Holiday Haze and School Daze

I can't believe how much has happened since my last post. We had Halloween events ranging from my work's annual "Monster Mash" community event and trick-or-treating in our new neighborhood for the first time. We had talked about being an Inside Out family for a while (given the new movie that came out, that Kiddo 1 watched most of in theaters and the fact that the first movie is one of the only movies both kids will actually sit through since they usually prefer YouTube). During the Monster Mash event it was easier to just wear adorable (and warm) onesies, so Kiddo 1 was a dinosaur and Kiddo 2 was Sulley from Monsters, Inc. (I even dressed up with him as Boo for a work dress-up day!). But on actual Halloween night I was worried we wouldn't even make it. I had to stop by my parents house after pickup, which delayed getting home, the sun was setting, the kids were cranky, and Hubby was ready to just cancel the whole thing. But I knew I had to make this happen. I threw a tie on over Kiddo 2's jacket (for "Anger") and a sweater-vest over Kiddo 1's jacket (for "Fear") the second we got home. I was already dressed in my "Joy" dress and Hubby got wear a big comfy hoodie as "Embarrassment." Then we all donned masks and got the wagon filled with balls ("memories") and our family costume was absolutely clear! We were definitely emotions from the movie! Our neighbor was kind enough to take a group photo before the light completely disappeared, and then it was off to trick-or-treating. The boys did fantastic, having a blast going from house to house, and it turns out our new neighbors really go all out for Halloween! In addition to a ton of decor, we saw a pirate house filled with smoke and treasure, a house with games and music blasting, not to mention a house with hot cocoa and apple cider! When the kids got tired we wheeled them home in the wagon and warmed up with more cocoa (and some candy) inside the house, and Hubby gave out the last of our candy from our garage and showed off his transforming transformers to the neighborhood kids. It was the perfect family Halloween and definitely made up for last year when the boys were recovering from stomach flu!

We did more fun photoshoots with the kids in the fall like paint and play park pictures and even a visit to see Santa! (While we don't teach the myth of Santa my kids still love him as a character). The photos were adorable and we planned it in November in order to print them way ahead of time on Christmas cards (last year we were so busy with the move to a new house that we just let it drop and went digital). Thanksgiving was fun because my little brother and his wife bought a house this year and hosted the meal for the first time, then we headed over to my inlaws to see not only more grandparents but also cousins that live out of state!

Fast-forward to a busy December that started off with Hubby and I celebrating our seventh anniversary together with a fancy Mexican food dinner and babysitting by his aunt. The Christmas season was fun with putting up our tree, looking at lights in the neighborhood by wagon, a gingerbread house decorating at the preschool Kiddo 2 would be attending the next month, Kiddo 1's first ever winter concert in Kindergarten, exploring the local chocolate factory light garden, and finally our family celebrations with Christmas Eve at my in-law's house and Christmas Day morning--though Christmas Eve started with a necessary medical procedure for Hubby, everything turned out great, which was the best gift of all. Then it was barbecue and Filipino food for dinner and tons of presents. Christmas Day the kids woke up to an indoor bouncy house as their big gift from Mommy, and then it was off to my parents' house for more fun toy surprises. My favorite was probably a cash register shop setup with shopping carts and personalized names. My mom also went all out on the food and treats. I couldn't have imagined anything better, and I was able to clean up most of the festivities and gifts by taking the day off after Christmas. Of course then came Kiddo 2's birthday--which was an absolute blast at Chuck E. Cheese, primarily because I reserved the "before hours" time slot that allowed our guests to be the only ones there. Definitely fewer crowds and less screaming. Kiddo 2 received some awesome dinosaur and space gifts (two of his big interests at the time) and got to dance with Chuck E. himself! But the coolest part of the night was probably when everyone combined their tickets and--even though we were a little short--the manager let him have the big prize he wanted: a Transformers-themed mini air hockey table! I then took him out for one-on-one time on his actual birthday with a trip to the mall for train rides, Starbucks bagels, a Red Robin birthday meal, and a "pay your age" Build-a-Bear. Clearly we're going to make sure he feels special even if his birthday falls right after Christmas. And seeing the sheer joy on his face is so worth it.

Speaking of joy, January brought it's own fun events. Not with holidays. New Year's is never a big celebration for us, but we did visit my in-laws (with a New York new year's three hours early) and then Hubby and I kissed at midnight in bed with the kids asleep. No, what we enjoyed was a few days later with our first ever trip to Disneyland! I had planned out a three-day vacation (Disneyland park, California Adventure, and a character dining breakfast before driving back). The first day at Disneyland was absolutely perfect. We arrived right when it opened, got a cool family photo by the castle, and then captured pictures on the classic Dumbo ride, carousel, and even Autopia that I remembered from my youth. We ate breakfast at the Beauty and the Beast restaurant. We took pictures with Minnie Mouse. We got to see the new Star Wars land and meet Mirabel from Encanto! The boys even got transformed into a prince and knight at the cutest little castle boutique with the kindest staff. Kiddo 2 was living his best life! Kiddo 1 enjoyed each part of the day, but his favorite part of the day was the bunk beds in the hotel. So we retired to the hotel in the evening and had dinner on the floor with towels spread out picnic style to eat food from Tomorrowland we had ordered in advance on the app to go since by the end of the day an autistic 5-year-old and newly 3-year-old were pretty much done. It was the best. And then night hit. My 3-year-old had not slept well the night before since sleeping long in the car ride up had kind of messed up his nap schedule. I fully expected to get a much better night's sleep after he'd had a full and busy day (complete with normal nap in the middle). And he did sleep. But big brother did not. I touched his body and it was like fire. Then he woke up crying with stomach pains and wanting to vomit but being unable to. He was miserable and didn't sleep and the temperature of his body meant he had a high fever for sure. So I did what any mom would do--I bought him Tylenol in the gift shop and we drove home to visit the doctor. Good thing too, since it turned out he had influenza A--not something you want to spread around Disneyland. So much for a 3-day vacation. But I felt better knowing that we had had the chance to do all the big things I'd wanted to do for my kids. They had fun. We made memories. The real downer was that we wouldn't get to see the superheroes Hubby had been looking forward to at Avengers Campus in California Adventure park. Oh and the fact that Disney only gives you two weeks to use your second ticket because we had bought "two-day, one park per day" tickets instead of "two one-day tickets" that would have given us at least half a year to return for the second park. I resigned myself to the fact that our vacation was over and there was no way we could squeeze in another trip in two weeks. Especially since we were planning to fly to Texas at the end of January for my grandfather's 95th birthday party. And yet, to my surprise, Hubby decided he wanted to try. He hyped me up, I made reservations at the same hotel. I prepped all the bags. And then the night before we were planning to drive up to California again Kiddo 2 woke up in the middle of the night vomiting. Oh yeah--he caught influenza A too, just six days after Kiddo 1. When I called to cancel the hotel, I was told by an awesome staff member that since we had stayed at the hotel before he would give us a credit to be used within a year. But if we cancelled a second time we would not be able to get any refund. That made sense. Would we try again?

Well, it didn't help that I started vomiting a couple of days later. Or that Hubby's whole family was still ill as well (likely where everything originated from since out-of-town cousins had arrived to his parents' house for Christmas while recovering from the flu). But somehow, someway we decided to try one last time. Drive up Saturday. Spend Saturday afternoon at the park. Drive back Sunday. And then decompress on Monday since that was the Martin Luther King, Jr. holiday. Lo and behold...it worked! We made it to California Adventure! No one got sick! We actually got to take pictures with Spider-Man, Iron Man, and Captain America. We ate at the Ant-Man cafe and watched a couple of superhero mini shows and the boys even learned how to be warriors ala Black Panther. Then after regrouping at the hotel, night fell and we ate Asian noodles in San Fransokyo (from the movie Big Hero Six, but it also coincided with Lunar New Year). We rode a Cars-themed spinning ride akin to the Disneyland teacups, twice. Our boys bought Spider-Man light-up bubble wands and a Spider-Man plushie and danced with them all in the Disney California streets. It was the perfect end to a perfect vacation. It just had to be split up into two parts.

(By the way, I highly recommend both using the app for just about everything at the Disney parks, and bringing gift cards in advance for all Disney meal and souvenir purchases. It made the process so much less stressful to be able to quickly purchase online any food or souvenirs my young children requested without worrying too much about the exorbitant prices. If we hadn't had so many gift cards we probably would have stuffed my diaper bag full of frozen dino nuggies microwaved in advance and splurged only on churros).

Once the vacation fun was over it was time to get serious--like time for Kiddo 2 to get ready for school! Yes, I now have two children in school as Kiddo 2 was able to start preschool mid-year when a spot opened up in the program his older brother used to go to. We were thrilled that he would not only get the same experiences, but get to be with the same teachers we knew and loved and missed. Just as I thought, due to Kiddo 2's personality, preschool went off without a hitch. Unlike his older brother, Kiddo 2 is definitely more social and outgoing. Sure enough, he was cool with waving bye to mommy and then diving into the activities planned (instead of 15 or so goodbyes with Kiddo 1 before I could feel comfortable leaving him since I didn't want to leave him distressed). Kiddo 2 chats about his experiences, who changes his clothes when he poops, and has memorized all the names of his classmates. It's adorable to see him walk into the classroom and call out their names with a "Hi Tucker! Good morning Stella! Hey Leo! Look, it's Bronson! (and the introvert in me is just in awe).

Then came the end of January. Because my grandfather was born on Groundhog's Day, his party was scheduled for the Saturday before, which meant flying out to Texas on the last day of January, spending a day with family and a night of celebrations, and then flying out the next day so that Kiddo 1 wouldn't have to miss too much school. It was a wonderful celebration, complete with mariachis! Kiddo 2 spend the night dancing his heart out to the music.

That brings us to Valentine's Day--which is realizing that you can't just do little paper cards anymore like we did when we adults were kids in school. No, now every parent is packaging candy and toys for every classmate, and I didn't want anyone to feel left out! So Kiddo 1's classmates got little packs of cookies for their party and sour patch kids in a little gumball machine card (that definitely took a long time to assemble) and Kiddo 2's classmates got little sticky hand toys and squishy animals. I also got Crumbl cookies for my mom since her birthday falls right before Valentine's Day, my kids for Valentine's Day morning, Kiddo 1's front office staff because they work so hard and are often under appreciated, Kiddo 2's teachers because they've always been so wonderful and we work with them closely, and then for Hubby's birthday, which falls right after Valentines Day. Kiddo 2 had a school Valentine party that his big brother got to attend since he didn't have school that Friday, which felt really full circle given the fact that Kiddo 2 got to attend big brother's Valentine party last year right before big brother graduated preschool.

Which brings us to now--March. I'll have a whole separate post for my second baby's adventures in preschool!

So many holiday photos to come!