Our Multipurpose Celebration

So much for my posting while we were away.  Turns out that Disneyland with two toddlers and two grandparents in tow was more eventful than anticipated.  I barely even managed to snap a dozen pictures.

We ran off last week for a whirlwind tour of the happiest place on earth.  Grandma and Grandpa came out from the frozen tundra of Oklahoma, somehow managing to quickly get rescheduled onto a flight when their first attempt to get here was derailed by the blizzard.  Literally minutes after they arrived at the house, we jumped into a minivan and started our seven hour drive to Anaheim.  The kids were amazing, especially Oscar.  Etta had a tougher time, since she’s not a big fan of television, so we couldn’t entertain her with Olivia or other cartoons.  When we got to the hotel, Etta was ready for bed, but Oscar kept screaming that he wanted to go to “house!”  Took me forever to realize that he was demanding to go to Mickey Mouse’s house, which is how we had described going to Disneyland.

Both Oscar and Etta loved their weekend getaway.  Etta is a bit young for many of the rides, of course, but did she ever love Small World.  Actually, I think that was both of the kids’ favorite ride in the park.  Oscar expanded his horizon this year and added Mark Twain’s big boat ride to his list of favorites, as well as Nemo’s submarine (shocking, since he seemed to hate it when we were on it, but raved about it to a little boy we met at dinner).  His go to rides from last year, the rocket ship and Dumbo, are still up there with Small World.  His Disney experience, though, was far, far different this year from last year.

I don’t think I’ll ever really understand how Oscar used to experience the world.  He obviously can’t explain it, but now that he can actually see and has the words to express a bit of what he’s seeing, it’s becoming clear that his life is significantly different than it was a year ago.  Even if I hadn’t been able to see how engaged he was, the sheer number of times he said “wow, look at THAT” would have tipped me off.

I’ll spare you the images of a terrified Etta looking in horror at what, to her, must have appeared to be two gigantic rats and massive squirrels attempting to grab her and show you Etta being silly.

We had a fabulous trip to Mickey Mouse’s house, where we were able to celebrate Papa and Grandma’s 45th wedding anniversary, almost three full years of my being a mom, Oscar surviving my parenting for that long and something so important it deserves its own post, so you’ll have to wait for it.  I only wish we had been able to stay another day.

February 8, 2011 - Posted by Oscar and Etta's mom | Uncategorized