My son is no longer in the Infant Program since he is 3 yrs old now. Now, he is attending a speech class at the Napa Preschool for kids (3 yrs and older) with special needs. He goes to this class once every week. His teacher Mrs. Meesha is doing a good job helping him with his speech. She has given us valuable information on how to help Nathan with his speech as well.
We left for Disneyland 2am in the morning so we can arrive in time for the park opening at 9am.
Since we stayed at Grand Californian and Disneyland Hotel before, we decided to stay at Disney Paradise Pier. The room was nice and clean and beds very comfortable.
The best part of our room was definitely the view of Disney CA Adventure
After settling in our room for a bit, we headed to the park. While walking through the hotel, we found $5 on the floor. Since there were no one else with us in the hallway, we kept it! 🙂
We found a way to spend the $5. Nelson and I played Bullseye Stallion Stampede in Disney CA Adventure. Before playing the game, we needed a game card. So we bought a $5 game card.
This is what Nathan won after playing the game
Nathan on Luigi’s Flying Tires
Daddy and son at Mater’s Junkyard Jamboree
Nathan with the Incredibles characters
Nathan with Minnie Mouse
Daddy and son on Tuck and Roll’s Drive ‘Em Buggies
Nathan in Mickey’s Toontown. Build some muscles!
I had my silhouette done on Main Street in Disneyland. It cost $9 and only took the artist less than minute to create.
I bought this Disney villain black frame for my silhouette
We saved a lot on this trip. For Disney Family Holiday Celebration, Disney employees got this book of savings which includes free drinks, free popcorn, and between 30% – 50% off of food.
Plus we got Disney gift cards worth $100 as our Christmas present from Nelson’s sister.
We used our booklet coupons plus Disney gift cards to have a very good dinner at Flo’s V8 Cafe, Blue Bayou and Cafe Orleans.
At Blue Bayou, Nelson got the filet mignon with lobster while I got the short ribs. So yummy!
At Care Orleans, I had the Café Orleans Salmon Sandwich (Pan-seared Atlantic Salmon with fresh Cucumber-Tomato Relish, Bacon, and our Café Rémoulade served on a Multigrain Roll
with seasoned Sweet Potato Fries).
This is the best part of being a mom… having a son that puts a smile on my face.
This year Christmas was at our house. Since I had to work on Dec 24 and work day after Christmas, I usually prefer just to stay home on Christmas day.
We didn’t put our 9 ft Christmas tree up this year in our living room. Instead I bought this 4 ft Christmas tree from Michaels. I placed the tree in our family room.
Our cat Smeagol loves sitting near the fireplace
Nathan opening his presents
More presents to open… by the way, the dolls you see next to him are not his… The dolls are for his cousin Selena who is facing the other way in the picture. 🙂
Playing Foosball…
My niece Jewel made this for me. It is peas in a pod, characters from Toy Story 3.
Instead of writing about our first Disney Cruise vacation and posting individual pictures onto my blog, here is a video that sums up our days at Disneyland and Disney Cruise to Mexico.
October 11
Today is Nathan’s 3rd birthday. Since his party is not until this Saturday, we decided to have him blow out the candles on his cake and open a few of his presents.
October 12
We took him to Toys R Us and had him choose his toys for his bday. He chose three Chuggington trains.
October 13
Our families came over to our house for some big fun…. in the jumper!
Cake time!
Gift time!
After that, more fun in the jumper!
Before heading to Anaheim for Disneyland, we decided to spend one day in the Los Angeles area. In the morning, we visited the Griffith Observatory.
Inside the dome where the telescope is located.
Can you see the Hollywood sign?
Hey, Nathan and I are on TV.
Nelson and Nathan
Other things to see inside the observatory
The observatory is a good spot to take pictures of LA’s skyline and Hollywood sign
In Disneyland
The newly remodeled Disney CA Adventure Park
We ate at the new Carthay Circle Restaurant inside Disney CA Adventure Park
Going for a trolley ride
Nathan’s new Mickey Mouse lighted ears
Why am I going backwards?
This is my kind of ride!
My new Chuggington train
Since it was a nice day, we drove to Marine Headlands to take some nice pictures of San Francisco.
Nathan looking at the view
Pictures with mommy and daddy
Nathan playing hide-and-seek
Took a panoramic view of SF
Panoramic view of ocean
Walking up to the other side of Marine Headlands
Nathan playing on the bench
Walking down the trail with mommy
Running down the trail with mommy
Point Bonita
Driving down to Point Bonita
Too bad the Point Bonita Lighthouse closed by the time we got there. But still a nice view from that location.
That house has a very nice view of SF. I wonder who lives there.
Long spooky tunnel
We took a drive to Emerald Bay. It’s Nathan’s first time at Lake Tahoe. The weather was very nice. Not too hot and not too cold. Just the right temperature to be outdoors.
Here is the view of Emerald Bay from the top.
There is a trail that takes you to Emerald Bay. On the trail, there were some mini waterfalls. Once in a while, Nathan would look at the waterfall but most of the time he prefers to pick up rocks from the ground and throw them everywhere.
Once we got to the bay, Nathan wanted to go swimming. We didn’t plan on swimming there though. But so he can still enjoy the water, we took his shoes and socks off so he can splash some water.
We took some pictures on the boat dock. Before going to Emerald Bay, I knew I wanted a picture of us looking at the bay with our backs facing the camera. So I had Nelson bring his tripod to mount his camera onto it and set his camera on auto to take our picture.
Nathan and his new friend… Mr. Twig…
Here are some updates on Nathan.
1. My son is potty trained now. I started to train him about a month ago. It wasn’t easy to train him from beginning but he eventually got it.
At first, I had him on Huggies pull ups. However, since the feeling of the pull ups is more like diapers, he ends up peeing/pooing in it. So I stopped having him wear the Huggies pull ups during the day. I bought him cotton underwear. Once he wore the cotton underwear, he knows not to pee/poop in it.
Training him during the day was fine except for nighttime. He wore the Huggies pull ups or his unused diapers that we still have for nighttime and even for his nap. At nighttime, he peed probably a few times in bed. Good thing I put a sheet protector under his bed sheet so he doesn’t end up wetting his entire bed including this mattress. But after a few nights more, I had him wear cotton underwear. Nowadays, he sleeps in bed without peeing.
For the first few nights he wore his cotton underwear, I woke up when I hear him waking up so I can immediately take him to the bathroom before he pees on his cotton underwear. Nowadays, he can actually hold his pee until I take him out of his crib. Also, we started to allow him to sleep in our bed again since he has been pretty good about not peeing on himself. I put a sheet protector under our bed sheet on our king size bed just in case. 🙂
Earlier during his potty training, we had him wear Huggies pull ups or diapers while we are out grocery shopping, going to SF or to the mall. Now, my son wears cotton underwear everyday and every time we go out.
He isn’t 3 yrs old yet and I am glad he is potty trained.
2. He knows how to count from 1 – 20. At times he forgets 14, 15, 16 and 17, but he is getting pretty good at remembering his numbers.
3. He has been seeing a new speech teacher named Lida. After his first speech teacher (Cathy Janis) retired, my son was temporarily seeing Michelle until the Infant Program hired another speech therapist who would replace Cathy. Michelle was good at what she does but I felt that she was too aggressive to him. At times when Nathan gets distracted, she demands that he sits his butt back down on his chair.
I am glad Lida isn’t as aggressive. If Nathan gets distracted, she always found ways to get his attention back without having to discipline him. What I also like about Lida is that she comes over to my house for my son’s speech therapy unlike with Cathy and Michelle. With Cathy and Michelle, I had to drive to the Infant program facility in Napa.
Nathan is still seeing Debbie, the teacher assistant (I think her title changed but I forgot what it was). Debbie isn’t a speech therapist. She is more of the observant type. She observes Nathan’s physical and motor skills and see his development that way. But she does communicate with Nathan through play like Lida and have him say certain words properly.
So far with Lida, she had Nathan do some mouth exercises like move his tongue from top to bottom, side to side and in a circle. Right now, Nathan rarely uses his tongue to pronounce certain words properly. So this tongue exercise will help him. For his next exercise, Lida helped him try to say the letter ‘s’. She brought out some toys that start with ‘s’ like swing, slide, stop sign, etc.
When Nathan turns 3 yrs old this October, he is eligible to attend the Napa preschool program specializing with language development and other special needs. Best part of this program is that it is free and he will be in same classroom with other kids who also has delayed language development. The preschool will be twice a week in Napa. I do hope to enroll him into this preschool.
4. Terrible 2s/3s! Need I say more??? My son is a screamer. If he doesn’t get his way, he will scream. Along with his screaming, he gets teary-eyed and his saliva trickles down his mouth. I noticed that he would throw a punch at Nelson. But not to me. He knows very well mommy will get mad if he punches me. 🙂
Terrible 2s/3s stage is pretty much more about them…. mine mine and mine… me me and me. Can’t wait when he grows out of this stage!
5. He is growing up so fast. Some of his pants size 18 – 24 months still fits around the waist but he looks like Steve Urkel from the bottom. When I took out some of his clothes that no longer fit him, I started to reminisce the time when he was smaller. Now he grew few more inches and weighs over 30 lbs now.
