Disney Adventure

Nate and I really enjoyed our Disney adventure yesterday. We're incredibly fortunate to live where we do. The area is full of family-filled fun, parks, classes & activities for kids & moms and great weather year-round, enabling full-fledged participation in whatever suits your fancy. Quite possibly the best part for the kids is our accessibility to Disneyland. It's about 1/2 an hour from our door to the park and kids 2 and under are free. I bought an Annual Pass which cost me around $150 (with parking included) for the year. Saturdays are exempt, as are most of the months of July & August or June & July? I forgot, but it's a busy, hot time so not desirable if you live nearby any-hoo. The crowd yesterday was medium-sized and it was about 70 degrees or so, nothing to complain about.

I decided to let Nate run the show (I left Will at home with our babysitter because we went for the afternoon during Will's nap time - have I mentioned Nate rarely naps these days? That's talk for another day. . .). Nate's a fairly experienced Disney-goer, so he knows most of the rides and has a good idea of what is where. His picks were in this order: Astroblasters (Buzz Lightyear rides where you get to shoot at targets as you go & probably my favorite, too), Finding Nemo, Autotopia (driving cars), the train (which we took to New Orleans Square), the Haunted House, the boat ride to Pirates Lair (I think it's called or Tom Sawyer's Island - we lucked out and Jack Sparrow was riding to the island on our raft, too!), the petting zoo & then a stop for a snack... ut-oh! It was the snack stop where our magical journey ended and the tantrum attacked!

I like to treat myself to a grande iced decaf sugar-free vanilla latte and a chocolate croissant every time we go (I deserve it!). We always stop at the same little spot on Main Street - Blue Ribbon Bakery (10% off food in the park with our annual pass... cha-ching). Because Nate was being such a big boy and making such important choices throughout the day, I let him chose a special treat for himself. And, ahh, he chose the lovely Mickey Mouse sugar cookie (a hard one to miss). We got our treats and I did the unspeakable. I broke an ear off the large cookie so Nate could easily carry it while riding on my shoulders to the car (no strollers here!). I should have been using my ever-developing "2-yr-old brain" and realized how devastated he would be when his cookie no longer looked like the perfect Mickey face it was.

Needless to say, Nate screamed, collapsed, rubber-boned it at our Blue Ribbon Bakery (thankfully a parade was marching away down Main Street to help mask the fall-out). After putting on my most "I'm a calm mom, able to deal with any circumstance, and I know just what to do in the most loving of ways" face, I did my best to calm the crazed little bugger, at least enough to get us out of the park in one piece. Though looking "Mom of the Year" externally, inside I was tired and stressed. Eventually, my patience wore thin & I threw a little fit myself. I broke the entire cookie into bite-sized pieces so you could no longer tell if it had been Mickey or a mongoose, picked him up and marched to a secluded curb where he could burn off some steam (me, too) and we could then get to the car and home as hurriedly as we had headed off to the park that morning.

If you couldn't have guessed, Nate was sound asleep before we even got to the freeway, slept until nearly 7pm (2 1/2 hours), was in bed by 8:30 and came plodding down the stairs at nearly 8:00 this morning. Go Nate!

One of those "special moments that help me survive motherhood" happened not long after we got home last night. Rick and Will had been out on a bike ride when we returned home and I was at the stove making dinner when they came in the door. Will smiled, squealed, ran to give me a great-big hug on my leg, and gave my knee lots of kisses by rubbing his slobbery face all over it. He was so happy to see me. It was enough to make my attitude a good one for the rest of the evening.