Disney Characters: Friendly or Scary?

When we first got to Orlando, Tio Carlitos and Titi Briseida bought Kaylani an autograph book so that all the characters in the park could sign it for her. Being her first (interactive) trip to Disney, we thought it'd be great to wait in line for a picture and a signature. What we didn't know was how Kaylani would react.

In each line, Primitos Alisha and Rohan would go first and get an autograph, a picture, and give a high five or two to whoever it was we ran into. They got pictures and autographs from Pooh, Eeyore, Tigger, Donald, Goofy, Mickey, Minnie, Chip, Dale, Pluto, Daisy, Lilo, Stitch, and Buzz Lightyear (maybe a few more too). And for each one of those, they had a blast. But when they were done, it was Kaylani's turn.

Kaylani got all of the autographs, which really means that me or Tio Pritesh went to ask for an autograph which didn't feel weird at all. In fact, we both gave a few high fives, got a few hugs, and even snapped a few pictures. And for most of those, Kaylani was right there with us...kinda. Let's say she was in the general vicinity of them and us. A few of them, she was right next to us. And for those few, she screamed, cried, and dug her claws into my arm for fear that one of them might take her away from us. Little did she know that the characters could barely hold a pen, let alone a squirming, crying baby.

After a few of these episodes, we learned our lesson and let Kaylani admire them from afar. Sometimes, we'd distract her and snap a picture with the characters behind her. Other times we let her cry for the picture so she could see how much she enjoyed them when she grows up. And other times, we just let Tio Pritesh get a 3rd autograph for her while we walked around outside the greerting spots.

To be fair, Kaylani was not the only one to act like this. In fact, there were a ton of older kids who were just as afraid of the characters. So, are Disney characters friendly or scary? Right now, I think the answer is scary. We'll see what happens next visit...whenever that is.

In the blink of an eye

You can't avoid sleep. No matter how hard you try, its going to catch up to you. And when it comes to kids, it happens in the blink of an eye.

2 things I learned during our vacation in Florida: 1) Sleep training works, and 2) Kaylani will sleep anywhere if she's tired. I knew sleep training works from our experience at home, but we've never tried it out before. And I knew Kaylani would sleep anywhere, but had only considered anywhere as her stroller or her pack and play. Florida changed everything.

The first night we got here, Kaylani had been awake since 5:30am and took only a 15 minute nap before we got to the hotel. When we finally got her in her pack and play at 9:30pm, we knew it wasn't for the night. And instead of picking her up at midnight, changing her, nursing her, etc, we went for the training. After 5 minutes, I went in and laid her down 3 times (she always stands). 10 more minutes and I did it again. After 15 more minutes, she was down and out, and stayed that way until 7am. The next 4 nights she slept straight through no matter if we put her to bed at 9:30 or 11pm. Sleep training works (as long as everyone with you is okay with the crying for 30 minutes).

It also helps that Kaylani sleeps anywhere. She took at least 1 nap each day in her stroller, and usually another one on Mommy on a bus. But what we found out was that if Kaylani's tired, she'll sleep anywhere. Right now, she's asleep on Mommy on the bus to the airport. 2 days ago, she was asleep on me in the park. 3 days ago she was asleep on Mommy on the bus again. And the tell tale sign was her blinking. Even Primitos Alisha and Rohan gave the sign. They all sit there, straring straight ahead, and blink. They blink and bob their head as they fight a losing battle against sleep. Sometimes they get another burst of energy, but more often than not, they pass out.

Maybe things will all be different when we leave the Disney Magic behind us and get home. In fact, I know they will because Kaylani is going back to her 7 or 8pm bedtime for sure. But what I also know is that we'll be sleep training Kaylani on the first night wherever we go...Disney Magic or not

Disney Adventures

Yesterday, we wrapped up our 3 day Disney park adventure with a character breakfast at O'hana's in the Polynesian, and then a trip to Epcot. And both events were memorable, but probably not for the reasons you might think.

The character breakfast was a family style serving of eggs, biscuits, sausage, bacon, potato wedges, and of course, Mickey shaped waffles. Most of the tables were filled with people and cameras ready to snap pictures of Mickey, Pluto, Lilo, and Stitch, and of each other. Most of them were normal families enjoying Disney magic. Most of them...but not all of them. One family was ready for a lot more, and lucky for us, they were seated right next to us.

This one table was filled with about 16 teenage Columbian girls who clearly were at Disney for the very first time. They didn't just wait for the characters to come to their table, they went after them. And when they got them, they hung on to them. They lined up for multiple pictures and poses each. They screamed like the Beatles just arrived in Japan. They clung to them like they were magnetically drawn to each other. But thatl wasn't the weird part. That, I actually consider fairly normal for Disney. Taking pictures of CHARACTERS is normal.

Apparently, Kaylani was a character. 2 of the girls came over and asked if they could take a picture of our "pretty son" (who was dressed in all pink and a Minnie Mouse dress by the way). After saying yes (awkwardly), the rest of the table looked to see what the commotion was and proceeded to "aww" and "ahhh" over Kaylani. For a while, I thought they were going to line up for pictures, but then Mickey came out and they were gone.

Next came Epcot. We saw Nemo, Innoventions, Simba, and all of the countries in the World Showcase. Normally there's not much excitement in the countries, but Germany provided some. While Tio Pritesh and I were grabbing a beer, Mommy was getting asked a very odd question: "Is your baby adopted?"

Now there's absolutely nothing wrong with adoption, and in fact, Mommy would love to adopt a baby in the future, but that's not the point. The fact that Kaylani does look a lot like me also doesn't matter. The odd part is that it was a complete stranger. Overall, it's just a weird question to ask. Should I go up to someone and ask if that's the mailman's daughter? Or ask if someone's spouse is ugly? Or maybe even if a person was artificially insemenated? While none of them are technically inappropriate (maybe the mailman one), but you still shouldn't ask a stranger any of those.

Anyways, today we're taking it easy with a trip to the pool and to Downtown Disney for some shopping and food. Kaylani's about to wake up from her nap, so back to vacation I go. Let's hope there's not quite as much excitement today!

Who says things change?

Almost a year ago, we came to Disney. Back then, Kaylani was 8 weeks old and spent the entire time in a Bjorn, her stroler, or in Mommy's Maya Wrap. She didn't see anything and she likely didn't pay attention to anything. Well here we are, almost one year later, and its like deja vu all over again.

Right now, we're at Animal Kingdom. If you've never been, Animal Kingdom has all types of exotic animals, a Finding Nemo and Lion King show, and all your favorite characters dressed up in safari gear. It's chock full of fun for everyone. Everyone but Kaylani I guess.

Instead of taking part in all the excitement, Kaylani is sleeping in her stroller. In fact, she's so tired (even though she slept 11 hours last night and only woke up once for 25 minutes), she practuically fell asleep on the bus ride over. Don't get me wrong, imn actually really happy that Kaylani is sleeping. In fact, we had planned most of our day around Kaylani NOT sleeping, which means we have a ton of toys and snacks to keep her busy. But since she's sleeping, our day looks like we might have caught a bit of luck.

Luck is definitely something we need in Disney, and not something I thought we were going to get. Forecast for the next 2 days is mid-60s and 80% chance of rain. All my thoughts that the 80% would just be a passing Florida shower quickly ended when it started pouring the second we entered our card and had the Disney machine take our fingerprint like we were common (yet fancy) criminals.

But the rain doesn't matter since Kaylani's sleeping. The rain ponchos Abuelo bought all of us make the rain not matter also. The umbrella I have (because I'm too cool for a poncho) makes it matter even less too. And the fact that I'm writing this post under an awning while rocking Kaylani back and forth with my elbow or foot definitely doesn't matter. She's sleeping. And that's all that matters.

When she wakes up, we'll show her some real Disney magic. Disney magic in the form of characters, rides, and turkey legs hopefully covered under our Disney dining plan. That's when things will be different. Last year, Kaylani was about the same size as the turkey leg. This year, she'll help me eat it (even though she's still pretty much the same size as the turkey leg).

Who doesn't need a walker?

We've been holding Kaylani's hand as she learns new things (literally). But now, I think it's time to cut her loose. It's time to let her run free. It's time she learns to stand on her own two feet. And if anyone knows me, you know that I never plan on letting her run free without me nearby. But now, I have no other choice because we've got ourselves an independent walker!

Her first step or two on her own actually happened the day after Thanksgiving. Unlike me, Kaylani wasn't too full to walk for a few days after eating 2 Thanksgiving meals. So up at Yin Yin and Yea Yea's, she cruised to the end of the couch and took two wobbly steps over to me. That was big. In fact, it was huge! But looking back, it was nothing. Nothing compared to today that is!

We arrived at Orlando International and were waiting for the Disney Magical Express to wisk us away to our magical Disney adventure. And since everything Disney related requires a minimum 10 minute wait, we had some time on our hands. And since Kaylani just spent 3 (well behaved) hours on a plane, she wanted to do nothing but hold my finger and walk around. But this time, she let go. She let go and she walked over to Mommy. She walked over to Mommy who was 5 steps away!

So for the next 10 minutes, Kaylani walked back and forth between us all by herself. She made it a full 10 steps to me before she fell down as I kept backing up. To prove she wasn't a one hit wonder, she did it again and again later on at the resort. She still can't make it much past 10 steps, and she still needs a little bit of a ramp up period sometimes, and she still falls on her butt and gets confused, but she's definitely a walker now.

It's great to have Kaylani walking. Sure we might regret it when she's running circles around us, but for now, its another amazing milestone that Kaylani has reached. Now, the only question is whether or not Kaylani learning how to walk right before we spend 5 days in Disney is a good thing, or a really, really bad thing. I'm guessing both...

Sleeping Like a Baby

Math quiz! If I went to sleep 3 hours after my 1 year old does, and woke up 2 hours before she did, how many hours could I sleep? I'm sure the answer would vary greatly for most people with a 1 year old (or any infant/baby/toddler for that matter). For me, the answer is 7. I could get 7 hours of sleep if I went to sleep 3 hours after her, and woke up 2 hours before her. That's how many hours I could get (at least). The real answer is 5. I get 5 hours of sleep each night. So the real question isn't how many hours could I get, but why don't I?

Most people I know would kill for 7 hours of sleep a night (especially parents). They would sign a contract right now signing over their first born for 7 hours of sleep, especially if it was their first born that was making that task impossible. But for me, 7 hours of sleep is apparently too much. In fact, if you did the real math, you would have figured out that I could actually get 12 hours of sleep if I went to bed at the same time as Kaylani, and woke up at the same time as her too (that would of course mean I went to bed at 7pm and woke up at 7am, but that's besides the point). So what's wrong with me? Why am I throwing away anywhere from 2-7 hours of sleep each night? And the other question some parents have asked me is, where do I get this wonderful drug that I give Kaylani each night?

The answer to the second question is easy...Target. Just kidding, I don't give her any drugs (except Infants' Tylenol...but only when she's teething, sick, or tired). The answer to the first question is harder...because I really have no idea. I've been given the gift of sleep and I've chosen to return it for what amounts to unusable store credit. For all her life, Kaylani has been a great sleeper. Whether it was only waking up every 3-4 hours when she was born, to sleeping 11-12 hours straight through now, she's been better than I could have ever imagined. The problem is that for all my life, I've never been a good sleeper.

I'm what you could call a morning and a night person. I'll wake up at 5 or 6am, and could still be going strong at 2am or 3am (sure helped me get through college...and by get through, I mean stay up and play video games while watching TV). I could be up and at the gym (back when I used to go to the gym) at 5am and then close down a bar at 2am. Or more appropriately now, I could be up at 5am checking email and surfing the web, and still up at 11pm checking email and finishing up some work. Something I figured out about 10 years ago was that I just don't need sleep.

For years, I thought that the phrase "sleeping like a baby" was a bunch of BS. Sure they look like Angels when they're quiet and laying there, but it only lasts for a few minutes or hours at a time. And if that were true, then you could say that I used to sleep like a baby. But now that I have Kaylani, the phrase makes a lot more sense to me. I only wish I could really sleep like a baby too.

Stick a fork in it...it's done

What to eat? No problem. We'll feed her anything we're eating. When to eat? Got it. Normal times, with snacks and milk in between. Where to eat? Any highchair will do (any highchair out of the house will do even better). How to eat? Well that depends on the what, when, and where...or her mood.

How to eat is our biggest food related challenge these days. It used to be much simpler. We used to be able to grab a spoon or fork and feed her ourselves. We used to be able to get her to open her mouth and eat when we put the spoon or fork near her mouth. We used to be able to get her to eat a whole meal using just that spoon or fork. We used to not have to say "used to" so much.

A few weeks ago, Kaylani figured out how to feed herself using a spoon or fork. We'd put food on for her, hand it to her, and watch as she ate it all by herself. Then, she'd hand it back to us for more. Sure that was much more work than just feeding her ourselves, but she was eating, she was happy, and she was cooperative. Now, she has taken things to a whole new level. Now, she doesn't want to just feed herself. She doesn't want us to feed her. She doesn't want our help at all. She just turned 1, and now she's completely independent.

Apparently, Kaylani is a pro at feeding herself. She can stab food with her fork, or scoop it up with her spoon, and put it in her mouth all by herself. Wait, I think I forgot to put "thinks she can" in that sentence. I mean, in all fairness, she can do it....every now and then. And if we wanted meal times to last 5 hours instead of 45 minutes, we're sure she could stab or scoop an entire bowl of pasta/fruit/chicken and eat it all by herself. But since we'd prefer to not have her spend entire days stuck in her highchair (well, most of the time), we try to help her eat. The problem is independent Kaylani doesn't want help.

Instead of handing us back her utensil after a few failed attempts at gathering food, she'll clutch it even tighter and move away from us. She'll turn, squirm, put her hand and utensil at her side under the tray, all in an effort to keep it away from us if we try to help her. Then when we back off, she'll go back to pushing her food around the bowl or tray with the fork or spoon.

Don't get me wrong, I love the fact that Kaylani is learning to use her fork and spoon, and I can't wait until she actually masters her hand-eye coordination enough to feed herself. As soon as she's ready, I'm going to give her a knife and let her cut her own food. Heck, might even let her cook for herself too. Might as well since she's a pro at taking pots and pans out of the cabinet already! By the way, in case anyone from child services is reading, I'm just kidding. I wouldn't give her a knife until she turned 2.

When all is said and done, the main thing is that she's eating. After awhile, and if we ask nice enough, she'll let us feed her again, or at least let us guide her hand to help her stab her food. The scary thing is that this is her being independent at age 1. God help me when she's 2, 12, or 22. Now if you'll excuse me, I have to go double my blood pressure medication.

Monkey Business

One of the best parts of my morning is going to get Kaylani out of her crib. Most parents would probably say its the worst part since that usually happens around 5 or 6 am, but since Kaylani's a great sleeper, its usually around 7:15. Waking up and getting her actually isn't the best part. Seeing what she does is.

Some mornings, Kaylani will start talking around 6am, but that doesn't mean she's done sleeping. Most days, she'll fall back asleep for another hour before we know she's done. And how do we know she's done? We know when we look over at her monitor and see her standing there, staring at the door. That's when she's done (or when she screams at us while she's standing there).

But here comes the best part. After going downstairs to get her milk (she's been drinking whole milk for about a month now), I come back up and knock lightly on her door before going in (not because I want to respect her privacy, but so she doesn't freak out and fall over). After she says "papa" (or "mama" on certain days), I turn off her humidifier, turn on a light, and open her blinds. All this time she stands there and watches and listens to me do this. Then comes the best part.

When I walk towards her, she gets down, crawls over to her bedtime monkey, picks it up, stands up, and hands it to me. No idea why, but apparently she thinks its her get out of crib card. Its the best thing ever, and it happens every morning. In fact, it even happens after some of her naps in the pack and play, but instead of bedtime monkey, she hands over naptime doll.

On the days when we don't get her quick enough, we usually find monkey on the floor. Those are the bad days. So to sum up, Kaylani is highly correlated to monkey business, and that's something that is likely to hold for quite awhile I'm afraid.

Happy Birthday Kaylani!!

One year. In my life, one year is nothing. It's only 3% of my entire life, but for Kaylani, today it officially marks 100% of her life. She's one. I have a one year old. Just one year ago, I was writing about how I had a 1 hour old. And here I am now writing about how I have a one year old. Crazy.

What a trip it's been, and I mean that in the best way possible. We've had some hard times when Kaylani wasn't sleeping, or when she was sick, or when we were sick, but for the better part of this year, it's been absolutely great. Kaylani's grown up happy, healthy, and quickly, and so have Mommy and Daddy. Most people talk about how they survived the first year. We didn't just survive...we survived and had a blast doing it. And to celebrate Kaylani's first year, we had ourselves quite the weekend.

If you've been reading along, you already know that we've celebrated every one of Kaylani's monthly birthdays since the day she was born. So it really shouldn't surprise you that for her official one year birthday, we'd have not one, but two celebrations! Yesterday was the first, and I'd say it was pretty good. We invited over all of Kaylani's friends and were glad that most of them could make it. We even invited over our family, and they all did their best to make it too. Yin Yin, Yea Yea, Bat Bat, Auntie Shannon, Connor, and Zoe were here, and so were Titi Glendalys, Abuela, Alisha, and Rohan! Add to that 7 more of Kaylani's friends, their parents, and Padrino Tim and Meredith, and you have yourselves one rocking one year old party!

Not only did Kaylani get a ton of great presents, but she also got her own cake! We bought a 1/2 sheet cake for all the guests, and knew it was going to be way too much. Our actual thought was that Kaylani would dig her hands into the entire cake, and whatever was left, we would serve. Little did we know that Kayalni would (unwillingly) put her hand in the cake, then freak out. Who knew my little girl would be a neat freak?

To top off her birthday weekend, we went to the farm on an unseasonal 70 degree day (in November??) for some pizza, animals, and tractors, then came home to have dinner and more cake. This time, Kaylani got her very own cupcake which she made a bigger mess with. Maybe she was just shy with 20+ people staring at her messy hand because tonight, she had no problems ripping apart a cupcake and eating it too.

Anyways, now Kaylani is sound asleep, and hopefully will stay sound asleep even though she's had a ton of cake and cupcake in the last 24 hours. There was so much more than went on this weekend (like her teacher from Music Together coming to put on a show, and a pinata, and everything else), but I don't need to write about that. Instead, you can check out the 130 pictures I just posted. Only 100 of them are from her birthday. The other 30 are from the couple of days before her birthday, so check them out. And if you want to see a video of Kaylani and her cupcake tonight, check out YouTube (or just scroll down!)

Let's hope that Kaylani's 2nd year is just as good as her first. And if the first was any indication, then I think we're all gonna be just fine. Happy Birthday Kaylani!!! We love you!

Trick and Treat!

So today's the first day of November. It's also the day after Halloween. And it's also exactly one week before Kaylani's 1st birthday. Oh, and it's also the day after we had to set our clocks back an hour for daylight savings. That's a pretty busy day if you ask me, and we haven't even gotten into the details yet.

In the spirit of Halloween, I'm going to do a little version of trick or treat, but instead of the OR, I'm going to do trick AND treat. You see, the trick is that it looks like I'm going to write a real post for a change...but I'm not. The treat is that I've posted over 125 new pictures in 2 albums (updated the PR Week 50, and added weeks 51 and 52). It's definitely a treat because there are a ton of great pictures from Mommy and Kaylani's trip to Puerto Rico, our family trip to the farm, and also Halloween! If you haven't figured it out yet, Kaylani was Nemo (and yes, we know Nemo is a boy but who could pass up on a giant fluffy fish costume). We thought it'd be perfect for a cold October day, so who knew it'd be 70+ degrees and Kaylani would be sweating every time we put her in!

Anyways, check out her latest albums and enjoy the pictures. As an added treat, here's a video of Kaylani crawling in her Nemo costume. Priceless! Man, I love Halloween...for babies. Stay tuned for more posts to come (trust me, I've got a lot of stuff to write about...like shoes in the car, standing, kitchen safety, birthday preparations, and milk)! All that and more, coming soon to a blog right here.