From Lollipops to Lipgloss: May 2009

Here is the second installment of pictures from Disneyland- FINALLY.

Sorry it took so long for me to follow up with these- my mom came to see us for Memorial Day weekend, which was so nice, so we've been busy with her.

It was so hard for me to decide which pictures to post and which ones to leave out, as they all tell a story, even when they aren't the greatest photographs, so I apologize there are still so many. Believe me, as many as there are, I really did cut a lot out! I also didn't do any creative collages to make it fun to look at them, so you'll surely be sick of Disneyland pictures by the end of this post, if you even make it through to the end!

These were taken at the actual Disneyland Park when we visited it last Saturday.

I thought I should add that we really weren't sure how well Kelly would handle a big trip to Disneyland. Because of her attachment issues, we feared it might be too overstimulating for her. Most attachment therapists recommend no more than two hours of highly stimulating atmospheres such as these; obviously, two days is much more than that! So we were taking a chance of having some real challenging behaviors in deciding to do two days at Disneyland, but we felt Kelly's made so much progress that she would probably do alright and even really enjoy it.

Well, Minnie girl that she is, she exceeded our expectations and did so well with everything! Not only did she just go with the flow, but her behavior was phenomenal. She never threw a fit- she never even got cranky when she was tired. She just seemed happy to do whatever everyone else was doing. As long as she was with us, she was fine. The only concern was that she got scared at times- more on that as the pictures below will tell the story.

Since we've been home from Disneyland, Kelly has had more bad days than good days, so the trip wasn't completely without consequence. I think I am finally realizing that whenever our routine changes, her pattern is to go with the flow at the time, but then a few days later, the challenging behaviors surface.

On top of everything with going to Disneyland, the evening we got home, her daddy had to go out of town for training for two weeks. I think that has actually been the hardest thing for her to deal with, poor little thing. He came home for the weekend and she seemed really mad at him- like she felt abandoned and was mad at him for leaving her. She adores her daddy so she does not like it when he leaves, and she doesn't know not to take it personally. Thankfully- he comes home for good this Friday. The next time he has training, the big kids will be on summer break, so we will be able to go with him!

Okay, enough of my rambling... finally, the pictures!

Right when we entered the park, we saw Mickey Mouse come out,

so we bee-lined over to meet him.

Kelly wasn't looking so thrilled at the thought of meeting the oversized mouse, so I was reassuring her that he was nice... pointing out that the other children liked him, "See, they're giving him hugs and high fives."

Can you tell she's not buying it?

She points at Mickey and then whines and whimpers...

So our turn comes to meet him, and we begin to walk up to greet him, but she screams and cries before he even gets a chance to shake her hand. There is no cajoling her. She's completely flipping out, so I quickly step away...

So much for getting a picture with Mickey.

The big girls left us, so they weren't there when we got this picture in front of the famous Disneyland castle.

We rode the Jungle Cruise ride... very relaxing and entertaining. Kelly liked the elephants. Can you believe this guy isn't real?

Kelly can't.

This guy was a little scary, but we just laughed at him!

Next, we rode Pirates of the Caribbean. Here are a few of the newer scenes with the characters from the movies.

We could not believe how dead-on Captain Jack Sparrow was! He looked and even moved just like Johnny Depp did in the movie.

The girls had rejoined us to ride Pirates, so we got a picture of them with Kelly after the ride. This "finger in the mouth" thing was getting pretty funny. Kelly did it every time she wasn't sure about something... the girls couldn't get her to take it out of her mouth for the picture, so they figured they'd join her!

The big people decided to ride some big rides, so I thought I'd take Kelly on the "Winnie the Pooh" ride. I mean, "Winnie the Pooh" is so sweet, surely she wouldn't be scared of it, right?

Wrong! It was scary! At least to Kelly. It kind of had an "Alice in Wonderland" feeling, where it was just weird... the end of the ride was happy, but by then, Kelly didn't care... she just wanted off.

Here she is after the ride. Can you tell she's still feeling a bit scared? She doesn't have her finger in her mouth, but it looks like she's thinking about it.

As much as Kelly loves music and dancing, when I heard the live music as we walked by this band playing, I knew it would help Kelly forget all about that scary old Pooh ride.

She's dancing. Yay! That's a sure sign she's feeling better.

These little fences were everywhere. They provide great climbing fun for two year-olds who get tired of waiting in line.

I had to include a few pictures of some flowers, because half of Disneyland's beauty is in all of her flowers!

These festive arrangements were on every light pole along Main Street USA.

Look who conked out!

We took in all the pretty window scenes along Main Street while Kelly napped.

We stopped in at City Hall and got Kelly this button that marked her very first visit to the happiest place on earth.

Still sleeping, so we did some shopping in the cool (as in air-conditioned) stores.

After Kelly woke up, we met back up with the big girls and went to ride some rides together. Here they are in front of King Arthur's Carousel in Fantasyland.

Kelly liked "It's a Small World" but wasn't sure how those dolls moved and sang.

"Can I have one of those talking dollies, daddy? Pleeease???"

Next, we headed to Toon Town.

We stopped in at Minnie's house since we saw her out front, taking pictures. We asked Kelly if she wanted to go and meet Minnie...

"No, no, no." says Kelly.

"Please don't make me meet her, daddy. She's scary!"

So we went next door to check out Mickey's house, since he wasn't home at the time.

But look who wanted Camryn to go back to Minnie's house?

Oh, we were cracking up... she pushed Camyrn all the way back over there!

She definitely wanted to keep her distance, but she was very curious about Minnie and wanted stay at her house and watch her as long as we would let her.

Next, we rode the teacups. Here we are, doing what you do when you go to Disneyland on a Saturday: standing in line!

Pretty girls smile for the camera.

I just love to look at the teacup ride... it's all so colorful and pretty.

I wish I could hang lanterns like these with vines growing along them all over my backyard.

Kelly really liked the tea cup ride!

Oh no! The girls are about to get eaten by a giant whale!

It came time to save seats for the parade. We were thankful for the opportunity to sit and relax for a while. These pretty balloons were being sold before the parade started.

The "Celebrate With Us" parade begins!

Kelly loves it!

Silly girl!

Oh, I love this cute, scrunchy nose grin!

Goofy came dancing along!

It happened so fast that I didn't get a chance to widen my focus, but you can see in this shot that Goofy decided to come up and say hello to Kelly...