Kid update

I meant to write this post a couple of weeks ago! But life got in the way. Hopefully I can remember all the things I wanted to write.

Damon is an expert stair climber. He routinely climbs all the way up our staircase (most of the time under our supervision). He has five teeth and still loves to put everything in his mouth. He eats lots of baby food and drinks lots of milk he's got the weight to prove it. He's generally pretty happy and smiley as long as he's getting attention or getting into trouble. He loves to talk and is frequently repeating some combination of "ba ba", "da da", or "ma ma". He is still a perpetual motion machine and cannot be discouraged from crawling to or grabbing something that he wants. I've been having a lot more fun with him now that he's mobile, although he wears me out pretty quick.

Carmen is still cute as a button. She's the one who gets the most comments and it's easy to see why with her bobbed hair, plump cheeks, and impish grin. She also has the cutest belly laugh that makes me laugh just thinking about it. She's right on the verge of leaving toddlerhood for girlhood. She's somewhat potty trained, she's decided not to like any food, and since she turned 3 we've started putting stuff on her thumbnails to get her to stop sucking her thumb. She still has problems pronouncing her Rs and Ls, but at this point it just serves to makes her cuter when she says things like "Pwincess Auwowa" or sings "And at yast I see the yight" from Tangled. She is very much into role playing and is the best method actor I've ever seen. If you call her "Carmen", she will immediately say, "No, I'm Mickey Mouse!" and won't respond until you call her the right name. Other favorites are Fireball (from Rudolph the RNR), Lady or Tramp, Cinderella, Hiccup (from How to Train Your Dragon), Sawyer (from Olivia's preschool) and various other princesses and animals. Basically if she sees characters on anything (movie, shirt, real life), she picks one to be. Often Olivia is a corresponding character.

Carmen's favorite pastime by far is playing with Olivia. They spend hours and hours together every day playing with princesses and ponies, dressing up, coloring, and who knows what else. You can tell they appreciate their time together because every time after we get back from somewhere with other kids, like church or a party, they immediately go upstairs unbidden, often closing their bedroom door, and play together for an hour or two. Olivia tells Carmen what to do, and usually what to say as well. Carmen is usually a good sport about going along with it and they are very cute together.

Olivia is going to bored out of her mind (academically, at least) this Fall in kindergarten. A month or three ago she finally decided she was going to read and within days she was reading. Reading is now her new favorite thing. She reads everything, everywhere, and is always surprising us with the things she reads, from cereal boxes to signs to books. It is now a common sight to see her reading a book by herself. If she's up before us we'll sometimes find her in Damon's room reading him a book because he was starting to get fussy. And I'm amazed at how well she reads, too. She has the basic short vowel sounds down, of course, but she's also already got the 'e' on the end makes long vowels, 'ight' words, words ending in 'le' (like 'puzzle'), etc. She is still very gentle, and doesn't like how rowdy other kids get, but I'm glad she's learned to interact well with kids her age. She's a good girl and really likes to follow the rules and do what she's supposed to. She's mentioned several times to us that she just wants to be a grown up. Sometimes it seems like she's nearly there.

Disneyland (Part 10)

Needless to say, by the end of our second day Carmen was frazzled and even the indefatigable Olivia fell asleep "rested her eyes" on the walk home.

We're home now, after another tiring, but uneventful day of travel. We're still feeling the effects a little, but it was a fun trip, and I know when we think of it later, this is what we'll remember.

Disneyland (Part 9)

Next we headed back to Disneyland to make sure we'd have enough time for Amber and me to indulge our childhood memories of Captain Eo. It was wonderfully 80s.

While we were in Tomorrowland, we hit up Space Mountain (Olivia loved it), shot the evil Zerg with our laser guns in Buzz Lightyear Astro Blasters, and rode in a submarine while Finding Nemo.

As the day was winding down, we went on another whirlwind tour, riding Gadget's coaster several more times for Carmen's sake, then all the rides we'd missed the previous day in Fantasyland, including Snow White, Peter Pan, Mr. Toad's Wild Ride, and Alice in Wonderland (as the parade was going by).  Somewhere around Mr. Toad, Carmen had a little meltdown because she wanted to ride the carousel one more time, so I skipped Mr. Toad for one last spin. It was worth it.

The photographer in me also sneaked away during one last ride on Dumbo to get some shots of Sleeping Beauty's castle.

And as our last act, we valiantly marched all the way back to California Adventure to watch the World of Color, an impressive light show that goes through Disney themes using colored fountains and video shown on a backdrop of mist, along with music and the occasional burst of fire.

Disneyland (Part 8)

Next was the Backlot to ride Monster's Inc., then Grandpa took Carmen to the Ariel ride while the rest of us went on Soarin' Over California, where you hang in front of a huge panoramic screen so it feels like you're flying. Olivia got the giggles when I told her to try to kick the people as we flew over them and she laughed the whole time until she got scared by flying through some fireworks at the end.

We joined Grandpa and Carmen for their fourth ride on The Little Mermaid, then grabbed some lunch at the food court before heading over to Toy Story, where we got to shoot lots of things in a virtual carnival game simulation. Carmen was getting a little tired by this point.

But not too tired to indulge her love of carousels with Olivia on King Triton's Carousel while the non-motion-sick-prone adults rode the big roller coaster California Screamin'.

Disneyland (Part 7)

Day two started with the other park, Disney's California Adventure, which I assume is a separate park solely so they can charge two admissions.  We went straight to A Bug's Land, where we walked onto all the little kids rides (we never had long waits on our whole trip).  The Chew Chew Train was pretty funny, and Olivia thought bumping me in the bumper cars was hilarious.

Amber and Damon got some bonding time riding Flik's Flyer.

Grandpa was not impressed.

Disneyland (Part 6)

After meeting the princesses we rode Casey Jr.'s train (with a kinda creepy middle-aged guy behind us in line who was riding by himself) and the Storybook Land boats.

Then we headed over to Frontierland, where we rode the slightly psychedelic Winnie the Pooh ride. Amber and I then rode Splash Mountain together while the kids rode Winnie the Pooh on repeat with Grandma and Grandpa.

Next was a whirlwind tour of Pirates of the Caribbean, Haunted Mansion, Jungle Cruise (worst narrator ever?) and the Enchanted Tiki (tiki tiki tiki tiki) Room (all of which were not good for pictures, apparently), before hurrying back to Main Street to catch the parade.

The girls were very impressed by Mickey playing the drums and liked to wave at all the characters. Those who were still awake after the walk home had some junk food we picked up on the way back, then we crashed in preparation for day two.

Disneyland (Part 5)

While on the topic of characters, I'll step out of chronology here to document our encounters with our other Disney friends.

Our first sighting was Minnie Mouse, who was hurrying to get somewhere. Our girls would have none of that and chased her down for a hug.

We headed off Donald Duck in a similar hug attack not too much later.

If you stick around Disneyland long enough, though, you're bound to find a scheduled character appearance, and we did end up meeting Mickey, Minnie, and Pluto.

 And if you stick around too long, you might even find a storm trooper.

We also saw Chip and Dale, Alice and the Mad Hatter, and the evil fox guy and his partner from Pinocchio, but since the kids didn't know who they were, we didn't bother with the wait.

Disneyland (Part 4)

After Toon Town we stopped at the Princess Fantasy Faire. This is where you can wait in line for your very own private audience with no less than three princesses. As it turned out, we got four, including Olivia's favorite, Tiana (though she's never seen the movie), and Carmen's favorite, Cinderella.

The girls got a minute or two with each princess, who would ask them their names, comment on their shirts, ask them their favorite colors, etc, and talk about whatever the girls wanted to talk about. It puts a neat personalized touch to a park that is otherwise mostly animatronic rides.

They also got to meet Snow White and Aurora (Sleeping Beauty) and were pretty excited about that.

Earlier in the day we also waited in a special line to meet Rapunzel and Eugene Flynn Rider. Carmen was a little more nervous during her first encounter with royalty than she was with the other princesses.

Disneyland (Part 3)

After Fantasyland we decided to head on over to Toon Town to have lunch and see the sights. Sometimes it was hard to tell who was more excited.

We feasted on hot dogs, pizzas, and pretty decent turkey sandwiches before heading out to explore Mickey's house and Minnie's house.

We also toured Donald's boat, climbed Chip and Dale's tree house, rode Roger Rabbit's ride, and watched Grandpa try to keep up in Goofy's playhouse.

But the most popular place in Toon Town was undoubtedly Gadget's roller coaster. Carmen was just barely tall enough to ride and she and Olivia rode it many many times.

Disneyland (Part 2)

We were up bright and early thanks to the time difference. After a disappointing hotel breakfast and a short walk, we were in the park taking the obligatory picture (into the sun).

We cruised through Main Street, USA, but once we made it Sleeping Beauty's castle the kids found plenty of things they wanted to do in Fantasyland. We explored the castle, rode the carousel, and flew on Dumbo.

We spun in tea cups, visited Pinocchio, and tried to pull the sword from the stone.

And of course, we had to make a trip to It's a Small World. Some of us were more impressed than others.

Disneyland (Part 1)

Knowing that grandchildren's parents don't just visit on their own, Amber's parents bought a Disneyland year pass and have been treating their grandkids (and their parents) to a Disneyland vacation, provided they can get themselves there. We took them up on the offer, of course, and had a fabulous time.

Everyone started off in high spirits. Not even the security line at the airport could dampen the girls' mood.

The kids were all very good travelers and we had no meltdowns through the flight, trip to the car rental place, and drive to the hotel.

We met Grandma and Grandpa at the hotel, and Amber's sister Brook drove down from LA to visit for the night. We had a delicious dinner at the Cheesecake Factory, and afterwards the girls had fun playing with their cousin Alice (in their new pajamas from Grandma).

We had a long two days ahead of us, so soon enough it was time for the girls to put Grandpa to bed.