The Small Family     

We’re baaaaaack!! And I’m pleased to report that we had a wonderful time on our trip. As is inevitable when taking a small child to someplace like Disneyland, there were some issues related to one small blond gremlin being overtired and overstimulated and refusing to nap. But all in all, Theo did terrific, and we had so much fun!

Just as we did last year, we set out bright and early (well, dark and early) at 4am, with the idea that maybe Theo would sleep for part of the seven-hour drive. Um, no. Last year he napped for 90 minutes. This year we weren’t so lucky. He napped for 20 minutes. And he had been up until after 10pm the night before (in his crib at 8:30--he just stayed awake until after 10!), so you can imagine that he really needed to sleep some more. But no…why sleep? Sleep is for the weak, people!

We got down to Anaheim shortly after noon, and luckily, our hotel had our room ready for us, so we were able to get checked in and settled before hitting the parks. Thumbs up on the Paradise Pier hotel, by the way. It’s the least expensive of the three Disney hotels down there--largely because it’s also the farthest from the park entrances. But we didn’t find the distance to be a problem--we were a five-minute walk from the California Adventure park and a ten-minute walk from the Disneyland gates, so no big deal. The hotel itself was clean and quite spacious, and the rooms were quiet--I actually liked it better than the Disneyland hotel for that reason. We would definitely stay there again--and it didn’t hurt that we had a nice view of the California Adventure park from our seventh-floor room! Theo loved pointing out “Mama’s favorite roller coaster!” from our window. (This actually became a slight problem at 3am on our second night in the hotel, when Theo woke up, proclaimed loudly, “All done sleeping!” and proceeded to keep opening the curtains to point out all the features at California Adventure for two hours before we gave him a small dose of Benadryl to try to get him a little more much-needed sleep!)

Last year, Theo wanted nothing to do with the rides at the parks; he preferred to just play in the play areas and pick up leaves to throw in the garbage. Which was fine, but we were kind of bummed that we couldn’t take him on any rides. This year was the opposite--he loved the rides and wanted to go on them all the time! In fact, it became quite a teaching moment when trying to explain that we couldn’t just stay on the rides all day--we had to wait our turn in line, then ride, then get off so someone else could ride. Waiting in line is not Theo’s favorite thing, by any means.

Here’s something we noticed about waiting in line: None of the other toddlers there were quite as wiggly as ours. No kids like waiting in line; this is a fact. Most kids will wander around a bit and explore while waiting; this, too, is a fact. However, I have to say, with some pride and some mortification, that Theo put them all to shame in terms of being generally antsy in line. Often he wanted to be held--but he would writhe and thrash and go horizontal while we tried to hold him. It was like trying to hold a squirming 30-pound puppy. Then he’d want to be down. Depending on the line setup, sometimes he had to hold our hand, while other times we could let him wander within the small confines of our area. If we could let him wander, he was constantly trying to climb into the landscaping to examine the flowers. Or climb the fence so he could touch the speakers. If we held his hand, he was running circles around us, trying to hang off our arms, or trying to use us as leverage to climb something. It was, in a word, exhausting. We saw other two- and three-year-olds being relatively calm in comparison and wondered, “Who are these children? What’s it like to have one of those??”…all the while reminding ourselves that a very active, curious child is a good thing, even if exhausting. At one point, waiting in line for a caterpillar train ride, Chris was holding Theo’s hand while Theo attempted to scale a wall using only his feet. Then Theo began spinning circles around while Chris struggled to keep a hold on his hand, prompting Chris to finally say, “Theo, this is not some sort of warped dance competition! We’re waiting in line!” I burst out laughing, because that was an apt description--Theo looked like some sort of three-year-old break-dancer!

I should say, to Theo’s credit, that he usually wasn’t being bratty in line—most of the time he wasn’t throwing tantrums or anything. He was just so very, very, very active! There is no rest in that child….

Another not-so-fun part of waiting in line was Theo’s idea that whenever he is bored, he ought to be taken to the bathroom. As you all know, waiting in line is boring. So every time we were in line or he was sitting in the stroller to walk to another attraction, we heard, “Feo need go bathroom! Feo need go peepee!” And very often, this was not true. We took him to the bathroom before almost every ride, but within two minutes of waiting in line, he would decide that he needed to go again. Sometimes we took him--only to find that he was indeed bluffing. Other times (many times), we just told him he could go after the ride. And what do you know--as soon as we were finished waiting in line, he magically forgot he supposedly had to go! I’m not exaggerating when I tell you that we heard this well over 50 times per day. So you can imagine that on our last day in the parks, when it was pouring rain and we were covered in ponchos, waiting to get into the nice, covered, dry Small World ride, we had little patience for this. We took him literally right before getting in line--and within two minutes of being in line, he started insisting again. I finally said, in exasperation, “If you need to go that badly, you can go in your pants. You’re already soaked anyway”--knowing full well that Theo would never willingly go in his pants. The man in front of me looked at me as if I should be locked up for child neglect, and I was tempted to hand him my toddler and say, “Bring him back to me in two hours--have fun!” ;-)

Speaking of Small World, it is indeed a small world! As we were leaving Disneyland one night, a woman in front of us turned around and said, “You’re from Roseville, aren’t you?” I said, “Yes--how did you know?” Turns out she’s the mother of a child from Theo’s Little Gym class last semester--when she turned her stroller around, I recognized her son, Benicio! Small world indeed…

And further speaking of Small World, I think we can officially say that is Theo’s favorite ride. He was positively entranced by the puppets and music! We rode it twice, and he loved it! I think his other favorite attraction was World of Color, which he dubbed, “Water Music.” (He actually can’t make the u sound, so it comes out as “Water Moo-sic,” which for some reason utterly charms me!) World of Color is held at California Adventure each night, and it’s really neat! (For those who don’t know, by the way--California’s Disneyland is divided into two parks: Disneyland proper and California Adventure, which is a newer park. You can walk from one park to the other and enter both as often as you want each day. Very convenient!) Basically, they have a bunch of water fountains that spray streams of water in time with music, and it’s all lit up with different colors. It lasts for about 30 minutes, I think, and the music and lights and images are all, obviously, Disney-based. Theo loved it--except that it’s very loud. He’s pretty sensitive to loud noises lately, so he was doing a lot of covering his ears. But he sat in his stroller, transfixed, with his ears covered, and every day after that he asked about wanting to see “Water Music!” We actually didn’t end up seeing it again, as it’s held at night and he was usually worn out by then, but we could see bits of it from our hotel room, which he thought was neat.

Another amusing thing we found about Theo during this vacation: He is fearless. Well, we knew that already, but he proved it. This was really the first time he’s been around a lot of rides, so we thought he might be nervous. Last year, as I said, he didn’t go on any. And we recently took him to Funderland in Sacramento, but that’s very, very small, and much less overwhelming than something like Disneyland. But right from the get-go, Mr. Independence did not want Mom or Dad helping him. When I’d try to hold him on the carousel animals, he’d get aggravated and push my hand away. Same thing on the rides. (Naturally, I won this one. He’s too small to ride without someone holding him on most things, so he just had to deal with his annoyance.) Boy, I can only imagine when he’s older. He’s not going to want me within 50 yards of him, lest I try to help him with something!

So our days at the park were a lot of fun and definitely exhausting. The bonus at the end of a long day? Turns out our hotel had a reasonably priced casual restaurant, so we ate dinner there each day. And they had delicious sangria, so we treated ourselves to a glass each night--much needed after an entire day of Disney chaos!

I think our most ridiculous moment of the trip may have been at my expense. Part of our Disney package included a “Character Call” for Theo--that is, Mickey and Goofy would call him on Friday morning and welcome him to the park. Our call was scheduled for 9am on Friday, so I made sure to have Chris’s phone (where the call was scheduled to come in) at the ready while we got dressed. At 8:59am precisely, the phone rang. I answered it, and the woman said, “Hello, can I speak to Mr. Small?” I said, “Of course! Theo, someone wants to talk to you!” The woman corrected me and said, “Mr. Christian Small,” to which I replied, “Oh, you mean Theo, my son. Chris is my husband, and he doesn’t need a call from Goofy!” The woman laughed politely and said, “Of course he doesn’t. I’m calling from the United Way, and we’re seeking donations to help the victims of the Japan quake and tsunami….”

Oh dear…did I really just tell a United Way volunteer that my husband didn’t need a call from Goofy?!?! I believe she thought I was nuts! I explained the situation, and she got a good laugh…at my expense. :-)

We skipped the parks on Saturday and Sunday (too crowded!) and instead went to San Diego on Saturday. We had thought to go to a couple of kid-friendly museums in Balboa Park that we have free admission to…but it turns out it was Family Day in Balboa Park, so you couldn’t get anywhere near the place! It took us 45 minutes just to navigate out of that traffic nightmare…sigh….

Instead, we had lunch at a delicious café we remembered from last time we were there, and then we went to a playground and the beach on Coronado Island. Theo is a beach freak! The surf was very calm at that beach, so he and I splashed at the edge of the water and had fun running from the incoming water. He was in heaven! I wish I had more pictures of it, but we left the camera in the car. He was soaked from head to toe by the end of our time on the beach, but he was in utter bliss! We also collected a bunch of shells, which he thought was great fun.

Sunday was rainy, so our options were limited. We had plans to meet friends (Orren and Michelle--I have worked with Orren for years, and Michelle is his wife) for lunch, so for the morning, we just went to a local children’s museum. It’s a very small natural history museum, and we actually thought Theo would get bored quickly, as there wasn’t a lot to do. But he surprised us--he loved it. In fact, he was rather bummed to have to leave after 90 minutes. Specifically, he loved collection of African musical instruments. Everything in the museum in hands on, and we had the place to ourselves, so Theo got to explore to his heart’s content. I think he tried out every single African musical instrument there--and there were a lot of them! Many were quite unusual, and whenever he didn’t know what one was, he declared that it was a tuba, and proceeded to show us how it could be played like a tuba. This held true for various unusual percussion instruments--and if you’re wondering how on earth those could be played as a tuba, Theo will happily show you!

He was also rather interested in the tent set up to be part of the Silk Road, complete with spice boxes and silk scarves and tapestries. Eventually, he decided that worlds ought to collide, and he brought many of his beloved African “tubas” over to the Silk Road. It was quite the event!

After lunch with Orren and Michelle, we thought to try a nifty hands-on science museum for kids, but Theo (who resisted naps for most of the trip) fell asleep in the car on the way there, so instead we just drove around in the rain and enjoyed seeing some of the coastal towns of Orange County. We even swung by my parents’ house when I was a baby--the house I was brought home to!

As with all vacations, this one was over far too soon, but we sure had a good time! We were not looking forward to the seven-hour drive home, because that’s a very long time for an antsy toddler to be stuck in the car, and given that he didn’t nap on the way down (and spent much of the trip telling us he needed to go potty every five minutes), we were expecting the worst. Imagine our surprise when he ended up sleeping for two hours! We left Anaheim at 4:45am to try to beat the traffic through LA, and by 5:30am, Theo was sound asleep in his car seat, having not fussed at all. Chris fell asleep too, and I had a peaceful, dark drive through the mountains (there was a ton of snow--the pass had actually been closed the day before!) and into the Central Valley before both of them woke up around 8am. Given that we still had about 3 1/2 hours to go, we figured Theo would get antsy after a while, but no--he was a little prince the entire drive home. Go figure…

We stopped for lunch and then arrived home at about 1pm…to find the house at subzero temps! Okay, it wasn’t subzero; it was 59 degrees. But still--brrrrrr! Turns out our furnace had broken sometime while we were gone. After troubleshooting as much as I could with my Mom’s help, I called a local repair place, and they were able to come out that afternoon and fix it. $233 and a cracked ignitor later, and we were back in business and on our way to having a nice, warm house! Good thing--I was tempted to turn around and go back to the nice, warm hotel. ;-)

I usually post on Sunday nights, but I'm just going to go ahead and post this early! We have nothing of note planned for this weekend, so I doubt I'll have much more to report if I wait a few days anyway. Our only big event is Theo's visit to his potential preschool, scheduled for this Friday, and I can cover that next week. Hope you've all had an excellent couple of weeks!