Are We Bad Parents?

When my high school friend heard I took Jordan, who just turned four months yesterday, to Disneyland, he told me not to spoil him which quite honestly, baffled me because ummm... yeah.... no. In fact, the poor child was so captivated by Disneyland's lights, sounds, smells, structures, rides, and people everywhere that he was unable to concentrate while eating all day (he wanted to see everything around him!) and refused to sleep all day (he did take a few short naps).

All day long, I didn't know if I should laugh or cry because he looked so cute as he fought to stay awake, slowly blinking and focusing on everything in front of him. He was absolutely captivated by the different art pieces on the wall and huge mirror behind our seat at Club 33 (for a detailed look inside the VIP private hidden secret of Disneyland, read my friend Paige's blog post), stupefied by the whirling lights, shooting lasers and blinking targets on Buzz Lightyear, mesmerized by Daddy and Mommy both pulling their slingshots for the Toy Story ride/game and enthralled with Ariel, Flounder, Scuttle, Sebastian and even Ursula in the Little Mermaid ride. As good parents, we might have thought it was time to leave after dinner, but we, along with our friends, the Camerons (who had a 5 month old baby Alex) and the Rasmussens, decided early in the AM that our departure would follow the 9 PM showing of the World of Colors, which was well worth it (yes, even at the expense of our very tired babies).

Though Jordan probably can't see color yet (the pupils develop the ability to discern color around 6 months), the thumping of the music all around us (carousel of color!!! the wonderful world of colorrrrrrrr... yeah, song's still in my head two days later) was enough that even in the dark as I tried to feed him on the floor, he was not having it and wanted in on the excitement. So he rode on his Daddy's shoulders (Andy supported him since he is not strong enough to sit up on his own yet), clinging onto Andy's ear and hair, and his eyes seemed to grow larger with each splash of water and flashing image and color. But the moment Andy got tired and I took over, his eyes blinked slowly and Andy told me to turn him away from the show and in that millisecond, he was out. Poor thing had been so tired. Unfortunately, his parents who had seen the show a year ago when he was still cooking inside my womb, knew how amazingly awesome it was and convinced everyone to stay for it!

The very next day, Jordan turned 4 months old!


His current statistics (as of last week) are:

Head: 75% 23 cm (I think....)

Weight: 75% 15 lbs and 13 oz

Height: 90% 26 inches

It's amazing to me that just four months ago, my baby was just a pooping, peeing, burping, spitting, sleeping machine with occasional glimpses of a smile. These days, his poops are less frequent, he only pees on me once every 3-4 days, he has fake cries and real cries, is trying so hard to roll over (he rolled from tummy to back fives times in a row one morning and I guess decided he was over it... has only happened once since then) from his stomach to back and back to front and gets frustrated when he gets stuck on his side, and will coo and try to talk, smiles so much when he's in a good mood, and is just so intent on observing everything around him.

I love him to pieces and I can't believe when we last went to Disneyland with our Voluntears passes around Halloween last year, he was still swimming around inside of my stomach - and making me sick btw, all we did was watch shows and I felt like fainting many times - ugh, at least the experience did not make me dread dole whips. We got our fix of dole whips and raved about it while the Camerons did the same with corn dogs and Jeff with his popcorn. I guess we all have separate preferences but one thing we had in common - we had a blast at Disneyland!

p.s. This is what you get when you ask a stranger to take your photograph - the castle is cut off! Booo!!!

p.p.s. At the end of the night, the babies were OUT and some daddies.