Miss A and the 3rd M have been having Play Dates for a while now. They have a standing weekly date at the Children’s Museum. Here are some fun pictures of their explorations.
Gotta drive the Fire Truck!
Play on the jungle gym…
Make Art…
And now off to the Vet. Better make sure you’ve handle those animals with care.
Then it’s Pirate Time! Ohh Arggh!
See you next week, Miss A!
The 3rd M barely slept on his final night in the hotel. A little grumpy, he entered the park. And then saw these two critters playing around….
Faster than you could say “M-O-U-S-E”, the third M ran over to say ‘hi’. After a few hugs and kisses from Chip (or Dale?), I caught this shot, which shows his mad grin from ear to ear.
I slipped in a selfie with Mr. Duck and Gra’Ma and then back to see what the 3rd M was doing.
That’s when both Chip and Dale decided the 3rd M was their man and walked him all around the main square on Main Street. They giggled and jumped and hugged and kissed him for about 20 min. Unfortunately, I thought I caught it all on video. But I didn’t. Boo! I did get this priceless picture, though.
I want to point out that they pretty much ignored all the other people who wanted to see them. But boy, was the third M super happy after that! All grumpiness forgotten!
We spent the next few hours exploring the park and then having lunch. With no nap, the 3rd M ran from New Orleans Square to Tomorrowland, up and down a bunch of ramps (because Tomorrowland has a slew of them) and then, after riding the monorail, he ran from Downtown Disneyland back to the hotel! That was probably a good two miles.
Then we head off to the airport, which may have been the second best part of the day because we watched airplanes of all sizes taking off and landing. The 3rd M labeled each plane a plane for him, Gra’Ma, Gra’Pa, Mommie or Daddy.
Still hoping for a nap (and shocked there wasn’t one), the 2nd M, gave him a binkie and spoke to him softly. Somehow, on the hour and a half plane ride home, he was still awake. The 1st M and Gra’Pa picked us up and he still stayed awoke, chatting furiously. But when he got back home, and put his head on the pillow. He was out dreaming of 7 foot tall Chipmunks in no time.
The night of the first day, “Gra’Ma” showed up just before bed. The 3nd M was over the moon! He kept saying “Hi, Gra’Ma…Hi Gra’Ma….Hi Gra’Ma” and hugged and kissed her repeatedly. Gra’Ma and I translated this to mean, “Oh Grandmom, I’m so happy to see you. While I’ve had a wonderful time riding on trains, planes and automobiles, I still have some anxiety about being away from home and my dad. Disneyland is amazingly wonderful, but also bewildering, so it’s really nice to see a friendly face. I really love you and I’m just glad you’re here. It makes me feel more at home.”
The 2nd M (that’s me) was happy to see Gra’Ma as well, because she got the 3rd M ready and they both walked to the park Sat. morning, while the 2nd M got to do big kid stuff (Space Mountain, the Matterhorn and Star Tours.)
Then it was all smiles on the Mad Hatter Tea Cups…
..the Carousel…
….and Toon Town…
Of course, with the 3rd M being a Princess Connoisseur, we had to explore Sleeping Beauty’s castle repeatedly. No stone was left unturned. (Sleeping Beauty is his favorite, followed by Snow White and then, finally, Cinderella.)
We attempted three times to see the Princesses in the Royal Hall, but each time, the 3rd M couldn’t get past his abnormally shy demeanor to grab a photo op. Cinderella said they could be “Friends at a Distance” and Snow White said he was just like one of her dwarves –bashful.
But, we found out that the woman he pined for, Sleeping Beauty, was going to be at the Wishing Well! So we quickly scampered over and got in line. Her handler, deft at handling two year olds, ‘traded’ his clicker for the camera, currently held by the 3rd M, who, moments before, took the shot below of said Handler.
After a few tries, we caught this shot. And the 3rd M finally forgot his bashfulness and told Sleeping Beauty all about his adventures in Disneyland.
The 3rd M was good at finding the little design features throughout the park, including this egg partially hidden in the landscaping.
On the way back to the hotel, we stopped at the Hotel California for lunch and ran into the Chipmunks! Their hug and kiss occurred faster than I could pull a camera out. Sorry, folks!
After our nap, we returned for the afternoon parade. We got great seats overlooking everything!
Then to Downtown Disney for dinner and some Lego car racing!
Of course, there was a little bit of this at the end of the night…
All and all it was a very very good day. With one more day left, we all went back to the hotel to get a good night’s sleep….
Getting up super early , getting dressed and walking to Disneyland was a breeze! Standing in line with a two-year old, not so much.
Luckily, that was the only bit of the above we saw that morning.
Then it was off to the a quick succession of rides! Twelve within the first few hours, folks. The 3rd M was a TROOPER! Of course, we really didn’t stand in any lines.
The first ride, Pinocchio’s Daring Adventure, was surprisingly scary, but the 3rd M afterward said, “No, I’m not scared. I’m happy!” So off to Dumbo….as you can see, he wasn’t so sure about that one.
But he started to warm up and gave half a smile for the next shot.
Since the Disneyland Railroad was closed for the making of the new Starwars Land, we road Casey the Circus Train a few times. This was by far, the 2nd M’s favorite ride. In fact, two days later, when asked what his favorite ride was, he’ll still say “The Choo Choo Train.”
On the second ride, I put him in the cage marked “Wild Animals.”
Some how I extracted him from the Choo Choo Train. (To this day, I can’t figure out how I pulled it off. I think he was still in shock from being zoomed in and off so many rides.) I figured it was a good time to ride “It’s a Small World.” And I was right. It was a happy, non-scary, bright and cheery ride, which he really liked. I would say it was his second favorite as he was singing the song later that day.
In retrospect, there are a lot of dark, kind of scary, noisy, fast paced rides in Fantasy land and I must say my little dude handled them all with Aplomb. Even the roller coaster in Toon Town!
2nd M asking 1st M after the mini Toon Town roller coaster, “Are you scared?”
3rd M, “No.”
2nd M, “Do you want to do it again?”
3rd M, “No.”
So we hung out in Toon town for a bit more.
By finding Nemo (we’re in the submarine below), we were all smiles, trepidation gone and having a blast! (The little oranges I fed him helped.)
While we had lunch in Tomorrowland, we watched the Jedi Training Camp. Pretty soon, our own little Jedi will be ready for training….
Then it was time to ride the Monorail and head back to the hotel for yet another marathon nap….
After a few days in LA visiting A&K and 2nd M’s friends, we headed south for Disneyland. We arrived in the late afternoon and enjoyed watching plans land at the nearby Santa Ana Airport. We leisurely headed to our Disneyland hotel.
Once checked in, it was time for the Reconnaissance mission. We walked to the main entrance, timing our walk (20 min.) and exploring what the best approach and the most efficient path was to the park
. Then onto the equipment check. Had to make sure the camera was fully operational.
Mission complete, we decided to have dinner and reward ourselves with some ice cream.
Of course, we dined right near the Monorail and the Parking Lot Tram, so we decided to take a round trip ride on the Parking Tram. This was so exciting, I was wondering why I spent money on the tickets to the Land of the Mouse, but then realized, the 2nd M was free. (This trip was really just as much for me.)
