we were downwind and got covered in smoke. Came home exhausted, with only a few hours before our 2:50am wakeup call for the shuttle!

Downtown Disney

Our first stop on our exciting vacation was Downtown Disney. Basically that is your shopping district outside the parks. Huge toystore, candy store, lego store, neat lego statues set up around the area, etc. Bin loved it. She wanted all the toys. :) I got my bucket of potato head parts :). We got Bin an only available at Disney Sleeping Beauty Polly Pocket and a cute ornament set with the princesses. They had a build your own light saber section, which Peter decided on Monday he wished he had done, but not enough to go back (when at Disneyworld with a 3 year old, hard to take her somewhere else).

The big problem on day one was that we had not planned ahead. The hotel picks up our luggage from the airport and delivers it to the room. Which meant we arrived and realized we didn't have our bathing suits, so the swimming plan was out. Peter was wearing shoes which made the beach difficult. I was wearing flip flops and did not consider how much walking Downtown Disney was. Next time, we need to decide what we are doing when we arrive and make sure we are dressed appropriately. My feet were killing after a few hours of walking. Also, Bin is way to young for a giant lollipop. They get disgusting really fast.

The hotel

Last time we went to Disneyworld (2003 I believe), we stayed at one of the Disney value priced hotels. My dad commented that it was so nice, he didn't realize he was at the cheapest one. After staying at a moderate hotel, all I can say is clearly he never went to the higher up hotel. Huge, huge difference. I consider the difference between say Motel6 and Holiday Inn to be worth the cost and this was a similar jump in quality (keep in mind, I have stayed at Motel6's that make the yough hostel in Europe seem like luxery). The Carribean Hotel was beautiful. We had a lake near us, with sandy beach, playground, and a small pool. A long walk (or short bus ride) away, was the big pool. Bin LOVED the big pool. Honestly, we could have stayed at the hotel the whole time and had a good vacation.

The hotel had several room options- standard non-preferred, standard preferred, pirate non-preferred and priate preferred. We stayed in the pirate non-preferred. From what I can tell, non preferred meant we were way out in the end of the propery (there were many many buildings). I actually liked being in the boonies. We were pretty private, our beach was unoccupied, and the pool mostly empty. We got to see wild life, including the cutest mommy duck with like ten babies. Bin talked about that for a lot of the trip (no camera at the time). The pirate theme was way cute and Bin would try to steer the bed and shout things like "All abord maties!"

Just walking around the hotel was nice- lots of green and flowers in bloom. We also took a 2 seater bike (with a basket for Bin) and drove around the hotel. And then we took a paddle boat out on the lake. They had a sailboat, but only for 2 (we said Bin was little, but they wouldn't go with that).

Bin would have never left the pool if we didn't force her. It easily equalled the kid section of Schlitterbahn, with little slides, dumping water, spray things and places to climb. They also had 2 spas, which bin liked. No pics, because I didn't bring my camera down to swim.

The food was acceptable, but overpriced. Sorry, $40 for a family of three to eat hamburgers, those better be dang good hamburgers. These were not- I liked Red Robins and Fuddruckers better, though these were better than McD. Of course, not having to go anywhere was nice. Also, the kids meal came with a little bucket and shovel. Bin carried that silly bucket around all of Disneyworld. She showed it to Belle too (when I post on Epcot, there will be that). The people were nice and helpful and when Bin knocked her cupcake onto the floor, they came cleaned it up and brought us a new one. Also gave Bin stickers all the time. Though Peter was sick of everyone calling Bin princess throughout the trip. At Disney, all girls are princesses, whether they want to be or not.

Shuttle launch!

We returned to Houston last night after a jam packed weekend of fun and lots of walking. :) Since the main purpose was of course to see the shuttle (despite how much disney filled the time), that is my first post.

We started the morning with a 2:50am wakeup call. We then drove out to KSC, arriving around 4:40-4:45. We had this brilliant plan of stopping at McD's for breakfast. Problem was, we never saw one and we didn't print out a map showing where the closest one is. So, no food for us. Peter showed his badge a few times and we eventually parked in a field by the water. The shuttle is launched on the other side of the water. They had NASA tv blasted over the speakers, so we could hear what was going on. As we drove in, there were several locations that were further out and played the nasa tv on big videos. But since we could actually see the shuttle (though dimly- it was very dark) a screen would have been a distraction. We then waited. Bin played with some toys we bought her at Downtown Disney (more on that in a later post) and I pretended to nap. Napping in a compact car, though, is basically impossible.

We had a few nervous moments as they called out potential problems. At one point, some communication thing was broken and they listed the flight as a no go. A few minutes later, they announced backup was working and the flight was a go again. Another fun flight, should anything go wrong, get in a sealed airconditioned building and listen for further announcements. For those on the causeway (where we were) there are no buildings, so jump in your cars and close the windows. With that many cars, evacuation would be so slow. :) But we were fine.

http://www.nasa.gov/multimedia/hd/ Video of the launch- mine isn't that good. :) Very fuzzy and camera had some trouble with complete dark to complete light- if requested I will post mine.

The launch was amazing. I am glad we saw a night launch too. It goes from being very dark to the whole sky lit up, almost like the sun rose in one brief second. Also, across the lake, we had a several second delay on the sound- which was pretty neat. Everyone cheered and was very excited once the countdown started. Then there was the wait to make sure nothing went wrong and then more cheers as they announced rescue services would not be needed. Jet planes flew over, which we assume were out prepared to help with security and back up.

Bin's response to all this- she hugged daddy and said I want to go home! She did look and later she told us all about daddy's space shuttle and how she saw it (but couldn't go in). Peter also enjoyed gloating over the disney people who were like, we saw the shuttle this morning from the hotel. So much more awesome to see it there vs 40 miles away. Afterwards, the clouds (which were more smoke were the neatest colors in the rising sun.

Then we had the sucky part- getting back to the hotel. The traffic basically didn't move at all. 40 miles back to the hotel, 2o of them at a crawl. Took over 3 hours, which was absolutely ridiculous and frustrating and boring. Bin slept. Peter was driving and only fell asleep a few times.

Last 2 pics- actually from the airport but this seemed like the best place to put them. Bin thought this statue was really neat and was being c ute, then I suggested daddy also hold her hand. The first one was her natural response.