Disneyland was lots of fun too - despite a 15 minute meltdown, complete with thrashing on the floor (by Julia, of course). Some passers-by were sympathetic, others smug. I overheard one mom explain to her husband, "They just get over tired sometimes." (Inside, I thanked her for her understanding) We collected ourselves at the Princess Stage, where we heard a story (probably cryptic for Julia and more cringe-inducing for me than I expected) told by Princess Aurora a/k/a Sleeping Beauty. We felt like the most horrible parents for taking her on the Snow White ride (forgot that it's called Snow White's Scary Adventures), but redeemed ourselves with Dumbo and the Teacups.
Unfortunately, we committed another major parenting no-no when we took Julia to the Chinese New Year Parade in L.A.'s Chinatown and decided to watch the fireworks up close. We realized it might be too loud, but we kinda forgot about the smoke and soot filled air. Julia was sitting on my shoulders while Wayne filmed the segment below. We don't know if Julia was screaming because we couldn't hear a thing - I thought about running away, but thought that might be more traumatic. So all we could do was huddle while Wayne covered her ears. Luckily, she's okay. We all later agreed that the firecrackers needed shush-ing and that they scared the dragons away.
We're lucky that the weather is so great in CA and that there's so many fun things to do there when our main purpose is just to visit family. I also feel lucky that Julia seems to really appreciate my parents, stepmom, brother and grandparents even though we don't see them often.
