House of the Mouse

If you live in OC, the odds are pretty high you have a Disneyland annual pass.  Adam and I have both had them on and off over the years, and since neither of us are playing hockey right now, we've got em.  Today we took advantage of Adam's mid-week day off and took Sebastian for his first visit to the Magic Kingdom.

Only...someone forgot to tell him it was supposed to be a place of fun.  To him, it was the Tragic Kingdom.

I thought I went in with realistic expectations, we have passes, so there's no need to cram everything into one visit.  Hit up a few rides, have lunch, head home.  Feel Seb out.  If he does good, maybe spend a little time there after lunch.  Yeah...notsomuch.

Disneyland's kinda hard to enjoy if your kid's afraid of the rides.  We went on Peter Pan and Dumbo.  He cried on Peter Pan, I think it was too dark.  We experienced an epic meltdown in line for Dumbo.  He calmed down while on the ride, only to resume the meltdown once the ride was over. I'm talking full on, snot shooting out of his nose, cry so hard he shakes, guests looking at you wondering if your kid's hurt they're crying so hard, meltdown.  And nothing we tried would calm him down.  :(  Eventually we threw in the towel and decided to head out.  I took a risk and changed him before we left, breaking out into a sweaty mess from changing a 22 lb crying, snotty, hysterical toddler, while Adam waited in line to buy a nice cool Dole Whip refreshment (which I soooo needed by the time I was done with Seb).

In the end, I must applaud Disneyland for having rolls of toilet paper mounted on the wall next to the changing tables.  Once he had a dry diaper, I was desperate to calm Seb down (and wipe off his face), so I yanked on the roll and let him have at it.  At home he loves to shred paper towel, baby wipes, and toilet paper, and THIS, was what calmed him down.  Should I start carrying an emergency roll of TP in the diaper bag???

Once we emerged, Adam further distracted him with a few bites of Whip, and we were able to make it out of the park and even grab lunch at Downtown Disney without further incident (just a really, really tired kiddo) who fell asleep before we even got him strapped into his car seat.

I almost think, at his age, he's better suited to walking around and enjoying the 'park' aspect of Disneyland rather than the 'amusement' side of things.  We did get to kinda enjoy the holiday decorations, which I think just got put up a few days ago?  But the visit was pretty much a hot mess once we stepped off Main Street into Fantasyland.

Main Street Christmas Tree (pre-meltdown)

When we got home I told Adam that Sebastian didn't like the rides or the waiting in line part.  He laughed at me and said, "that's what Disneyland is!"  Maybe I need to Google how I explain this to a 15-month-old?  :D  I'd love to try again, but want more success the next go around.