threadwalker (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
threadwalker) wrote2010-01-03 09:51 am
threadwalker) wrote2010-01-03 09:51 am
Entry tags:
Home Sweet Home
We are home from the Happiest Place on Earth.
The best thing about being home?
No crowds. Your own bed. More than one bathroom. A separate room for the TV and the kids who snore. LOL. But I already miss the park.
The kids were totally fooled. We got all the way to the Disney freeway exit and they were still wondering how long before we'd get to the mountains. F faked a leg cramp in a boy-generated ploy to keep them from noticing the signage that screamed Disneyland while we were pulling off. His fake leg cramp was so realisitic, I almost had a heart attack. When I figured out he was faking I almost punched him in the arm.
There was much shock and joy and squee. We did not, by the way, get up at 4am. We went to bed at 2:30 am and pulled out of here around 8am. We unpacked and began touring the Disney Mall. dinner at the Jazz spot was nummy and then we took in "The Princess and the Frog", which turned out to be a GOOD plan because there was a lot of P&F stuff in the park which wouldn't have made any sense otherwise.
We spent almost the entire trip as a foursome. There was one brief split where Super N and I hit California Screaming on the first day while F and Miss E retreated to the hotel and a brief solo sojourn when I took off to fast-pass something for the family. The whole point of the trip was to spend the time together since F spends so much time at work and in hindsight, I'd say that's exactly what we did.
I love Disneyland. It's not the rides, it's all the beautiful details. It's a park of eye-candy, which is probably why I'm not as entranced with California Adventure (portions of which are under reconstruction)
The park was packed Monday and Tuesday. It closed both days around 11am due to capacity and lines were insanely long (we capitalized on Fast Passes and hitting rides during major show events like Fantastique). I don't like crowds and it was jammed, so I put on a happy face and chanted that I was a nice person everytime someone ran me down with a stroller, knocked into me with a back-pack or just walked into me. It rained Wednesday, which kept the crowds down. We did our super-duper early entry on Thursday (we were at the security check by 6:30 am) and it was beautiful out again on Friday, but the HUGE number of proud "Ducks" fans were absent from the park, presumably busy cheering their team. Our days generally looked like this: roll into park mid-morning, get in some rides, watch street shows, have lunch, more rides, retreat to hotel around 3pm for napping (I hit the treadmill), splashing in pool/hot tub, and mommy-inflicted homework. Return to park between 5 and 7pm and pull out between 10 and midnight.
The kids had a blast. Super N loved every fast-paced thrill ride he could get on. California Screaming was his favorite ride, which he "whoo-hooed" and "wah-hooed" all the way through. Miss E was finally big enough to ride the bob sleds, space mountain, big thunder mountain rail road, Splash Mountain, and Indiana Jones. She had fun. On the coaster-type rides I wanted to keep an arm around her, but she informed me she wasn't a little girl anymore and pushed me away. (*sniff*) I could hear her giggling through those coaster-type rides as she tried to keep her arms up. Her first trips through the Haunted Mansion and Indiana Jones freaked her out, but she eventually got braver and started asking for those.
My favorite moments are when all of us sat together on a ride, which is quite a few of them. I loved it when we all climbed into Indiana Jones, Pirates, Alice in Wonderland, Story Book, etc.
We spent NYE in the main park. We were getting on Indiana Jones (with only a 10 min wait compared to 75 minutes at 11pm each night up to that point!) when everyone started cheering. Yay! It was 2010.
I finally caught a snow flake on mainstreet. F doesn't like parades or street shows and standing around for them is personal hell for him. I could happily park my butt on a bench for half an hour or so and people watch while waiting for a parade. This means we only catch that stuff when we bump into it. We caught the Tiana show 2x while we were waiting to get onto Pirates and I caught the lighting of Sleeping Beauty's Castle because I was on the Fast Pass errand, which is also when it snowed on Main Street. That was super-cool.
We spent our mid-day hotel-time swimming, playing Yahtzee/cards, napping, and relaxing. I've never been a fan of the mid-day rest before, but I think it made it possible for everyone to enjoy the whole trip without anyone wearing out too soon, we avoided the most crowded periods of the day, and we still did stuff together.
It was family-liscious!
Fitness and Healthy-ish Eating at the Happiest Place on Earth
There's a gym at the hotel open from 5am to midnight. yay.
I ran 6+ miles Monday morning, 3.5 miles Tuesday, and 4.5 miles Thursday. I walked A LOT everyday. The original plan was to run everyday, but Wednesday morning I discovered I'd rubbed all the skin off the side of a toe (counting the second-smallest toe on my left foot). It was pretty gross looking and it was painful to walk, so I "wimped" on my run on Wednesday. But I wrapped it in a bandaid and walked all day. Thursday's run felt great! I could have gone longer than 4.5 miles, but the family was waiting for me and it was NYE.
Nutrition wise, I was frugal with the sweets. I packed in my own fruit (although they sell fruit there, I just can't justify spending a couple of dollars on a single piece of fruit.) I also discovered that at places where there was a kid option that wasn't just chicken strips (the Blue Bayou has salmon, the indoor spot on the water... looks like a plantation house - turkey sandwich, etc), the portions were closer to what I should be eating and it came with appetizers of carrot sticks and sides of grapes/fruit. I haven't jumped on a scale, but I was keeping mental tally and I think that overall I did pretty good. I know I feel good.
And the trials and tribulations of being a Parent at the happiest place on earth.
Keeping the Magic Intact:
Miss E is trying really hard to be grown up. At some point Miss E started showing us what was "fake" and was being a buzz-kill. What she was trying to do was show us that she was smart enough to "see" waht was going on. Like the Season of a Million Santas, we had a little sit-down and explained that she steals the magic from us when she does that and while we are at D-land, we need to believe that everything is real. Days later Super N demonstrated that he can listen because he teased me for "stealing the magic" when we were in front of Nemo and I pointed out the "super-cool robot gulls". He totally cracked me up and I agreed that I was bad for doing it.
Hand Gestures
Waiting for the Monorail one morning the kids, who'd been bickerin a bit, were told to be quiet. They resorted to bickering in sign-language. How can you NOT laugh at that?
Of course the gestures got more and more pronounced. Finally the signing was being punctuated by grunts and footstomping and we could tell there was a forecast of tears. Daddy leaned down and told them to be quiet, adding his own gesture for "stop talking". Miss E started to argue saying that they were quiet, so daddy repeated his gesture.
She said, "Daddy, that's not how you say that," and proceeded to sign, "stop talking" for him.
Daddy replied, "Well that's how I say it," repeating his gesture.
Miss E looked down at her fingers and said, "Well that's your own language then and no one else speaks it."
I think I get a gold star for turning my back on the whole thing and keeping my laughing to myself.
Careful of What you Say
At one point in the trip in response to something Miss E was doing, Daddy informed her that her "only job was to be cute". While we were packing up our room to pull out, he told her that her job was to pack her clothes and toys up. To which she replied, "Daddy, you told me that my ONLY job was to be cute. So I don't have to." She lost the argument, but I was cracking up.
Tears and Daddy's Big Question
There was only one major melt down during the trip, which was either mine or Miss E's depending on how you look at it. Miss E gets moody and negative and (IMO) inflicts this on everyone else. Usually I send her to her room to work it out because I refuse to be her audience. Her moodiness had been cropping up during the trip and then quelling as I teased her out of it or distracted her, but she spent most of our early-morning entry into Fantasyland being a sour puss unless she was actually on a ride. I am not a saint and I got fed up.
Isn't it funny how her prolonged moodiness during that one morning just erased all the fun feelings I'd been having? I was really done with being a cheer leader and sincerely ready to go home. I was there to have fun with my family, not be subjected to a 6-year-olds mood swing which, IMO, really just comes across as selfish and bratty. Maybe it's because it had been going on for a few hours straight almost relentless in the face of everyone else's happiness at being at D-land while we were enjoying my favorite part of the park which is Fantasyland. I guess MY mood finally crashed. I did an assessment of how hard I'd been working to make sure everyone was having fun and I'd decided I was done cajooling the happy into anyone else.
So I got myself a hot chocolate and sat her down at a table while daddy and Super N got in line for Casey Jr. I told Miss E that her behaviour was unacceptable. I also told her I never wanted to come back to D-land with her again and that she was ruining my trip. I was totally serious and used the language to make sure she understood that by that point I was done and, frankly, ready to go home. I told her that if there were any future trips to D-land that she could stay home with a family member (if they'd even take her) and, frankly, for the money, Mommy and Daddy could have gone to Europe for 2 weeks without the kids.
She argued with me (of course!) and tried to say she hadn't been sour, but when she was done I used examples of her behaviour from that morning to make my point that it was her behaviour and not the situation that was upsetting me.
She cried. I sipped my hot cocoa. She railed at me and said I didn't love her. I disagreed and pointed out we wouldn't be in D-land if I didn't love her. She cried more and stomped off to a different table to cry. I sipped my cocoa. She's quite the emotional tempest and I was really impressed with how she kept it up. I didn't actually watch her and give her THAT satisfaction. She cried so hard she was hiccupping. She came back over and said I have to make her happy. My eyebrows got as high as they could while I chose my words. She was informed that it's no ones job to make her happy; happy comes from the inside and it's something you share with the world around you it is not something that anyone or anything can make you feel. If you cannot find the happy inside yourself then you only have yourself to blame. She went back to her table and cried some more until she finally settled down to sniffling.
Daddy and Super N got off Casey Jr and I recapped the conversation. Daddy agreed that despite everyone else's good mood and cheer, Miss E had been sour. But he took it to a new level and asked her what she wanted, which was interesting because she said she didn't know and he replied that "I don't know" was nonsense; he put her on the spot and asked her what she wanted. Super N and I quietly watched Daddy talk to Miss E and make her examine what it was that she wanted, what it was that she had and whether or not she could be happy. Turns out she had some happiness inside herself and she really was happy to be there.
Yay Daddy!
There was no more moodiness through the rest of the trip. In fact, on our last night there Miss E informed me that she'd like to live in Disneyland. We could live at Innoventions, which is the future-ish house. We could ride the rides and instead of going to school, learn how to run the park, make cotton candy, and keep the rides running.
P.S. 2009 was an interesting year. I had my own challenges, which in someways I'm still learning to work through. But I think that's the point of life; you're never done learning about yourself or learning how to survive. And I really believe that happiness is something we have inside us and not something we can get from others or find in an object. I don't think I have any serious regrets from 2009 and I am filled with optimism for 2010.
Last night we got home to a house that's still somewhat trashed from our X-mas celebrations and I have a 12th night ensemble to finish, so pardon me if I borrow Mickey's magic mop n bucket while I also marshal the mice and the birds out to the (frigid) sewing workshop to "... whistle as we work..."
The best thing about being home?
No crowds. Your own bed. More than one bathroom. A separate room for the TV and the kids who snore. LOL. But I already miss the park.
The kids were totally fooled. We got all the way to the Disney freeway exit and they were still wondering how long before we'd get to the mountains. F faked a leg cramp in a boy-generated ploy to keep them from noticing the signage that screamed Disneyland while we were pulling off. His fake leg cramp was so realisitic, I almost had a heart attack. When I figured out he was faking I almost punched him in the arm.
There was much shock and joy and squee. We did not, by the way, get up at 4am. We went to bed at 2:30 am and pulled out of here around 8am. We unpacked and began touring the Disney Mall. dinner at the Jazz spot was nummy and then we took in "The Princess and the Frog", which turned out to be a GOOD plan because there was a lot of P&F stuff in the park which wouldn't have made any sense otherwise.
We spent almost the entire trip as a foursome. There was one brief split where Super N and I hit California Screaming on the first day while F and Miss E retreated to the hotel and a brief solo sojourn when I took off to fast-pass something for the family. The whole point of the trip was to spend the time together since F spends so much time at work and in hindsight, I'd say that's exactly what we did.
I love Disneyland. It's not the rides, it's all the beautiful details. It's a park of eye-candy, which is probably why I'm not as entranced with California Adventure (portions of which are under reconstruction)
The park was packed Monday and Tuesday. It closed both days around 11am due to capacity and lines were insanely long (we capitalized on Fast Passes and hitting rides during major show events like Fantastique). I don't like crowds and it was jammed, so I put on a happy face and chanted that I was a nice person everytime someone ran me down with a stroller, knocked into me with a back-pack or just walked into me. It rained Wednesday, which kept the crowds down. We did our super-duper early entry on Thursday (we were at the security check by 6:30 am) and it was beautiful out again on Friday, but the HUGE number of proud "Ducks" fans were absent from the park, presumably busy cheering their team. Our days generally looked like this: roll into park mid-morning, get in some rides, watch street shows, have lunch, more rides, retreat to hotel around 3pm for napping (I hit the treadmill), splashing in pool/hot tub, and mommy-inflicted homework. Return to park between 5 and 7pm and pull out between 10 and midnight.
The kids had a blast. Super N loved every fast-paced thrill ride he could get on. California Screaming was his favorite ride, which he "whoo-hooed" and "wah-hooed" all the way through. Miss E was finally big enough to ride the bob sleds, space mountain, big thunder mountain rail road, Splash Mountain, and Indiana Jones. She had fun. On the coaster-type rides I wanted to keep an arm around her, but she informed me she wasn't a little girl anymore and pushed me away. (*sniff*) I could hear her giggling through those coaster-type rides as she tried to keep her arms up. Her first trips through the Haunted Mansion and Indiana Jones freaked her out, but she eventually got braver and started asking for those.
My favorite moments are when all of us sat together on a ride, which is quite a few of them. I loved it when we all climbed into Indiana Jones, Pirates, Alice in Wonderland, Story Book, etc.
We spent NYE in the main park. We were getting on Indiana Jones (with only a 10 min wait compared to 75 minutes at 11pm each night up to that point!) when everyone started cheering. Yay! It was 2010.
I finally caught a snow flake on mainstreet. F doesn't like parades or street shows and standing around for them is personal hell for him. I could happily park my butt on a bench for half an hour or so and people watch while waiting for a parade. This means we only catch that stuff when we bump into it. We caught the Tiana show 2x while we were waiting to get onto Pirates and I caught the lighting of Sleeping Beauty's Castle because I was on the Fast Pass errand, which is also when it snowed on Main Street. That was super-cool.
We spent our mid-day hotel-time swimming, playing Yahtzee/cards, napping, and relaxing. I've never been a fan of the mid-day rest before, but I think it made it possible for everyone to enjoy the whole trip without anyone wearing out too soon, we avoided the most crowded periods of the day, and we still did stuff together.
It was family-liscious!
Fitness and Healthy-ish Eating at the Happiest Place on Earth
There's a gym at the hotel open from 5am to midnight. yay.
I ran 6+ miles Monday morning, 3.5 miles Tuesday, and 4.5 miles Thursday. I walked A LOT everyday. The original plan was to run everyday, but Wednesday morning I discovered I'd rubbed all the skin off the side of a toe (counting the second-smallest toe on my left foot). It was pretty gross looking and it was painful to walk, so I "wimped" on my run on Wednesday. But I wrapped it in a bandaid and walked all day. Thursday's run felt great! I could have gone longer than 4.5 miles, but the family was waiting for me and it was NYE.
Nutrition wise, I was frugal with the sweets. I packed in my own fruit (although they sell fruit there, I just can't justify spending a couple of dollars on a single piece of fruit.) I also discovered that at places where there was a kid option that wasn't just chicken strips (the Blue Bayou has salmon, the indoor spot on the water... looks like a plantation house - turkey sandwich, etc), the portions were closer to what I should be eating and it came with appetizers of carrot sticks and sides of grapes/fruit. I haven't jumped on a scale, but I was keeping mental tally and I think that overall I did pretty good. I know I feel good.
And the trials and tribulations of being a Parent at the happiest place on earth.
Keeping the Magic Intact:
Miss E is trying really hard to be grown up. At some point Miss E started showing us what was "fake" and was being a buzz-kill. What she was trying to do was show us that she was smart enough to "see" waht was going on. Like the Season of a Million Santas, we had a little sit-down and explained that she steals the magic from us when she does that and while we are at D-land, we need to believe that everything is real. Days later Super N demonstrated that he can listen because he teased me for "stealing the magic" when we were in front of Nemo and I pointed out the "super-cool robot gulls". He totally cracked me up and I agreed that I was bad for doing it.
Hand Gestures
Waiting for the Monorail one morning the kids, who'd been bickerin a bit, were told to be quiet. They resorted to bickering in sign-language. How can you NOT laugh at that?
Of course the gestures got more and more pronounced. Finally the signing was being punctuated by grunts and footstomping and we could tell there was a forecast of tears. Daddy leaned down and told them to be quiet, adding his own gesture for "stop talking". Miss E started to argue saying that they were quiet, so daddy repeated his gesture.
She said, "Daddy, that's not how you say that," and proceeded to sign, "stop talking" for him.
Daddy replied, "Well that's how I say it," repeating his gesture.
Miss E looked down at her fingers and said, "Well that's your own language then and no one else speaks it."
I think I get a gold star for turning my back on the whole thing and keeping my laughing to myself.
Careful of What you Say
At one point in the trip in response to something Miss E was doing, Daddy informed her that her "only job was to be cute". While we were packing up our room to pull out, he told her that her job was to pack her clothes and toys up. To which she replied, "Daddy, you told me that my ONLY job was to be cute. So I don't have to." She lost the argument, but I was cracking up.
Tears and Daddy's Big Question
There was only one major melt down during the trip, which was either mine or Miss E's depending on how you look at it. Miss E gets moody and negative and (IMO) inflicts this on everyone else. Usually I send her to her room to work it out because I refuse to be her audience. Her moodiness had been cropping up during the trip and then quelling as I teased her out of it or distracted her, but she spent most of our early-morning entry into Fantasyland being a sour puss unless she was actually on a ride. I am not a saint and I got fed up.
Isn't it funny how her prolonged moodiness during that one morning just erased all the fun feelings I'd been having? I was really done with being a cheer leader and sincerely ready to go home. I was there to have fun with my family, not be subjected to a 6-year-olds mood swing which, IMO, really just comes across as selfish and bratty. Maybe it's because it had been going on for a few hours straight almost relentless in the face of everyone else's happiness at being at D-land while we were enjoying my favorite part of the park which is Fantasyland. I guess MY mood finally crashed. I did an assessment of how hard I'd been working to make sure everyone was having fun and I'd decided I was done cajooling the happy into anyone else.
So I got myself a hot chocolate and sat her down at a table while daddy and Super N got in line for Casey Jr. I told Miss E that her behaviour was unacceptable. I also told her I never wanted to come back to D-land with her again and that she was ruining my trip. I was totally serious and used the language to make sure she understood that by that point I was done and, frankly, ready to go home. I told her that if there were any future trips to D-land that she could stay home with a family member (if they'd even take her) and, frankly, for the money, Mommy and Daddy could have gone to Europe for 2 weeks without the kids.
She argued with me (of course!) and tried to say she hadn't been sour, but when she was done I used examples of her behaviour from that morning to make my point that it was her behaviour and not the situation that was upsetting me.
She cried. I sipped my hot cocoa. She railed at me and said I didn't love her. I disagreed and pointed out we wouldn't be in D-land if I didn't love her. She cried more and stomped off to a different table to cry. I sipped my cocoa. She's quite the emotional tempest and I was really impressed with how she kept it up. I didn't actually watch her and give her THAT satisfaction. She cried so hard she was hiccupping. She came back over and said I have to make her happy. My eyebrows got as high as they could while I chose my words. She was informed that it's no ones job to make her happy; happy comes from the inside and it's something you share with the world around you it is not something that anyone or anything can make you feel. If you cannot find the happy inside yourself then you only have yourself to blame. She went back to her table and cried some more until she finally settled down to sniffling.
Daddy and Super N got off Casey Jr and I recapped the conversation. Daddy agreed that despite everyone else's good mood and cheer, Miss E had been sour. But he took it to a new level and asked her what she wanted, which was interesting because she said she didn't know and he replied that "I don't know" was nonsense; he put her on the spot and asked her what she wanted. Super N and I quietly watched Daddy talk to Miss E and make her examine what it was that she wanted, what it was that she had and whether or not she could be happy. Turns out she had some happiness inside herself and she really was happy to be there.
Yay Daddy!
There was no more moodiness through the rest of the trip. In fact, on our last night there Miss E informed me that she'd like to live in Disneyland. We could live at Innoventions, which is the future-ish house. We could ride the rides and instead of going to school, learn how to run the park, make cotton candy, and keep the rides running.
P.S. 2009 was an interesting year. I had my own challenges, which in someways I'm still learning to work through. But I think that's the point of life; you're never done learning about yourself or learning how to survive. And I really believe that happiness is something we have inside us and not something we can get from others or find in an object. I don't think I have any serious regrets from 2009 and I am filled with optimism for 2010.
Last night we got home to a house that's still somewhat trashed from our X-mas celebrations and I have a 12th night ensemble to finish, so pardon me if I borrow Mickey's magic mop n bucket while I also marshal the mice and the birds out to the (frigid) sewing workshop to "... whistle as we work..."