I'm trying to get the girls to Disneyland once a month, and I just barely squeezed in the January trip! This was our 6th trip (my 8th trip because I went when I was 12 in 1977 and when the big girls were 8 and 6 in 1997). Hey! Stop doing the math! I'm still very young! The weather this month has been chilly and wet, not very conducive for having little ones out and about all day long and staying healthy. Finally we had a beautiful day, and it was absolutely gorgeous! Blue sky, sunny, and 76 degrees!
As usual, we try to see lots of the characters. Main Street was full of them! And we found a variety of characters all around Disneyland. We still have a bunch of characters that we've never seen but we'll keep trying. We saw some fresh faces this time including Donald Duck and Mary Poppins. Libby was a lot more interactive with the characters, she's getting used to this. Gracie really wanted to see Prince Phillip because she had to tell him something. I have no idea what was on her mind, but we did see Prince Phillip one time and she wouldn't go near him. We didn't run into him. Oh well.
We also explored areas of Disneyland that we've never seen before and made a quick run through California Adventure. We sure have lots of new things to discover in that Disney Park! We rode the Casey Jr. train and the Storybook Land boat ride for the first time. They were a lot of fun and the girls enjoyed them quite a bit! We also did the favorites: Sleeping Beauty's Story in the castle and the Tiki Room.
The Small World was still closed for Holiday Decor Removal. Try explaining that to a three year old who cannot get enough of Small World! She would ride that one ride all day long if I let her.
One of the most exciting new things Gracie did this time was.... drum roll please... she went potty at Disneyland! She never does, she holds it all day long. No matter how much juice I give her, I don't know how she does it, but she is a strong willed child. She does not like public toilets, they are big and scary. I always take her to the Baby Center on Main Street where they have little miniature flush toilets for young children, but she won't even go on those. I really prepped her for our trip and told her repeatedly for a couple of days that Disneyland is a Magical Place, even the toilets are magic: Nobody falls in! Ever! They are magic like that! She totally bought it. She went potty on a big toilet with an automatic flusher (scary!) not once, but twice during the day! I always bring along an extra outfit for her in case she wets herself in all the Disney excitement with her full bladder, but she's never had an accident. We always stay all day long too.
I do keep a potty chair in the back of the van for emergencies, and every trip to Disneyland she's used the van potty as soon as we find our parking spot. Then of course, I have a long drive home with a very full potty! I prevent spillage by sticking a diaper in the potty and sacking the whole thing up in a large plastic bag, then I have a lovely cleanup job to do at home, but hey, it works for the ride. Not anymore, I took the potty chair out of the van and make it very clear that the potty was staying home. We would use the magic toilets at Disneyland. It was risky, but the potty gamble paid off!
The most exciting part of the day for me was meeting up with a fellow online mama! I finally met Lori! I "met" her on a pregnancy forum back when I was pregnant with Gracie, roundabout 4 years ago. I was fortunate enough to "meet" some very nice ladies on the forum and have stayed in touch via instant messaging, facebook, email and a parenting forum. Sounds like I spend my every waking hour socializing online doesn't it? You're right, I do! My poor neglected children suffer for my online social life. Anyway, we spent the day together roaming Disneyland and California Adventure with our daughters and it was very very fun! I must say, having a buddy is much easier than doing Disney by myself with the girls. Gracie had someone to play with in every line - not that the lines were long, but some of them required some patience. Now we can say we are real life friends. Awwww!
It was another wonderful day at Disneyland for us! Can't wait for our February trip!
