Saturday, August 27, 2011

Disneyland!

Our first trip as a family to Disneyland was great ... as evidenced by the 12 hours we spent at "The Happiest Place on Earth."

Although, the fun was "hit and miss" for Christian.  He'd get excited about getting on a particular ride, and then get a bit panicked once he was on it.   Three exceptions:  1)  the Teacups 2) the carousel and 3) the Dumbo Ride.   Dumbo had a 1/2 hour line, and given Christian's anxiety over the other rides, I spent the entire 1/2 hour asking him if he REALLY wanted to ride on Dumbo.  Each time, he gave an enthusiastic YES!   And he did, in fact, liket he Dumbo ride.

He also loved the Disney parade that we watched late in the day - and that surprised me, because Christian still isn't too keen on loud noises.  But he had a great time and was THRILLED when he got to see Tinkerbell and Cinderella in the parade.

Christian gave out 1/2 though the day and could no longer stay awake.  We were fortuante to find a relatively calm and quiet location and lay him on some chairs and let him take a nap.

What amuses me most are Christian's post-trip recollections.   "Finding Nemo" was the first ride we went on and he was excited until we got inside the submarine and the hatch was closed.  Once the show started it was pretty loud and he cried out many times, "I want to get out!!!"   Yet, since then, he talks about the ride a lot and doesn't seem to remember that he was in a panic for most of it.

We were in Southern California because Jonathan had a meeting, and it is an annual meeting, so we hope to make Disneyland an annual adventure!  And that'll make Christian one lucky boy ... I didn't get my first trip to Disneyland until I was in my early 30s - ha ha!



Friday, August 26, 2011

California Sun and Sand

Our Future Spelling Bee Champion

Christian's latest thing lately is SPELLING!  He'll look at a word - any word - and do this (for example):

"M - U - S - I - C spells music!"

The other day at school, he was playing with letter magnets and put three together, "M-O-M spells mom."  His teacher was most impressed.

Yesterday, the entire class was working together with the letter magnets and the kiddos were coming up with nonsense words and Christian told them, "That won't work ... its not correct."

Ha ha ha!  What a kid!

He reads everywhere he goes ... store signs, street signs ... and the problematic signs:  restaurants.  We'll be driving along and he'll read a restaurant sign out loud and then a moment later, "I'm HUNGRY!!!"

What's especially cool is to see Christian come across a new word ... and stare at if for a moment and either get it right ... or work it out phonetically.    Or sometimes he doesn't have the patience for getting it on his own and he'll say "What does that say?"  We tell him and from then on, he knows the word when he sees it.

Smarty pants!

Thursday, August 25, 2011

California Dreamin'

A few pics from our adventure in California:

The kids menu had a "word find" and he was looking for "X"

Some vacation ice cream!

Poor kiddo was sooo tired after waking up early and going to the beach.
We had planned to go to the beach in the afternoon, but he wasn't feeling very well and fell asleep.

The view from our hotel room.