This past weekend was like a quadruple whammy. It started with my grand idea to go to the adult tap class at the dance studio that I have never been able to make, but since I can't do ballet at this point, I figured I'd finally give it a go. It was really fun but oh man, what an endeavor to do it pregnant. I love tap because of the mental workout between rhythms, lefts, rights, toes, heels, etc etc but my pregnancy brain has been baaaaaad this time around and oh my gosh I was struggling! Also, my feet are apparently pretty swollen because my tap shoes were so tight I got a gnarly blister. But hey, it was a fun hour.
On Saturday we had a pool party for our friends' daughter turning 3 and it was it was the first day of great weather this year so it was perfect! We had so much fun in the pool together and they had lots of great inflatables that Sophie loved. The only picture I got that day was her trying out the Jeep power wheels which sadly was not charged.
Probably better for everyone at that point because Sophie has become obsessed with cars lately and always wants to play in the car after we get home from somewhere so we have to sit in there and let her mess with all the setting and sticks. Now usually when I turn the car on, the wipers go and air is blasting and who knows what station the radio is on.
That night we got to capitalize on my Mother's Day present - the Blink-182 concert at BMO Stadium in LA! I was beside myself to get that gift. Somehow we have missed multiple opportunities to see them (despite me really wanting to) so it's been on my list. Plus this tour featured Tom DeLonge back in the band on the tour and the tickets were almost offensively expensive, so we didn't jump to get any when they were available (talk about having a kid now!)
It was SO MUCH FUN and they were SO GOOD! Plus our section was awesome and really into it and dancing around. Blink is just the perfect feel-good, let loose rock music, and they are still the quintessetial voice of youth with a finger to authority that in their age is still somehow so endearing. They definitely still play to their immature personas but it's just so harmless and fun and they're the best. Mark Hoppus also acknowledged his previous cancer battle (stage 4 lymphoma, my God) and how he thought he'd never be on stage again and the roar of the crowd and the support and joy that followed almost made me want to cry.
They are part of the soundtrack of my youth for sure, and I think I had an unnatural attachment to them because of Travis's connection to Riverside and that time they played at the opening of his Famous Stars and Straps store on Magnolia Avenue across the street from my middle school that got so out of hand they had to shut it down LOL. Hometown heroes! Now my next wish is to level up and go to their show when I'm not pregnant and can dance and drink on the floor level.
Sunday was Father's Day. Man I love Mother's Day but Father's Day is exhausting for me haha. Still, we arranged to have breakfast at the golf club nearby where AJ was going to do a round. I actually LOVE eating there. It's so reasonably priced and it is such a nice, calming atmosphere! We had such a nice morning having breakfast there and Sophie loved the short rides she got on the golf cart with AJ it was sweet.
My friend Shirley was nearby while her husband also golfed there at an earlier time and brought her youngest over and we went to a park and then back to our place for a little bit. She was so gracious to be so active with them both and go down the slides with them.
We had AJ's dad over that night for dinner and had a lovely evening, including Sophie got to bed kinda early and allowing the rest of us to eat tiramisu dessert in peace while we finished the US Open and watched Wyndham Clark win and AJ and I got to get an episode of Ted Lasso in before going to go to sleep too. I had the next day off (Juneteenth) but it was going to be far from relaxing...!
Since I had it off work and Sophie's daycare was closed, I decided to take her to Disneyland. She's still free, it would be nice to do with her before her baby sister comes, and I hate just sitting around the house with nothing to do. And naturally it ended up being way more worth it to spend more money and get a 3-day pass (rather than $179 for one day. Who TF do they think they are?!)
Boy oh boy it was... a day. I knew it was a tall order to take Sophie alone while 7 months pregnant, and I did try to mentally prepare myself for the crowds and lines on a summer holiday but I definitely still struggled. Sophie, for her part, did amazing. There was whining that started very early on - the traffic off the freeway just to park was rough, and Sophie was getting angry when we had a green light but no one was moving and would shout "go cars!" and "our turn! our turn!" and she definitely didn't enjoy some of those earliest ride waits, but the exposure therapy seemed great for her and she got so much better about it as the day went on as we discussed lines, patience, waiting our turn, blah blah blah, you know all that stuff that still annoys us even as adults ha.
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| Finally on our boat on Small World! |
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| Inside Small World |
I should take this opportunity to point out that the most excited I saw her all day MIGHT have been on the parking lot tram when she kept saying "this is so fun!" and I don't think I got that again until the carousel. She has this thing where she might freak easily and will immediately jump to "all done" or "go home" so she did that a few times on Small World but I was able to easily distract her with all the different changing scenery and animals and she seemed to love it in the end and didn't want to get off the boat.
I got her on the Disneyland Railroad in time for that crankypants to fall asleep. I was so thankful because you can basically ride that train indefinitely and I was able to just let her sleep, although it was extremely uncomfortable for me, but I still think she got about an hour long nap in, which was great.
Because I had hyped her up on this being where Mickey Mouse lived, she kept asking to go see him, so we finally headed to ToonTown, when it was probably hottest, and all she wanted to do was play on the playground and go down the colored slides. She really was having a great time and we were there for her so if that's what she wanted to do that was fine, but I did want her to see characters so I was able to lure her away to see Mickey and Minnie's houses. We didn't wait to see Mickey but we did wait to see Minnie, where she totally freaked out wouldn't take a picture, but we managed to get these, and I took her back to colored slides afterwards as promised.
She was fascinated watching the characters from afar, but Pluto did pass close by us on his way somewhere and she lost her shit crying LOL poor thing. But she loved watching Minnie and Pete and Clarabelle from a safe distance.
When I was able to get her away, she wanted to go on a boat so we got in line for Storybook and it was PERFECT timing because a parade was going on while we were in that line and we got to see, with a great view, tons of characters that she just loved watching (Mickey, Minnie, Donald, Pluto, Goofy, Moana, Maui, Anna and Elsa and more), and we were killing time for a ride too. Definitely going to plan on repeating that little trick in the future.
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| Loving being in the boat |
Rides were kinda calming down in Fantasyland as we headed into evening so we were able to get more in. She was adamant about the carousel and chose to sit on the bench (fine by me!)
She wanted to do it again immediately but even if I wanted to, I needed a break from the motion, so I convinced her to go on the Casey Jr train (the first thing we had tried to do that morning but it broke down on us just as we got to the front. Ugh) and I told her we'd go back to the carousel afterwards. We got her chosen location of the orange cage and she thoroughly enjoyed that, but she did not forget my promise to go back to the carousel so I was stuck doing that again.
This time she chose a horse, and she's done carousels before, even this one, and seemed to love it, although the one at the zoo that we go to doesn't go up and down, she knew that was the situation and watched them and talked about them, but I guess that's different when you actually experience it. As soon as she started going up she freaked out saying "mama you're falling down!" (LOL) and screamed and wanted off about the rest of the ride. The dad next to us tried hyping her up but she wasn't having it, and I couldn't really stop laughing and anyway, we survived, and got a great photoshoot of her (happily) on the horse while we waited for the ride to start.
It was about 7:30p this time, we had left the house around 9a and been in the park since about 11a and I was totally spent. She saw other kids with their Mickey Mouse bubble blowers and she never forgot me saying we would get one "later" so I acquiesced and we went to buy one before leaving. Her little patience while we chose one and paid for it and they set it up for her, and then her pure joy when she received it and got to start playing with it made me want to cry. I hate our capitalist materialistic society of junk that we just throw away and that ends up on trash island in the ocean and killing us all, but damnit why was it just so moving and rewarding to be able to give her that and why did it make me so happy LOL.
We stopped at the castle for a selfie and then I couldn't leave without getting Gibson Girl ice cream because, you know #pregnant .
Sophie was such a good listener when I explained to her that we had to turn the bubbles off inside the store but that we could turn them on again when we left. She politely reminded me when we were outside the store for the bubbles to be turned back on again and it made me realize how much she is understanding and how thankful I am for her good manners and listening, at least at this stage in life!
We ended on a high note taking that parking lot tram back to the car too LOL. It was a very long, very full, very tiring day, but it was fun to spend it just us, and I'm looking forward to using the next two days of our tickets but with help those times!
Back to work today and omg, everything hurts and still so much going on...
I swear come July 1st I am waving my pregnancy flag and sitting down.
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