Disneyland!!

At the end of February, we achieved a within-the-girls'-lifetime goal to get our princess-loving selves down to Disneyland. It was great! We packed a lot into our four days down in So Cal, and thereby had no downtime or swim time or even watch TV time, which is a first for me at a hotel. We got to see lots of friends who live in the area, though, and got in two days at Disneyland. We learned, again, lessons about traveling with children, three children this time. We got a suite, which seemed like a fool-proof plan, but... the girls had coughs and other bizarre traveling illnesses which seem to plague our vacations, and the sofa sleeper bed was *shock!* lumpy and horrible. In short, we did not sleep well.
How fun, though. Disneyland lives up to the hype, we really did have a great time having fun together. I get it, now, why it's so magical. There were countless moments of wonder and joy, where we would all look at each other with amazement and ecstatic disbelief at whatever fun ride or street show was there, just for us!

All dressed up and ready to go, first Disneyland day.


Some of their first steps into the magical and amazing Disneyland.


Our little fam. We made it! I feel like after the long time we've talked about Disneyland and planned and saved, the fact that we finally did it means we may just be able to do anything! See the world! Fly places! Go camping! Go on a date?


Us girls, just taking it all in, with Amy Castillo, our very own personal Disney guide.


Adessa on King Arthur's Carosel


Eliana on the "parasol", as she called it, alternately calling it the "Merry-go-Around."


Annea, on her favorite ride. She really got that she was doing something special, she held on and shook her head and leaned out and back and loved it.


All of us girls on the carosel.





My favorite picture of the trip!


Annea and Eliana's backs on the storybook ride


Three girls from the back on Storybook ride


Calvin and the girls on the storybook ride.


With Alice in Wonderland and the Mad Hatter. (We happened to eat lunch by a secret door where the "cast members" took their breaks, so we saw these guys and Rapunzel, though she was obviously ready to be done with crowds and managed to look like she was skipping merrily to her break.


Though we avoided many of the princess lines, we did stand in line to go through Minnie's house and meet Minnie.

Eliana in Minnie's kitchen.

Minnie's dishwasher

Minnie hugging Adessa,

Minnie hugging girls

Minnie, all of us


We love a parade! The first day we rushed back to Disneyland after naps to watch the parade. Quite a spectacle, great fun. The girls were delighted (as was I! I really love parades.)

Daddy and Annea at the parade.

Girls soaking up the magic of the parade.

Fun at the parade!


I took this picture to remember this Disney moment, involving cotton candy. We pushed it a bit too hard. We hurried from the parade to the submarine ride, and were the last riders of the night. We came out 20 minutes later and the park was pretty much closed down, which was unfortunate because we had talked about getting cotton candy all day, and... there wasn't any to be seen. As we exited the park we turned heads since Adessa was crying so loudly. This nice Disney "cast member", Caitlin, made a big fuss over the girls, telling them how no one is allowed to leave Disneyland sad, it's the happiest place on earth, etc. etc. shut up already. No, that's what I was thinking, she was nice to the bone in true Disney fashion, and she wondered what she could do to help. The girls told her our woeful tale, and she started to call back the cotton candy maker, who was probably already in the parking lot. We stopped her, as our girls can deal with disappointment, they just don't do it very gracefully. So instead she wrote them a special coupon for free cotton candy the next day. Very nice, but Adessa wasn't having it, and once she realized that Caitlin wasn't going to whip cotton candy out of her bag, and that worse, Caitlin was trying to get her to be happy about a coupon and cotton candy tomorrow, Adessa went right on crying. In an interesting twist leaving me unsure what lesson Adessa learned from all of this, there was an open cotton candy cart right outside Disneyland in Downtown Disney, so after all of that wailing, she did get cotton candy.


After much deliberation due to potential sea-sickness, we went on the teacups and didn't spin at all, only revolved slowly around the ride. Perfect!

Teacups!


In an effort to avoid princess lines, we splurged for a Disney Character Dining Experience. Whew! A whirlwind of food was thrust at us and then five princesses made the rounds, all at breakneck speed since they fit in three! lunches. Our camera stopped working mid-way, so Calvin's phone took these pictures and will at least give you the gist.
Waiting for our turn to meet Ariel!

Ariel's Grotto

Adessa, not so interested in the food, anxiously awaiting her princess friends.

Eliana, ready for the princesses.

Belle.

Aurora.

Cinderella


These ladies were amazing, and I really had a moment where I felt severely, that even more than children's television, I had missed my calling. I would have been such a good Disney princess-person. Except for the make-up, I could have murmured and posed and curtseyed enthusiastically for hours with the best of them. Maybe I would have been too tall, or too muscular in my arms, but I like to imagine I would have been a fabulous fit. It made me want to spend a day with the princesses, write an interview, and see what it was like to spend fast-paced minutes fulfilling little girls' dreams.

Overall, so fun, worth the gobs of money and inconvenience of travel to be at what must be at least one of the happiest places on earth.

How Long Has It Been?

It's been a long time. Lots of growing up has been happening, so quickly, especially with Annea. She's doing lots of signs, sometimes to communicate, mostly after we sign things for her. She especially likes birds, and the sign for birds, and the other day I was sweeping the floor and stated that the floor was dirty--Annea made the sign for birdie. She's getting it! She likes responsive yelping, she yelps and then waits for someone to yelp back, over and over. She doesn't crawl, but is getting better at going from a seated position on the floor to lying on her tummy, so it's got to be a matter of time now, although... she does scoot imperceptibly on her butt, while in a seated position, so she may just be a butt-scooter. She's starting to notice when the girls snatch things away from her, will cry or fuss when someone walks by whose attention she wants, and is starting to let us know she's got needs and desires. Most of the time she still goes with the flow, even missing a nap doesn't phase her too much. Her sleep has gotten less fabulous, for me, at least. We all got a gnarly cold this winter, and she hasn't slept for long stretches since then, I'm hoping as she gets healthier I can re-teach the self-soothing, or whatever it is that I'm supposed to do to get some sleep.

Adessa's having a blast in school, and has started to fill me in on all the social goings on in her class. I'm listening raptly in case it's true what they say, start listening now and they'll keep talking throughout their childhood and adolescence. We're already worried about her peer group. She has made friends with a little girl in her class who is always in trouble, a loose cannon. Calvin thinks it's our valley, we need a whole new city and school, but I am hoping she will naturally gravitate more to kids we like better. Any thoughts?

Eliana has gone through a stage of grieving, that's what I'm calling it, as there was about a month after my mom died where she suddenly decided that no one in our family should ever leave our house. She didn't want to go anywhere, and didn't want anyone else to go anywhere, and if we were going out and she saw she couldn't stop us, she wanted the whole family to go, even to pick up a grocery item or run a quick errands. (Need I tell you that errands are never quick if all five of us go?) After lots of frustration and hugs and talking about the need to do things individually, like work, and leave the house, and say goodbye, she hasn't been bothered by the leaving any more, thankfully. Eliana can be quite dramatic and animated, and would happily play allllll day. I overheard her playing by herself, one of her girl horses had a boyfriend named: "Shining Armor."

So! We have more fun adventures coming up and I wanted to give a quick update, we'll have more to report, soon.

Christmas, New Years, and In Between!

Eliana singing during her Playschool Christmas Program. She knew the words and motions and performed earnestly. She was so animated and proud of herself and not at all shy or sad (wailing crying) like she sometimes is when there's attention on her, which we worried she might be. So great!

The Christmas Pageant, Eliana's first acting job, where she debuted as a "Wise Girl".

Gingerbread house decoration with Jayden and Elijah.

The Lewis Family on the Holiday Lights train. This was very fun for the girls and made for some fabulous photos.

Despite lots of preparation and warnings, Eliana was still initially scared of Santa's walk-by on the train.

Eliana, after receiving a candy cane, decides Santa might not be that bad.

Mom, Annea, and Santa. (She looks downright underwhelmed!)

Daddy with the girls in front of the Holiday Lights train, glowing after a successful ride.

Our special Christmas (Eve) breakfast.

Christmas Eve Morning, opening presents with our little family. Calvin worked on Christmas Day, so we celebrated ourselves as though it were Christmas on the Eve.

Christmas Day Morning at Abba's house, Eliana sports her new wings.

Baby girl cousins, propped together and indifferent about it, Christmas morning.

Auntie Lolo on Christmas morning

Abba Christmas morning, not feeling great but hosting nonetheless.

Annea turned eight months old, December 29th!

New Years celebration, Santiago, Chile style (7pm), and Julie's 3rd birthday, at the Stewarts.

My beloved, posing with me on New Years. I thought we were both smiling, but later discovered this...moment in time.

Cute Annea at New Years, before the PJ part of the evening.

Annea and Emma, future friends, celebrating their first New Years Eve together.

Alex and Cassiel came to visit, and we got to see lots of them. I love that distance is not keeping the kids of the dear-but-far-away-VIP's in my life from being friends with my girls.

The girls and I visited the Children's Discovery Museum in San Jose with my cousin Misha. So fun! We ran into Nathan and Jessica and Lillie and Isaac, too, and had a blast. I forgot my camera, but did get this shot back at home before washing up for nap time. The girls got to paint their own faces. Adessa assured me that the sunny-side-up egg looking thing on her forehead was a flower and stem, not bird poop.