She's a crazy cat lady.

Or at least, she's on that path.

I didn't see the warning signs: How she prefers to play with stuffed animals over baby dolls. She's always wanting Kitty to sleep on a special kitty pillow. Her obssession with Hello Kitty. But when I saw her with an armload full of fuzzy kitties, I knew it: this is how Crazy Cat Lady gets her start. Ok, fine, then. Perhaps she's just a three-year-old who loves her little stuffed animals.

(But last Thursday when I told her to grab a few toys to take outside to play hopscotch, and she returned with multiple cats, I worried just a smidge.)

So we took the kitties outside and set up a hopscotch game.

 

But not before being sure every kitty and bunny had a seat. 

 

Lily made me start. It was the end of a long day, and I was pretty much over crawling around the floor, so I just kinda tossed the kitties randomly onto the boxes. Then I declared it her turn, and I sat down to take a few pictures. 

See that outfit she's wearing? Notice what's different about it than her usual frock? Yup, it is neither pink nor a dress. Nana bought it for her, and I tried many times to get her to wear it, but she refuses pants. This time, I guilt-tripped her into it with the added pressure that "it probably doesn't fit her anymore anyway so Nana will never see how cute she is in this outfit." (Perhaps the mind games I play with my three-year-old are pretty messed up.)

Mind games and mismatched shoes aside, she tossed the kitties and made her own little game of it.
I got bored with the game of no rules and wanted to take more pictures. I wanted to take some of Lily, but she refused. (Enter the mind games.) I told her that's cool; I'll take some pics of the kitties instead. So first, she photobombed my bluff.

 

And then she posed with them.

The she found her fairy wings and made herself a new game, which included getting mad at me. Honestly, I don't remember why.
Fortunately, it didn't last long and my crazy cat lady with her fairy wings was happy with me again.

"We're not smart," Part 2.

I'm not even going to lie: the rest of our family vacation, much like the first half, is really a pretty boring story to tell. In the land of preschoolers, though, that makes for a really happy time.

Day two started with Hollywood Studios. Another shot for the Disney Photogs.

 

Not a lot on my "to do" list for HS. Wanted to take Lily to a couple shows, and that was pretty much it. First was Ariel's show, which I expected her to flip out for, and then was the Cliff Note's version of Broadway's Beauty and the Beast. Wasn't sure what she would think. 

Turned out Ariel's show was "meh," and she flipped for the live stage version of Beauty and the Beast. She was captivated.  I've seen the full version of this show three times, but this short version was the best, by a long shot. Turning to see your preschooler with her jaw dropped beats even the Mexico City version.

Beyond the shows, there wasn't much for us. We found this spot for a lemonade, and, to me, I saw potential for a great photo. Lily, however, wanted to just drink her lemonade and wanted Mamarazzi to go away. Dam.

So not much later, we called it a day for the parks and went back to the hotel. To go swimming. In February. If you don't live in Florida, and the four of you don't, you probably think we can swim year-round here. That's not really the case. February tends to be warm at best, cool more often, and sometimes downright cold. 

Not this year. This year it's been above average since September. Even so, the idea of swimming in an outdoor pool is so strange to me.

 

Even more strange was the afternoon rainstorm that sent us out of the pool and back to our hotel room. If I didn't know better, I would've thought it was June.

I took the chance to be in a few photos, much as I hate to do it. Lily and I were being cuddly at first.

 

Which quickly turned to being silly -- and that was just fine for me.

 

All dried and changed, we went back to Epcot for no reason at all. And dinner. (LOVE BOARDWALK! So convenient to Epcot.) On the way home, we grabbed some desserts from the bakery and went back to the room. I wish I could say we just got the Mickey cake for Lils as a treat for her, but honestly, I just didn't want to share my margarita pie.

 

 The last day for the parks we went back to the Magic Kingdom. Ironically, I had been saving this day for the Animal Kingdom. Originally, it was the only guaranteed perfect day the forecasters gave us. By that morning, though, they were promising lots and lots of rain. So we changed our plans. And it didn't rain. Liars. 

Turned out OK, though. We had a good time back at the Magic Kingdom. We caught the best of one of the many parades. Oh, Lumiere. You are the smoothest candlestick ever.

We made our way around the castle and back to Fantasyland. Lily waited so patiently to meet Alice. If only she could allow me the same courtesy. Seriously, Alice isn't even a princess.

We went for a spin on the teacups. (HA HA HA!) After the teacups, we hit a few more rides. Small World. Carousel. Speaking of, Carousel is fun when I get a horse.

 

Not so fun when I don't. 

Not much later, it was time to make our way to the gate and head back west. But not without a quick stop to visit Pluto. 

 

Stopping for one last family picture. Because I was there, too.  And I loved it.

Nobody said, "Do something smart."

My family is awesome. Even without generous Christmas gifts of cash money. But with said gifts, no one said, "Do something smart or responsible with this gift of cash." Rather, it was the opposite. They all said, "Do something fun."

Well, we're not going to argue with that, and we wanted to go to Disney World. But then there was the forecast. Rain. No rain. Little rain. Lots of rain. No rain. Rain all the time every day forever.

They couldn't decide and neither could we. Eventully, we decided that a rainy day at Disney is better than a sunny day at work, so off we went. For the first time, we stayed at The Boardwalk, and it just might be my new favorite.

I really wanted to get a room with a balcony. In my head, Khan and I would be able to sit on our balcony after Lily falls asleep early after a busy day at the parks. HA! Well that didn't happen according to plan, but we did enjoy the balcony, especially Lily.

Our first room had a pool view. While I get why some people like the pool rooms, I am not among them. We got a quieter room, along the water. We could see the tippy top of the Tower of Terror at Hollywood Studios and the giant swan atop the appropriately named Swan Resort.

Every time a boat went by, it was "Mommy! Mommy! Mommy! A boat! A boat! A boat! Daddy! Daddy! Daddy! A boat! I see a boat! A boat!" Happened a lot. She never got bored with it.

So rooms settled, we did what most tourists do when they arrive; we went to the Magic Kingdom.

This time, I wanted to have some pictures of all of us. Just to prove that I was there, too. So if that means using Disney's Photo Pass just to get some of all of us together, then so be it. Bring on your D90, Disney Photographers. (Ugh, what IS that stupid look on my face.) 

And bring on your special effects, Disney Photo Editors, because adding Tink to our photo is definitely not my style. However -- and more likely the real reason -- Lily's eyes lit up when she saw Tinkerbell in her hand. "Her was on my hand?" she asked me, smiling at the photo.

A few other fascinations for this trip: autograph book, stickers, and maps. According to my pillows, dining room chairs, and Lily's dresser, her new favorite thing is writing her name. (Sigh. I got it out of the table, the chairs, but not the pillows. We've dealt with the problem, I think.) So I figured she'd like to collect a few autographs to match my autograph collection. I was right; she loved her autograph book.

The stickers are similar. At the parks, evidently they are a tool to distract kids waiting in lines, or to drive parents bonkers. Both, probably. Lily wanted us to share the joy, and if we turned her down, we'd later notice a Mickey sticker stuck to a sleeve or a pant leg. We got sticker-bombed, ninja-style. Nice.

Autographs, stickers, and don't forget the map. Lily was so enthralled in plotting our trail that she almost missed the show in front of Cinderella's Castle.
We started in Adventureland to meet some characters we haven't met before. (And to try the divine Dole Whip. OMG.)

First up were Aladdin and Jasmine.

Lily looks so enthused to meet them, doesn't she? What is she looking at? Same with Eric and Ariel.

While it was nice to see a prince make an appearance, can I just say that I would really like to meet Prince Phillip? Come on, Disney. Do it for the mamas.

Also in Adventureland is Pixie Hollow, a chance to meet Tinkerbell and the other fairies.

Rosetta greeted Lily with her southern drawl and complimented her on her sparkly shoes. But Tinkerbell must have snorted a few lines of pixie dust because girlfriend was crazy. She grabbed Lily's hand, sat her down, signed her book and didn't stop talking at her the whole time.
When we returned to the human-size world, Lily said, "Mommy, her talkin' talkin' talkin' a lot." When a 3-year-old thinks you talk too much, it might be time to skip the second Red Bull.
We closed the day with a visit to Daisy and the princesses. I know the princesses are often criticized for being poor role models for girls, but if you can get past the fact that they wear big, frilly dresses, they aren't all bad. Belle sat with Lily and talked about her love of books and reading. Andalso, Lily's princess dolls often are the rescuers, and most days, they have to go to work.

Back to the Boardwalk Inn we went, and we decided to peruse the Boardwalk itself, where we decided to ride this bike thing around the "lake."

We paused our 4-wheeled adventure to stop at the roase garden at The Yacht and Beach Club. Lily quickly declared the place hers, took us through her "maze" and into her "castle."

After happily turning back in the bike thing, we decided to go to Epcot, which was just a short walk away.
Not a bad way to end a very busy day.

And we got back just before the rain started.