I may have mentioned that we recently visited Disneyland. This was our big trip for the year, and as such we had high hopes for lots of excitement, rides and memory making. The small child we took with us had other ideas.
Last year when we made this trip, we did it in December, for his 2nd birthday. We mistakenly thought that going in December before Christmas was a good idea - that there wouldn't be big crowds. Boy was that a silly idea. I had no idea that many people make the trek to Southern California 2 weeks before Christmas to see the Mouse. So this year we planned to avoid the Christmas rush (and the chance of snow in the mountains, and, most importantly, having to pay for him to get in if we went after his 3rd birthday) and go the first week of October. Again, I thought the crowds would be light - that since school had just started there wouldn't be too many people there. WRONG. I am starting to get the idea that Disneyland is busy year round. Who knew?
But this is all beside the point. I needn't have worried about whether the line for Dumbo was going to be unmanageable. All he wanted to do was see the Mouse.
In our lead up to the trip, we started introducing him to Mickey Mouse. He hasn't seen any of the Mickey movies or television shows yet, so I showed him pictures on the computer and explained we were going to Mickey Mouse's park. He seemed interested. So I was encouraged. I planned for us to go to the character breakfast at one of the resorts. And then it dawned on me - what if he's terrified of an adult dressed in a mouse suit?
On our first morning there we randomly ran into Pluto as we were coming out of the Mad Hatter shop. We were 5th in line to greet him. Score! When it was his turn, my scaredy cat child, who won't even go down the slide by himself, ran right up to Pluto, hugged him and gave him a high-five. Thank the Disneyland gods.
After meeting Pluto, he got into the stroller, looked up at me and said, "Okay. Now let's go find Mickey Mouse." When I asked him if he wanted to hit some of the rides first, he looked at me again, this time with annoyance, and said again, "Let's go find Mickey Mouse." Duh.
