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02/02/2004 Archived Entry: "Birthday pt. 2"

Tabitha’s Birthday pt. 2

While it was still dark Friday morning, I heard a little voice say “What happened to my balloons?” my MIL answered her and went back to sleep, but I just knew my kid was most likely up for the day. I checked my phone and it was only 5:48am! I waited about 10 minutes to see if Tabitha would go back to sleep, but I could hear her tossing and turning and it was obvious she was awake. So I got up and sure enough, the minute I got out of bed, Tabitha popped up and came to me. I took her into the bathroom with me and kept her quiet for the next hour while I got the two of us ready. Although it was much earlier than my MIL or Chris would have liked, they were both up at 7:00am. While they got ready, Tabitha and I went out in search of pressed pennies at the hotels. One of the machines was in a gift shop so we looked around for a while and Tabitha found a Mickey necklace with her birthstone so I picked that up for her. Once back at our hotel, we explored the downstairs area so I could show Tabi some of the Disney displays I remembered from previous visits. After an hour of being out, we went back up to our room. Chris and I gave Tabitha her card and birthday gifts from us. We got her 3 Kelly play sets, a “Before They Were A Princess” Sleeping Beauty doll, and a birthday My Little Pony (in addition to the 2 gifts she received the night before). We opened one of the toys for her so she’d have something to play with while we packed up the car. At 9:00am my phone rang and I gave the phone to Tabitha. It was Barbie calling with a special birthday song for her J Once we were packed and checked out, we went to breakfast at Goofy’s Kitchen which is in our hotel. This was really the only downside to the whole trip and I’d rather not dwell on it. But we were seated near young twins that were less than thrilled with the characters and that seemed to keep most of them away. Tabitha did get an autograph from everyone who was there, but nothing more. It was quite the contrast to our character breakfasts from the last two years.

After breakfast we went into Disneyland. Chris stopped at City Hall and picked up a special signed photo of Mickey for Tabitha. We then spent the day finding characters for Tabitha to visit plus she had some pins she wanted to trade. We went on a few rides as well. Tabitha saw Pocahontas whom she has only seen once before but she met someone new: Meeko! We’re always happy to meet new characters J We visited with Tabitha’s friend Alice at one point and she made a date with Tabi to meet her at 3:00pm in front of the teacups. While we waited, we went to the Sword in the Stone ceremony and Merlin chose Tabitha to pull the sword out of the stone and declared her temporary ruler of Disneyland! Of course, this is the moment my camera batteries decided to die (I had forgotten my charger) so I had my MIL take extra pics. After her time as ruler ended, Chris took Tabs to wait at teacups, my MIL staked out a picture spot and I raced off to get some AA batteries. Once Alice came, she pretty much just took Tabitha by the hand and off they went! They went through the line for the teacups and Tabitha rode it with Alice and Tweedle Dum. Tabitha kept up a steady stream of chatter the whole ride.

We decided to leave Disneyland about an hour later and wanted to take the Monorail. For whatever reason, my child decided she was scared to ride it @@ Goodness knows why considering it’s one of her favorite rides, but I refuse to force children on anything so she and I decided to walk to the car while Chris and MIL took the Monorail. I didn’t stay miffed for long because we found Jane from Tarzan near the Main Gate! This is a character that Tabitha has never met! And she was all alone too, so that made the visit extra-special.

We finally made it to the car and sat in some heinous traffic for the drive home. We met my FIL and Chris’s uncle at a Chinese food restaurant for dinner. Afterwards we went to the in-laws’ and Tabitha opened her gifts from them. Mainly clothes for her and clothes for her Bitty-Baby plus a couple other things. And then it was home to bed for Tabi and Chris and I worked on the house for a couple hours before I collapsed in bed.

Part 3: The party!