The Small Family   

Hi everyone--it’s me, Theo. Since this week’s blog is about our big Disneyland trip, Mom and Dad thought I ought to write it. After all, even though they had selfish motives for taking the trip (a great love of roller coasters being among them), really, a lot of it was because they thought it would be fun for me. So, since it was All About Me, it seems fitting that I write about it.

I don’t think Mom and Dad had the greatest week leading up to the trip, which made a vacation all the more welcome. They got news that CitiMortgage denied their request for a loan modification (they were trying to convert to a fixed-rate mortgage), and then they found out that Citi also compromised Mom’s security by printing her Social Security number on the outside of an envelope containing tax information that they sent her. All of that means nothing to me, but I do know it resulted in a few choice words from both Mom and Dad, along with a declaration that all the boneheads in the world must work at Citi.

Then, Mom went to their tax appointment while Dad stayed home with me. Normally Daddy would go too, but he cheerfully offered to stay home and take care of me…perhaps because he didn’t want to hear the bad news in person. And oh, bad news it is! I’ll spare you the details, but let’s just say that the amount Mom and Dad have to come up with to cover taxes, first-quarter estimates, and Mom’s IRA contribution adds up to enough to buy a brand-new Toyota Prius. Apparently that’s a lot of money. But I told Mom and Dad that no one wants to buy a Toyota right now anyway, so they might as well send that money to the government and pad Mom’s retirement account. (For the record, I tried to help them out of this bind. Mom worked a lot this last year. Mostly she did it while I slept or while Daddy watched me, but whenever she would try to work while I was awake and not with Daddy, I would immediately demand her attention. She didn’t understand my motives, but I was trying to get her not to work as much, so she wouldn’t have such a high tax bill. She really should’ve listened to me. I’m a smart boy, you know….)

So, early the morning after the ill-fated tax appointment, we all got up to drive to Disneyland. It’s about seven hours away, so Mom and Dad had the bright idea to leave the house at 4am so I’d sleep in the car for several hours. Ha--I showed them! I stayed wide awake from 4am to 6:30am, and then I finally took a 45-minute snooze. They stopped to let me run around for an hour while we ate breakfast, but even that didn’t tire me out. I whined ceaselessly for the next 90 minutes in the car, until Mom finally said, “I can’t take it anymore!” and put a DVD on a portable player for me. Then I settled quietly in for the rest of the ride, and Mom and Dad agreed that the money spent for the portable DVD player a couple years ago was a very wise investment.

Our first couple days weren’t exactly relaxing. I was getting sick, you see, and still working on those last two molars, so I was really grumpy. I had a lot of tantrums and whined a lot. Mom and Dad were pretty patient given that I wasn’t feeling great, but even they were worn thin by the end of the day. Also, there’s a lot to see at Disneyland, and I didn’t understand why Mom and Dad didn’t stop at every little thing and let me out of the stroller. They kept trying to tell me they were taking me to an area just my size, but I don’t really understand such concepts yet, so I just let them know how mad I was that they wouldn’t let me out whenever I wanted. By the third day, though, I had figured out that there are several areas at Disneyland and California Adventure (the other Disney park there) that are indeed just my size, so I started to trust that if Mom and Dad walked me past something that looked interesting without stopping, they were probably taking me someplace even more fun.

My favorite parts of Disneyland and California Adventure were Mickey’s Toon Town and the Redwood Challenge Trail. Mickey’s Toon Town has all kinds of houses and stores to play in designed just for little kids. I went in Minnie’s house, Mickey’s house, and Chip and Dale’s treehouse, and I had lots of fun playing in the dog pound, the post office, and Goofy’s playground. Everything was just my size, and there were lots of fun buttons to push and things to climb in.

The Redwood Challenge Trail had lots of trails and big trees, along with several lookout towers joined by rope bridges way high up! One of my favorite things to do is climb stairs, so I was pretty excited to climb up three stories to the top of each lookout tower over and over again. I also really liked the rope bridges, which Mom thought were scary. They had nets right underneath them and were completely secure for little guys like me, but Mom doesn’t really like heights, so she was a big weenie about walking across them (but don’t tell her I said that!). Dad was way more adventurous on those.

I also really liked climbing up four stories to the top of a big treehouse in Disneyland. Four whole stories¾I climbed all those stairs by myself (with Mom right behind me in case I toppled, of course)!

Mom and Dad were hoping I’d want to go on a couple small rides, but I let them know in no uncertain terms that I would not be doing that. I’m a pretty adventurous guy who will try almost anything, so they were a little surprised, but they didn’t push the issue. I almost got on a carousel once, but then I smacked Daddy in the face and ended up with a timeout instead. C’est la vie…

Instead of rides, what I liked to do was help clean up the parks. I would find eating areas where I didn’t like the arrangement of the chairs, and I would spend a lot of time rearranging them. And, I would pick up spare leaves and throw them in garbage cans. Mom thinks I may be headed for a career in the sanitation industry. I also liked manning the exit gates at various rides, though sometimes I’d get mad if someone wanted to come out when I wanted the gate closed. The nerve of those people…

So what did Mom and Dad do? Well, they took turns with me so that they could go on rides. Turns out Disneyland and California Adventure offer Single Rider passes on a number of the best rides, so they got to bypass most of the lines and get right on. (They just fit a single person in where there’s a space on the ride.) Mom was elated because she got to ride her favorite roller coaster, California Screamin’, eight times! Why is this Mom’s favorite ride? Because it’s FAST, it’s long (sixth longest coaster in the world), and it’s amazingly exciting, with several big drops, tight turns, and a loop. Unlike a traditional roller coaster, which uses a chain to slowly pull you to the top of the first hill, California Screamin’ uses Linear Induction Motors to send the coaster flying up the first hill at 59 mph…you go from 0 to 59 mph in four seconds. Mom is an adrenalin junkie who absolutely LOVES this ride, and Daddy is in agreement. Best. Coaster. EVER! Mom and Dad also enjoyed the Tower of Terror (a drop ride based on a Twilight Zone segment), Space Mountain (another roller coaster), Splash Mountain (a water ride), Thunder Mountain (a smaller coaster, but an old favorite), Grizzly River Run (a whitewater ride that gets you very wet), and all the old favorites, such as Small World (appropriate!) and Pirates of the Caribbean.

Saturday was a rainy day, so we didn’t go to the park. Instead, we drove to San Diego and went to the Birch Aquarium at the Scripps Oceanography Institute. I really liked that, since I’m a big fan of “ish” of all types, and I enjoyed looking in the tanks to see all the pretty “ish.” They had a fun seahorse exhibit, too, and you know who contributed a lot of money to it? My good friends at the Dr. Seuss Foundation! Thought that was kind of neat, since we love his books.

We also tried to go to an interactive science museum in San Diego, but apparently everyone else in Southern California had the same idea, so when we couldn’t find parking, we just went to Seaport Village to walk around instead.

Our only other non-Disney activity was a trip to lunch with Orren and Michelle in Costa Mesa. (Did you all know Mom was born right next door to Costa Mesa, in Huntington Beach??) Orren is Mommy’s coworker, and Mom and Dad really like him and his wife, Michelle. We met for lunch at a brewery so they could give me a lot of beer to mellow me out. (Kidding about that last part, of course!) I was just about to break out with my cold, so I was very, very grumpy. Daddy was a nice guy and took me outside in the beautiful weather for a walk so Mommy could chat with Orren and Michelle, and I rewarded him by allowing him to go back inside the brewery to eat lunch for 10 minutes before launching into fussy mode again.

Funny thing is, I felt a lot better once my cold broke. I was very grumpy Friday, part of Saturday, and Sunday…and then Sunday night, it became apparent that I was sick. My nose was running, I was coughing, and my eyes were all bright red and bloodshot. (I was also tired and staggering around by the end of Sunday, so between that and my bright-red eyes, I looked like a drunk on a serious bender, Mom said.) And I had a little fever. But Monday morning, I woke up still sick…but in a great mood. So Mom and Dad decided we’d try the park and see how it went. As it turns out, Monday and Tuesday were our best days. I was sick (and even threw up a banana all over myself to prove it), but I guess I felt a little better than the days leading up to the cold, because I was a lot more agreeable and had a good time with Mom and Dad. I wasn’t sick enough to warrant a doctor visit, so Mom and Dad just decided we might as well play it by ear and stay as long as I seemed to be enjoying myself. So, we had a great last two days, despite me being sick.

Mommy says to tell you that this week’s pictures aren’t super great because she didn’t want to take her big, nice camera to Disneyland and leave it in the stroller unattended. So we took our little pocket camera, and thus the pictures are a little fuzzy. (Mom is a photo-perfectionist these days. Anything less than her nifty camera, and she thinks the pictures look cheesy! We did take the big camera to the aquarium, but the rest of the pictures are from the pocket camera or the iPhone.)

Hope you’ve all had a wonderful two weeks. Since we’ve been home, Mommy and Daddy have been working a lot to catch up from vacation and to pay for that new Prius…er, tax bill. But hopefully we’ll have some new adventures to tell you about next week! Until then…