It begins with the Haunted Mansion
Many of you know that we recently booked a great trip to Disneyland for our family in May. So you may be wondering how and why it was decided that Amelia and I should go to Disneyland last weekend.
It all started at the doctor's office. On Friday our suitcases were packed and our family had every intention of visiting my mom over the holiday weekend. However, because Diana had been acting very grouchy, Mike thought it would be a good idea to have her checked by her pediatrician on our way out of town. During Diana's checkup the doctor listened carefully to her breathing and discovered that the poor girl had bronchitis.
All of us were disappointed, but because we knew that our Diana can't help but cough and sneeze all over those she loves, we decided that we should not visit relatives over the weekend. On the drive back home we tried to think of alternate family plans, but nothing came to mind. We didn't want to put Diana through very much in her weakened and cranky state, and we didn't want to risk giving those we love bronchitis. Still, we left our bags packed in case Diana felt much MUCH better the following day.
Saturday rolled around like any other day. In fact, the day was so much like any other day that mommy became irritable thinking of her afternoon of cleaning and gardening (normally a task I enjoy, but not like a vacation). When daddy went upstairs for a shower, Amelia hopped on mommy's lap in front of the desktop computer. Somehow, Amelia and I started talking about Disneyland again, and I searched the Internet for virtual tours of the magic kingdom.
After exploring Main Street, Disneyland, on line I was excited to find a page devoted to my favorite ride: The Haunted Mansion. I was most impressed with the fact that the web page not only had all of the spoken text from the "ghost host" of the Mansion, but it also had the lyrics to songs sung by the ghosts along your journey.
When daddy came downstairs again he found me reading the on line texts: We have 999 happy haunts, but there's room for a thousand. Any volunteers? I showed Amelia photographs of the room with no doors and no windows and asked, hypothetically, how do you get out? She didn't have an answer for that puzzling question, but I assured her that I had visited the Haunted Mansion dozens of times and always managed to escape without any trouble.
Around that time daddy asked if I would like to go to Disneyland. I love going to Disneyland, so the answer seemed obvious to me. But none of this changed the fact that little Diana had bronchitis. I thought it would be very unfair to expect her to ride in the car for eight hours when she felt so sick. Michael then said that his plan was for Amelia and I to go alone.
At first I felt as if I just couldn't go without Mike. I didn't want him to miss out on Amelia's first trip to Disneyland. But Mike was very understanding and pointed out that Amelia and I had talked about going down to Disneyland many times in the past. In fact, one of Amelia's favorite bedtime games was for mommy to name and describe rides at Disneyland.
You see, when we decided it was time for Amelia to give up diapers once and for all we told her that we would take her to Disneyland once she made the switch to underwear. At this point, Amelia hadn't worn a diaper in almost a week. She had some accidents and there was a lot of moaning and complaining and bribing and coaxing, but Amelia was doing well.
So once mommy and daddy agreed and daddy made the reservations on line, he took Amelia aside and asked her if she wanted to go to Disneyland. It didn't sink in for quite some time that daddy meant she would go to Disneyland RIGHT NOW. We were practically packed and ready to go, so it wasn't long until we hit the road.
The first leg of our trip looked remarkably like the drive to Texas Roadhouse, and Amelia started to get suspicious. I asked Amelia if she was excited and she just shrugged. After a couple of minutes she asked, "Are we really going to Disneyland?" "Yes," I told her, explaining that we had to take the road toward Texas Roadhouse to start, but Disneyland was very far away and soon the road would look unfamiliar to her.
Amelia was great all the way to Disneyland - she ate her snacks and sang her songs. Amelia didn't complain a bit and never asked, "Are we there yet?" I stopped for stealth potty breaks twice on the road and Amelia didn't have a single accident.
Fireworks were going off over the Magic Kingdom when we exited Highway 5. I hated to wake Amelia, but I couldn't let her miss out. She was very excited when she realized we were right next door to Disneyland. She loved the fireworks, or what we saw of them. We checked into our hotel around ten o'clock. Around 10:30 Amelia insisted we turn on the TV. She was going to be up for a bit anyway, so after trying to convince her that there was nothing on she would want to watch at that time of night I started to flip through the channels. Amelia had me stop changing channels when she saw ice hockey on the screen. She was up until eleven watching Sports Center.
She is definitely her daddy's daughter.
(to be continued...Lisa)
It all started at the doctor's office. On Friday our suitcases were packed and our family had every intention of visiting my mom over the holiday weekend. However, because Diana had been acting very grouchy, Mike thought it would be a good idea to have her checked by her pediatrician on our way out of town. During Diana's checkup the doctor listened carefully to her breathing and discovered that the poor girl had bronchitis.
All of us were disappointed, but because we knew that our Diana can't help but cough and sneeze all over those she loves, we decided that we should not visit relatives over the weekend. On the drive back home we tried to think of alternate family plans, but nothing came to mind. We didn't want to put Diana through very much in her weakened and cranky state, and we didn't want to risk giving those we love bronchitis. Still, we left our bags packed in case Diana felt much MUCH better the following day.
Saturday rolled around like any other day. In fact, the day was so much like any other day that mommy became irritable thinking of her afternoon of cleaning and gardening (normally a task I enjoy, but not like a vacation). When daddy went upstairs for a shower, Amelia hopped on mommy's lap in front of the desktop computer. Somehow, Amelia and I started talking about Disneyland again, and I searched the Internet for virtual tours of the magic kingdom.
After exploring Main Street, Disneyland, on line I was excited to find a page devoted to my favorite ride: The Haunted Mansion. I was most impressed with the fact that the web page not only had all of the spoken text from the "ghost host" of the Mansion, but it also had the lyrics to songs sung by the ghosts along your journey.
When daddy came downstairs again he found me reading the on line texts: We have 999 happy haunts, but there's room for a thousand. Any volunteers? I showed Amelia photographs of the room with no doors and no windows and asked, hypothetically, how do you get out? She didn't have an answer for that puzzling question, but I assured her that I had visited the Haunted Mansion dozens of times and always managed to escape without any trouble.
Around that time daddy asked if I would like to go to Disneyland. I love going to Disneyland, so the answer seemed obvious to me. But none of this changed the fact that little Diana had bronchitis. I thought it would be very unfair to expect her to ride in the car for eight hours when she felt so sick. Michael then said that his plan was for Amelia and I to go alone.
At first I felt as if I just couldn't go without Mike. I didn't want him to miss out on Amelia's first trip to Disneyland. But Mike was very understanding and pointed out that Amelia and I had talked about going down to Disneyland many times in the past. In fact, one of Amelia's favorite bedtime games was for mommy to name and describe rides at Disneyland.
You see, when we decided it was time for Amelia to give up diapers once and for all we told her that we would take her to Disneyland once she made the switch to underwear. At this point, Amelia hadn't worn a diaper in almost a week. She had some accidents and there was a lot of moaning and complaining and bribing and coaxing, but Amelia was doing well.
So once mommy and daddy agreed and daddy made the reservations on line, he took Amelia aside and asked her if she wanted to go to Disneyland. It didn't sink in for quite some time that daddy meant she would go to Disneyland RIGHT NOW. We were practically packed and ready to go, so it wasn't long until we hit the road.
The first leg of our trip looked remarkably like the drive to Texas Roadhouse, and Amelia started to get suspicious. I asked Amelia if she was excited and she just shrugged. After a couple of minutes she asked, "Are we really going to Disneyland?" "Yes," I told her, explaining that we had to take the road toward Texas Roadhouse to start, but Disneyland was very far away and soon the road would look unfamiliar to her.
Amelia was great all the way to Disneyland - she ate her snacks and sang her songs. Amelia didn't complain a bit and never asked, "Are we there yet?" I stopped for stealth potty breaks twice on the road and Amelia didn't have a single accident.
Fireworks were going off over the Magic Kingdom when we exited Highway 5. I hated to wake Amelia, but I couldn't let her miss out. She was very excited when she realized we were right next door to Disneyland. She loved the fireworks, or what we saw of them. We checked into our hotel around ten o'clock. Around 10:30 Amelia insisted we turn on the TV. She was going to be up for a bit anyway, so after trying to convince her that there was nothing on she would want to watch at that time of night I started to flip through the channels. Amelia had me stop changing channels when she saw ice hockey on the screen. She was up until eleven watching Sports Center.
She is definitely her daddy's daughter.
(to be continued...Lisa)
posted by Lisa, Mike, Amelia, and Diana at 10:45 PM
1 Comments:
Lisa,
Great blog posts and a great Haunted Mansion wesbite. Thanks fr sharing!
Jason
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