Disneyland

This past weekend was Bailey's first (but I'm quite sure not last) trip to Disneyland in California. Jason had to go to training in Los Angeles so we thought we'd make a long weekend of it and spend some time at Mickey's house. Things did not start off so well....

Friday morning we got up and headed for the airport. We arrived with plenty of time and got ready to board. Once everyone was on board the aircraft, the pilot informed us that a pump had broken and that it would take maintenance approximately two hours to fix it. Luckily, they allowed us to deplane so we took the opportunity to go eat breakfast and walk around the airport. After that, the plane was all fixed and we finally took off 2 1/2 hours later than scheduled.

Once airborne, Bailey got really wound up. She would not sit still (nor would she listen as if that's unusual). She was constantly bouncing around, kicking the seat in front of her, and being loud. None of our famous tricks worked. She wasn't interested in watching a DVD or coloring or reading books. And sleep - forget that. To put it in a nutshell, she was terrible. At about the three hour mark, I was so frustrated that I started crying - some of that being apprehension of the return flight I was going to have to take alone on Sunday. I had decided we were cancelling all of our trips with her until she was 10. Our only saving grace was that she didn't scream for 3 1/2 hours. Actually, crying wasn't one of the problems.

We later realized it was the Benedryl making her wound up like that and have officially swore off Benedryl forever. (No, we did not give her Benedryl in hopes she would sleep. She came down with a terrible cough right before we were leaving and I wanted it cleared up quickly. Her pediatrician has said that allergy medicine clears up colds faster than cold medicine. We've had great success with that in the past so I thought I'd try it again. I usually use Claritin but opted for Benedryl because I had a bottle that could be carried on.) But I digress.....

OK...so now we are off the plane without having killed her. We realize the hotel shuttle comes in 15 minutes. We quickly gather our luggage and rush to the shuttle stop opting to freshen up at the hotel rather than wait another 45 minutes for the next shuttle . Right before the shuttle comes, we start getting everything together and when I pull Bailey out of the stroller, it's all wet. Initially we think it must be juice but then realize she had peed through her diaper. Now we changed this diaper right before we flew and it should have lasted 4 hours easily. But given how things went on the plane, this is no surprise. Jason quickly pulls out an outfit for her to change into and I run (yes, sprint - while carrying Bailey, an outfit, and diaper necessities) across the street to the airport to change her before the bus comes. As I return, the bus is waiting and Jason is doing his best to "not have everything together" so it takes a little longer to get his luggage on. As we board, I catch another mother staring at me as if she couldn't believe I did not make changing my child's diaper a priority. Doesn't she know that getting to the shuttle bus to change my child's diaper in the Disneyland Hotel had to be the first priority? Anyway...as if the quick change wasn't enough, while riding on the bus, I start to realize that I failed to bring Bailey any extra pants. I had extra shirts and extra socks but not one single pair of extra pants. And...to top it off, all of the pants I had brought were part of an outfit. I suddenly start to chuckle as I realize my child now has no pants to wear on Sunday. Ahhh...I'm sure Disney has something. They do have stores, right?

We arrive at the Disneyland Hotel and I'm quite sure at this point everything will start getting better until...the clerk tells me our room isn't ready. I proceed to do my best "please tell me it's not true/we've had a terrible morning" routine. Suddenly, he notes that we are from Texas and begins to tell me about all his adventures driving to San Antonio. Realizing this might be my opportunity to get a room early, I pretend to be completely engaged in this conversation. It worked (despite Jason being quite annoyed in my 10 minute conversation about this boring topic).

So...we go to our room, freshen up, and head to Disneyland Park. Bailey was very excited to be there. She was so into everything. We had dinner in Tomorrowland and rode most of the rides in Fantasyland. Bailey fell asleep so Jason and I took the opportunity to ride the Haunted Mansion since it was decorated with the Nightmare Before Christmas theme. After we rode that, we realized that everyone was very tired and our routine was still on Houston time. We thought a good night sleep would do everyone good. We headed back to the room. Bailey quickly fell asleep and Jason and I shared some nachos and a beer and were right behind her.

5 am Saturday, Bailey alerts us that she is awake. Although we were initially annoyed, we later realized her body thought it was 7 am. So...I entertain her for about 45 minutes while Jason sleeps, then Jason entertains her for 45 minutes while I sleep. At 6:30, she had had enough of all this sleeping and declares it is time to wake up and go see Mickey. This is the morning I've been waiting for...breakfast with Minnie & friends. And the morning I've been waiting for does not go as well as I'd hoped. First, I beg her to wear her Minnie Mouse costume which she will have none of so I finally let her be and she wears an outfit that has Mickey and Minnie on it. I guess that's good enough, right? Then as we are packing the stroller, we realize that one of her gloves (yes, the gloves that we bought when I lost her in JCPenney) has been lost. Lastly, I realize I have forgotten her autograph book. (Starting off good, huh?) With nothing we can do about those scenarios, we are off to Disneyland Park again.

Since this is one of the days that the hotel guests can get into the park an hour earlier than everyone else, we get on the monorail about 7:55 and hit Nemo's Submarine Voyage first thing. Good idea since the average wait the rest of the day was about 75-90 minutes. (It only took us 35.) We then hit a store where we grab an autograph book and head to breakfast with Minnie. We sit down and Captain Hook walks in and Bailey lets out a scream so loud that the entire restaurant looked - even the folks outside. Obviously, we declined any real interaction with Captain Hook. But then came the Fairy Godmother. That wasn't so bad. After all, she doesn't have a hook. Next came Pooh who figured out that Bailey liked to play Peek-A-Boo and they were suddenly fast friends. Chip came by and she wanted nothing to do with him. Now finally here comes Minnie Mouse. I'm so excited and then Bailey freaks out. She won't go near her and makes me hold her at a safe distance. (Such a safe distance that another kid looks like he is meant to be in my pictures. At least he's a cute kid.) Although we didn't meet all of Minnie's friends, we decided that four (not including the Captain Hook encounter) was enough and we left. We also decided we'd probably not meet Mickey on this trip either. Although she liked watching the characters from a safe distance, that was as much interaction as she wanted.

We rode a few more rides and she finally fell asleep. Jason and I walked down to ESPN Sports Zone in Downtown Disney and had lunch. She woke up right as were finishing lunch and we headed to California Adventure. There Bailey discovers her true love - the carousel. She asked to ride it and we quickly agreed. She asked again and we said sure. Twelve times later and we had to take her crying off of it. It was late and we still had yet to find her pants for Sunday!

We went to Downtown Disney where her tired melt down immediately began. Jason took her back to the room so I could look around for pants and I grabbed a couple pieces of pizza to bring back for dinner. As soon as we were done eating, all of us quickly fell asleep.

Sunday comes and we are again woken early (this time at 6 am) by the little angel. We were fine with that though as we had decided to pack up early, bring our luggage downstairs, and once again head to Disneyland Park. That wasn't in our original plan but we had such a great time the last few days that we decided to do it. Plus, I had yet to ride It's a Small World which had been decorated for Christmas - a definite must. Our hope was to ride Nemo again but since their wasn't early entry today for hotel guests, by the time we got there the line was already an hour and we decided against it. Instead, we had breakfast, rode some rides, watched a few shows, and did Bailey's favorite (4 times) - the carousel. At that point, it was time to head back to the hotel for the airport shuttle. We sadly said goodbye and exited the park. Bailey was very sad to go. Although she was a trooper about riding rides, we aren't sure they were her favorite. We think she enjoyed the atmosphere and the shows and parade we saw much better than the rides or the character breakfast. And who could forget her real love - the carousel.

Jason walked ahead with Bailey to the hotel to get our luggage while I went to check Lost and Found for the glove one last time (which of course they did not find). As I made my way back to the hotel, I began to get very anxious about the flight home. I found myself lecturing God the whole 7 minute walk about how he needed to help me with Bailey on this flight. I'm sure he found it quite amusing that I was telling him what to do. By the time the bus arrived, I was again in tears. Fear had set in and I just knew I was in for a miserable 3 hours along with all the other passengers on Continental Flight 1759. And this 3 hour misery estimate did not include check in time or baggage claim time.

At this point, God either realized I wasn't going to be able to handle it or it really was the Benedryl. More likely it was some combination of both. Bailey was an angel on the way home. She sat still and we watched a couple movies, read some books, and colored. She occasionally got loud when she got excited but I corrected her and she stopped. She fell asleep with about 30 minutes left in the flight. She had a melt down when I had to wake her up to exit the plane but I didn't care at that point - we were home (and no one else was on the plane).

Home, sweet home.....