Just the Two of Us . . . at Disneyland

Elena and I went to Disneyland a couple weeks ago, just the two of us. Jorge was at home with Samuel. 

It was a total princess experience, which I've never had, so it was fun to experience it with Elena for the first time. We went to both parks, and started with some rides. Unfortunately the Little Mermaid ride was closed, but she didn't miss it since she got to meet some princesses.

Here, we're on what we call "the crazy car ride." (Mater's Junkyard Jamboree)

And we call this "the flying elephants." (Dumbo)

And we went to the Disney Junior Live Onstage show. Elena loves it.

She got a Rapunzel doll. She loves Tangled right now.

We watched the Tangled play at the Royal Theater.

 

Later she met Rapunzel and Flynn Rider. I think this was her favorite part of the day.

 
We also watched Beauty and the Beast. Their plays are pretty funny and entertaining.

She got to meet other princesses, too. She was super excited to meet Ariel.

She's a little familiar with Cinderella, so she was happy to meet her. She doesn't know who Sleeping Beauty is, but she was just excited to meet another princess.

The day was so fun. We got a lot of quality time, and she was so enchanted with the princesses. It was really special. We left in time for me to see Samuel before he went to bed. I'm hardly away from that little guy, so it was a new experience for me to be missing him so much. I loved on him a lot when I got home, then put him to bed. And Elena got some fun memories, and she was really happy when I printed some of her pictures with the princesses and put them in her photo album.

Princess Party

Someone invited Elena to a princess dress-up birthday party. I got her a Tangled Rapunzel dress, and then she watched the movie. She loved it. She's really into Tangled now.

I had so much fun doing her hair for the party. I love braiding her hair. If she had more patience and Samuel would allow it, I would braid her hair every day. I thought it was hilarious that as soon as she put on the dress she held it up this way, as if she was curtsying. I'm not sure where she learned that, maybe at preschool.

The party was fun. They had a little petting zoo in the front yard. Elena liked the bunnies the most. She kept trying to pet the ducks, but of course they would just run off. She tried and tried.

 

 

And they had ponies!

She is so precious. It was a lot of fun.

 

Nana's

Miriam went on a trip to Guatemala. We went to visit her the day before she left.

The kids love her backyard. They just run and run and run.

They have fun playing with their cousins.

Miriam and Samuel

Georgina and Elena

Family Trip

We went to Disneyland! (Well, we spend most of the time at California Adventure Park.) We were there for 3 days. 

The kids always have fun in the hotel room. Samuel sleeps in a pack and play, and Elena slept on a crib-sized inflatable bed. For the first time in a looong time, Jorge and I had the bed to ourselves all night.

Both kids love to play on the bed. Jorge wrestled with Samuel for a long time. 

Samuel takes this stance every time I ask him where something is. I love it. I can ask him for something that's close to him, and he'll still bend way over and twist his head to look. 

Naps are the hardest part of being at a theme park all day. The middle day he only took one super short nap, and he was pretty fussy, but the next day was a lot better.

We were there on St. Patrick's Day.

 

 

On the choo-choo train

 

 

 

Thank goodness for the baby care centers! Spoons, microwaves, highchairs, changing tables . . . love them.

 

The kids loved playing in the water. I didn't think to take their bathing suits to the park, so when Elena's clothes started getting wet we took her clothes off, except her underwear. That worked for awhile until a worker told us she needed clothes on . . . so we ended up putting Samuel's stretchy shorts on her since I had extra pants in the diaper bag for him, and she put her shirt back on. Next time I'll definitely take bathing suits.

 

I'm hoping to take them again soon, before it gets ridiculously hot and miserable.

Two Fun Kids

Here's a quick re-cap of our last few weeks:

Elena had Superhero Night at Pioneer Club. She was super-cute, but she is very shy so when we walked into the sanctuary where all of the groups meet, she began to cry. I think she felt pressure to go onstage in her costume in front of a big group of people (even though she didn't have to). So she ended up taking off her mask and that helped her feel better, and then when I picked her up she didn't have her cape on either. I'm glad I got these pictures of her before we went there.

 

Samuel has little curls on the back of his head. That's how Elena's curls started, too.

He gives kisses now.  I love them, but he's not always willing.

The weather has been nice. This picture is of the kids playing with water beads in the backyard. They both love them, but they're really bouncy, so not ideal for indoors unless you want to be finding them in random places for the next week. The downside to playing with them on the lawn is that Samuel will drop or spill them and then he'll get upset that there are some between the blades of grass, so I spend a lot of time gathering the ones he would point out to me.

Here they're playing with foam blocks. Samuel gets focused on putting the cylinders through the holes, and when he's concentrating he opens his mouth really wide.

Coloring with creamy crayons. 

Elena was drawing different shapes, then she would ask me about them. "Does that look like a heart? Does that look like a carrot?"

This was Samuel's first time using the creamy crayons, and he really enjoyed it.

He had stopped coloring, so I asked him if he was all done. This was his response.

So then he colored some more. This was his finished product.

Then Elena and I did a little experiment with shaving cream. She's so much fun.

Samuel's talking more and he has such a fun personality. And Elena's so creative with her play, it's amusing to see where her imagination takes her. 

As exhausting as the days can be, Jorge and I get in bed and smile while we talk about the things the kids have been doing.

Say What?

Samuel is talking more and more. I love this stage! It's so much fun to see his speech take off and to communicate more with him.

(Note: The videos don't work in emails, they only play on the blog website.)

Samuel saying his favorite word, "Daddy"

 He loves making animal noises. So far he'll do elephant, duck, dinosaur, lion, seagull, and owl. 

On the swing in the backyard

It's so amazing how quickly they learn. I'm just trying to enjoy it because it passes so fast.