1. Our children were not properly prepared for the Disney visit in that they hadn't seen many of the Disney movies and didn't recognize many of the characters. This was most evident on our first day in Animal Kingdom- they didn't know Rafiki or Jiminy Cricket and Sadie is now convinced that Pocahontas is actually Poca Hontas and has a beaver friend who takes care of her hair. We'll be spending all of April watching Disney movies to get caught up.
2. Caleb has a scientific mind and with that comes a curiosity about how the human body works. Add to that certain biographical information on Walt Disney and you get... well, an interesting conversation. We took the Magic Bus from the airport to the hotel and there was a short movie about DW on the bus. When Caleb saw Walt Disney, he began asking all these questions about how Disney had died. "Did his cells deteriorate?" "Did his organs shut down?" Not the happiest of conversations for the drive to the happiest place on earth and of course, everyone around us on the bus could hear but he's a curious boy with a desire to know things so we go with it.
3. Sometimes when the Walt Disney World Guide for Kids says that a ride is Dark, Rough, Loud and Scary, it might be a good idea to skip that particular ride.
Our first day at Disney was spent at Disney's Animal Kingdom and while there we decided to check out Dinosaur. Audio-animatronic dinosaurs? Cool! What could be scary?.... Well, at least Daddy liked the ride. Caleb and Sadie, not so much and we'll just leave it at that. And from then on, the kids would not go on anything that was listed as dark, loud, and scary. Oh, and we were also done with dinosaurs after that experience.
4. A little girl will spend the entire day in her Cinderella dress, hoping to meet her favorite princess. And yes sweetheart, you looked stunning.
5. If it's in an air-conditioned building, Mommy will stand in line for an hour or more to get princess or Pixar autographs. If not, Mommy will only do it once. Sorry Tinkerbell, you're just not worth that much time in the hot sun on the last (and hottest) day of the vacation. I learned my lesson with Ariel and Prince Eric.
6. Mommy and Daddy will stand in the hot sun with no sunscreen on eagerly watching their little boy become a Jedi and fight his enemy (Darth Vader). And Mommy will get teary eyed at how her little man is doing things that he wouldn't have even considered doing just a year ago. Things like putting on a Jedi robe and talking to people in costume- not a big deal for many boys his age but a huge success for our little man.
7. An adorable little girl can get a super hero to do just about anything. We have photographic evidence of Mr. Incredible doing plies for Sadie.
8. When you're done, you're done. Even if the fireworks are still going off in the sky.
We stayed to watch the light and fireworks show at the Magic Kingdom on Tuesday night. I couldn't believe the kids were even up for it but halfway through the show, Sadie turns around to me and says "okay, let's go" and her brother said the same thing. So we got up and headed for the buses, with out even a glance back at the fireworks finale.
9. Sometimes you have to push through the fear.
Dinosaur did a number on the monkeys and I hoped that they would get over it before the end of vacation. I really, really, really wanted to go on Pirates of the Caribbean. The kids really, really, really didn't want to go on it. With much convincing and well, picking them up and carrying them onto the ride, we did it. And they saw that it wasn't so bad. Still not their favorite Disney ride but I hope that we taught them that sometimes we do things for the people we love and audio-animatronic isn't always bad.
10. My happiest moments at Disney as a kid are very different from being there as a parent. There really is something magical in seeing such happiness in your child's eyes. It's really special.
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