Mickey meets Maria!

After postponing our Disneyland trip by a week due to Maria having a fever, we finally made it to the Happiest Place on Earth for Maria's first visit. We were joined by Cousin Bella for her first visit with her mommy and daddy and Abuela and Papa. It's been almost a month since our visit and Maria is still singing "It's a fall world" (It's a small world) and everytime she sees a train she talks about the "train at Disneyland where we see Dinosaurs!". Her other favorite activity was going in Sleeping Beauty's castle, which I thought would scare her but totally didn't.

I was absolutely exhausted from the trip. We got there at 8am and lasted till 10pm with Maria experiencing her first bloody nose in the middle of Adventureland thrown in the mix. Even though it was like the Matterhorn, Space, Splash, and Thunder Mountains didn't even exist on this trip, I would do it again in a heartbeat! It was so much fun to see Maria and Bella laughing and staring wide-eyed in amazement at all of the fun things a trip to Disneyland brings!

First ride of the day, the carousel, which was also Maria's first carousel ride (is it weird that she rode a real horse before riding a carousel horse?!).

Followed, by a ride on Dumbo, where we of course had to ride in the purple Dumbo! First pic is my attempt at a self-portrait mid-air :)

Then one of the girls' favorite rides - Casey Jr. They laughed so hard during that ride. It was hilarious to watch.

Here's a video of them on Casey Jr. I have a feeling that these girls are going to love Big Thunder and Space Mountain in a few years!

We then headed off to Toontown, which of course was a hit since Maria loves watching and reading about Mickey Mouse Clubhouse and got the clubhouse for Christmas (goes without saying that we spent a significant amount of time here). She had her first character encounter with Pluto and went up to him - and later to Donald, Goofy, and Mickey - and gave him a big hug - so unfortunately most of my pics are of her back!

Cousin Bella wasn't as excited to get up close and personal with our Disney Friends, but she did manage to pose with Donald for one of the pics!

After the 90 minute wait to see Mickey, we finally found him! (luckily for Maria we had no idea the wait was that long - otherwise she would have had to have settled for just meeting all of the other characters)

And since my parents waited with us for all that time I told them they HAD to take a pic with Mickey too!

Here's Maria being her silly little self, pulling her hat over her face just as I told her say "cheese"! ..and our last ride of the day :)

Final video - this one shot by Papa. Forward to the 2:44 mark. When Maria hears the beat of music, the girl will stop in her tracks and start to dance (that's my girl!). At Disneyland, that means she will break into dance at any moment's notice!

Candyland

Maria received a Candyland game for Christmas. Although it's for 3+ I thought we'd try it out yesterday. All went well (counting, colors, etc.) until we got about 3/4 of the way through (we were almost to the King!) and Maria decided that it would be more entertaining to have the Gingerbread people "talk" with each other and dance. oh well. :)

Christmas 2009

Merry Christmas Everyone!

With Baby Jesus at Church

Christmas Eve with Abuela, Papa, Aunties Elisa, Yaya, and Evie, Uncles Brad, Billy, and Don and Cousins Bella and Aidan

The best Cousin shot!

The best Cousin and Abuelos shot!

Uncle Don and Auntie Evie looking on at the chaos of opening gifts with 3 toddlers on Christmas Eve

Maria kinda shut down by the time we opened gifts on Christmas Eve, leaving us to unwrap her gifts. All she would do is repeatedly say "Open It! Open It! Open It!" after each gift was opened, until we opened it. Lovely. But Aidan and Bella really enjoyed tearing open their gifts!

By Christmas morning though, Maria was re-energized and ready to unwrap her gifts from Santa!

She is a big fan of Charlie Brown (swayed a bit by all of Daddy's decorations on the front lawn) and Santa knew it - leaving all of her gifts decorated in that theme. She kept repeating - "Charlie Brown Christmas!"A quick visit from Abuela and Papa on Christmas morning, with her cheesey smile

Playing with her new playhouse - or clubhouse as she calls it - that Santa left outside. Not thinking clearly, we showed her this gift on our way out to Nana's house. So of course, she didn't want to leave and it took uis a bit longer than expected to get on the road!

Finally we arrived at Nana's and Grandpa's house! Maria goes in to give Sammy the Snowman a hug :)

Posing with her new dolly stroller - just like the doll crib she got at her birthday, she decided to get right inside of it!

Santa left her an art easel. Maria was funny with this - she started a game of immediately erasing whatever Uncle Matt or Nana drew on it. That killed a lot of time!

Here are some additional random Christmas shots. The first are from a Breakfast with Santa at the local mall and the first time Maria rides on a little train by herself.

A walk through Christmas tree lane. Maria got her first yummy taste of hot chocolate, and of course loved it. She was quite cozy in her jacket, mittens, blankets, and wagon!

Love this look!

Nana's birthday and other December pictures

Here is Maria enjoying some time with Nana on Nana's birthday :)

A week before on Maria's birthday we took her picture with her pink elephant - here are a couple of pics followed by one of her when she was 1 month old. Feeding the sheep at the Christmas tree lot.

Riding her first trike that she got from Abuela and Papa for her birthday. She hasn't quite figured out how to pedal and steer at the same time - but at least she will finally wear the helmet!