First things first, Rowan turned 7-months old on 3/13. Here he is on that occasion:
Rowan continues to love food. His appetite is enormous. I bought pouches of purees for our trip and he easily downed one twice a day and wanted more. Eventually, I started giving him two servings per sitting and that seems to be sating him . . . for now. Broccoli, sweet potato, yogurt, any kind of fruit. I gave him some tiny chunks of mango this evening and he made chewing motions with his mouth and seemed to swallow them (and wanted more). I haven't found a food he will refuse, which is great, because at this point I can make mush out of whatever we're eating and he is happy. And he doesn't mind lumps. Tonight he was gumming a piece of broccoli for 10 minutes before I finally scooped it out of his mouth.
So. Other than sitting and eating (of which we did plenty), here are some trip highlights:
Speaking of princesses, Fiona digs 'em. So Uncle John and Aunt Liz graciously gave us three passes to Disney World and Brian, Fiona and I went to the Magic Kingdom for a day. (Rowan and Grandma stayed home.) Who did we see?
After Ariel, all bets were off. For the rest of the day, all Fiona wanted to do was track down princesses. "Let's go on 'It's a Small World,'" I said. Fiona's response? "NOOOOOO I MUST SEE CINDAWEWWA!!" We tried to explain that it would be fun and she would like it, but Fiona's mind was made up. And that's when I realized that I needed to step back and let her lead us. Were Brian and I there for our own amusement? Heck, no.
An hour-plus of standing/sitting in a line later:
I HATED standing/sitting in that line. I could feel the time slipping away, time that we could have been spending doing something fun instead of standing at the temple of commercialism. We were all bored and punchy and hungry. I felt like a sucker.
But then it all changed when we finally got into the room where Cinderella and her cohorts Sleeping Beauty and Rapunzel were waiting for us. And Fiona lit up like a blinking beacon (I think I just paraphrased Yukon Cornelius). I got choked up seeing how amazing these brief moments were for her, chatting with these beautiful women of fairy tale fame. And suddenly I was ready to stand in more disgustingly long lines, as many as humanly possible, so that Fiona could feel that -- and I could feel that -- again. We were on a mission to have the most Fiona-centrically extraordinary Disney experience possible.
Not long after that, Fiona fell asleep in the stroller for a while. And we got some lunch and dawdled a bit. But we did get to go on the Peter Pan ride and the Under the Sea ride. We saw Snow White and Tiana from a short distance (they were both about to go on breaks when we spotted them). And Fiona waved back to the characters in the big parade.
Yup. Pretty much sums it up.