California Traveling (part 1)

Lots more travel these last two weeks!  I went to San Diego for work and realized it was the first time I've been to this meeting without Nate.  First in New Orleans and then in Chicago.  But he didn't totally break his streak- Aaron and Bug flew out to Long Beach after my meeting was over.

We met up in Long Beach (almost the smallest airport I've ever been to, second only to the Nantucket airport) and drove to Anaheim for a very brief Davis Family Vacation to Disneyland.  This was majorly exciting for me.  I've been anxiously awaiting the time we could take Nate to Disney since before he was born.  After consulting with a couple of friends, we determined that he is a little too young to justify spending the money for a big Disney trip.  But an already planned trip to Southern California provided the perfect opportunity to do Disney on a smaller scale.

And the trip was a big hit with all of our family!  Aaron's never been shy about his dislike of Disney or his lack of desire to visit Disney parks.  But after seeing pictures from our friends' recent trip to Orlando, Aaron was looking forward to seeing Nate's excitement.  And the little guy didn't let us down.  He seemed to love every minute of it.

The first thing we did was book one night in the Disneyland Hotel.  This is one of the three on-site offical Disney hotels and we were so glad we spent a little extra dough to be on property.  The hotel was nice, the pool was "awesome" (as declared by Nate) and we were able to have a character dinner in our hotel.


 A really cool feature that Nate loved was the headboard in our room.  It was carved to show Cinderella's castle with a fireworks display and it lit up and played "When You Wish Upon a Star."  There were many requests for "Mas!" showings of the fireworks.

Dinner with the characters was another great experience.  Disney really does everything so well.  Nate was very interested in the characters.  But when they came close, he suddenly wasn't to brave.  Well, he was interested in most of the characters.  At one point, a Princess came over to say hello.  Nate = not at all impressed.  First of all, Aaron and I had no idea who she was.  I think I mistakenly called her Cinderella and she quickly corrected me with "Princess Aurora."  (Sleeping Beauty?)  Regardless of her name, Nate was not interested.  He kept telling her "Donald on break."  Because indeed, Donald Duck was on break.  I don't think Princess Aurora cared for Nate's interest in a duck over her because she was a little snappy with us.  Adios Princess, make room for Pluto.  I thought maybe it was the human characters he wasn't interested in but he really liked Aladdin's visit later.  I guess he's just not into Princesses.


Thursday morning we woke up early and walked to the park.  A huge benefit of Disneyland over World - everything is a 5-7 minute walk from everything else.  No shuttles or parking lots.  It made the whole experience so much easier.

The park was another great experience.  It's not nearly as big as Magic Kingdom, which worked in our favor since we only had one day and an unpredictable, still adjusting to time zone, toddler on our hands.  Fortunately we needn't have worried.  Nate was a peach.  He didn't seem to mind the time change at all and napped in his stroller for a couple of hours, allowing us to take turns on some of the grown-up rides.  He liked most everything but his favorites seemed to be Small World, Dumbo and Autopia.

The day ended with a lollipop and a visit with Goofy.  A wonderful day filled with so many good memories.

Mama's Day

A beautiful Sunday, gorgeous sunshine, perfect weather and brunch.  Who could ask for a more perfect Mother's Day?

Funny Kid

The other night Nate had pancakes for dinner.  I was in the kitchen rinsing dishes when I heard, "Mama, all done!"  I went into the dining room and this is what was on his plate.


One bite out of each pancake.  Then he laughed his little head off and proceeded to eat the rest of his brinner.

Baths

As previously mentioned and documented, Nate did not enjoy sharing a bath with Meredith.  But the problem may have been Meredith's attention to Nate's needs.  Because if you offer to give him a sponge bath, he's happy to oblige.

Nate and his cousin Greyson (known to Nate as GiGi):

Nate-isms

When Nate wanted me to pick him up, I'd hear, "Uppie, uppie."  Until the other day when I noticed he stopped "uppie" and now he just says "up."  I'm so happy his vocabulary and language skills are developing but it makes me sad every time one of his little Nate-words become a more grown up version.  He no longer "gumps", now he "jumps."

I realized I need to be better about filming or at least jotting down these adorable Nate-isms.  My favorite right now is the way he says one of his favorite foods, yo-yolk (aka yogurt.)

Perhaps the Molars Win

Either Nate reads this blog and decided to make a liar out of me.  Or Sarah and Kristen were on to something when they suggested the tantrums might be molar related.  Because guess who has been a perfect angel the past two days?  Smiley Nate's back!

He won't let me in his mouth to see if there are two-year-molars peeking out.  But Aaron noticed some crib rail munching the other day.  And based on sudden appearance and disappearance of tantrums, I'm inclined to blame last week on those nasty teeth.

Terrible Twos

Nate is so advanced!  He's a genius!  He's only 21 months and already entering the "terrible twos." *  Lucky, lucky us.

We thought the bad mood was from the HFM.  But Nate got better while his mood did not.  He'll go from smiling and happy to complete and total meltdown in a split second.  And, much to my delight, he seems to save some of his loudest protests for the middle of our dog walks.  Pretty sure my neighbors will be calling CPS any day now.

Most often the tantrums go something like this:

Nate: Cheese
Maura: hands Nate cheese
Nate: No cheese!  No cheese!  (tears and screaming commence)
Maura: Do you want something else?
Nate: No!  Cheese.  Cheese.
Maura: Cheese or no cheese?
Nate: No cheese!
Maura: Okay buddy, you don't have to have cheese.
Nate: screams for another few minutes, then picks up the cheese and happily eats it.

Of course, then he breaks out in his trademark Nate smile and I thank God for my precious son and for making him so adorable and sweet.

This weekend I spent a couple of days in Philly where my cousin Kelly told me she hated to break it to me, but 3 was worse than 2.  So apparently I have that to look forward to.

While we were in Phladelphia and New Jersey this weekend, Aaron was busy driving across the country.  He  left Friday night for Albuquerque to help his friend Khyber move back to Philly.  They left Albuquerque on Saturday morning, passed through Texas and made it all the way to Tulsa.  After a night in what looked like a rather shady sleeping establishment, they got up Sunday and drove to Indiana.  This morning they're about 11 hours from Philadelphia and on their way.  We're hoping to have Aaron back tomorrow!


*Clarification because my mom, my sister Meghan and my friend Kate all took issue with me referring to Nate as "terrible."  I am not calling my child terrible or bad (I know Mom, I know. Your voice will always be in my head.)  The "terrible twos" refers to the stage of two-years-old that is, indeed, terrible.  Not the child who is wonderful.  Most of the time.