Life Escalated

It is hard to believe that 8 years ago today, my life changed forever, and I became a mother.  My baby boy is becoming such a wonderful young man, and I am so proud of him.

Here are some pictures of him through the years (starting at his first birthday because that is when I started using a digital camera).  There are a lot, but I just couldn’t cut any of them out.  You have to click through the pictures to see them all.

Happy Birthday Robby!  I love you!

We had so many fun moments at Disneyland, but here are some of my favorites.

…Robby loves pin trading at Disneyland.  It is one of his favorite things to do.  He brought a bunch of pins he doesn’t like and was trading them all for classic Disney character pins (Mickey, Donald, Goofy.)  One day, his lanyard was full of Mickey pins he had traded for.  He loved all of them.  He was looking at a cast members lanyard and I could tell he was struggling to decide whether or not he wanted to trade.  Looking at her lanyard, I could see exactly which pin he would want, a pretty cool looking Mickey one.  He kept looking at his pins trying to decide if there were any he was willing to give up.  Finally, he took one off his lanyard and handed it to the cast member.  I expected him to ask her for her Mickey one, but instead, he pointed to a little Winnie the Pooh pin, took it from the cast member and handed it to Zoe.  He looked at me with a big grin on his face and said, “I thought that was a cute pin and I knew Zoe would love to look at it.”  It was so sweet.  He is such a good big brother.

…Zoe loves “It’s a Small World.”  After one of our many rides on it, as we were waiting to get off, she looked at me with a big smile on her face and said “FUN” in the cutest little voice.  That was a new word for her and it was so cute to hear her say it after enjoying the ride so much.

…Robby and Grandma Lapray spent a lot of time together riding on the big rides while Kirk and I took Zoe on some of the smaller rides.  It was great seeing them spending time together having fun with something they both enjoy so much.

…Again with Zoe and Small World.  Zoe was hilarious to watch as we went through the ride.  She would dance to the music, but she dances exactly like the dolls.  She would move very mechanically, only moving one part of her body, over and over again, just like the dolls did.  Today we were listening to the small world song and she immediately started dancing like that again.  It cracks me up.

…We got to see the Captain Eo tribute on its opening day.  It was so fun to see because I remember seeing it when I was a kid.  I don’t remember it being so cheesy, but it still brought back a lot of memories.

…It was really cool to see how much Robby is growing up.  He loves to go on the roller coasters at California Adventure as a single rider (so he doesn’t have to wait in line).  He kept telling me that he could just do it by himself, he didn’t need me.  It was fun to see him so grown up and independent.

…At the same time, it was also nice to see that Robby isn’t all grown up yet.  I worry that we don’t have too much longer before he is too cool to enjoy things like Disneyland with us, but he is not there yet.  He was so sad as we were riding on our last ride, because he didn’t want to say goodbye and go home.  He kept asking when we are going to go back.  I hope that magic never goes away for him.

Here are some of my favorite pictures from the trip.

Last time we went to Disneyland, we were sure that Zoe would love all the characters.  We were wrong; she was terrified.

This trip, we didn’t even think the characters were an option because we knew she would hate them.  Again we were wrong.

It all started while we were waiting for our Splash Mountain fast passes.  We needed to waste some time, Pooh was right there and had a short line, and Zoe has recently been really interested in him, so we decided to see what would happen.  She was tired and crying while we waited in line, but when we got up to Pooh, he rubbed her cheek with his hand, and she immediately stopped crying and started grinning.  She played with his nose and talked to him, and didn’t cry again, until we made her walk away.  The rest of the day she wouldn’t stop talking about Pooh and kept asking to look at the camera and see the pictures with him.

On our last day, as we were walking down Main Street, we decided to stop and see Goofy.  Zoe was so excited.  It killed her to wait for her turn in line.

When it was our turn, Robby went and dutifully stood beside Goofy for a picture.  Zoe ran right up to him and gave him a huge hug.

Goofy picked her up and sat her in his lap.  She just couldn’t stop looking at him.  She was fascinated.

Zoe sat and played with Goofy for quite a while and the line behind us was starting to get kind of long, so I told her it was time to go.  She just kept saying, “no, no” and crying.  So, Goofy, sat down on the ground and put her in his lap.  They sat and played for a while longer.  It was so cute.

I eventually had to be the mean mom and make her leave.  She was not at all happy with me.

As we were walking away we saw Mickey and Minnie together.  They had a pretty long line.  I normally wouldn’t even think about waiting in any kind of line to see a character, it has always seemed like such a waste of time to me, but she was so excited when she saw them and we decided it was worth it.  We sent Robby and Grandma to ride on some big rides, and got in line.

It was so worth it.

We wised up with Mickey and Minnie and took some video to try and really capture the cuteness.

Unfortunately, the video doesn’t do the moment justice.  We just couldn’t get at the right angle to capture the way she just snuggled right into them, the eskimo kisses that Minnie gave her, or the way that every time I started to convince her to leave, they would pull her back for one more hug because they thought she was so cute.  My favorite part was when I finally decided it was time to go and started pulling her away.  She started crying and Mickey and Minnie both pushed me away, telling me that they would just keep her.

She was with them for quite a while (longer than the video clip).  Eventually we had to leave, to the great protests of Zoe.  I honestly think she would have sat there all day, snuggled into Mickey, if we would have let her.  I think that Mickey and Minnie would have sat there all day with her too, if it was not for the line of impatient and tired people waiting behind us.

I had a couple of observations and thoughts from Zoe’s character experience…

1. Those characters are truly amazing.  I always knew that the characters at Disneyland were good, but all four of them on this trip were truly magical. They were so good with Zoe.  They seemed to genuinely enjoy spending time with her.  We weren’t at all rushed (in fact, I think they all spent more time with us than they should have), they knew exactly what to do to make Zoe happy, and they were amazingly sweet to her.  I would imagine that it gets tiring, dealing with kids all day, but I do have to say, they were awesome.

2.  I love seeing my kids happy.  Those few minutes with those four characters was by far, the best minutes of my trip.  Zoe was so absolutely happy and that made me absolutely happy.  She won’t stop talking about it.  In fact, one of the first things she told me this morning, three days after the trip, was “Minnie, kiss.”  I am so glad she got to enjoy that moment.  That is why I love Disneyland so much, seeing the magic through the eyes of my kids, and why I can’t wait to go back again.

We are leaving for Disneyland again in the morning and Zoe is sporting a new hair-do for the occasion.

A few months ago, when Zoe first became obsessed with Mickey Mouse Clubhouse, I started looking for Mickey Mouse beads to put in her hair.  I found a lot of beads, but none that had a big enough hole to fit over her braids.  So, I decided to make my own.  I made them out of Fimo clay.  They were really easy to make and turned out so cute.  Zoe wore them in October when we went to Disneyland and has asked for them every time we have done her hair since then.

Wednesday, she finally got to put in her Mickey beads again and she was so excited.  She wasn’t as excited to sit still and get her hair done though.  It is such a battle to get it done, but she is much more patient when it is getting braided than she is when it is getting combed out.  The braids should last at least 2 weeks (hopefully 3) so it is worth it to get a couple week break from combing it.  As much as she hates sitting still to get it done, she absolutely loves it once we finish it.  She loves clicking her beads and showing it off to everyone she meets.  Plus, as time goes on, I am getting quicker and she is getting a little more patient, so it is a little easier every time.  I thought we would have to divide it up into 2 days this time, but we managed to have it completely done by lunchtime on Wednesday.  Not too shabby.

We did cornrows in the front and then box braids in the back.  They are definitely the best cornrows I have done so far.  I am getting better.  By the time she is old enough to care how they look, I am going to be an expert.  While I was out running errands today, I actually had two different people ask me where I take her to get her hair done.  I love it when people ask that question.  It makes me feel good to know that I am doing something right.