California Trip

On Wednesday, June 22, we flew to California. Our flight landed around noon that day, and we mostly spent the day with Dan's parents but Dan and I did make a run to Trader Joe's to pick up a few of our favorite treats. Thursday we spent all day at Disneyland. Friday morning we went to the beach and then in the afternoon we went to the Aquarium of the Pacific in Long Beach. We spent Saturday packing, napping, and watching the kids play before we got back on a plane and headed home.

Disneyland
I have been so excited about Anna's and Evie's first trip to Disneyland that I've been researching and studying for months. I guess I should explain that when my mom goes to Disneyland, she goes with a plan and a schedule as far as what rides to ride when, and it always seems to work pretty well. So in that same spirit, I bought the Unofficial Guide to Disneyland in April and started reading and planning. The book has information about everything: the least crowded days of the week, how to find a seat for the parades, information on every ride, etc. It also has what it calls touring plans or a schedule for seeing the park based on different ages. I picked the Dumbo-or-Die in a Day plan designed for kids under age seven.

I've learned from my mom and the book confirmed this that it's important to arrive early. The book went so far as to suggest arriving forty minutes before the gates open and lining up at gate thirteen. For us, this meant getting everyone up at five-thirty and trying to be out the door and on the way to the park at 6:30. At first I didn't think the kids were all that phased by the early wake up call since to them it felt like 6:30 Utah time, but it was probably a contributing factor when Anna had a melt down and refused to get in the car to go to Disneyland. But we talked her in to the car, only to have her start crying when we were half way there because she wanted her blanket. She screamed that she wanted to go home until we entered the Disneyland parking structure and she saw a picture of Mickey Mouse and then suddenly everything was ok. I breathed a huge sigh of relief.

As usual we ran late and then while we were waiting for the tram we realized that both Dan and I had left our cell phones in the car, so we had to wait while he ran back to get them. We also waited while Dan's parents upgraded their season passes since peak days are blocked out on their passes. At any rate, we didn't actually walk up to the gate until a few minutes after eight, so it was already open, but there was no line and we walked right in. Of course we had another hiccup when we realized that we needed to leave the park to rent the stroller for Anna. Dan and his dad went to take care of that while Sandy and I walked the kids back to Dumbo.

the tram ride into the park

 waiting for Grandpa and Sandy to upgrade their season passes

 On our way back to Dumbo we had to stop and take a picture in front of the castle

As a side note, I have to admit that I was quite proud of myself because as anxious as I was to follow the books instructions, I stayed pretty calm about the fact that we weren't actually lined up in front of gate 13 at 7:20. Dan might disagree, but I feel like I took it all in stride. I guess I also wasn't super concerned because we went on an early entry day, so I knew the park would already be full of people. The book advises against using the Dumbo-or-Die tour on an early entry day if we weren't eligible for early entry, but it didn't seem to matter that much for us.

By the time we made it back to Dumbo, the line was still only about ten or fifteen minutes long, which at that point in the day was much longer than Anna wanted it to be. After just a few minutes of standing in line, she wanted to try something else, but we played some Eye Spy and I managed to keep her waiting in line. Dumbo was Anna's first amusement park ride ever. She seemed to do okay on the ride, and when we go off I asked her if she liked it and if she wanted to ride it again. She agreed that she liked it, but she didn't want to ride it again.

While we were in line, Sandy took Evie on King Arthur's Carousel, so then Anna wanted to ride it too. I think they both wanted to ride it again, but we were losing that precious morning time fast, so I made them go ride the Storybook Canal, followed by the Mad Tea Party and Alice in Wonderland. I'm still not sure if Anna enjoyed the Storybook Canal, but I know she LOVED the Mad Tea Party and so did Evie. But Anna hated Alice. I didn't realize how loud Alice was. Anna has always been sensitive to sound--as a baby she used to cry when we would shake open garbage bags--and we've never taken her to a movie. So it took me awhile to realize that Anna wasn't going to enjoy anything that was loud.

 Since the line was short for the Mad Tea Party, we rode it again before heading over to Toon Town. We wanted to ride Roger Rabbit's Car Toon Spin, but as soon as we got inside the building and Anna heard the loud voices again she said she was outta there and again I was pretty proud of myself for not trying to talk her into going on the ride. As soon as we got outside again, we realized that Evie would probably enjoy the ride so Bill and I took her on it. As soon as Evie saw the cars for the ride she started whining, "unt own" (want down), meaning that she wanted to get on. It was hard to hold on to her until it was our turn, but as soon as we got in the car, it was like she'd been giving a sedative because she calmed down.

 heading into Alice and Wonderland--I promise she's intrigued and not terrified

 waiting in line with Grandpa for Roger Rabbit

Gadget's Go Coaster was next on our list but it was closed so we explored some of Toon Town, but since there is loud narration in Mickey's House, we didn't make it in very far. It's been long enough since our trip that I'm starting to forget exactly how the morning went, but next I think we rode It's a Small World and then again went on the carousel. We couldn't walk by the carousel without both Anna and Evie whining to ride it, but their mean mom made them walk by it a few times so that we could hit the other things on the schedule.

 hanging out in Toon Town while Anna explored Chip 'n Dale's Treehouse and Mickey's House

 It's a Small World

Ironically, I made them skip one more ride on the carousel to go ride the Jungle Cruise, which wasn't on the schedule at all. We got in line around noon and as we were standing there, Evie's head suddenly fell against my shoulder and she was asleep. So she slept through all of that ride. Anna did okay on the Jungle Cruise. I don't think she loved it but since we were outside, it wasn't too loud or too fast. Evie continued to nap through lunch, but when she woke up we decided to try Anna on the Haunted Mansion. I think both Dan and I were having a hard time accepting Anna's dislike of the indoor rides. Dan wanted to ride the Haunted Mansion so he talked Anna into going on it and he talked her through the ride itself. Afterwards Anna ended up with cotton candy and I'm not sure whether it was a reward for going on the Haunted Mansion or because we realized that she was exhausted and needed to sit for a bit. Once again I have to give myself points for not pushing Anna to go on Pirates of the Caribbean. I thought the Haunted Mansion was probably too much for her, but since Dan isn't a big fan of Disneyland I was willing to try anything he wanted to do.

 In line for the Jungle Cruise

 Still asleep

 sleeping through lunch

 Recovering from the Haunted Mansion with some cotton candy

 Evie LOVED the Trader Joe's pretzel sticks Sandy packed for us

Evie was full of energy again, but Anna was exhausted. We got her over to the Pirates' Lair on Tom Sawyer Island and walked around for a bit before dragging the kids over to Critter Country. Anna really wanted to ride in the Davy Crockett Canoes so Dan and his Dad took her while Sandy and I took Evie on Winnie the Pooh. Since no one was screaming "Off with their heads" and since Anna came out of It's a Small World laughing, I really thought she'd like Winnie the Pooh. Plus it helped that the line was pretty short. We made it through the line and the ride and still had time to spare before the canoers returned. I guess the paddlers on their boat were pretty lame, shoveling more water onto the person behind them rather than propelling the boat forward. They all came off looking pretty wet, but it was a hot day, so I don't think they minded too much.

 Pumping out water to reveal the treasure chest on Tom Sawyer Island

Evie's off!

 at the end of the canoe ride

Once they were out of the canoe, we headed back to Winne the Pooh. When we got to the end of the ride, Anna was scowling, with a scrunched up nose. This became her way of expressing her dislike of certain rides. By then I began to accept the fact that Anna wasn't going to enjoy any of the indoor rides.

 Soaking wet and waiting in line for Winnie the Pooh

 Evie decided to check the map on our way in to Winnie the Pooh

She was still pretty exhausted as we hiked back across the park to the Disney Princess Fantasy Faire. I wanted to be there in time for the Princess Coronation Ceremony. The kids (and parents) are invited to gather on the floor in front of the stage and participate in the show. We were there early enough to take some pictures and as soon as Anna got down among the set pieces, she perked right up as if she'd taken a nap. She has this little princess prance she does where she holds her hands perpendicular to her sides as she strolls about. We took lots of pictures among the flowers and then a knight and lady came out and taught us how to curtsy and bow, along with a little dance. Finally, Sleeping Beauty, Snow White, and Cinderella came out and joined the kids in a may pole dance. The experience was perfect for Anna because she's still a little too shy to actually want to talk to the princesses but she still got to see some princesses up close without waiting in a long line. 

 Princess Fantasy Faire

 Going up that first hill on Gadget's Go Coaster

When we left Fantasy Faire, the first parade of the day was due to start soon so I thought it might be a good time to try and revisit Gadget's Go Coaster. I hoped the line would be shorter because people would go see the parade and I thought Anna would enjoy it since it was all outside without any loud narration. As we stood in line for thirty or forty minutes (if the parade did make the line shorter, I couldn't tell), Anna was pretty excited. She cringed every time she heard the loud clicking noise of the coaster going over our heads, but when it was farther away from us, she would laugh with excitement. At this point in the day, she was a lot better about waiting in a long line, that is until she got her knee stuck in the railing. She really got it wedged in there and I thought we were going to need help from a Disney staff member, but a family behind us in line helped me work her knee out. Still, it was pretty traumatic with Anna screaming that her leg was stuck and when I would try to bend it or move it to get it out, she screamed louder. Dan kept Evie since she was too short to ride, but they caught sight of us just as we were getting on the ride and Evie started screaming. Dan thinks she was mad because she wanted to ride. I took a few pictures of us as the car started off and Anna was smiling as we chugged up the first hill, but as soon as we went down that first hill, I could feel her body tense next to mine and by the time the ride was over he noise was scrunched up and her lips were screwed together. That ride even earned an "I don't like that ride." So that was a failed experiment.

Autopia was more Anna's speed. Once again Evie was too short to ride but they let us do a baby swap. So Dan took Anna on the ride while I waited at the ride's exit with Evie and she wasn't happy about that. She spent most of our wait trying to figure out how to get past me and down the stairs to get in one of the cars. Poor kid. Anna was happy to ride the ride again with me, but after steering with Dad, she was just content to let me drive. 

We took a break for dinner and Bill and Sandy decided to call it a day. After they left, we decided to walk over to the parade route. On our way, Anna said she wanted to dance, so I told her she could if she'd wear the harness and leash a friend let me borrow. I was holding the leash and the stroller, trying to figure out how to get the break off, while Anna flitted about. While I was still looking down, she reached the end of the leash, and because I was holding on so tightly and not looking at her, she actually caught air before falling to the ground. I got plenty of looks from all the people nearby while Dan tried to pretend that he didn't actually know me. Anna recovered from her fall in the stroller as we walked over and staked out a place to watch the parade. We were at the end of the parade route, so we ended up waiting about thirty minutes before the parade actually made it to us. This gave Anna plenty of time to dance, and we kept Evie content in her stroller by feeding her tons of goldfish. 

 Autopia

 She doesn't look too banged up after her fall

 Waiting for the parade

According to the schedule, it was now time to ride Buzz Lightyear, but even though I wanted to ride it, I think I still felt guilty about Gadget's Go Coaster and knocking Anna to the ground with the leash, so we decided to go hit a few of our favorite rides. We hit the tea cups and the carousel before riding Dumbo again. This time Evie got to ride with Dan. While Anna's tolerance for lines increased, Evie's was moving in the opposite direction. She wiggled and squirmed if we held her. When we put her down, she tried to pick up trash and put it in her mouth, or crawl under the railings and wander away, but every time, as soon as we she got on a ride and it would start to move, she would instantly calm down and give her full attention to the ride.

 One more time on those tea cups

 Dumbo again!

After riding on the Tea Party and the carousel again, I suggested that we ride Peter Pan's Flight. We waiting in line for at least a half an hour and after about twenty minutes of waiting, Anna got a look at the entrance platform to the ride and declared that she didn't want to ride it. I guess I'd used up all my good parent energy because when I couldn't talk Dan into getting out of line with her because he wanted to ride it, I sunk to a new low, promising Anna ice cream if she'd ride it. By this time Evie was so done with lines that when I would hold her she would start swinging her arms and hitting me and if I put her down she tried to crawl out of reach. Finally we made it on to the ride and I guess we were just in time because they closed the line down for the fireworks about twenty people behind us. Evie loved the ride and Anna left with her signature scrunchy scowl.

We got off the ride about nine. Dan had already told me several times while waiting in line for Peter Pan that he was done, so we found some ice cream for Anna in Tomorrowland and sat at a table and ate it. As soon as we were done, we put the kids in the strollers and started to make our way through the maze of those waiting to watch the fireworks. By the time we made it to the end of Main Street, both kids were totally zonked and the fireworks were just beginning. Dan offered to let me watch them if I wanted, so we stopped for a minute, but then Anna started to stir. At this point in her life, she'd never made it through a Fourth of July fireworks show, so I knew that if she woke up, things might turn ugly fast. And I didn't think the fireworks were all that amazing, so I told Dan we should go ahead and go. Anna did wake up and she didn't like the fireworks at all. She started blowing raspberries at them, telling me that she was trying to put them out. I wonder if she was completely delirious. 

Needless to say, after riding the tram back to our car and driving home we were all completely exhausted. But the next morning, after everyone had had some time to sleep, both Dan and Anna said they wanted to go back, which makes our Disneyland visit a huge success. Although Dan still likes to tell people that the only princess he had to drag out of the park was me.

Memorial Day 2011 etc.

For Memorial Day, I took the kids up to the Brigham City Cemetery where my mom's parents are buried along with some of my other ancestors. The weather was awful. When we got to Brigham City it was raining and cold. We stood outside for much too long, but after driving all that way, I didn't want to just toss the flowers out the door and turn around and go home. After visiting the cemetery, my cousin Connie and I took the kids to McDonald's to play. 

This is a photo of Evie with Connie's daughter Sarah. Like Evie, Sarah is also adopted and is part hispanic or Latina. I still haven't figured out which is the best term to use. Sarah was great with my kids.

Evie LOVES her pink snow boots and is always brining them to me so that I'll put them on her. She also loves the idea of carrying a purse, or in this case, a Trader Joe's bag. Since I took this photo she's also started demanding that I dress her in Anna's dance recital outfit. She is clearly all girl.

At the Thanksgiving Point Children's Garden--one of our favorite summer spots.

I had to take our car into the dealer to get the oil changed (when we bought it, it came with a year's worth of free maintenance). Rather than sit in the waiting room, I figured we'd walk over to a nearby park.

Evie has no fear when it comes to slides. This is one of the tallest slides I've seen at a park. Anna climbed to the top first and decided she didn't want to slide down. But then Evie climbed up there and without a second thought, she slid down it on her tummy. After that, Anna decided it would be okay to go down the slide too.

Anna in June

Like most three-year-olds, Anna has entered the "all by myself" phase, although what she usually tells me is, "I want to do it." This usually means lots of tears when I do something that Anna wanted to do, like close a door, click a buckle shut, or turn off the water. Then I have to re-open the door, undo the buckle, or turn the water back on so that Anna can do it. But Anna's new independence also means that she has become my little buddy and my helper. I feel like this is an age that I'm better at because we can do activities together.

A few days ago, when my Martha Stewart Living Magazine came in the mail, Anna started asking if we could make the fireworks cookies on the front of the magazine. It took me several days, but I finally got around to making the dough for the cookies and yesterday we tried it out. Anna wanted to help with it all: sprinkling the flour, rolling out the dough, cutting out the cookies, putting them on the cookie sheet, frosting them, licking the frosting off the cookies.

On a side note, Anna loves dough, whether it's bread dough or cookie dough, but I told her once that we don't eat cookie dough because it has raw eggs in it and they can make us sick. So now whenever I make something in the mixer she'll ask, "Does this have eggs in it?" but what she really wants to know is if she can stick her finger in and eat a chunk.

She really likes to take care of Evie and make sure that Evie doesn't have things she shouldn't have or that she doesn't go places she shouldn't, like out the garage door. This means a lot of frustration for Evie as Anna drags her across the house or rips things out of her hands. I admit that I get pretty tired of all the crying and sometimes I accuse Anna of hurting Evie when really, Anna was only trying to help. Anna also likes to protect Evie from bigger kids who, ironically, often do the same things to Evie that Anna does, like take away her toys or push or hit Evie. I often hear Anna saying, "Noooo, we don't hit. Okay, buddy?"

These days Anna is a big fan of the Disney princesses and she loves to turn on Disney CDs, dress up in her Cinderella dress, and dance to the music. We're going to Disneyland soon, so I've been checking out Disney movies from the library so that she'll actually know who Peter Pan and Dumbo are. I think Dumbo has been her favorite movie so far. Anna also LOVES the park and being outside. She is always asking me if we can go to the park with the swings or if we can go swimming. Our neighborhood pool is open, but I need it to be in the nineties before I want to go swimming, so I've been trying to keep her busy with the park. She usually likes to start off with the swings and she'll say, "I want to go high to the sky, Mom." Then after a few pushes she'll say, "too much." I haven't quite figured out where that magic middle is.

So here are some other cute things Anna says often:
"Is that going to DI?" I keep a Deseret Industries (thrift store) pile in my basement and she often likes to bring things up from the basement and ask me if it's going to DI. A month ago, I also made the mistake of saying, in front of Anna, that I wanted to sort through her toys and take some of them to DI. Several times that morning she told me, "You aren't taking any of my toys to DI!"

"Sils" is her new nickname for Evie. It's a short version of Silly Evie.

On Memorial Day we went to the cemetery in Brigham City to put flowers on my grandmother's grave. Since then Anna has been a bit fixated on cemeteries. As we were waiting at a stoplight next to the Sandy cemetary Anna asked, "Is that where you go when you're killed?" She's also asked me if my grandma died in the cemetery.

"I'm still working on it." That's her response when we talk about pooping on the potty. If only I could get her to poop on the potty then I think we could make progress with potty training, but she won't do it and I have no idea how to get her to. I've tried to ease the pressure by telling her that I know she's working on it and I'll put her in a diaper if she needs to go poop, but so far that hasn't worked. Whenever we try panties, we usually end up with an accident and then I put her in a diaper because I don't want to mess with it and I start to think that she'll never be potty trained. Sigh.

"Snoot Snacks" I've probably mentioned this before, but I absolutely love that this is how she says fruit snacks.

Just recently she's starting using "I don't know how" as a way to avoid or protest or get attention. Today she wanted me to carry her, but when I told her she needed to walk because I couldn't carry her and push the stroller she said, "But I don't know how to walk."

Anna is at the age where I can ask her to go get things for me and she'll gladly do it. She wants to help and to please. She loves reading books and I have a hard time turning her down when she asks me to read her a story. She might be a little rough with Evie but it's only because she's so enthusiastic in her affection of Evie. Sometimes I get a little overwhelmed with all the "whys" but for the most part, I love hearing her thoughts and getting a peak into how her little brain is working and learning.

Words

One of the reasons why we decided to have tubes put in Evie's ears back in February was the fact that she wasn't learning to say new words. She had figured out how to say "momma" and "dadda" before the blight of ear infections, but after awhile she stopped saying even those words. We figured with all that fluid in her ears, she probably was experiencing some hearing loss.

Such was my faith in Evie that I assumed that as soon as she had those tubes put in her ears and her hearing was restored that she'd almost immediately start speaking in sentences. Instead her silence continued much longer than I expected and it was almost as she had to start all over again with momma and dadda. But in the last two weeks she's started saying several new words. Of course one would almost have to have the gift of interpretation of tongues to know what she's saying and it's taken me longer than Dan to recognize her words, but she's showing consistency, so that convinces me that what she says correlates with actual words.

So far, her vocabulary includes:

gog gog = dog
get down= she always says this when she's done eating
want that or what's that=meaning that she wants me to hand her something
crackers=refers to crackers, cookies, any type of food

I think she probably also has a word for cup and I'm still convinced that her first word, other than momma and dadda was shoe, but dadda is still probably her favorite.

Update (June, 8): After writing this post, I listened to Evie a bit more closely and realized that what she is really saying is "unt down." She says this anytime she wants to be moved up or down. This morning she woke up at 6:30 but because she was happily babbling and because I was tired, I left her in her crib. Around seven she started to moan, "unt down, unt down, unt down." So I got her up. Yesterday we went to the park and I put the kids in the swings. When Anna was done, I tried to get Evie down, but all she wanted to do was swing. When I tried to put her down either on the playground or the grass, she would arch her back and fuss. Then she would reach for the swings and say, "unt down."

Now that she's got a few phrases, it narrows down what she's trying to communicate, but there are still times when I have no idea what she really wants. Still it's nice to have a clue.