Second-Birthday Drama and Preschool Surprises – Ep. 244

Laura

Welcome to Big Fat Positive with Shanna and Laura. This week, we have our weekly check-ins. We have our special segment, Mom Confessions, which is full of fears, lies, and audiobooks. And we close with our BFPs and BFNs for the week. Let's get to it! Hi, everyone. Welcome to the show. This is episode 244. Hi, Shanna. Hello. Hello, hello. OK, so let's get right to it. I want to hear all about your week and what you did with those girls of yours.

Shanna

Hi, yes. First of all, apologies about the quality of my voice. I've had a little sore throat, so it's not the best. But I'm going to go for it anyway.

Laura

It's the reality. of having a podcast. Sometimes you got to use the voice you have, right? And sometimes that voice is not tip top. I've been there.

Shanna

Exactly. All right, so one little thing this week, you know that Cece is at her new preschool and part of the deal with the preschool is that it is like on the grounds of a Presbyterian church, like the preschool itself is not a religious preschool, but I think it used to be like, like a new school came in and took over what used to be the Presbyterian preschool, et cetera, et cetera. And I guess they have some arrangement with the church that once a month, they go into chapel in the morning during school time. And I was like, okay, I'm not religious. I didn't grow up religious or anything. But I was like, that's fine. I mean, it's like 20 minutes once a month or something. And they're like, the parents can come. And I'm like, oh, cool. I'm going to come and check this out. So Cece had her first chapel experience. And I want to talk about that.

Laura

I'm interested to hear this because did I ever tell you that my first job out of college was at a Presbyterian Theological Seminary?

Shanna

Oh, was that in Austin?

Laura

Yeah.

Shanna

Yeah, I know very little about that.

Laura

Yeah. And I was also just like not raised with religion. So I was very like, I just didn't know anything about it and very nervous about it. So like my first chapel experience was at work when I was 21 years old. So she's got a leg up on me.

Shanna

Yeah, she's 17 years ahead of you here. So I had definitely asked ahead of time, like, well, what is the chapel like? Like what do they do? Is it religious teachings, et cetera? And the preschool assured me, oh no, it's mostly just like, let's talk about kindness and being a good person and stuff like that. And I'm like, oh my gosh, that's so cute. That's so sweet. So a couple of days prior to the chapel, Cece comes home singing some songs that I've never heard before and she is into it, Laura. It is so cute. Honestly, her excitement for these songs was way more than any of the songs she did for that recital at the other preschool. I'm like, okay, she's into it. She's like feeling good about this. Let me send you a little audio of her song. Okay.

Laura

Wow, she is very into the song that I'm assuming is called God Made Me.

Shanna

Yeah, yeah. God Made Me. Yes, sir. It's just so cute.

Laura

But as someone who doesn't like, I know that with Elle, for example, I don't think you've ever talked to her about God or religion or Jesus or any of that stuff, right? So it must have been surprising to hear that a little bit, right?

Shanna

Yeah. I mean, God and Jesus talk does not come up in our house very much. It's been coming up more with Elle now that she is in elementary school and a lot of her friends go to church and they talk to her about that stuff. So we discuss it. Cece never has discussed it. I don't even think she knows what a God is. She's just singing a song, right? It's cute and it's happy and like it's like, yeah, no one else has a smile like me. No one else sings like me. Like I'm here for it. I think it's really adorable actually.

Laura

It is very cute. And I will say that like, you know, my story about having to go to chapel as a 21 year old with my boss at the Presbyterian Seminary. I have to say that it was a very positive experience. Like I was very pleasantly surprised to find that it was super lovely and my boss was not weird about it at all. I don't know, especially when you go to public schools growing up, you're so used to the separation of church and state, right? You don't really have that much interaction with church at school or at work. And so when it was happening together, I was like, is this legal? In my mind, of course, I was like, is this kosher? It might not be kosher, but it was fine. Like it was totally fine. And it was a really, really nice place to work.

Shanna

Good. That's great. Yeah, this little service itself was really cute. So I got there a couple of minutes early and all like a lot of family members were there. And we all went in and sat in the pews and waited and everything. And the kids, it was all the preschoolers like this school actually goes up to eighth grade, but this was like the preschool day. So all the little preschoolers were waiting in the lobby area. And once they were all there, they filed in while someone played the piano and they were on their best behavior. They were so great. They like lined up like a little choir here. I'll send you a video of their songs because they started with a couple songs and you know, I had to get some video. I thought this was gonna be like all reverent and like all holy and everything. Oh hell no. Every family member had their phone whipped out like getting close ups of their kids.

Laura

Oh my goodness, so cute. So here's a question. Is this something like, okay, let's say you were very religious in like, let's say you were Muslim and you were very religious, right? But you went to that school. Could you opt out of this? I don't know.

Shanna

I didn't ask that. Yeah, maybe. You know, the whole program itself took like 15 minutes, maybe like 30 with them filing in and out and everything. But clearly they're spending class time learning these songs, right? Yeah. In this video, they're singing, give thanks to the Lord, give thanks. So they're spending time in class learning songs about God and the Lord and all that stuff. So I don't know how that would work. That's a great question.

Laura

Interesting. Well, it looks like she's having fun. It seems fairly innocuous. And yeah, it looks very cute. Yeah, it was cute.

Shanna

So after their songs, the minister preacher, I'm not sure of the lingo, I do apologize, of the Presbyterian church came in and he talked to them. He was like, hello, everybody. And they're like, hi. And he talked to them. He did quote some Bible passages, but talked to them about trust and trusting God and trusting your friends and trusting your parents and stuff like that. And they did some trust falls. It was so cute. He caught some of them like falling backwards and he's like any other volunteers and CECE's hand shot up. She was like begging to do it. He didn't call on her. He could only do a couple and of course they all wanted to do it. But yes, and then afterwards they sang another song and filed out and I was worried she would be like really upset, leaving, you know, seeing me and then having to leave.

Laura

Sounds like this school is just a really good fit for her like personality and temperament and all that.

Shanna

Yeah, I think you're right. And I'll expand on that a little bit more later this episode. But yes, I feel you on that one.

Laura

That's awesome. And she and my mom can sing together because my mom was raised Presbyterian and she's always singing like, Jesus loves me and stuff like that. So songs I don't know. So there you go.

Shanna

Now they have buddies in their musical endeavors.

Laura

Oh, yeah? The church of Disney. Oh, the church of our Lord Mickey Mouse. Oh man, so blasphemous. Actually, it's more complicated than that, but let me back up a little bit. A little record scratch, a little rewind. To tell you that the reason for our pilgrimage to Anaheim was that little Sebastian turned two this week. Oh my gosh, how is this event possible? I don't know. He's so sweet. He's so cute. Turning two is such a leg. Fun milestone and I, you know, it just makes me think about when Augie turned two and I was like, you know, nine months pregnant and it was the middle of the pandemic and we like couldn't do anything. And so part of me wanted to make this like a more fun, more adventurous birthday for him, right? Right. For that reason.

Shanna

And it all went swimmingly?

Laura

No pun intended. Oh yeah, it went off without a hitch and that's the end of my check-in. See you next week.

Shanna

Okay, tell us what really happened.

Laura

All right. So you know this because of course I was keeping you updated in real time with the drama. So I picked the kids up a little early from school. We all pile into the same car. My mom rented a seven-seater so we could like all get into the same car.

Shanna

Oh, smart.

Laura

Yeah, smart. Right. I'm telling you, best laid plans, right? Everything was ready to go, which should have been the first indication that something was going to go wrong because everything was going fine. So I pick up the kids early from school. We're driving down to Anaheim. There's not even that much traffic. We hit a little bit heading into Anaheim. Like, okay, just for context, from Glendale to Anaheim. It's like 40 minutes if there was zero traffic and a typical trip not during rush hour would be more like an hour, you know, because there's always just going to be pockets of traffic where there's construction or whatever. And then if it's a really bad traffic, it could take up to two hours. Like that's sort of how it. We deal with it, but it was okay. We were about an hour, and it's like, okay, that's not bad. As we're pulling up to Disneyland Drive, I hear Augie say, I'm shivering.

Shanna

Mm-hmm.

Laura

We get to the hotel and he's like, my stomach hurts. And we're like, are you getting sick, honey? And he's like, no, my stomach hurts. I ate too many French fries. And we're like, oh, OK. Well, that makes sense. We were in a little bit of stop and go traffic. He ate a medium-sized French fry from McDonald's all by himself. This all tracks, right? And he said he was tired. So we're like, OK, maybe he just needs a rest, right? He puts his head down. He has a little rest. And he's okay after that, right? Like he sleeps for about a half hour. In the meantime, Sebastian is running around. We got like two adjacent hotel rooms. And hotel is kind of a generous term for where we were staying. It was really more like a motel, you know, but it was directly across the street from the Disneyland entrance, like directly across the street. So that was the real upside of it.

Shanna

Okay, let me see.

Laura

Was he obsessed with that phone? Oh my God, we had to unplug it eventually, because he just, all he wanted to do was play with the phone. Yeah, and after a little bit of that and a little nap for Augie, he woke up feeling totally fine. So we thought, oh, maybe it was just car sickness, right? Like maybe it was just stop and go traffic. So we decided to head out to downtown Disney to just have a little walk around, maybe get a little bit of dinner. What is downtown Disney? Downtown Disney. So have you not been? I haven't not been to Disneyland since I was 14. Oh, that's right. Okay, so downtown Disney is like where the parking lot used to be, I think. Or maybe that's California Adventure. But anyway, downtown Disney, it's their answer to Universal City Walk. Like it's a whole little district that's not like you don't need tickets to enter downtown Disney.

Shanna

No, right before Disneyland.

Laura

That's so unfair. And it was so heartbreaking because we were telling him that we weren't going to be able to go to Disneyland, you know, that it wasn't going to be any fun when he was sick and also you're not allowed to go when you're sick, you know, COVID rules, all that stuff. And he kept saying, but I'm not sick. I'm not sick. I can still go to Disneyland. Oh, he wanted to so bad. He was so sick and he was like, but I'm not sick mama. I can still go to Disneyland. Which was really hard for me to hear.

Shanna

So what ended up happening? Did you just take Sebastian to Disneyland the next day or what did you end up doing?

Laura

Well, the good news is that you can cancel your tickets by midnight the night before and still like get your money back. Or basically you have your tickets still available to like use for a reservation in the future. So he got sick just in time. Yes, just in time. Like while Corey was still cleaning up the bed, I was like, I better get on and cancel those reservations because they're not cheap, Shanna. Like they are very expensive. So those are available for another time. So that's good. So we know we did not go to Disneyland. But we did do one very Disney thing the next day. But I think I'm going to talk about that in our last segment. So I'm going to hold on to that for a sec. Ooh, OK. Well, I guess we'll hear it then. You will. But anyway, that is my check-in for this week. Sebastian turn two, Augie.

Shanna

We're back and this week's special segment is Mom Confessions.

Laura

Mom Confessions.

Shanna

Mom Confessions. Where we admit the sometimes embarrassing, maybe humiliating, probably funny things that we've gotten up to in our parenting lives. And we turn it into a little game. So we will each present one truth and one lie. And the other person has to guess which one is the true mom confession. I love this segment. Laura, you're up first. Give it to me. What are your two options for mom confession?

Laura

Okay, what questionable food combo did I let my child eat? Blueberries with red pepper flakes sprinkled on top? Or penne with meatballs and rainbow sprinkles?

Shanna

Chili flakes sounds like yikes, like very spicy. I don't know that you would be up for that. Although you might be like, sure kid, you really wanna try that? See what the natural consequences, go for it. I do know your kids like to eat penne and who doesn't wanna put rainbow sprinkles on anything and everything? I feel like that's the more likely choice. So I'm gonna go with penne with sprinkles.

Laura

You are incorrect, Sean.

Shanna

What? OMG. Okay. Tell us about this spicy combo.

Laura

Do you want to guess which child did this?

Shanna

Initially, Augie, but now that I'm thinking about it, maybe it's Sebastian.

Laura

You are right about that. It is definitely Sebastian. Augie wouldn't touch spicy things with like a 10-foot pole. Right. Even though I actually think he might like it, because I think he's a little bit sensory seeking and he loves Altoids, right? So I'm like, I think he might like it if he allowed himself to try it. But no. Sebastian, on the other hand, he likes the spice, Shanna. He likes the spice. He likes it, huh? He begs for Tapatio on everything, like his eggs. He will ask me to just drop drops of hot sauce on the side of his little silicone baby plates that he uses so he can dip his finger in and lick it. The kid loves it. Probably not great for a kid who's prone to reflux, but you like what you like.

Shanna

Yeah.

Laura

But anyway, on this occasion, so he often will ask for red pepper flakes, like, because he'll see us put it on our pasta and stuff and he wants it. So we'll give him a little bit. I learned, like, it's OK. He's, you know, he can make his own decision. So I will give him a few little flakes in the past, right? And he'd eat them. And then he, like, kind of like wipes it his tongue and tries to drink water. It's really funny. But it's not. He's never, like, in pain or anything. He's never, like, tearing up. He likes the flavor of it. And one day he needed a snack. I don't remember what time of day it was, what day it was. He just needed a little snack. And I remember asking if you wanted blueberries. He went, yeah, yeah. So I went and got him blueberries and put them in a little bowl and went to go like clean up or put the blueberries back in the fridge or whatever it was. I turned my back.

Shanna

So, um, yeah. Oh, that's amazing. Well, it's not too far off. Like a lot of people like to sprinkle their fruit or vegetables with, you know, like spicy seasoning, like tahin, you know, that's really good. So it's kind of adjacent. Maybe he would like tahin. Have you ever given him that? Ooh, I should get some. He would probably love it. I think he would love it. It's also kind of citrusy. Oh, it's so good. I've actually never had it. Can you believe that? I can't. Well, actually I can because I think I just recently had it. Someone was serving it at a kid's birthday party, like gave us a bunch of fruit and veggies and like a little tiny thing of tahin. And me and the girls were like trying it and we're like, oh my God, this is delicious.

Laura

Okay, I'm going to pick some up because I think he would love that. I just actually, I feel compelled to send you a video of Sebastian eating some tapatio. And I should mention that I have plastic on my table. I wasn't just like putting tapatio straight on my wood table. All right.

Shanna

Oh my gosh, she's like pinching it to pick it up and eat it. Oh, and immediately drinking water. Oh yeah, that's hot, buddy. That's hot. He loves it.

Laura

But he keeps going back for more, you know, so. Oh, he does.

Shanna

Yeah, yeah. He's not deterred by the heat.

Laura

Not at all. So I got a little, little spice lover. Okay. So that was my first one. Shanna, what's your first mom confession?

Shanna

All right, Laura, which one of these is true? I rear ended another parent at the drop off line at school. Or I tried to pass off a rock as my seven year olds lost tooth.

Laura

Ah, okay. Both realistic. I can see scenarios for both of these. All right, so the rear-ending thing, super easy to do at a drop-off, I can imagine. I haven't had to do drop-offs, but I have had to drive by them before. heard tales of the drama there. But here's how I can imagine the tooth situation happening. I can imagine she loses a tooth and then you lose the lost tooth and have to like pretend a rock is the lost tooth because she asked to see it or something like that. Ooh, tough, tough, tough, tough. Okay, I'm gonna go with the rock.

Shanna

Yes, that is the correct one. How close was I? Pretty close. Yep. Yep. Just recently, Elle lost a bottom tooth. She pulled it out at breakfast the other day. And Steve took it and put it in a Ziploc bag and put it on the counter in the kitchen. And many times throughout the day, I walked by it and was like, oh man, someone's going to accidentally throw that away. It's just such a terrible place for it. But I don't know. Maybe it's OK. And I just didn't do anything about it and just left it there. Later that day, she is home from school and I'm walking around the house barefoot and I'm in the living room and I step on something hard that hurts. And I look down and it is this tiny little white thing. And I'm like, oh my gosh. did like her tooth somehow like make it into the living room. Like I knew it would get lost in there. Oh my gosh.

Laura

Um, this is a weird mystery. Like, where did the rock come from? Where did the tooth go? Like, how did the tooth get all the way across the room and onto the floor? Uh, I have questions. I just have questions.

Shanna

I have questions, too. Yeah. The fact that it was out of the Ziploc bag and on the floor. It's just weird. I don't know. Maybe the tooth fairy is around doing some weird stuff in my house.

Laura

Oh man. All right. Well, I'm glad you found her tooth and it wasn't gone forever and you would have had to like hold on to that rock. You would have had to put it in your keepsake drawer. I mean like this weird tooth. So weird how her one bottom tooth just doesn't look like any of her other teeth.

Shanna

Hmm, okay. Brother on brother crime. I literally do not understand what that means. And I can't figure out, yeah, that one's got me befuddled. Hiding your phone quickly because it turned on a program. I could see maybe like you didn't want the boys to clamor for it and just like really, really wanna watch it. So you're just like, oh, that never existed and put it inside of a diaper, which I'm assuming is a wet diaper and not a poopy diaper, by the way. I'm gonna go with the phone situation.

Laura

What if I told you it was a poopy diaper?

Shanna

Ah, well then I'd have to go with the first one because it's more ambiguous and I don't know. I feel like you could hide something. that's not your expensive phone in that poopy diaper.

Laura

There is a reason I didn't disclose that it was a poopy diaper in the first place because I didn't want to lead on, which was the right answer. It is evidence of brother on brother crime that I hid inside of a poopy diaper.

Shanna

Tell us what this is.

Laura

Oh my gosh. Okay, so for a while, Augie was coming home from school with these little books he was calling them. There was just little like construction paper booklets that his teachers had like cut out and like stapled together, you know, four or six page little folded booklets. And they were just like mostly stickers like he would take stickers that they must have had at school like sticker books and just put them through but he was like but they were always themed like there was the alien book like the outer space book and then there was like animals book, right? And he would come home from school and he'd have to show us. He's like, look at my book. Look at my book. And we'd have to, ooh, and all over it. And he'd be very into it. Like, for days, he'd be like, where's my book? Where's my book? And we'd have to make sure we, you know, give him his book, right? Yeah.

Shanna

Right. They can be discovered.

Laura

Exactly. They like open it to throw something away and they're like, Hey, there's that toy. Why is that? Why is my toy in there? And you're like, I don't know why is in there? So I was like, I can't just throw it away. You'll find it. What do I do? What do I do? And I had just changed Sebastian's diaper. So I quickly gathered up all the scraps and like yanked one out of Sebastian's hands. I was like, give me that. Like shoved it inside the dirty diaper and then like walked the dirty diaper to the trash can. Just as Augie came into the room and he was none the wiser.

Shanna

Phew. Crisis averted.

Laura

Did he ever ask about that alien book again? No, because out of sight, out of mind, you know what I mean? Like he would ask about it because we'd have it up on a high shelf to keep it safe. And he'd be like, I want to see my alien book, you know? But he's moved on. And it's been a while since he's brought home a book like that. So I think he's he's moved on to new things. Smooth move, mom. Oh, thank you. Thank you. I felt very proud of my quick thinking in that moment, even if it required, you know, sticking my fingers in a dirty diaper.

Shanna

Here is my next mom confession. Okay. Am I afraid to bathe my four-year-old or am I afraid to kiss my four-year-old?

Laura

Ooh, let's see, let's see. You know what? I'm gonna go with kiss just because they are germ factories and you are afraid of getting sick.

Shanna

That is a very good point. They are germ factories. And yes, that is the correct answer. I'm afraid to kiss my four-year-old, Cece, but it's not because of germs. Has nothing to do with germs. Okay. Yes. Why? I haven't talked about this on the show yet. It's been in my notes and I keep kind of moving it up. And I've just haven't really had the time to talk about it. So now is the chance. Cece has been going through a very intense I hate kisses phase. It started probably like right around when she turned four. So like even back before Christmas and it broke my heart. One thing I really, really love about Cece is she's very affectionate. Like she's always been very snuggly, huggy, loves. hugs and kisses and something just shifted. I don't know what around December, but if I would kiss her, she would be like, ew, no, I hate that. And like get really, really upset.

Laura

No, so cute though.

Shanna

Oh my gosh, yay, I'm so happy, right? Yeah. But it's kind of like this muscle memory of like, oh my gosh, I'm going in for the kiss, but what's gonna happen? I don't know, is she gonna get mad? Does she really still like it? And then I like kind of like wait to see what the fallout's gonna be and I don't know.

Laura

Um, in a much less important way, just reminded me of, uh, Augie went through this phase where he had to open his own snack bar wrappers. Like it was very important to him that he had to open it himself. And we had a couple very very, very bad interactions where I, just the horror, I opened it for him. I mean like, just very big reactions, very angry. So now, we're back to the point where he wants me to open it for him, but I'm like terrified. So I'm always like, Jared, do you want the snack bar? Do you want me to open it for you? Are you short? Do you want me just to open it a little bit? He's like, looking at me like, yeah, just open it. I'm like, but you don't remember. I got yelled at so bad.

Shanna

Right. Yes. That stuff sticks with you. You're like, I don't know. Your little ones can be so unpredictable. I don't want to get yelled at. I don't want to set off a meltdown because hers can be so intense. Yeah. So you, you understand where I'm coming from for sure.

Laura

I'm, well, I'm so glad she wants affection again, though, because that's so sweet. And it's so, uh, I, like, I get it too, because every once in a while, Augie would be like, no, I don't want to hug. And I'll be like, Okay, I respect your body boundaries. I'm just gonna go be sad for a second quietly. Hold on.

Shanna

Yeah, it's really sad and honestly, I I don't know. I always had kind of this like sneaking suspicion. It was somehow related to her old school because I couldn't figure out why she suddenly hated kisses. And I'm like, you know, I was having weird feelings about that school. And part of me was like, is someone like giving her hugs and kisses that she doesn't want affection from? And she doesn't feel like she can say no there. And so she's doing it at home. Like I definitely had that thought process, but you know, kind of pushed it out of my mind because I don't know. But once she's at this new school and just feeling happier, that's when it all changed back to normal. I swear she's just like really happy and affectionate and loving again. And I am like, could not be happier. Oh, that's great. I'm so glad. Yeah.

Laura

All right, Laura, do you have one more mom confession for us? I do, but I was thinking we should take a quick break and then come back with them after the break. What do you say? All right.

Shanna

We're back and Laura has one more mom confession for us. Laura, hit us with your mom confession.

Laura

Okay, back in December, somebody's impending arrival ruined bath time. Who was it? Was it Grandma Susan or was it Santa Claus?

Shanna

Well, seeing as you're mentioning December, I am gonna go with Santa Claus.

Laura

You are correct. wasn't just any Santa, it's Swat Santa. I'm sorry, what?

Shanna

Is he like poking his head out of a moonroof or is he just like sitting on top of the roof of a vehicle?

Laura

I think I'm gonna have to send you a visual on this one, okay?

Shanna

Truly. I cannot picture this.

Laura

Okay, so I sent you an Instagram link to the Glendale Police Department Instagram. You have to swipe to the second video or the second slide.

Shanna

Okay. Yeah. The first image is like an illustration of a big SWAT SUV with Santa straight up standing on it. So I'm assuming that's not how it goes down in real life. Oh, here's a video. Oh my gosh. This is not very holiday cheery in my opinion. Oh, there he is. Oh, okay, okay. Oh, he's poking. No, he's got like a recliner poking out of a moon roof or something.

Laura

I think that's like the bay door on the like basically tank that the SWAT vehicle is.

Shanna

Yeah, yeah. They open the tank, plop Santa in and drove down Main Street. Cool. Okay, that's exciting. There's Christmas lights on that vehicle. So that's exciting. Yeah, I mean, but

Laura

Weird right but here's the thing toddler bait right I mean ah police vehicles and Santa all in one okay so they do these like routes around Glendale that are so hard to decipher I don't know if you scroll up one post you'll see like how they tell you where they're gonna be and when.

Shanna

Oh yeah, okay. Oh gosh, this is a numbered list, one to 68, of all the left or right turns that Santa's going to be making at streets around town.

Laura

Yeah, left on Kenneth, right on Central Light, right on Glen Oaks, left on blah blah blah. It's like- Not a visual map with like a route. No, yeah. And there's like four of these, right? So I had vaguely known that they were going to be in the general area at some point, this one, you know, one night in December. But I didn't have the bandwidth to actually figure out when they were going to be driving by right so that night I had the boys in the bath with Corey you know Corey was supervising and I had to go to the bathroom so I went to my bathroom and my bathroom is like facing the street. There's a window to the street and the window was closed but. you can still hear the street and stuff.

Shanna

That's good. At least it's not something he was counting on all day or something. Yes. You know, he didn't have his site set on it. It was just some whirlwind thing where mom rushes in, grabs him naked and takes him to the window. Yeah. So good. Good. I'm glad.

Laura

I just swissed him out of the bath to see no Santa. Oh, well.

Shanna

Well, maybe you'll catch it next year.

Laura

All right. So that was my final mom confession. Shanna, I want to hear your last one.

Shanna

Okay. Here is my last mom confession. Did I get furious while listening to a kid's book with my kids or did I get nauseous listening to a kid's book with my kids? An audiobook.

Laura

Ooh, this is tricky because you get furious over books a lot. We had a whole segment recently. Yeah, that's on brand for me. But I know that I like the idea of nausea listening to a book. Like that's something I feel like that would happen to me because people describe eating gross foods or something. I get sick to my stomach. So I'm just going to go with that because it's more out of left field. You are correct. Ooh.

Shanna

Okay, so a little while back, I was taking my girls to the dentist and we go to a dentist across town because we are in love with her and in love with this office and it's, you know, like a 20, 30 minute drive. Oh my gosh. I know your husband can relate. He still goes to the dentist in Santa Monica.

Laura

He does, although I think I've finally convinced him to go to the one I go to in Pasadena because it's ridiculous. Oh, that's funny.

Shanna

So on the drive there, I put on an audiobook. I think someone had clued me into the fact that there's some magic school bus. audio stories on Spotify. And I was like, oh, that'll be fun. So I looked up Magic School Boss and there was one called Inside the Human Body. And I'm like, oh, that, you know, like L, like science-y type stuff. Like, I think that'll be really cool. And so I put that on and they are really into it. Like they are listening to the story and they're super into it and they're being quiet in the car, which is always a win. The book is fucking disgusting.

Laura

I loved that movie. That was like my favorite movie when I was a kid.

Shanna

I liked that movie, too, actually, as a kid. Yeah.

Laura

I wonder if it holds up. I got to find it.

Shanna

Yeah. Yeah. I don't know. I haven't seen it forever. And so I think I kind of had that movie in mind when I picked this book. So I kind of knew what we were getting into. So this tiny bus is like making its way through the human body, like someone's innards. It's like going from the lungs to the heart to the stomach and along the way. The characters are commenting on it, saying things like, we're sliding on a muscle and then there's like some sound effect that's like this jiggly muscle and one person's like these red blood cells have turned dull red and then there's like blood gushing sounds and then they go into this stomach and get stuck in the nose and I am just like driving and literally my stomach was getting nauseous listening to this. I was like so grossed out. I wanted to turn it off so bad but they were so into it and like they were so quiet on this drive.

Laura

I feel like you must be really like emotionally connected to sound in a way because like the ASMR stuff really gets you. And this is almost like the inverse of that, right? Like anti-ASMR. Yeah.

Shanna

Yes. It was definitely the anti-ASMR. No tingly is all like yucky. Um, feeling so if you are at all easily queasy or easy queasy, um, don't listen to this audio book when you're trapped in a car with your kids.

Laura

Yeah. Let's move on to our BFPs and BFNs. What do you say? Okay.

Shanna

I have a BFP. It's a big BFP. I am so excited about it. Okay. Steve and I had a chance to do a couple's overnight. Grandma Baby sat the girls, and Steve and I went off to downtown Los Angeles and had a blast as adults, and it was amazing.

Laura

Grown-up? Like grown-ups only? Yes.

Shanna

Are you allowed to do that? I don't know. I didn't check first. I just did it.

Laura

You didn't consult your local laws.

Shanna

I didn't. So the really, really cool thing about this, like the main BFP is Steve because he planned the whole thing. I've been feeling overwhelmed lately and just like, I don't know, just not in that kind of headspace to think about or plan something special like that. And so he completely took the reins. And he booked us a night at the Conrad Hotel downtown, which is right across the street from the Walt Disney Concert Hall. And he's like, I know you're not up for a lot, but I got us some tickets to the LA Philharmonic at the Walt Disney Concert Hall so you don't have to Do a lot like it's gonna be like just like a low key like you listen to a concert. We'll go to dinner and you know, it'll be easy, but it'll be fun I was like, okay. Yeah, I'm up for that and it was just great The hotel was amazing and the like the lobby bar we had a cocktail when we first got there and

Laura

Well, I saw a few pictures on this social media, and it looked so nice. You and Steve looked so relaxed and so happy. And yeah, I'm so happy you got to do that. That looks very fun. Corey and I have yet to do a night away together. Yeah. It's hard when they're little, little, little, you know? Yeah. We've only done things separately, but I would love to get away with Corey and like have a discussion with my husband that didn't involve, like,

Shanna

Always looking over our shoulder to like see if someone needs their you know hands wiped or something And I'm here to tell you that stuff gets a lot easier as they get older like now that CECE is four and of course Albin seven like that's like easy breezy, right? It's just it's it was no problem leaving like they didn't have a problem because they were so thrilled to spend time with grandma huge other BFP to grandma for you know Stepping up and being like, you guys need a weekend. I'll babysit. Go do your thing. Like totally up for it. They have so much fun with her. Like I don't even think they missed us. But that's a good thing, right? Like they can do their thing with grandma and we can do our thing and. I hope you guys can do something like that soon. You know, I think that it'll be really fun for you too. It's something to look forward to in the future. Yes.

Laura

A goal, an insight, yes. Well, good for you guys. What a great BFP.

Shanna

Yeah. All right. What about you? You hinted at a little something, something in the first segment. So what do you got?

Laura

So as I mentioned in the check-in, you know, Augie got sick. We had to cancel our plans to go to Disneyland. I really wanted to do something that captured the Disney magic for Sebastian for his birthday. So the next day I had this idea to rush over to the Storytellers Cafe in the Grand Californian Hotel and see if they had any last minute reservations available for a character breakfast. Do you know about character breakfasts? No. This is really making me feel like we need to go to Disney together because like I'm telling you all this stuff as though you know all about it because I feel like the Disney parents like know all the shit like, oh, a character breakfast. Yeah. Like you got to reserve those months in advance and you're like, what is a character breakfast? It's good.

Shanna

No, I do not. I do not classify myself as a Disney parent at all.

Laura

I am a noob when it comes to all this stuff. I wouldn't say I'm a Disney parent, but I've been a couple of times. So character breakfasts are hard to get into. It's a restaurant and there's a bunch of them. There's one in the park or two in the park and then there's a couple outside of the park where you get to eat and all the Disney characters come around, right? Different restaurants have different characters and they all have different themes and blah, blah, blah. And they don't usually have reservations like ever. But I walked up and asked, and because probably the universe felt bad for me, they had a reservation. Yay. So Corey opted to stay in the hotel with a sick Augie while I took Sebastian and my mom to the character breakfast. And he loved it, Shanna. Yeah, I'm going to send you a few pictures.

Shanna

Oh, there he is with the man himself, Mickey Mouse. Mickey, Mickey. Oh, giving Mickey a big hug and with a squirrel of sorts. Who is that? It's either Chipper Dale. It's Chipper Dale.

Laura

I don't know which one's which, yeah.

Shanna

Okay, okay. Not a probably an easily recognizable Disney character these days, right? I'm thinking more like Moana, Mirabelle. Do we see those walking around or is it all these old school characters?

Laura

So at this one, no. This one we got Mickey, Pluto, we got Minnie, we got Chip and Dale, and I think that's it. I think that's it. And then there's other ones that do like the princess breakfasts and there's other ones that do other ones, whatever. I'm telling you, there's a whole system. People know how to maximize this. I don't. I just lucked into a reservation. That's amazing. But I wasn't sure if he would like it, because first of all, he barely knows who Mickey Mouse is. We don't watch a lot of classic Disney stuff like that. Like you said, we watch, he knows who Baymax is. He knows who Spidey and his amazing friends are. Um, but he fucking loved it. He was so stoked the whole time and it really made it feel like we did something, you know, like we didn't just like drive all the way down there so that. Augie could puke and then we just drive right back, you know, yeah.

Shanna

Yeah, that's good. I'm glad that he was able to feel like he had a special time for his birthday and do something unique and that you found a way to make it work. That's awesome.

Laura

So anyway, he freaking loved it. I was a little concerned he wouldn't like it because you never know with the two year old if they're going to be scared of the big creatures in the in the costumes, but he was so into it. And yeah, it Honestly, really made the trip like I was talking to my mom about it and she was like, that was wonderful. Like that felt like going to Disney. You know what I mean? Like it felt like we had a Disney experience. Like we didn't get to go into Disneyland and go on rides. But like as far as Sebastian's concerned, he had a special birthday, right? Because he got to hug Mickey Mouse, you know?

Shanna

Yay, I'm so glad you were able to make something special out of that weekend and for his birthday, because what a letdown all around, but it sounds like it turned out just like a perfect little event for his second birthday. So that's awesome.

Laura

And, you know, we're going to go again, maybe like in a month or two, we'll use those tickets and go to Disneyland for real. And this time, you know, every week, basically, he's getting older, he's getting more language. he's getting taller, you know, he can do more at Disneyland, basically. So the longer we wait, the more fun he'll have anyway. So yeah, but yeah, that was my BFP, the character breakfast. And if you are a person going to Disney who hasn't done all the research, I try to get a reservation for one of the character breakfasts. It was very fun. But anyway, that's it for me, and I think that might be it for our show.

Shanna

I think it is. Listeners, do you have any mom confessions you want to share with us? You know we love to hear them. Laura, where can everyone find us?

Laura

We are on Facebook, Instagram, and TikTok at BFB Podcast. We have a website, BigBatPositivePodcast.com. If you want to send us an email, you can always throw a voice memo in there. Just send it to contact at bigfappositivepodcast.com. And finally, if you want to join the coolest group of people you'll ever meet on the internet, just search Facebook for Big Fat Positive Community. It's a private group, so you have to request to join and make sure you answer those two membership questions so we know you're not a robot. Once you do that, you'll be sent straight through to all the wonderful, amazing, very informative and hilarious conversations we're having in there.

Shanna

Our show is produced by Laura Birek, Shanna Micko, and Steve Yager. Thanks for listening, everyone. Bye. Bye.