Happy Halloween!

So, since Cecelia isn't a huge fan of costumed characters, we don't have particularly high expectations for Halloween this year.  Christmas last year was a scream!  Cecelia did surprisingly well during our Halloween Parade this past Friday at school but required being held at all times and clung tightly to me several times when scarily dressed students approached.  But, sidenote, she has QUITE a fan base at Pine Road.  Since her picture (with her name carved in the sand) is quite prominent on my desk at school, many students called to her from the parade route.  After the parade, she was a big fan of the goldfish crackers in the classroom parties that we visited and had a blast playing the dramatic play center in one kindergarten classroom.  While we had three borrowed costumes to choose from, she chose the least "costumey" and most "outfitty" costume.  While more like an outfit (a costume in disguise), she still made for a super cute pumpkin.  In fact, she wanted to put it right back on again the next day, so I don't think we'll have any trouble getting her into costume for trick-or-treating tonight.  But I do not think a tiger or monkey will be in her future.  Happy Halloween to all!

Are You Ready?

During Jeff's first trip to Las Vegas, his friend Ryan constantly said, "Are you Ready?" in a Criss Angel voice.  We went to the discount tickets booth, and wouldn't you know, tickets to Criss Angel's show were available.  The show was in the Luxor, right next door to our hotel.  We spent the majority of the day Friday at the pool and lazy river.  We ate a late lunch and snacked for dinner at the Criss Angel show.  To be honest, the show was much funnier than I expected.  It was a combination with Cirque de Soleil and some circus-like characters were a part of the show as well.  Overall though, magic shows truly do amaze me and I find them to be very enjoyable so it was a really fun night!

When In France...

Our first night, I was determined to use the free tram as much as possible.  A tram connected our resort with Luxor (pyramid/Egyptian) and Excalibur (castle/Medieval Times).  So, we checked them out first.  Luxor was very cool.  The architecture throughout Las Vegas was over the top and interesting.  While Luxor was neat, I don't think I'd want to stay there as it also seemed very dark.  Likewise with Excalibur, though I have always wanted to go to a Medieval Times dinner, though I don't know what I'd eat as turkey legs aren't my speed.  I also happen to know a "knight" at the one in New Jersey, so I just have to get there one day.  Next, we walked to New York, NY and over to Monte Carlo (I think...this is now all from memory).  Monte Carlo, Aria, and Bellagio were all connected by tram as well, so we took the tram to Bellagio and explored inside taking in the sights.  My favorite was the Chihuly installation.  We had seen a documentary show on this artist and I was blown away by what he had done here.  But, as we know from Ocean's Eleven, the real beauty is outside.


And, we were just in time.  And, we got a prime spot for viewing the beauty of the fountain.  I had been told the best view of the fountain show was from the Eiffel Tower and I planned to see it from there.  When we got to the base of the tower, we saw there was a restaurant.  And it was that time of night.  So we decided to check it out.  As it turned out, it wasn't the kind of place you check out.  Once you're in, you're in.  We decided to make this our "nice" dinner.  And was it ever!  At first, the host asked if we had reservations.  We responded no, expecting to be immediately escorted back to the elevator and back to the ground level with the commoners.  But, instead, with zero wait time, we were shown to a table one row back from the windows in a cozy private round booth-y thing with a view of...the Bellagio.  Couldn't have planned it more perfectly if we'd tried.  In my effort to try something different, I selected the Baked Herbed Crepes, Artichoke, Walnuts, Slow Roasted Tomato Coulis, Basil Pistou.  I still don't really know what that was.  I just copied it from the restaurant's online menu.  But, what I do know is that it was AMAZING.  We ended a perfect night on a perfect note.  We went back to get a good night's rest.  Well, I got a good night's rest.  Jeff engaged in some of Las Vegas' finest gambling. 

Vegas Bound (A little late...)

Last month...let's start there...it's been awhile.  But anyway, last month Jeff and I went on a trip to Las Vegas.  I had two days off of school bordering a weekend, making for the opportunity for a 4 day trip and I wanted to take advantage of the opportunity.  Cecelia stayed with my mom and we had prepared her with one night visits to make sure she was comfortable staying overnight without us.  She was.  We left early on Thursday morning and arrived in Las Vegas before lunch time (I love when time changes work in your advantage).  On our flight out, I was seated next to a husband and wife who live (literally) around the corner from the house I grew up in, and the husband grew up on the same street as me.  Small world!

We stayed at Mandalay Bay, and it was pretty amazing!  We ate lunch at the place Jeff had raved about from his previous trip, Raffles.  For whatever reason, from his descriptions (and I recently found out I was not alone in this interpretation) I had pictured Raffles as a diner.  It wasn't!  It was quite nice.  But, in hindsight, I should have stuck to the more diner-esque menu items.  I branched out and was a little disappointed, but you live and learn.

In the afternoon, we explored Mandalay Bay and rested by the pool and lazy river (the real reasons we had chosen to stay there).  Ironically, Jeff had been to Mandalay Bay before and hadn't realized there was a lazy river.  They had been too "lazy" (pun intended) to walk a little further to the right and discover it.

More about the night in a bit.
I'll post a little from our trip each day to prolong the fun.

Footie PJ Update

While I got a good bit of feedback from others whose children did not like, or they personally did not like footie pj's, Cece got over it.  When the weather warrants some warm, snuggly, pj's, she is happy to oblige.  She can unzip her pj's when prompted to do so, but has never (knock on wood) tried to disrobe in the middle of the night or otherwise.  Personally, if footie pj's were available and affordable in my size, I'd probably live in them.  But that's just me.

Sleep Update

I realized, after someone stopped me in the hall to ask about it, that I had never updated about sleep here.. I had put an update on Facebook following the link to the post, but had never shared that sleep is happening once again in the Zschunke household.  Cece does not take a nap now.  Well, that's not exactly true.  She will often fall asleep in the car in transit for about a half hour, sometimes even less, and that helps her to power through the day.  She is happy when she goes to sleep and happy when she wakes up in the morning.  She is going to bed between 7 and 7:30 these days.  We read a book, sometimes several, lay her down, tuck her in, and she's off to sleepytown.  She hasn't been waking up through the night and when she wakes up in the morning, she is happy, if hungry.