Insert Original Title Here - A September 2013 TR About This Page:

[Jessie092408]

Okay, so I have the next entry all typed up, but unfortunately getting the pictures resized is taking a lot longer than originally planned. I PROMISE I will have the entry up before midnight tomorrow (PST).

[lfredsbo]

No problem - many have been having issues with re-sizing - are you trying to do it right on Photobucket? I have found that for me it is much easier to do before uploading them to Photobucket.

Either way - we are here when you are ready!!! Just waiting to see that beautiful baby!!!

[Cam22]

with your photos as I think almost all of us here have had issues with that of late.

[Russi01]

Good luck resizing your photos. Heard a lot of people are having problems.

[Jessie092408]

We got our wake-up call at 6:30AM, and I asked David to please get up and take his shower first, because I was feeling pretty worn out from my insomnia filled night. He headed off to shower, then I got my shower. Briana woke up on her own at about 7:00, but was still so sleepy, she was having trouble sitting up. (No surprise, given that for her internal clock, it was still only 4!)

I got her bathed and dressed, and then went to grab the bottle of formula I had made the night before out of the fridge, only to discover that it was frozen solid! Somehow the fridge settings had gotten messed up. So David scrambled to make a new one before she started hollering for her breakfast. I asked him to feed her, put on her sunscreen, and then entertain her so that I could get her diaper bag ready. I was feeling a bit (okay, a LOT) of stress and feeling very rushed, because Briana's appointment at the Harmony Barber Shop was for 9AM, and we were running behind.

We left our room (practically at a run) at 8:30, and caught a bus right away to the Magic Kingdom. I was feeling very excited and stressed at the same time, it was an odd sort of morning. I noticed that David was acting anxious and tried to get him engaged in a conversation about what he was looking forward to doing this week, but I wasn't very successful. I hoped it was just being on a crowded bus that was causing the anxiety, and mentally went through my list of ways to keep David calm.

When we arrived at the park, it was 9:05. I asked David if he would be okay with taking the stroller and diaper bag through bag check on his own, so that I could take Bri in and check in for her haircut. He hesitated but said “Yeah I can do that,” so I headed off with Briana in my arms, feeling guilty for leaving him on his own when he was already feeling anxious.

I found the barbershop easily enough (I had never seen it before, I expected it to be a lot bigger for some reason). I got Briana checked in, and the said they were ready for her. Without hesitation, I asked if they could hold off until her daddy got there, as I didn't want him to miss her first haircut. I told them I would be okay with waiting longer if it caused a problem. But as per usual, Disney Service is amazing. “Not a problem at all! Just tell us when he gets here and we'll get her in a seat.”

It took David maybe ten minutes to catch up with us, and then it was time for Bri's very first haircut! Diane was the CM who did the cut for us, and she put Mickey Mouse stickers all over Bri's clothes so that she would be distracted from what was going on. I was mentally prepared for a screaming, wiggly, terrified baby, so I was very pleasantly surprised when Bri just focused on the stickers and only tried to pull away from Diane once. David had the camera out and was snapping lots of pictures. It took all of five minutes, and then our little girl looked so cute and didn't have those long straggly hairs that her grandpa had been threatening to trim for weeks. She was absolutely darling. (And I'm not a proud mama at all, oh no. No bias going on here.)

























With Briana's First Haircut Certificate and a little bag with some of her baby curls in hand, we snapped a couple pictures outside and then headed up Main Street. We stopped for some photos with a PhotoPass photographer, and you can see how sleepy Bri was getting already. She was fast asleep before we hit Tomorrowland.







We got to Space Mountain, and I told David he should ride first, thinking that it would cheer him up and calm him down as it's one of his favorites. I found a bench inside near the exit and parked Briana's stroller so I could people watch. I love doing that while I'm waiting.

David came off of the ride looking more stressed than when he got on. I asked him if he was okay and he said “I'm just having a panic attack. I'll live.” I asked him if he wanted to just go get breakfast, but he wanted me to have my chance to ride, so he told me I should go ahead. I was feeling anxious myself now, but it was mainly anxiety about him being anxious, which is silly but true. I tried to tell him I didn't need to ride right now, but he sat on the bench and said “It's okay, Bri will keep me company. She's cute when she snores.” (She was indeed snoring little baby snores, and it was very cute.)

I reluctantly headed off to ride Space Mountain, and I was SO glad that I did. I had missed out on riding any of the “Big” rides the year before due to my pregnancy, and I was so excited to be back on a thrill ride. However tame Space Mountain is, it's still fun! I giggled and squealed through the whole thing. I'm sure the other people in my spaceship thought I was a big dork, but I had a blast.

David was still acting pretty anxious, so I casually mentioned that I was starving and we should get some food. I reminded him that the Main Street Bakery has Starbucks products now, and that cheered him up immediately. He had forgotten. We got our coffees (and were pleasantly surprised that we could use snack credits for them), lemon loaf for me, and some sort of berry crumble cake for him. I also picked out an orange juice. The friendly CMs with their happy voices and genuine smiles and helpfulness made my morning better and helped put me back in a positive head space so that I could keep David calm. (I tell you, it's much easier to remain calm and anxiety free when someone else is depending on you. In a twisted way, his anxiety on this trip kept me from having my usual anxiety problems. Odd but true. )

David needed a calm space, and we also needed to feed Briana (who had woken up in the bustle of the Main Street Bakery) so we headed to the deserted Tomorrowland Terrace Noodle Station and picked a table. We realized that we had forgotten her bib in the hotel room, so we tied a receiving blanket around her neck. David called it her “backwards cape.” We all ate breakfast and chatted and David and I drank our coffee. David's anxiety level visibly crept downward as we ate, so I didn't rush him. I just let him goof around with Bri and talk about whatever he wanted.



He went off to change Briana's diaper, and I cleaned up the table we had used and threw our trash away. I was going to pick up all the food off the ground that Briana had thrown, but I noticed a squirrel creeping closer and decided to leave it where it was. I moved our stuff to a different table and watched the squirrel excitedly zipping around under our table stuffing yogurt melts and Gerber puffs into his mouth. There really wasn't much there, but he sure was excited about it!

When David and Bri got back, we strapped Briana into her stroller and headed over to pick up some FP's for the Spaceranger Spin. Then we headed over so Briana could ride her very first ride – Prince Charming's Carousel. It seemed like a pretty good first ride for a baby to have, and Bri absolutely loved it!







When we got off of the carousel, I tried to convince David that we should ride it again so that he could ride with her and I could take pictures, but he pointed at the line, which had gotten considerably longer while we'd been riding, and said “Maybe later.” So we headed off to ride the Winnie the Pooh ride. Briana liked the colors. She kept pointing at stuff, it was pretty cute.







David grimaced when I said that the next order of business was to get on It's a Small World, but he followed me onto the ride without complaint. I think he really wanted to see Bri's reaction to it. She loved it. She was fascinated by the dolls and colors. We were sitting in the front of the boat, and she kept grabbing at the rail and trying to lean over the side to look at the water. (I was trying not to have a heart attack the whole time we were trying to wrangle her, but she had a blast!)





She also took a liking to the people behind us, and they thought she was adorable, so by the end of the ride, she was fast friends with Dave and Cindy from Austin, TX.

By the time we had retrieved the stroller from the always moving around stroller parking (seriously, we almost didn't find it a few times because it had been moved so far from it's original place in the stroller parking), our FPs for Buzz were ripe, so we meandered back over to Tomorrowland. Briana liked helping us spin the car. She was sitting in my lap, so my score was terrible, but I was having more fun playing with her than I was playing the game. David, of course, scored as high as he usually does. (Even with his complaining about the random spinning of the car. I was pretty wicked...I helped Bri spin us a LOT. Hehehe...I don't know why it bothered him though, he still got his usual scores...Okay, so I'm a bad person. Sorry.)





We found a place to sit and tried to give Briana a bottle. I was concerned because she hadn't had much to drink, and she wasn't interested in her bottles. I got her to sip on it a bit, and put some water in an empty bottle I had brought along. She drank that down pretty quickly, so I felt a little better, but not much. David reminded me that her schedule wasn't following the clock we were down here, and it was still pretty early for another bottle if we were at home. That made me feel better. Especially since she had about five ounces of water out of her bottle, after about two ounces of formula.

I took her off for a diaper change while David guarded the stroller, and then headed to the Carousel of Progress. We enjoyed our little trip through America's history, but Briana didn't. I was struggling to keep her in my lap, she was fussy and kept trying to crawl away from me. She was getting tired, and I whispered to David that we should have waited until she was sleeping to try to come in. Hindsight is 20/20. We made it through it though, and headed over to experience the new Little Mermaid attraction.

We parked the stroller (we did a lot of stroller parking, lol), and headed in. Bri fell asleep in my arms while we were waiting in line. I was a little bummed, because I knew she would really enjoy the ride, but I knew she needed the nap, so I left her alone. David and I really enjoyed the ride anyway.



She woke up right after the ride, and I decided that we needed to take her to the Baby Center so that we could actually try to get her to eat. We stopped at Casey's Corner along the way and got our own lunch, then just took everything into the baby center so we could all eat.

I was surprised that there were high chairs in there, and putting Bri in a high chair seemed to be what she was wanting when it came to food. She ate a lot better than she had done sitting in her stroller for breakfast, and even drank half of one of her bottles. David and I took turns feeding her and eating our own food. (By the way, I wouldn't recommend trying to eat your own food at the baby center...You're allowed to, I asked a CM before I brought our food in, but I kept having to gently shoo away kids who were trying to grab my french fries and stopped a toddler four different times from sneaking away with my drink. Just don't do it. It'll save you a headache.)

After our somewhat chaotic lunch, it was getting close to time for our scheduled FP+ princess greet. We didn't really have enough time to do anything else, so even though it was still a bit early, we went ahead and headed in that direction.



Briana had a blast crawling around on the carpeted area in there with Daddy and I taking turns chasing her around, and little old ladies cooing over her every other minute.





Once it was time, we used our MagicBands to get in through the FP+ entrance. At the second place that they check your bands, they almost didn't allow David in. He scanned it and the Mickey Head turned green, but the CM, an older woman, wasn't looking because someone was running and she turned to ask them to stop. She turned back to him and asked him to scan his band, and it turned red and her screen said she had already admitted him. We actually had to argue with her! I finally said “Ma'am, he hasn't been in yet. It turned green when you were talking to that kid over there. Can't you check the time it says he went in or something? We aren't lying to you, we're on the same FP here.” She obviously didn't believe us, you could tell by the look on her face, but she shrugged and just sort of waved us through.

I was really surprised that there didn't seem to be a way for her to double check if she had missed him scanning his band the first time. I really didn't think she was going to let him in. He was starting to say he would just wait outside, but if she had refused I would have asked to see a manager. It was a really frustrating experience.

Anyway, enough of that.

Briana loved Cinderella and her dress. She kept grabbing the dress, but where she was grabbing was up on the top of the dress...so...Cinderella's chest. The poor girl kept having to kind of grab it to keep it from coming down. But she handled it gracefully, even if she did turn a bit pink.













Bri liked Aurora and Rapunzel, but she kept wanting to crawl around and not sit still. When Aurora kissed her head, she left lipstick in Bri's hair.

























After that, we had a bit of time before our Mickey Mouse greet, so we headed over to Pirates! On the way there, I felt a couple of raindrops, so we pulled out the stroller rain cover and put it on. This was when I realized that we had forgotten our umbrellas, and really hoped that it didn't start pouring.

Briana fell asleep while we were standing in line. I had to pass her to David halfway through the queue, because my arms were getting tired. Who knew little babies could get so heavy after a while? She slept like a rock through the entire ride, but woke up when I tried to put her in her stroller afterward.



I had brought a little Minnie Mouse outfit, and I changed her into that when I took her in to change her diaper. She had a bit of her bottle as well. We bought a small snack from a little vendor cart. David got cinnamon glazed almonds, and I got a frozen banana dipped in chocolate. Both were pretty good. After our snack we rode Pirates again so Bri could see it. She giggled through the whole ride. We think it was all the singing and colors.



We had cut it kind of close for the Mickey meet, so now we had to “walk with a purpose” as my dad likes to say. We made it right on time, and there were no problems with getting in this time. This was Briana's first “non face” character, and I was a bit nervous about how she would react. I needn't have worried. She loved his nose and kept playing with his hands. It was actually one of my favorite character interactions of the trip. Not THE best, but one of them!

















We got this picture of Briana on the way out after we took her hat off. Crazy hair!



I hadn't realized that Minnie wasn't in the same place as Mickey, so I asked a CM where she could be found, then we headed off in that direction.



David was getting a bit surly with me, so I asked him what was up. He said he was feeling a bit overloaded and stressed. I asked if he wanted to leave, and he said that no, he was okay “for now.” So I told him to just tell me if he needed to leave and we would take off.

When we got over to meet Minnie, the CM standing at the door made a big deal out of Briana's Minnie Mouse outfit. “Oh, look at you, you're SO adorable! But how about we give you a Daisy sticker so that Daisy doesn't feel left out when she meets you?” And he plopped a Daisy sticker on Briana's chest. She was quite intent on pulling it off, but David managed to distract her.

The line was long, and Bri was getting impatient. She wanted to crawl around on the floor and get under people's feet. I was starting to feel stressed, and I could tell David was struggling. I almost made an executive decision to just leave, but we were so close to the front of the line, I just couldn't bring myself to step out.

We finally made it up to Daisy, and Daisy was fabulous. She made a big show of pointing at Briana's sticker and acting flattered, and she let Briana touch her face and didn't mind at all when Bri kept grabbing her mouth. She would “laugh” and just deftly move out of reach. We had a lot of fun with Daisy.















Minnie, however, was a big disappointment. I had really been looking forward to seeing her reaction to Briana's outfit, but she basically waved and stood there with her hand out in a pose. I really felt like she was going “Okay, lets take this photo and get you out of here.” I thought maybe she couldn't see Briana's outfit, so I even commented on it a few times, but nope. Nothing. It was a sad moment.





Briana needed another diaper after that, so we got that taken care of and then rode the Little Mermaid ride again. Briana stared around in wide eyed wonder the whole time. She especially loved the “Under the Sea” sequence. She bounced up and down in my lap and squealed and clapped. I watched her instead of the ride. I'm just a bit in love with this beautiful little child who calls me mama.

We fed Briana dinner in her stroller after we got off of the ride, and then she needed yet another diaper. Good grief! Oh, well. It gave me a chance to change her back into her Princess Bell onsie for our dinner reservation at Be Our Guest.

David was quickly unraveling at this point. I asked him if he wanted to leave and he said “No, I don't want to miss Be Our Guest.” I asked him if he wanted to find somewhere to sit and he said “No.” We had a Dumbo FP+ scheduled, and he said I should just go without him. But since we've never been on Dumbo, I really wanted him to come. Not to give too much information or anything, but we ended up having this argument over him riding the Dumbo ride, which wouldn't normally happen when he isn't feeling so depressed and anxious, and I probably should have just let it go, but you know...I didn't.

In the end, we did go on the ride together, and Briana really liked being up so high. She liked it so much that she cried when we left the ride, reaching for the Dumbo we had ridden in and wailing like her heart was breaking. It was cute, but a little sad.







Bri fell asleep in her stroller on the way to Be Our Guest. David had calmed down a lot and we were talking about what we could do to help him feel less overloaded. He said he wanted to leave after dinner, and I smiled and said “Okay! Sounds good, we'll get some rest.”







Since Briana was asleep in her stroller, they allowed us to bring it in, but also made a point to tell us that normally strollers weren't allowed in the restaurant. I told them I really appreciated the exception they were making for us. We learned many interesting facts about the restaurant as we were led to our table. You could tell that the CM walking with us was VERY proud of the restaurant, and as we entered the main ballroom, I could tell why. It's so beautiful in there! I was fascinated by the snow scene outside the windows.

We ordered our dinner (we both ordered steak) and chatted a bit about our first day in the parks. We both apologized for our silly argument about the Dumbo ride, and kept talking about the restaurant. It really is amazing!

Briana woke up frightened right as dinner was brought to the table, crying and screaming. I picked her up and we walked outside for a moment until she was fully awake and calm. When I came back to the table, David took the stroller outside, and our waitress brought us a high chair.

Briana wanted some of our bread, so I tore her off a couple of little pieces. She sure does love bread. (A girl after my own heart.) After she polished off her bread she started chewing on my spoon. I let her do that until she stuck the handle in her mouth and choked on it. That was the end of that. She got a napkin to play with instead.

David ate first, because Bri was really getting tired of being in her chair. We walked around the restaurant while he ate, and then we traded and he walked around with her while I ate. It was kind of a lonely way to eat dinner, but I hate bothering other diners with a screaming baby. When he got back with her, the waitress brought us our grey stuff, which we let Briana try, and then we ordered our dessert. I think David got triple chocolate something, and I chose lemon meringue. David's was much tastier than mine,whatever we ordered. While we ate our dessert, Briana concentrated on tearing up her place-mat. She was very studious about it.

The Beast was receiving guests as we finished dinner, so we went to meet him. Briana was absolutely fascinated. I think she thought he was a really big dog, as she kept petting his hand. He blew her kisses and she laughed. It was a very cute character interaction. And DANG he's big!







On our way out of the park, we stumbled across Belle's Story Time. We'd never seen it before, I'm not really sure how we missed it. I knew David wanted to leave, but even before I could open my mouth to ask, he said “Let's do it.” He told me later he'd been watching my face, and he could tell I really wanted to take Bri in, and that it made him feel happy to give me something I wanted so badly. Awww. He's the best.

I was absolutely blown away by this experience! The mirror thing is so cool! And the story/play was very cute. When it came time for pictures, we were introduced as “The Royal Family.” Belle looked at Briana and said “Oh! I'll bet this little teacup could still fit in the cupboard with Chip and all the other little teacups!” And then she spotted Bri's “ballgown” and said “I didn't know they made ballgowns in teacup sizes! It's so beautiful, and looks just like mine!”







The photographer had some trouble getting Briana to look at him because Bri was very distracted by Lumiere on the mantlepiece, but we managed in the end.

The whole thing was so captivating that I almost forgot that when she rushed out at the end, she wasn't actually running off to meet the Beast for the ball. I loved it, and it will definitely have a permanent place on my list of favorites!

At this point, it was getting very close to fireworks time, and we were getting a little concerned. Briana had not liked the fireworks at all on the 4th of July, and we were inside our apartment for those, and they were off in the distance. Our plan had been to leave before the fireworks so we wouldn't have to worry about it, but the Story Time thing had put us behind schedule. We rushed to change her and we both needed to use the restroom, and then we hurried toward the entrance as fast as we could. David was cradling her in his arms, and when the fireworks started, he held her head against his chest so that his chest covered one of her ears and his hand covered the other.

When we were almost to the front of the park I looked back (I had gotten ahead of him both to lead the way and because it was easier with all the “traffic” around us to go single file with the stroller) and he was chuckling. I gave him a questioning look and he gestured at her with his chin and mouthed “She's fast asleep.”

So much for us being frantic and trying to get her out before the fireworks started I guess.

We caught a bus back to Pop, with Bri snoozing the whole way there. Once we arrived at the hotel, I told David he should go ahead and take her upstairs and put her to bed, and I would stop in the food court and get our cups and something to drink and meet him there. He agreed that was a good plan, so he headed off with Bri in his arms and the diaper bag over his shoulder while I took the stroller with me to the food court. I chose a cup with an orange lid for David, since that's his favorite color, and a purple lid for me, because I liked it better than the pink, black, or green lids. I got us both sweetened black tea from the drink station, and headed up to the room with my fingers crossed that Briana was still asleep.

David had been lucky and gotten Bri wrapped up in her blanket and down in the pack n' play without waking her up, and he was taking a bath when I arrived, which told me he was stressed, because he never takes baths unless he is stressed out. I got ready for bed and finished up my notes for the day, and then crawled into bed. David was out by midnight, but it took me until about 1:30 to fall asleep. Aside from a few Stressed Out Moments, it had been an amazing start to our vacation.

Coming up next: Where are the buses, and “What do you mean we don't have a reservation?”

P.S. Some of these pictures are still showing up as being pretty massive. I've double checked Photobucket to make sure I edited them correctly and saved them correctly and I have. I'm hoping they'll shrink down shortly. If not, can a moderator please let me know and I'll remove them until I get it figured out.

[Cam22]

Overall, you three had a wonderful first day for Bri from her first haircut to some great character encounters (except maybe Minnie) to her first ride (love her smiling face on the carousel) to falling asleep on the wait out amid fireworks. Beautiful memories! BTW - When we met the Beast last June, he totally dwarfed my 6'4" DBiL by quite a few inches.

[lfredsbo]

First - all the photos look fine to me

Second - sounds like a great day - despite the anxiety - glad that you were able to find quiet places to help with it.

Bri looked so dang cute in her outfits!!! And her hair cut!!! Glad that she was enjoying all her firsts!!!

[lexiemom]

You guys had a great first day! As someone that has suffered panic attacks, I am very impressed with how David handled the day and you are a wonderful wife for following his cues.

Bri is absolutely adorable in both of her outfits. It's a bummer Minnie wasn't more engaging, but your photo with her turned out really good.

[xwewhisper]

Sounds like a great first day! Disney can be overwhelming for anyone and give anxiety, but you both handled it so well and pushed through! Let's just all keep gushing over how cute Bri is. Like seriously, loving every pic!


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[Jessie092408]

Originally Posted by Cam22

Overall, you three had a wonderful first day for Bri from her first haircut to some great character encounters (except maybe Minnie) to her first ride (love her smiling face on the carousel) to falling asleep on the wait out amid fireworks. Beautiful memories! BTW - When we met the Beast last June, he totally dwarfed my 6'4" DBiL by quite a few inches.

I could not believe how tall the Beast was! It was crazy!

Originally Posted by lfredsbo

First - all the photos look fine to me

Second - sounds like a great day - despite the anxiety - glad that you were able to find quiet places to help with it.

Bri looked so dang cute in her outfits!!! And her hair cut!!! Glad that she was enjoying all her firsts!!!

My Aunt Julie went a little crazy shopping online at the Disney Store before our trip. You'll see many more cute outfits!

Originally Posted by lexiemom

You guys had a great first day! As someone that has suffered panic attacks, I am very impressed with how David handled the day and you are a wonderful wife for following his cues.

Bri is absolutely adorable in both of her outfits. It's a bummer Minnie wasn't more engaging, but your photo with her turned out really good.

The picture was really good. I guess I just had high expectations based on the other character interactions we'd had that day.

Originally Posted by xwewhisper

Sounds like a great first day! Disney can be overwhelming for anyone and give anxiety, but you both handled it so well and pushed through! Let's just all keep gushing over how cute Bri is. Like seriously, loving every pic!


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

I feel like I'm posting way too many pictures. I keep going "oh, this one will be enough," but then the next one is cute too, and the next one...It's ridiculous!

[guerns17]

Just catching up!!

First, it's nice Bri slept so well on the flight! I was curious about your car seat on the plane. We did not buy our daughter a seat either and we are planning in checking her car seat...but how did you know there was an extra seat so that you knew to bring her car seat through security rather than checking it? Did you ask when you checked in or just notice the seat between you wasn't sold on when you looked online?

Second, I don't think Bri was at all too young for Disney and she was handling everything SOOO well!! It's nice she could cat nap at the park!! Also, don't feel bad about your argument with David. I think my husband and I have some kind of argument on every disney trip we take. Usually it ends with my husband saying he is never going to disney again...but we always come back lol!!

I can't wait to hear more about your trip and welcome back to the boards!!

[lauriep]

It was a great first day! Kudos to David for pushing through his anxiety and to you for quietly supporting him. I agree with everyone else-- NOT too many photos! As you say, each one of Bri and of the three of you is so adorable and I pause and smile for every one. She looks positively yummy in the Belle dress and too cute as Minnie. What fun that she was so into the characters and rides.

[oddboysmum]

So glad to be able to read your TR. Bri is so adorable and I love seeing the pics of her first visit.
Looks like we will be heading to Disney around the same time September 2015!
So happy for you guys in your own apartment ... I do hope life is treating you all well.

[Russi01]

Love following along with you guys on your trip. I would agree, LOVE the pictures of Bri and your little family. She looks so happy and peaceful!! Sorry that you did not get the interaction of Minnie that you were hoping to good but the picture did turn out wonderful!! Looks like you guys did pretty well your first day with problems that you encountered. Can't wait to read more!!

[Nemo125]

Glad I found this TR! Such a great 1st day at MK!!!