A Banded, Bulbous, Snarfblatt

Kiernan went to Disney Land for the first time last Friday, March 31. This day was also, incidentally, Wendy's birthday. Kiernan's godmother Renee (Nee Nee), who works for The Mouse, suggested that we all take the day off and celebrate Wendy's birthday by taking Kiernan to Disney Land. Wendy jumped at the idea since her favorite thing to do on a birthday is to go off and do a fun experiential thingy. My suggestion that we watch all of the Star Wars films back to back did not qualify, somehow.

We got to the park sometime around noon. Thanks to the snail's pace on the 5 Freeway Kiernan was well rested; he napped for most of the two-hour drive, waking right on cue when we got to the parking structure at Disney. [On a side note, according to Renee this parking structure is the largest in the world...or was when they built it anyway. As parking structures go, it is incredibly well designed, with ramps that go right to whatever floor you're parking on so you don't have to do that spiral-drive all the way up and down.]

When we got into the park, Kiernan was raring to go, just incredibly excited to be there. In the picture to the right, he is doing a song/chant that we learned at school. The song/chant goes, "Go, go, go, go, gooooooo---STOP!" You roll your hands during the "go" part, then do the sign for "stop" at the "stop" part. He just kept chanting the "go-go-go" part over and over again while doing the hand roll. Hilarious.

As we made our way to our first ride--the carousel pictured at the top--we discovered that the place was packed. We had thought we were being clever by hitting the place on a week day. Not so much. Apparently it is spring break somewhere, because there were kids everywhere this day. So many people, and a virtual armada of strollers. Actually, one of the interesting things about my first trip to Disney Land as a parent was seeing how baby strollers are managed. People just park them and leave them outside of the rides. At the "It's a Small World" attraction there is an entire area set aside for stroller parking. Nobody guards this area. People just roll their strollers into the area and leave them there. It was weird. And kind of cool. This honor system in the middle of an amusement park. I'm sure it has always been done this way, I just never noticed it before I was in charge of a stroller.

Even though the park was busier than we thought it would be, it was still a great day. The temperature was mild and the sky was just overcast enough to make being outside constantly pleasant. The threat of rain probably kept more people away too, which was nice.

Kiernan was amazing all day long. We kept our options for the day open, basing how long we were going to stay at Disney on how well he was doing. If he had been done after a couple of hours, we would have packed up and gone back home. But he was totally cool for the day, and mainly enthralled by all the sights and sounds and people. He was not crazy, of course, about standing in line. In spite of the crowds, however, there was only one ride that required us to keep him in a long line. That was the Dumbo flying ride. That line was not fun. Even so, he's such a good kid that I really have no right to complain. Renee and I took him on that ride together, leaving Wendy to look after the stroller. This was our second ride of the day and we weren't yet hip to the whole Stroller Honor System yet.

I say I have no right to complain about the Dumbo line...fact is, I wouldn't even bring it up if it weren't for one little incident that happened while we were in line. The back of the line curled way around the ride, keeping us out of sight of Wendy and the stroller. After a good half an hour or so of creeping forward, I managed to finally catch a glimpse of Wendy through the ascending and descending flying elephants. She was easy to pick out of the crowd, even from my distant vantage point, as she was eating an ice cream sandwich the size of a hubcap. Renee and I are wrangling the toddler in a dog-years-long line and she's getting an early start on the treats. Nice. Oh well, it was her birthday.

I wasn't sure how Kiernan would take the ride, flying around in the air as it does, but he loved it. We stood in line forever and it was worth it because he had such a good time. Sadly the ride lasted for about ten seconds, and, as many of you would guess, when it pulled to a stop he immediately gave the "more" hand sign.

Next we went on the "It's a Small World" ride. If I never hear that song again in my life, that will be fine with me. Given how much Kiernan, and his mother, enjoyed the trip to Disney Land, however, I doubt that's gonna happen. Oh well. My feelings for the song notwithstanding, watching Kiernan during the ride made the moment for me. He was just amazed. This picture doesn't quite do the moment justice, since he looks more dazed than amazed here, but you get the idea. It was so cool to experience all of this through his eyes.

Later in the day, Nee Nee took us to see the live Playhouse Disney show at California Adventure. That was another wonderful thing to watch him experience. Singing and dancing and puppets and a giant bear. At the end of the show, bubbles came drifting down from the rafters. Great stuff. Plus I got to experience a character named Stanley for the first time. Stanley stars on a show on Playhouse Disney called...um..."Stanley". I can't wait until we start showing Kiernan more tv, because this looks like a great show. I know I'll run into a lot of kids' shows that are insipid, but I do look forward to finding the good stuff for Kiernan to watch. Thankfully, in Renee I've got somebody who can vet most of the programming and steer me to the best stuff, since she has to watch all of these shows for her job. Better her than me.

We kicked around California Adventure for awhile, taking Kiernan on a couple more rides in the Bug's Life area of the park. Aside from that area, California Adventure is kind of dopey. It has this cheapo, almost carnival-like feel that would be okay if you hadn't just been to Disney Land. And if the designers hadn't lost their nerve and slapped Disney characters onto some of the rides as a branding afterthought. Also, a Cannery Row ride for toddlers would have been nice. In general, more John Steinbeck rides would have been nice. I think his books really lend themselves to amusement park rides.

At the end of the day, our friends Heather and Joe and their son Sam met us in Downtown Disney for Wendy's birthday dinner. Her first choices for dinner--an Italian place and The Rainforest Cafe--were both booked solid, so Renee got us reservations at this Spanish restaurant called Catal. Very cool place with pretty good food. Dinner was late, and still Kiernan was awesome. He didn't care for the macaroni and cheese as it was not from a box or from KFC, but he ate some bread and then, when our food arrived, basically conked out right there on the table. No fussing. No major crash. He just put his head down and went to sleep. It was adorable.

Here's a picture of Wendy holding him after he fell asleep. Don't worry, I cut up her steak for her so she could eat.


Also, those of you who know how Wendy would react to the idea of having a birthday meal at a Spanish restaurant, don't worry about that either. Kiernan and I took her to Red Lobster a few days later. For the record, he didn't care for the macaroni and cheese there, either.