You Already Know What I'm Thinking

So yesterday I spent most of the day at Disneyland - and had a wonderful time.  A little different than when I went with the adults a couple of weeks ago - but it was so much fun with Cindy and her kids - Brian - about to turn 7 and Maddie - just turned 4 - wanted to set the stage.  

When I got there I went into the bathroom outside of the park before I met up with them and when I walked in - there was Brian standing by the exit and I looked at him and said - I know you - how are you, Brian?  And he got this big smile on his face - which was a nice feeling, since there was one time that I met them at Disneyland years ago and he turned and ran away - I just have that charming influence on kids :) - usually I make babies cry - like Angelica on Rug Rats - but I digress...

So we went in and first went on Buzz Lightyear - and at first, neither of the kids wanted to sit with me - but as we were going through the queue, Brian and Maddie ran ahead and we rounded a corner and met up with them and Maddie came up to me running full speed to give me a hug - melted my heart - she was my ride buddy from there on!  She was so excited about the ride and as soon as we got on the ride, she grabbed the blaster and was ready to go!  It was fun.  We then wandered over to Star Tours and had to measure Maddie to make sure she was tall enough and she was - and she got so excited when she found out she could go on the ride - it was very cute to see - although I'm not sure she was as excited about the ride itself!

We then went over to Autopia and again, Maddie was my ride buddy - and it was like we were made for each other - we got in the car and she kept saying - go faster - go faster!  But if you have ever driven the Autopia cars - the gas pedal can actually be hard to hold down and not that easy to go faster!

So after a stint in Tomorrowland, we wandered over to Splash Mountain - Brian and Cindy went on that and Maddie and I went on Winnie the Pooh.  At one point while we were standing in line - mainly to keep her occupied since she kept trying to climb over everything - I asked her where we were on the map that she had - it was very important that she be able to carry the map the whole time - well she opened up the map and was showing it to me - face up for me and upside down for her - and all I could think was - she would make a great district office employee since they are supposed to mark the maps upside down (facing the member) when they are doing a routing or a TripTik!  Unfortunately, shortly after that - they announced that the ride had broken down - so now I had to explain to her why we couldn't go in to see Winnie the Pooh - I told her he had to take a nap.  She didn't like that and started to stomp out of the line - even dropping her map in the process!  I got quite a few sympathetic looks from the adults in line as I followed her out - and of course, all I could think of was that it was so something that I would have blogged about if I had witnessed someone elses kid doing it!

So now we had to wait for mom and Brian to finish with their ride - so I asked her if she wanted to go into the shop - did she want to walk around - all she at first wanted to do was stand in the middle of the walkway with her head down.  I did get her over to the side and I sat down on the ground and somehow we started a game of peek a boo - with her hiding behind me - and then she wanted to play with my hat and to tell you the truth - we had a grand old time - probably more fun than if we had gone on the ride - got some cute pictures of the whole thing.  

After that we went on Haunted Mansion - that one I rode by myself - neither kids wanted to be my ride buddy - I don't really blame them - nothing is better than riding with mom - they did wave to me on the ride though!  Then we went on Pirates and again, Maddie was climbing over everything and I kept reminding her to get down and she kept doing it - I then started to ignore her - that seemed to help a bit.

So Cindy really wanted to go on Space Mountain - so we headed back over there - but before we got there - Brian wanted to go on the Rockets - he really likes that ride.  So we get in line and Maddie starts climbing on things again and this time I completely ignore her from the beginning - she looks at me and says hello - and is trying to get my attention and I look at her and say - 'you already know what I'm thinking' - and she says 'to get down!'  At least I now know that she hears me - she just doesn't obey - I let Cindy take it from there.

After that Cindy and Brian went on Space Mountain and Maddie and I decided to go look at the castle - while we were over there I thought it would be fun to ride the carousel - which I found out later is one of Maddie's favorites (one of mine too) - so we went over and rode the horses and on our way back to Space Mountain, I noticed that they had pumpkins carved as Disney characters - so we stopped and took a few pictures there - it was fun.

At that point they were going to head somewhere for dinner and I made my exit - had dinner with another friend planned for the evening.  So I said my goodbyes and got hugs from everyone and just really had a great time!  To see pictures of the great time - click here.  And God Bless the Happiest Place on Earth!