Daddy Dan

After discussing it with my wife (and it was actually her idea, but I agree), we’re not going to have a big birthday bash for Babito’s 2nd Birthday.  Not only would it cost us a fortune, and not only would it create tons of stress in preparation, cleaning, shopping, etc, but Babito doesn’t even like it when we have a lot of people over at the house.

He tends to get a little stressed out, nervous, and clingy.  And after all, it’s his birthday and we want to do something for him that he would really enjoy.

On the day of his actual birthday we’ll be going to Disneyland (it’s becoming a family tradition) but our current plan is to take him to San Diego for the weekend and hit up Sea World, the San Diego Zoo, and maybe even Legoland. 

We’re going to invite the family and some close friends, and provide them with a detailed itinerary of where and what we plan to do.  Some may decide to spend the entire weekend with us, some may just come down for the day.  Sounds like a much more relaxed and stress-free way for all of us to celebrate Babito’s birthday, and I know he will have a great time.  And that’s what’s important.

Last Thursday when we went to Disneyland, we had an experience that reminded me how special Disneyland is compared to other amusement or theme parks.

We were in the Frontierland area and we ran into Woody and Jessie from Toy Story.  The Babito is still a little intimidated by Woody, as he’s so tall and his head his enormous, but he’s not afraid of Jessie at all.

When we saw them I decided to try and get pictures of them with Babito.  Here’s the only decent shot I got of him with Woody, as he wouldn’t go too close to him.

While we were with Woody, Jessie had gone into the log cabin.  We went in to look for her and she was sitting at a wooden dining room table coloring with some other kids.  There was an empty seat, so I put Babito down on it.  Jessie spent a good 20-30 minutes interacting with Babito, coloring and playing peek-a-boo with him.  He loved it.

I think it’s these little extra things Disneyland does that makes it such a special place.

Sorry I haven’t been around…..been both busy and kind of blogged out lately. I’ll be back soon.

Taken on 3/7/08

We took last Friday off and made a trip to Disneyland.  Here’s some pictures (click to see them larger):    

Well, we had big plans for this past weekend and the only plans we kept were the plans for today, staying in and relaxing. The Babito was sick with a fever all weekend. No other symptoms at all except that his first molars are starting to come in. WebMD says that teething does not cause a fever, but I’ve heard it from so many other people that there has to be some truth to it. Anyway, his fever was gone when he woke up this morning, Thank God. We were planning on taking him to see his pediatrician today if the fever persisted.

The rest of our weekend was shot. Our plans were to go to Disneyland on Friday, the Orange County Marketplace (a swap meet) on Saturday, and Victoria Gardens on Sunday. Instead we never left the house all weekend, and it was nice, except for the whole fever thing.

My wife and I got to watch several movies together while the Babito slept, including ‘Little Children,’ which I reviewed below. We also watched ‘Flags of our Fathers’ and ‘The Departed.’ They were both great. As you can see, we’re really behind on our movie-watching.

We’re just thankful the Babito is feeling better. I hope you all had a great holiday weekend!

I forgot to mention earlier that we made it through a huge milestone on Friday.  The Babito went out in public for the first time without his Mommy or Daddy.  My parents watched him for us on Friday and asked if it was ok if they took him to Disneyland.  Of course we said yes, but it still made us both nervous that he would be out in the world without us.

I dropped him off at my parents on Friday morning.  I had a list of things (from my wife) I was supposed to tell them.  I told them not to give him cotton candy (too much sugar), no popcorn (he might choke), don’t let him go on the rides by himself (that was my joke), etc.

My parents just laughed at me.  We may be overprotective, but hey we’re allowed to be with our firstborn son, right?

Anyway, I did call them a few times during the day to see how he (and they) were doing.  My dad said to tell my wife that “Babito loves cotton candy and popcorn.  That’s what he had for lunch.”

My parents dropped him off at our house around 9:00pm.  He was exhausted and went straight to bed.  He had a great time, and Mommy and Daddy survived the ordeal as well.