Yo Gabba Gabba Live

The whole gang!

Muno!

It's Tooty!

Story time!

Backside picture of hugging DJ Lance Rock

I can't believe I didn't get this posted sooner. It happened to be the best night of Adriana's life. Thus far...

In November, the TV show Yo Gabba Gabba came live to Denver. Adriana has a friend whose dad works on the show so we were able to go to a backstage party after the show. She was so excited to go, although I am betting she wasn't entirely sure what she was going to. When they came out on stage, she was excited, but really only cared about the nets of balloons she saw on the ceiling. She was pretty reserved through the entire show, but did get up to dance with me a few times.

After the show we met up with her friends and went to the backstage party. Our understanding was that we got to stand in line and get a quick picture with all the characters. Adriana was Foofa for Halloween and all she wanted to do was give Foofa and DJ Lance Rock a hug. I wasn't sure this was going to happen so I just smiled and hoped she was happy with getting her picture taken.

Well, the night couldn't have been better. We were sitting on the ledge and up came Muno, Tooty and Plex. She was so excited. Tooty came over and rubbed her face. We were able to give the other 2 high fives. And this was just the beginning of the excitement. Once we took a picture with all the characters, Adriana got to hug all of them. It was a dream come true.

At this time, we had got to see all the characters except for DJ Lance. She seemed ok and we were getting ready to leave and low and behold, out comes DJ Lance. He was doing story time. There were lots of kids gathered and we were at the back. There was a little boy next to us that wanted to go sit up front but was too scared, but my brave little girl lead the pack, the little boy followed and they walked right up front and sat down. Afterwards she was able to give him a hug. Unfortunately we didn't get a picture of it and most of our pictures are blurry. Being parents of the year, we forgot our camera and had to use our phones.

It was a magical night and she had a blast!

As great as it was, for her first "concert" experience and getting to go back stage, we may have set the bar a tad bit high. She now asks, pretty regularly, when she is going to meet Wubbzey, Dora, Aerial, etc. Because why wouldn't you? She got to meet Yo Gabba Gabba and they are on TV. Why not all TV characters?

Leaving on a jet plane!

Sam, Nathan and Adriana-3 monkeys on the couch

Reading maps at the zoo

Checking out the ducks on the river

Cupcake party!

Sleeping on the plane

Watching TV on the plane

So this month Adriana and I set out to go see my BFF Rachael and her boys in Kentucky. Adriana hasn't been on a plane since she was 9 months but her friend Will flies a lot and she has asked me repeatedly to go. So needless to say she was more than excited for our trip.

She loved the airport more than anyone really should. Moving walkways, big windows with planes outside...she had a blast. And when we finally got on the flight and it had TV on the back of the seat (thank you Frontier) I am not sure she could have been more happy. One of Ade's favorite things is to listen to songs on my iPod with my earphones. So using earphones to watch TV just made the experience that much more fun. She fell asleep pretty early into the flight and slept the entire way. She woke up when we were descending and looked out the window and saw the clouds as we were going through them. She got so excited and screamed "mommy we are flying in the clouds". She had a blast.

We had a great time in KY. Adriana got along famously with Rach's little boy Nathan. He is 4 and they played so well together. Nathan introduced her to the world of Spiderman (and now superheroes are a big part of our lives) and she loved to follow him around. Rachael also has an 18 month old named Sam, and while Adriana had nice moments with him, she did not display her best behavior (or even good behavior) with him. He is such a cute and sweet boy. She talked about him constantly when he wasn't around. Kids. I won't even pretend to understand how they work or think. It takes too much and is exhausting. :)

We had a really great time with them overall and spent some fun days at the water parks in KY and the zoo. It is so great to get to spend some time with Rachael's family and have our children get to know each other. And even though we had a blast, when it was time to come home, Adriana was more than ready to get home to Daddy and Clyde. All in all a great trip and lots of good memories. Adriana asks for Nathan daily and when she got a spiderman figurine in her happy meal the other day, he thought Nathan sent it to her. It was so cute I just let her think it. :)

You can be my friend...

Trip to Louisville

So this past week Adriana and I set out to Louisville, KY to visit Rachael and Nathan.  We had a really great time.  It was nice to get to hang out with Rachael and I haven't seen Nathan since he was 3 months old...and he is now 2.  (I am a horrible friend)  Nathan is such a sweet boy and he was so nice to Adriana the entire time we were there.  He shared his toys and was great at letting me know if she was doing okay or asleep when we were in the car.  Each morning he would come looking for "baby ona".   We had a lot of fun and it made me wish even more so that Rachael and I lived in the same place.  We just have to get one of our husbands to agree to move. :)  (For those of you who may not know, Rachael and I have grown up together and been the best of friends since 5th grade.  We even have pictures of us in preschool playing together.  We were definitely meant to be lifelong best friends.  We haven't lived in the same place for a lot of that time but have always found ways to visit each other and talk in some way daily)

It was my first trip on a plane with just Adriana and I.  No Rob to help or hold her when I got nervous on the flight.  I have to say Adriana did beautifully.  She was happy and only threw a minor fit during our 9 hour travel days and 2 flights a day to get there and home.  I got more comments on what a happy and active baby she was.   She and I met a lot of great and helpful people during our trip.  

Adriana tried a lot of new things when we were there.  Lots of new food (it is a benefit of having a friend with a 2 year old to tell you what they tried and worked well, it was great!  We discovered a lot of things I was nervous to give her but finally did with Rachael's encouragement)   Adriana also tried a swing for the first time.  She loved it.   The above pictures of are of her swinging and then we had a pool party in Rachael's backyard (diapers required, clothes optional).  

All and all it was a great trip.  Many thanks to Rachael and Nathan for letting us crash their house for a week.