Erika Bonham dot com

May 6, 2007

So we went to Disneyland yesterday. One of my best friends, Monique, gave us free tickets, free parking, and a $20 food voucher that she couldn’t use so we couldn’t pass it up. (By the way-I gave Monique her quilt and she loved it. She hugged and thanked me a million times and nearly cried.) I had wanted to take Ethan to Disneyland right before he turned three and before we had to pay $53 to get him in. Yes, a child’s ticket is $53. Sick. I was thinking we would go in November, but free tickets now sounded a lot better. So we went and my other best friend ever Georgia came with us. Ethan wouldn’t stop talking about going to Disneyland on Saturday and occasionally would cry because he wanted to go today (today being the days before Saturday). So, we get there. The kid is freaked out and wants to go home. He is a scaredy cat in general, but he was very freaked out by the place. It was initially discouraging, but I think it was just big and loud and overwhelming. We basically forced him to go on each ride we went on. He would whine and cry a little bit, but usually was ok once we were on the ride. He didn’t care for Pinocchio (which I agree was a little freaky) and It’s a Small World (also freaky and LONG). The only ride he actively wanted to go on was the teacups. Weird. He wanted to be in a pink cup (his favorite color) and I had to run to make sure we did in fact get a pink cup. He held his hands up in the air when we went down the little water fall in Pirates of the Caribbean and seemed ok with it. He was pretty much dead serious the whole day, I hope we didn’t scar him for life by forcing him to go on the rides. The kid loves Legoland so I don’t know what the deal was.

I had mentioned to my mom that I wanted to look for a cup for him like these ones Andrew and I had growing up while on a walk a few days before we went there. He informed me later that he was going to get a special cup at Disneyland. The boy is smart. We decided to go on one last ride (Peter Pan) and I told him we would go on the ride, find his cup, then go home. The first thing he said as he got off the ride was “Yay, now we can go get my cup and go home!” He loves his overpriced Mickey cup and I think it will be many years until we will return with him to Disneyland. If we are going to pay for it, he will have to appreciate it and Space Mountain will have to be ridden.

Rides ridden by Ethan:
Dumbo,
Carousel,
Pinocchio,
Teacups,
Pirates of the Caribbean,
Haunted Mansion,
Jungle Cruise,
Storybook Land Canal Boats, and
Peter Pan

Characters hugged:
Mickey and Minnie

Characters approached tentatively:
Goofy

All rides except Dumbo, the carousel, and teacups were ridden by Tegan (who slept through the whole Disneyland experience.)

The last thing I want to mention about the day-Ethan had dry pants all day long. ALL DAY LONG! I had spent the last week taking him to the potty every 20 minutes. He still was having accidents. I didn’t think we were getting anywhere. We occasionally took him to the bathroom there and he kept his diaper dry. Even today, only one accident (probably our fault). I was and am amazed. Maybe he is getting it???

♥