Disneyland Day 1

Sorry to coin the Disney phrase but it has been a magical day. But of course we're with a 2-year old and he did his part to remind us that even magical days have a few temper tantrums.

Even with the surprise of the event Stef got us well prepared the night before and so we actually left earlier in the morning than we had planned. As a result we made it to L.A. well before any rush hour traffic (just normal L.A. traffic which is bad enough believe me).

Andrei did pretty well in the car for such a long trip. We stopped at good old Kettleman City for lunch which is almost exactly the halfway point but after being stuck in the car for 3 hours he was none too happy to return and let us know in his special way (i.e., temper tantrum). Just as we hit the outskirts of L.A. proper he settled in for a nap. It was a pretty short one, just 30 minutes but it seemed to help out his attitude and once we hit Anaheim he was pretty cheerful.

As Stef did the checking in Andrei and I walked thru the lobby. We're staying at the Grand Californian which is a pretty nice hotel inside Disneyland. Expensive for what you get, but nice, but hey, it's Disneyland everything is expensive for what you get. There was a guy playing a grand piano and Andrei was captivated by this. Once we got to our rooms he was running back and forth and it was pretty evident he was ready to burn off some energy. So being that we arrived so early we decided to hit the park this afternoon (our original plan was to just walk thru Downtown Disney and hit the parks tomorrow).

As we enter Disneyland (with Andrei's head scanning the landscape back and forth) we see Goofy with an incredibly short line so we figure "Hey, let's give it a shot and see how he reacts to the 7 foot tall live character". In a word, we're amazed. As you can see from the shots, he throws his arms wide apart to give him a big hug. I couldn't even get a picture of Andrei's face because he kept hugging Goofy.





We then decided to hit a couple of rides. To start we decided to see just how fearless our little guy is, so it was off to the Haunted Mansion. I was holding him at first (before you enter the little cars) and he did give a little jump but that was only because the teenagers behind us gave out some hellacious screams at the usual part where the lights go out before you enter the main building. But he was great throughout the ride, waving "Hi" and "Bye bye" to the ghosts.

As we exited the ride we asked him "Was that fun?" and his response was one of his best pronounced words currently, "More." So obviously he wasn't too scared. But next we hit the Winnie the Pooh ride and of course his bedroom is Pooh themed and one of his most loved stuff animals is Pooh. Needless to say the ride put him on could nine.

Next came Pirates of the Caribbean which was a hit for both child and mother since the ride now features Jonny Depp's Captain Jack Sparrow throughout. I couldn't tell who had a bigger smile on their face looking at the characters in the ride, Stef or Andrei.

We then just meandered through the park for awhile having a few snacks along the way. We also did the Buzz Lightyear ride which was hilarious because Andrei figured out that the knob on the car made it twirl around and while Stef and I tried to score points (if you don't know the ride has these laser guns that you shoot at objects and score points) he kept spinning the car around which really hampered our score.

Overall he was mesmerized by it all and we didn't want to over do it on the first day so we headed back to the hotel. But he got a good 3 1/2 hours of Disneyland for the first day and is sleeping pretty well as I write this. Tomorrow we have a character breakfast (a restaurant where the characters come by the table to say hi) and then we're going to let him run around Mickey's Toon Town which we understand is Toddler Mecca. After that we'll try to get in a few more rides before nap time.



And yes, that is his new Mickey Mouse which as you can see is instantly gaining a very special position in the pecking order since he's getting ready to put in on our bed next to Elmo. Mickey should be very flattered indeed.

It is interesting to see, and we've heard this from many people which is why we tried Haunted Mansion first, that 2-year olds don't yet fear things like scary rides and so you can actually take them on just about anything. And sure enough Andrei was fine throughout. The funny part of the Pirates ride was that he was more interested in seeing the animals than the pirates. At that one scene with the pigs and the pirate sitting in the mud, Andrei makes his "oink" sound while pointing his finger at the moving figures.