A Lovely Day at Disneyland

It's been one week since I took my little Frannie to her first trip to Disneyland. True, Adam was there too, but he's only a teeny tiny baby of course. So my enjoyment of this day was more through her eyes.


So how should I start this? Well first of all I should probably mention that I cried twice. Yes I did. Who knew that Disneyland could be such an emotional place? But it was. For me, seeing my daughter enjoy Disneyland for the first time was right up there with some of her most precious "first" baby moments.


Here is the scene of the first crying episode. We had just entered the park and all of the characters happened to be outside so we stood in line to have her meet Donald Duck. She didn't know what she was standing in line for so when she was in the front of the line and Donald knelt down to give her a hug she just had this look on her face of such joy and excitement. She was so happy and flushed like she'd just met a real celebrity. I instantly sprang tears and thank goodness I was wearing my sunglasses.








Then I was crying because Jason wasn't there to enjoy it.



Now here is the scene of the second crying episode (or would that make it the third?? Anyone keeping track?) Walk further down Main Street and here we are at the famous circle and statue of Walt Disney with Mickey Mouse. While Dad is positioning Francesca for a picture, I am reading the script below the statue. It is a quote from Walt Disney saying something like "All I want Disneyland to be is a place where parents and children can come and have fun together." And there was just something about the purity of that and me being there with my little girl on her first Disneyland trip and just looking around at the magnificence of the place and my own memories of being there as a child and, yes I did, I teared up again. It was so beautiful! You can't tell from the picture of course that I am teared up under those sunglasses.





People think I am only like this now that I have kids, but Jason will tell you I've always had a soft spot for sentimentality. Certain things just touch my heart and I can spring tears very easily. I come by it honestly (Mom and Dad you know what I'm talking about).



Here is Francesca meeting Mickey for the first time. For some reason this one didn't make me cry. But it is still cute!





Adam spent most of his first day at Disneyland, hangin' out in his carseat or my Baby Bjorn carrier. He had a fine day though!





This is Francesca's little friend Miriam.



My girlfriend Nataki had a friend in town from Trinidad who wanted to visit D-land and she asked us if we'd like to join her. So this is what prompted our visit. Francesca and Miriam have been little playmates since they were about 8 months old when Nataki and I met at a Moms Club meeting. We've been friends ever since. It is strange but Nataki and I always manage to dress our girls in coordinating outfits without even trying. It isn't as though we discuss this in advance! If Frannie is wearing green, so is Miriam. It has happened an uncanny number of times (not sure about the grammar there). Here is a picture of the girls at the park when they were younger.





Anyways, back to Disneyland. I asked Dad if he'd like to join us and I'm so glad he was able to! We had such a good time that we decided to buy passes for the year since Frannie will be free until she is three years old. Might as well, right?





This final picture is of the drive home. We had to pull off the freeway into a strip mall because Adam was crying his brains out in the backseat. I absolutely HATE driving with a screaming baby in the back. Especially in traffic coming home from Orange County. The whole thing is so horrible it almost makes me not want to drive anywhere that takes longer than 10 minutes. He crys and crys so much it's like we're beating him or something. UGH. I can't wait until he grows out of this stage. What you can't tell from this picture is how incredibly hot it was at that time of day (3pm) and how tired and sticky I felt and the seizemic headache sitting on my brain.





Maybe you can tell from this picture. Dad took this once we had gotten home.




Overall though, it was a good day!