2 Birthday Parties - Pump it Up and Disneyland!!! (Week 161/23)

Whoohoo! What a fun weekend we had!  It's weekends like these that remind me how wonderful it is to have kids.  Sure, it's exhausting at times, and I have like no social life anymore, but when Tyler shows off his fancy dance moves or Katelyn does something brand new - I remember how lucky we are to have them.  

Not so lucky was Will being out of town last week.  BOY am I glad he's back.  Thank goodness I did get some help from the in-laws.  My parents were unavailable since they were off traveling in China.  It's VERY helpful to have an extra set of hands/eyes to watch one kid while I bathe / put down to bed the other one.  Here are the kids with the grandparents.  How silly/cringe-worthy is Tyler's smirk? Haha!

Hardest part of being on my own?  Nighttime.  Tyler has been afraid of the dark or something else at night lately.  He says that he's "scared of being alone".  How sad is that to hear from your kid?  He drags out bedtime by asking for more and more stories - to a point where I get really frustrated and have to threaten punishment if he asks for another one.  How horrible am I? Hah!  We usually read 3 stories a night, and he'll start asking for another one... before I even finish the last one!  Ack!  I usually give in...but then he'll ask for another one and I'll lose my mind.  I've gotten smarter though, now he only gets 1 story because I know he'll trick/whine/convince me into a couple more.  But the last two nights he was fine with just one!  Very surprising.  He's gotten better now about bedtime though - less night awakenings (thank goodness)!  Another thing we changed this week and have kept in our routine - a shower for Tyler as soon as he gets home.  SO much faster and less procrastinating from him, and no more sand all over the house.  Yay!

Here's another one of the kids with the grandparents.  Tyler got to have YogurtLand on both Tuesday and Thursday when they came in the afternoon.  Plus they got to meet my nanny Cheyenne.  Will's mom's first words when she met her? - You're very pretty!  Haha!  My nanny has been great too - we've been reading Sleep Training books together and we've finally got Katelyn back to 1.5-2.5 hour naps.  Love it!

Friday Will worked from home (nanny was off) and I went out and got us lunch from the Kogi truck.  I've been wanting to try Korean BBQ burritos/tacos but didn't want to wait in line with Katelyn.  I was very excited!  It was ... quite greasy.  And, BOTH Will and I had unpleasant stomach issues that night.  Hmph.  It'll be quite a while until we have that again!

Saturday morning we headed out bright and early to Chino.  Yes, you read right, I said Chino.  Where is Chino anyways?!  It was Avery's 2nd birthday at Pump It Up in Chino.  We definitely couldn't miss that!  The Pump It Up there is cooler than ours - their two "arenas" have different inflatables (Irvine's have identical rooms) and the party got to move from one room to the other.  Tyler's favorite was the Ball-Shooting-Inflatable.  Very cool - air cannons!  4 cannons, 2 on each side, and you gather balls for ammunition, put them in and shoot the other side.  Tyler LOVED it - I think he enjoyed gathering the balls more than the actual shooting though, haha!

Getting ammunition...

Here's a video of Tyler and Will shooting the guns.  They were in there for a long time!


We also got to see our friends Shirley/Jesse and their 1 year old Sharon.  Here's Katelyn smiling at Sharon. :)

Here's Tyler taking a water break.  He needs some additional practice using the water fountain!

One of my favorite pictures (thanks Ruby!).  Really captures Tyler's personality - he just loves to have fun and is ALWAYS on the go.

Here's me and Shirley.  Katelyn was REALLY great - she would look around at everyone and let various people hold her (no separation anxiety... yet!).  The older Chinese moms were coo'ing about how cute she was, and how fair her skin was and had nice ears (yes, her ears!).  Plus it helped that she would smile at them.

Here's me and Ruby...and Katelyn still sleeping. 

Here's the picture we attempted to take of our two families. Mayhem.  For starters Avery was over taking photos and not looking at the camera, and Ruby is holding a random kid.  Haha!  But isn't Katelyn cute in her little pink dress? heehee...

I thought I would be brave and drive us home.  Bad idea!  We hit traffic and I was SO tired.  So tired that I didn't even realize that we were WAY empty on gas.  Like way past where the light would have gone on.  Usually I would freak out if I saw the light go on - but I didn't even notice.  I crashed as soon as got home (after putting Tyler down for his nap and nursing K of course.)  I think I slept the rest of that day!  Hah!

Sunday morning we woke up bright and early and headed out to Downtown Disney for Tyler's friend Evan's 5th birthday party.  We were planning on going to Disneyland afterward with a group, so there was a lot of planning involved.  I was very excited - we haven't been to Disneyland since last September (my birthday) and Tyler wasn't too keen on the rides (he was scared on most of them).  I was also nervous - it was going to be a long day out for Katelyn!  The party at the Lego store started at 9am, so we had to make sure we weren't late since we had to park the car in the regular Disneyland parking lot and then walk over to Dowtown Disney (you can take a tram but it was faster for us to just walk).  Tyler was completely uninterested in Legos.  Hmph.  He only showed interest when he spotted a Pixar "Cars" Lego Duplo set! haha!

Here the kids are looking at a giant Lego giraffe and asked to guess how many legos it took to build it.  Answer: 250,000.  Oooh.  They also had a "guess how many Legos are in this container and you get to keep it" contest.  Will guessed for Tyler (150) and we were part of a 3 way tie!  I thought we were all going to win but we had to give a second guess.  One kid guessed 165, another said "80-100" which the Lego lady assumed she meant 180 and I guessed 185 (Will was out with Tyler getting coffee).  Answer?  183.  !! You would think I would have won right?  nope.  Apparently you can't go over.  Darnit!  If I had known then I would have guessed 181.  Sheesh - thanks for making the rules clear.  But then again, do I really want to be battling over a cup of Legos with a 5 year old? ... Let it go Kathy...

After the party (all the kids got to keep a Lego kit that they made - ours is still unopened in the box!) we headed out to the fountain and had pastries and drinks.  Yum.  Katelyn was knocked out again - she sleeps SO great in my ring sling!

Tyler and Arden were having their own fun playing around the fountain.  They are so cute together!

The kids started stepping on dropped gummies - they thought it was hilarious.  Nice flexibility there Tyler!  (Ooh, and that girl in the red - she's the one that won the Legos... grrr... )

Then it was off to Disneyland.  So excited!  We headed into the park via the Monorail from Downtown Disney.

Group picture on the monorail.  We're so un-sweaty and un-tired here!  The other families all have Annual Passes, but I just couldn't justify getting it for us.  It's just so difficult/tiring to do Disneyland with a baby - I'm sure that we'll definitely get passes by next year when Katelyn is walking though.  We don't even need the premium expensive one - who wants to go in the Summer when its super hot and crowded anyway?!

I think it was about 11am when we headed into the park.  Our first stop was the Buzz Lightyear Ride.  The line looked quite long (20 minutes?) so I headed over to the Disney Baby Care center nearby (right at the end of Main Street).  Darnit I wish I had taken a photo of the place - it was lovely!  Air conditioned, a sectioned off area to nurse with large comfy chairs, an area to heat up baby food, and a big bathroom area with really large padded changing tables and little kid toilets.  Loved it!  I got back to the ride just in time to squeeze in and get on the ride with the rest of the group.  Here's Tyler waiting in line.  He was a little scared at first but then was fine (last year he got scared and hid the whole time on the ride).

I was in the car behind Will and Tyler.  Here they are:

And here's the photo from Disney of Will and Tyler.  Tyler actually hit some targets! :)

Will snapped this photo right before the ride started.  I was wondering why I had bothered rushing back - it was really loud and I was worried that Katelyn would be scared - she was fine!  But I probably won't take her on it again - kind of pointless...

Disneyland is so clever - you get out of the ride and exit through a store!  Tyler showed interest in a Buzz Lightyear toy - his first time interested in anything Toy Story related!  Good thing he didn't see the wall behind us that was covered in Cars merchandise!  Here's Tyler telling us he wanted the Buzz toy (we were able to distract him and not buy the toy..)

Next up?  Fairytale land boat ride.  Jenn and I took the boys.  The line was kind of long but it went fast, but Tyler and Kaden seemed to keep each other entertained in line playing with their hats.  Yes, their hats were very fun to them for some reason.

Here we are on the boat! Last year the ride was closed so it was Tyler's first time.  He liked seeing all the miniature houses.

Next up - Autopia. Will and Stacy took the boys while Jenn and I sat in the shade.  There's too many fumes anyway on that ride.  Tyler loved it - of course!

Here's a video of Tyler driving - he is a crazy, reckless driver!


Ha!  Tyler was very excited to see these Lightning McQueen Cars toys.  What they are I have no idea - you press the lever and there's a light on the back of the car that spins.  Good thing we distracted him again and didn't have to buy anything.  Whew!

Next we did lunch at the Pizza place in Tomorrowland - nice break - quite crowded though, and then Tyler was adamant that he wanted to go see Nemo.  OMG that line was LONG!  Kylee (Kaden's little sister) had fallen asleep by then so Jenn and I stayed off the ride. Katelyn decided to have a blowout poop diaper so I headed back to the baby center to get her cleaned off and in some clean clothes.  Love that place!  Meanwhile, Evan (the birthday boy), Arden and their family met up with the boys and rode the submarine together.  Here they are looking all engrossed out the windows.

Tyler didn't get scared this time either.  Yay!  Here's a video of part of the ride:


Jen and I just hung out at the food terrace across from the Nemo ride.  How cute is Katelyn here with Jen?!

Once the ride got out and I got back from the Baby center, we watched the Star Wars Jedi show at the same eating area.  It was really cute - they pick audience members to go up and be little Jedis and practice light saber moves - and then they get to fight either Darth Vader or Darth Maul alone!  I tried to get Tyler to raise his hand to get called but he had no interest whereas the other kids knew what was going on and were jumping up and down raising their hands.  After the kids were up and got their cloaks and light sabers, Tyler was like "I want that!".  Next time you'll listen then huh Tyler?!  It was a fun and a cute show, and I think Tyler will definitely remember next time to be jumping up and down with his hand raised!  Here's Darth Vader.

Ok by now we were getting a bit tired and we headed over to Toon Town to see Mickey.  You have to see Mickey when you go to Disneyland!

Here are the boys checking out Mickey's washing machine.  I remember Tyler was scared walking in Mickey's house last year for whatever reason.  What a difference a year makes!

Here's me and Katelyn with cleaning supplies.  How fitting - I love to clean!

Mickey's movie barn.  The line to see Mickey was surprisingly not long and we got in pretty quick.

We actually had to ask the photographer to RETAKE our photos because they came out blurry!  Good thing Will checked them before we left the room.

These next few are from the Disneyland website - taken by the Disney photographer.  $14.99 for a 5x7.  Sheesh!

A group shot!  Our group shot on Will's camera came out so blurry it was ridiculous.  Lame.

Then we played around in Toon Town.  Hey, wait a minute, I don't think the boys are supposed to be behind the net... so mischievous!

Tyler caught a glimpse of Goofy and ran to say to Hi.  Goofy didn't notice and Tyler was upset but I assured him that Goofy had heard and saw him...

Family picture in front of castle - oops had no idea that Tyler's shirt was pulled up!

By 4pm Tyler was tired of walking and wanted in on the stroller.  He said he wanted to sleep but I'd catch him peeking through the blanket.  He just didn't want to walk I guess!

After Toontown we were done.  Tyler too.

We walked back to the car and headed home.  It was barely 5pm?!  Craziness!  Last year we were there before they opened and stayed for the fireworks!  I guess it just goes to show how much more tiring it is to have a baby along for the ride.  Since we have a 4 day pass, I'm hoping to take Tyler on a weekday after Summer ends - sans baby. 

What's been up with Katelyn.  She's been napping/sleeping much better.  MUCH better.  I think she had like a 10 hour stretch the other night, and she'll consistently do about 8?  LOVE it.  Strangely though, I'm still tired even with the sleep she's getting.  I'm just always feeling tired these days.  Bad!  Katelyn seems to be saying "ba-ba" a lot - it's so cute and it makes Will very happy. :)

Here are some random photos of Katelyn this week.

She loves her lovey!  We need to come up with a name for the little lamb.  Right now we're referring to it as "Katelyn's Roary", which is what Tyler calls it. 

How cute is she!!  Ack!

She's in 9 month clothes now.  We've totally skipped 6 months clothing it seems.

Here's Katelyn playing with her ball.


Hi baby!

This was her looking at herself on my iPhone.

And checking herself out on her toy mirror.

And lastly, sadly, a picture of Tyler.  He got hit in the face today at school with a shovel.  HOW SAD huh!  The boy that did is quite the troublemaker - he acts all innocent but is quite aggressive due to his small size.  You can't see that clearly in the picture, but Tyler has some black bruising under his eye!  Poor thing...

Have a good week!