Today Friend and Baby joined us for a journey through the Magic Kingdom.
Flashback to my first journey through the Magic Kingdom:
Although I was born in a state that doesn’t really have bears, I was terrified of bears. No one knows why. Call it a birth defect. Once he discovered my odd phobia, Father took great delight in teasing me about bears, but Mother would always calm me by saying that all the bears are in California.
My first trip to the Magic Kingdom (that I remember) happened when I was about 5 years old, and it was a driving trip. My cousin was an accountant for Disneyland and my Aunt and Uncle lived in Long Beach, so we had free lodging and free Disney tickets. The family was packed into the car and we headed for Tinkerbell and friends, gleefully singing “Hi Ho, Hi Ho, off to Disneyland we go!” at the top of our lungs. As soon as we crossed the state line Mother proclaimed, “Hooray! We are in California!” I promptly began to cry.
You see, even though kids are little, it doesn’t mean they don’t pay attention. In fact, they pay more attention than any adult you have ever met. It also doesn’t mean that they don’t remember. Most little kids are more astute than any adult you have ever met. They don’t have the distractions of email, phone, boss, boss’ boss, and alcohol. Every little distraction Mom used to alleviate my fears was etched in my brain for future reference. Now that I knew we were in California, I knew I was no longer safe from bears. It took Mom awhile to understand my sudden inconsolable terror, but she finally remembered that she had talked California up as the most terrifying state, the Bear State. I think she thought this was really funny and cute; I eventually cried myself to sleep in the backseat of the car.
Father is a planner. He has a plan for everything, usually with lists and maps drawn out in the wee hours of the night. Sometimes he laminates the lists and maps. He has a very definite plan for touring Disneyland. First, you go to Bear Country, then Pirates of the Carribean. Well, I’d already had an Eeyore incident (which I’ll describe in another post) at Main Street Disneyland, so I wasn’t in the greatest of moods. We headed off for a ride and I was starting to feel better about things. Maybe we would see Snow White and Sleepy. Maybe it would all be ok. We got in line and I heard a funny noise, like snoring. Was it Sleepy? No. Hmmm…was it coming from that cave? Yes!! Oh My God!! It was a BEAR – we were in BEAR Country – and not only were these bears toothy and huge but they sang COUNTRY MUSIC. NOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!! My Dad was confused and annoyed by my sudden terrified screaming and crying (see note above about adults not remembering stuff as well as kids).
Flash to the present. Friend and I decide we want to go on a roller coaster, so we leave Baby with Mom and head for Thunder Mountain which only has a 30 minute wait. We ride the roller coaster and head back out. Mom is gone. A trail of candy bar wrappers and Cheerios (I’ll let you guess which thing Mom is eating and which thing Baby is eating) indicate to us that they may have headed to Frontier Land. Silently I am questioning “Would Mom dare take another baby to Bear Country?” Friend is starting to fuss a little, “I hope Baby isn’t giving your mom a hard time. Baby hasn’t been alone with other people very much. I hope Baby hasn’t run out of Cheerios.”
Low and behold, we end up at the stroller parking outside of Bear Country and Friend’s stroller is parked outside. We both escalate our alarm from yellow to orange alert – but then Friend cries “Funnel cakes! Follow that woman with the funnel cakes!” and we take off for a snack, reassurning each other that Baby is fine. The funnel cake line is long, so I agree to wait in line while Friend goes back to wait by the stroller. Friend, however, goes back to Bear Country and finds the stroller gone.
We purchase the funnel cakes (and diet cokes, of course, to save on calories and sugar) and head back to Thunder Mountain. There are Mom and Baby happily sitting in the shade, humming a little tune. It turns out Baby loved Bear Country. He pulled himself up on the chairs in front of him and “sang” along, pounded his hands and stomped his feet. He was so enthralled, that most of the audience (according to Mom) was watching Baby instead of the Bears. Mom was totally blissed out, finally a Baby who can handle Bear Country! Friend, however, wouldn’t let her take Baby home (even though he would fit in the luggage). Oh wait – was that a funnel cake? Gotta go…