Chinese New Year

We spent Chinese New Year in the Disney Magic Kingdom in Orlando; just got back in the wee hours of the morning. So didn't do much cleaning up or celebrating this year =p But it's baby's first CNY, so we gave her a little ang pow to put under her pillow.

Anyway, the little baby was a bit too young to fully enjoy the magic of Disney. There's too much noise and bustle; she was scared of the very loud noises, and she had difficulty falling asleep when she was tired. And because she insisted on having me carry her most of time time, my muscles are aching a lot today. (Hope that translates to more toned muscles... heh.)

Orlando Day 2 - Magic Kingdom

Today started early for us as we want to make full use of the day in Magic Kingdom. Magic Kingdom is one of the 4 main theme parks in Disney World, the rest being Epcot Center, Animal Kingdom and MGM Studios. After growing up on a steady dose of Mickey Mouse, Donald Duck, and the Disney gang, me and wifey were really looking forward to seeing Disney World.

Magic Kingdom is a land of man-made make believe. There is an artificial lake separating Magic Kingdom from the main entrance so that all visitors have to either take a ferry or monorail to enter Magic Kingdom itself. The center piece of Magic Kingdom is Cinderalla's castle from which the park fans out into the various Lands, namely FantasyLand, TomorrowLand, AdventureLand, and FrontierLand. Below is our family picture in front of the classic Disney symbol.

Magic Kingdom is made for kids and it was swarmed with kids of all ages. Everyone seems to be enjoying themselves - except baby. For some reason, baby was extremely fuzzy that day. Maybe it is because of her teething, or she can't get enough sleep with the excitment in Magic Kingdom. But anyway, she refused to sit in her stroller and we had to carry her everywhere. We tried to soothe her fuzziness by making her sleep. This is wifey and and baby (sleeping) in Minnie Mouse's couch in Minnie Mouse House.

One thing I realise is that Disney is no longer about Mickey Mouse and Donald Duck. Time has changed indeed. What my generation identify with Disney is no longer what the present generation identify with Disney. So in effect only a very small area in Magic Kingdom is dedicated to Mickey, Minnie, Donald and Pluto. A larger part of Fantasy Land is dedicated to Pooh, Ariel, Buzz Lightyear, the Gen X Disney characters.

After napping the greater part of the morning and noon, baby was finally happier and here she is at Agraba Bazaar, AdventureLand. Notice her new dress she is wearing for her first Chinese New Year.

We also managed to take some rides with baby. This is wifey and baby sharing a happy Kodak moment in TommorowLand Transit Authority.

We stayed till 8 pm for the Disney fireworks. The Cinderalla Castle served as the perfect backdrop for the fireworks. It is definitely one of my most memorable fireworks display.

As an afternote, we left Disney at 9.30pm and started our long drive back to Savannah. It was 4 am when we arrive home, tired but happy....(sounds like the type of ending in a primary school composition)

Orlando Day 1 - Downtown Disney

It has been some time since we updated the blog. I have been quite busy at work and wifey has been up to her neck with baby who is growing every day. That's not an excuse of course. But we do hope to keep it as updated as possible so meaningful gift to baby when she grows up.

Anyway, we went for a Time-Share deal to Disney World, Florida. So for the princely sum of US$79, we get two nights stay at a Hotel and two tickets to one of the four Disney Theme Park in Disney World. The catch is that we have to attend a 120 minutes sales presentation by Fairfield Resorts. Just to give an idea of the the amount of $$ saved. The Hotel is about $65/night and Disney Ticket is abou $63/person, so effectively, the cost savings is about $177. I am el cheapo.

The Hotel we stayed in was Holiday Inn Nikki Bird. It was advertised as a 3-star hotel but it felt more like a 2-star cos the facilities were a bit run down. This is a picture of baby wadding in the pool with wifey. She is still wary about water running down her head but at least she likes to paddle the water now.

The Time-Share presentation took the greater part of the afternoon. The property viewed is Bonnet Creek by Fairfield Resort. Bonnet Creek is a 46 acre property surrounded by Disney World. Apparently, the original owners refuse to sell their property to Disney 50 years ago when Disney started buying land to develop their theme parks and resorts. It is a beautiful property but the sales people were HORRIBLE. Ok to be fair, that is what time share presentation is all about. Pressure selling, emotional blackmail, emotive marketing. We had to go through three rounds of high pressure marketing before we were checked out and given the Disney tickets.

We had our first reunion dinner at a Irish Pub in Downtown Disney. This is a picture of biker baby on a Harley with her daddy near the Pub.

Amicalola Falls State Park

We spent the New Year Holidays at Dawsonville. This is a small town about 40 min north of Atlanta. The main attractions being the Premium Outlets and the Amicalola State Park.

Aimicalola Falls State Park features the highest waterfall east of the Missisippi. From a physics point of view, the vertical displacement is certainly very high but the flow rate is actually quite low. It is a tiny stream that feeds the water fall and flows out from the base.

We also climbed to the top of the falls. There is actually a nice staircase that winds round the waterfall to lead to the top. Nice picture isn't it?

8 Months Old

Baby turns 8 months old today. She's come a long way from a tiny bundle to a mobile individual with her own thoughts and wishes - and she's getting more assertive too. She is able to crawl and sometimes walk holding on to the edge of the bed to get to where desires. And if she is unhappy with anything (e.g. doesn't want to sit in the car seat or doesn't want to lie down for a diaper change), she can wail quite a bit and put up a resistance. But she's also getting cuter because she's more emotionally expressive and will call out to us for attention, kiss and touch our face, crawl to us for hugs or food, and cling onto our arms when she doesn't want to be put down. Now that her arms are longer, she sometimes sort of put her arms round us, as though giving us a mini hug.