JC's First Haircut...

Hi there! I, JC, used to have long, beautiful hair. Look at how it curls naturally. I'm pretty sure it's the reason people swoon over me.

My hair had gotten so long, however, that my self-feeding exploits had started to become more and more difficult. I was left with the decision to cut jelly and ranch dressing from my diet or a few inches of hair. I chose the latter and, thereby, risked my power for Hidden Valley. Given my distinction as the most beautiful 20 month old on Earth, however, I couldn't just get my hair cut anywhere...only the barber shop at Disney World would do.

At first, I was a little nervous to let a stranger with scissors around me...

But then the barber just started putting more and more Mickey stickers on me. The combined image of twenty five Mickeys left me quite docile. Who knew?

After the barber was done, she spun me around and asked me what I thought. I got teary thinking of my magical locks now lying on the floor. About that same time, someone stuck a set of Mickey Mouse ears in front of me and snapped a picture.

After a few minutes of gleeful stares from older women, I regained my confidence. I'm no Samson! Here I model the sly grin which is the true source of my power!

MLK Weekend

Oh dear! Instead of visiting some place warm as planned for MLK weekend, Aunt J and Uncle J drove north eschewing the advice of the birds. They arrived in Ohio and quickly realized that the weather was cold and somewhat miserable. What to do you ask? How about customizing personal sized pizzas?

After the large meal, it is a good idea to put on some warm pajamas and put in a movie. Uh-oh! The parents have requisitioned the TV for some serious Samba di Amigo on the Wii. Luckily, Aunt J and Uncle J own no less than 15 personal video game systems. Look everyone gets one!


After a long weekend spent napping, waking up for the trip home isn't easy to do as cousin F attests. The kids sleepily eat their final Ohio breakfast of Fruity O's before heading south for better weather!

Thanks for visiting!

Disney World. Pops is Missing! Part II

After the short sleep, we woke up and went for a swim. I could hear doubtful Uncle B talking to my dad. "Maybe we won't find him..." he said. I covered my ears in order to avoid hearing his pessimism.

The whole gang headed back to the Magic Kingdom in order to look for Pops in Adventure Land. There my brother, JC, scaled the Swiss Family Robinson House to look for Pops from the tree tops. It's a lot of steps for a small guy but Aunt JKC was there to help.

From the trees JC didn't spot Pops, but he did see someone with big ears - Mickey Mouse over in Toon Town. After posing for a photo, Mickey gave us a tip. He said Pops was definitely somewhere in Hollywood Studios!

We made a beeline over to Hollywood Studios. Realizing we had skipped breakfast we stopped by a floating cantina to get some protein-enriched breakfast drinks (milk shakes). Here you can see my brother, JC, and my beautiful mom sharing a chocolate shake.

And hear you can see the competitive side of our family as me and my dad race to see who can finish the vanilla shake we were sharing first.

Right outside the Great Movie Ride, JC and I spotted Pops at Ariel's theater! Look at the joy on our faces!He was puzzled at our excitement. "I only left the room a few hours ago he said. I got on the Twilight Zone Tower of Terror first thing when I got here. See look at my watch..." We all stared in disbelief as Pops' watch read yesterday morning's date and time. You can see us screaming in terror below as we realize Pops had been stuck in a time warp!

After explaining to Pops what had happened we decided to celebrate his escape from the Twilight Zone by observing the Osbourne Family Light Show at the Studios. Here I am pictured with my Gram and my Pops!
Thanks for taking us on your vacation Gram and Pops! What a fun trip!

Disney World - Pops is missing! Part I

After Christmas day in Fort Lauderdale, we traveled north towards Orlando. I, M, was very excited to spend some time at Disney World. My family came along, too, which was okay. Soon after arriving we realized Pops was missing! We tried to think of things Pops likes to do as we narrowed down the list of places he could be. We all agreed that he loves science fiction. Maybe he will be in Tomorrow Land? We tried to get a bird's eye view by riding the Astro Orbiter. Pictured is my beautiful momma and my brother, JC. My dad screamed in fear so much they shut down the ride prematurely. What a wimp.

We spied a tall bald-headed fellow over near the Tomorrow Land raceway. We ran over there and looked all over the track, but alas, no Pops was found. Pictured is Aunt JKC riding shotgun as I steer the Indy Race car.
My dad started to yell after we left the race cars. He said that he had spotted Pops! We followed him over where he pointed out Pops to us excitedly. JC's face indicates how wildly unsuccessful my dad was in finding Pops without his glasses. "Come on dad, it's Buzz Lightyear!" he said.

After exhausting all the options in Tomorrow Land we walked across the border into Fantasy Land. We gave Dumbo a try as Pop's always had a soft spot for elephants who could fly (he was a big Natrone Means fan).

No luck again. On an off-chance we tried the Merry-go-Round. Still no Pops. We were getting frustrated and it was getting cold!
With night approaching, we would have to leave the Magic Kingdom. So my brother and I went to bed promising each other that we would not fail come tomorrow!



To be continued...

A subtropical Christmas

On Christmas morning I awoke to the sound of a clumsy oaf several feet above my bedroom window. Suspecting Saint Nick I went outside and saw a clumsy oaf, but it was my dad. He said we needed coconuts for breakfast. I guess he's never heard of Winn-Dixie.

My brother, JC, is fairly new at this Christmas thing. Here Aunt JKC helps him unload his stocking...


And about ten seconds later he realized everything in the sock was for him!

My brother and I also received a wondorous rotating Christmas decoration with trains, flying sleighs, and princesses. It even played Christmas carols to boot. We watched it go for several hours - thanks Aunt C.



After opening our presents, my mom told us to go for a swim. Here you can see my reaction --- swimming on Christmas day? We must really be in the subtropics.

After the swim we ordered some stellar pizza. The pizza was so good that even Great Grandma ate some. Here you can see us sharing a piece of the pie with the dogs looking on expectantly.




All of the swimming, the pizza, and the excitement of his second Christmas really did my brother in. By the end of the day he had lost his pants and was walking around with the help of a cane!

Hope he can recover before we hit the World of Mickey Mouse!

After the storm comes the calm and the the sledding!

How much did you guess? The right answer was 0.68 JCs or 21.6 inches. It was a long slow walk to the sledding hill for me, JC. Not only was I tired from yesterday's heroics, but my legs are really, really short.

Still a bit worried from my last sledding experience (see two posts ago), I let my sister take a few test rides with Aunt JKC.

After a couple hours of injury free sledding I was ready to take flight...in my mom's lap. She held me like this the whole way and we didn't hit a briar patch -- no wonder I'm smiling!

With a few successful runs behind me, I thought we should increase the difficulty. The first time our sled was so heavy we didn't move. So we kicked my dad off and made him push. That did it!

We made it!

After many hours of early morning driving in one-lane fashion, my dad managed to get us to Virginia in time for us to be snowed in! After a four hour sleep my brother and I woke up, got dressed, ate our Wheaties, and got ready to head out side into a blizzard.Whoa! It was still coming down, but we wanted to start the shoveling process. Since we only had one kid-sized shovel, my brother stood around as a human measuring stick to keep track of snow depth. You can see in this picture we were already at half a JC.

Dig, dig, and more dig! We have almost made it to the car! Inside was a half burrito left over from our traveling that I refused to give up on...

Once I made it to the car, I handed my shovel to JC and told him to make like John Henry before our front door got covered up again. He dug us back to the porch quicker than any snow blower could have...


Just as we were heading inside, we heard some shouts from the roadway. Through the blowing snow we made out the voice of Aunt JKC and my wonderful Mom. They had left to find the newspaper at the end of the driveway about three hours before. While my dad and I stood frozenly in place, JC wasted no time and quickly dug all the way to them. Look! The snow was up to his shoulders at this point.

Using his sense of smell developed by foraging for extra snacks to fill in his cheeks, he managed to lead them home safely by following the scent of my burrito. The newspaper was MIA, but thanks to JC, Aunt JKC and Mom were not. Safe and warm at home now, Aunt JKC thanks my brother in a photo I took myself. Guess how much snow we had (to the nearest JC). The answer will be shown in our next post.