The Ups and Downs (but mostly ups) of Disney

Disney was fantastic! Those of you with young ones planning to go, I must give you a word of caution. Avoid the Bug's Life at Animal Kingdom at all costs!!!! Well, that's one of the "down" points I guess. It scared the crap out of Mateo (and me, but don't tell anyone). Seriously, who would have thought? A Bug's Life! It's a kid's movie! I guess we missed the 6 signs warning that it may be frightening for young children on the way into the show. But I wasn't the only one to completely terrorize my kid, there were several others running out the side door with screaming child in tow. And what's worse is that was the very first thing we did in Disney, so that entire day Mateo was scared of every ride, show, or anything that resembled a ride or a show. Yeah, I'm a horrible mom. Who traumatizes their kid the first day at Disney?

Speaking of scary, why does every kid's ride at Magic Kingdom have to include something even a little bit scary? Even Winnie the Pooh had a creepy, psychedelic huffalump part.

Another downside, dealing with people who don't have kids. What are you doing here? This is a child's amusement park! Get out of my way! This is what I felt like saying. But what I said was...

Excuse me, excuse me, excuse me, excuse me, EXCUSE ME!

as I was running over their feet with my giant stroller. And I learned that teenagers don't move for nobody! Neither do French people. I was a very mean person by the end of the trip.

The only other down side of the trip was the way home. Apparently, according to our perky airline pilot, we were part of Florida history! Yes, there had never been frost in the last ten years at the Orlando airport. Yay! I was not so amused. Neither was Mateo who spent the better part of the morning running up and down the airport terminal terrorizing innocent passengers. At least he slept on the flight home and it was perfectly peaceful.

The rest of the trip was awesome. My favorite part was when Mateo kept wanting to get out of the stroller in the crowded areas and I told him he had to hold someone's hand. He had the choice of me, Dave, Devan, or Scott. He thought about it for a moment and said, "me" and held his own hand. It was cute, but not exactly what I had in mind. I swear this kid is smart. He may not be talking in complete sentences yet, but there is nothing wrong with his head (other than it being shaped kind of funny).

We also, going at an off-peak time, didn't experience long waiting times for the rides. I think the longest we waited was half an hour for the Pooh ride. And Mateo entertained himself by sticking things up Daddy's nose and emptying sugar packets on the ground. You know, typical 2 year old stuff.

Sea World was my favorite. Mateo could care less about sea life, we found out. Not his area of interest I suppose. I thought hand-feeding the dolphins was by far the best part. Mateo insisted the one parked sea world car was way cooler. Seriously, the car didn't even do anything. It just sat there with a picture of Shamu and the word "Sea World" across it. How boring! But to Mateo, that topped the whole day. Fire juggling Hawaiian performers? Nah. Jumping, twirling whales? Boooorrrrring! A parked car? Hallelujah! Ah Mateo. I don't think I'll ever get you. But I love you anyway.

Well, that's pretty much it. It was a blast and now Mateo asks to go to Disney every single day. I finally told him I don't have any money left to go to Disney. So he's taken to begging on the street for "Disney money." He even asked our pediatrician to contribute.

And...here are some more pictures to bore you with.

Mateo doing his best Stevie Wonder impersonation


Sea World was by far the best part (at least for me)

We even got to play catch with the dolphins

It's a little blurry but I think this is a funny picture. That's chocolate cake on his spoon.

Shamu show

On our last night we went to the Mahiki Luau at Sea World
It was awesome!
I like this picture of Dave and I but Mateo looks
like he's about to dig into something.

Yes, it was a bit cold at Sea World. In the 40's I think. It is January after all. But what was great about it being cold was that we were practically the only people there. No lines, to fighting to catch a glimpse of an exibit, and we could sit anywhere we wanted at the shows. I would go in 40 degree weather anyday to have the park to ourselves.