I’m back…I think. I’m feeling a whole lot better about my friend for now. That’s all I’m going to say about that.

I’ve been quiet on my blog but I have been sporadically uploading photos to Flickr. The biggest news is that my sister had a baby, a little girl, that they’re naming Zinnia.

I’m very very happy for her.

Isabelle keeps saying, “I want a baby brother” or “I want a baby sister”. I want that with all my heart. The weekend before Zinnia was born, we went to the Academy of Sciences. We took Ebow, Zinnia’s older brother, with us. And walking through the crowded aquarium with Isabelle’s tiny hand in one hand and Ebow’s tiny hand in the other… Yeah, I want that with all my heart.

Ok moving onto something totally random. Isabelle turned another month older. I think she was saying “rawr!!” here in our monthly family photo.

And oh onto another randomness. I have wonderful internet friends. Thank you Bethany.

And more random, my friends tricked me into trying facebook. I needed to join to look at pictures. And now I’m enjoying myself too much by writing silly things on my wall like, “Kuky is picking her nose.” Somehow that one disappeared. So I had to write more like “Kuky is scratching her butt” and “Kuky is doing something illegal”. I then laugh maniacally and make comments to myself, basically talking to myself. You’d think I was five years old.

I’m flaking on an actual post because I have too many pictures to go through. So instead here’s a picture from Disney taken on the Buzz Lightyear ride.

Oh and the picture I’m using for our monthly family picture.

I had a Disneyland post all written up. Then Alan read it and said I didn’t say much about the trip. Obviously my one long Disneyland post didn’t cut it. But hey it’s hard trying to cram four days of Disneyland into one post.

The next time we go on vacation I really should make the effort to blog while we’re on vacation, no matter if I’m tired. I MEAN REALLY. Because now it’s 2 weeks later and I’m struggling to remember the things I want to remember. But I’ll give it a try. I don’t know how many days I’ll do but here’s our first day.

On our first day at Disneyland we woke up nice and early (for us). But somehow it just wasn’t early enough.

See, Olinda had decided to join us at the last minute. Like midnight the day we were leaving, last minute. So though me and Alan had tickets, Olinda didn’t. (Isabelle still being two, didn’t need a ticket) So that first morning we had to go to the bank, get breakfast, get Isabelle up and ready, and get Olinda’s ticket.

So that meant by the time we got into the park it must have already been open by at least half an hour. Not a big deal you say. But, you see, we wanted to arrive at least half an hour BEFORE the park opened. So we were actually an hour behind by our calculations.

Alan kept saying, “we’re running late!”

To which I said, “but we’re on vacation! We’re late for vacation?!?”

And his reply would be, “but I need to jam in the fun every minute we’re here.”

Yeah. So us. Late. And on top of that we were in Tomorrowland without a map. How did that happen? Well we stayed at Disney’s Paradise Pier hotel, my first time at a Disneyland hotel, and it was just a short walk over to the monorail. We rode the monorail into Disneyland, my first time on the monorail, and when you get off you’re inside. No front gates, no maps. Just bam! Disneyland. I didn’t know that. I thought we’d be let off at the front gate.

So there we were, first day at Disneyland, “late” and without a map. We were walking around aimlessly and grumpy, not a good start. But we picked up a map from one of the maintenance people and hopped on a ride and we were all in a much better mood after that.

So how did Isabelle do on the rides? Great! We were worried how she would react. We kept hearing stories from other people about how their kids were scared. But Isabelle did fine. She just sat there and took it all in. I took this picture on her first ride, Alice in Wonderland, as we came out into the light:

I love how her eyes look so wide and full of wonder.

She pretty much enjoyed all the rides though she did have her preferences. Not surprisingly she loved Dumbo. And thanks to a reader, Debbie, who told us about the Unofficial Guide to Disneyland, we got a great tip so that Isabelle could ride two times in a row without waiting in line again. She probably would have happily ridden Dumbo three or four times.

Speaking of lines. There were barely any. We went at a great time of year. I’ve never really given it any thought before but September is a wonderful time to visit Disneyland. It’s the off season. All the school kids are back in school so there aren’t huge crowds of people and plus the weather isn’t insanely hot.

The only thing I didn’t think about is that we went on a weekday. That meant there were no fireworks and Disneyland opened late and closed early. But that was fine. We didn’t miss the hours because we took our time seeing the whole park. With a four day ticket we didn’t feel like we had to rush to see everything.

In fact, in the middle of the day we went back to the hotel for a nap. That’s the way to visit Disneyland, taking your time, nice and slow.

Then you don’t even care if a ride breaks down and you’re stuck on it. Which is what happened on the Roger Rabbit ride. It was really cool though because we got to walk out through the ride along the tracks.

Oh and before I forget. Here’s a picture of us that I’ll be using as our latest monthly family picture. We didn’t take one once we got home. And I’m usually a few days late so a few days early is a nice change. Oh and how awesome that we have family pictures of us on vacation! If Olinda wasn’t with us I don’t know how we would have managed that.

Ok. I think that’s all I can think of for our first day. More tomorrow maybe. If not, here are the rest of the pictures from our trip.

Isabelle turned another month older. She’s now 35 months old, just a month shy of three years old. And Whoo hoo!! I remembered to take our family pictures on time for a change.

And I couldn’t decide which picture to share. The one where you can see her wearing her new shoes.

Or the one where she has a beautiful smile on her face and is actually looking at the camera (though I don’t know what the heck I was looking at).

So I put them both up.

I have a “stack” of photos I keep meaning to share. They’re getting older and older. And then when I do share them, I can’t think of anything to say because I’m rushing just to get them up. I don’t know why. It’s not as if they have an expiration date or something. Like they’re spoiled milk. Well anyhoo…our family picture, Isabelle turned two years and ten months old. I’m getting later and later with these.

I particularly like that gleeful look on Alan’s face. He was trying to get Isabelle to smile for the camera. Yes, I know she’s not looking at him. But he was saying, “CHEESE!!” The dreaded cheese that she learned from tv!!

And of course Woody had to be in the picture.

“Cheese Woody!” is what Isabelle said as she thrust him towards the camera. Damn cheese!

And now my brain is empty, I’m out of thoughts. I’m tired and sunburnt and can’t think of anything else relevant to say. More spoiled milk pictures tomorrow, really old ones. Oh my freaking gawd, how in the world did this summer fly by so quickly?

Family picture late again.

Or also called “oh yeah that’s why we don’t take pictures with the dogs”. Do you know how hard it is to get the three of us to look in the same direction, at the camera, at the same time? Now imagine throwing the dogs in there too. Yeah.

I think this was the best shot where you could actually see all of our faces. And none of us are looking at the camera.

You know, I haven’t been doing recaps on Isabelle. It’s because by the end of the month I can’t remember anything specific so I don’t have anything to write about. But this month, one, no, two things stick out spectacularly, annoyingly, horrifically…

She can now reach the lights and open doors by herself without the help of a chair. Just one day, she realized it. Alan’s losing sleep over this. With every click of the fan he imagines her barging into the bedroom while he’s asleep. And I’m constantly following behind her turning off lights.

This also makes bed time a challenge, to say the least. Why lie there contentedly waiting to fall asleep when you can climb off the bed, turn on the lights, and LEAVE the room?! But once she’s asleep she’s a champion sleeper (well usually, except for this morning when she woke up at 5:52am and stayed AWAKE).

Oh wait, three things stick out. Add throwing her food to the dogs on purpose. She now asks for food just so she can throw it to the dogs. Or sometimes just to throw into the air in every direction because she knows they will eat it. I just thought of that right now because, yep, that’s what she’s doing right this moment. Ok. Must stop typing to deal with my little monkey.

Have a great weekend everyone!

Isabelle turned another month older last week. We forgot to take a family picture. Again. So we took it late. AGAIN.

I just asked Alan, “when do you want to stop taking monthly family pictures”. But I don’t think we’ll ever stop. I like looking back and seeing the changes in Isabelle. In fact the pictures on Flickr aren’t complete. Maybe I’ll go back and add the rest from her first year on there…