The Happiest Place on Earth

A few weeks ago, Workaholic and I took our "maternity leave vacation" trip to Florida. When I was on leave with Sam, we went and visited our friends in Texas. They had all necessary baby equipment and traveling with just an 11 week old Sam was easy-peasy. Let's just say that traveling with a 21 month old Sam and 8 week old Charlie was NOT easy-peasy. (Can you say "close a tray table with four drinks on it???") Anyway, we went to the beach a couple of days and visited a local zoo. If you ask Sam about giraffes today, she will still say, "Mommy, cracker." Because mommy took away her cracker and gave it to that damn giraffe...who then tried to eat my shoulder. Then we hit the big kahuna...the only reason for really going to Florida (at least according to Workaholic)....DISNEY!! A few years ago, I swear I read something somewhere that said that Walt Disney had been a pedophile, and some guy wrote a book all about it, and that book would never get published because Disney bought the publisher who owned the book. I since have looked online for evidence that I didn't just dream this up, and CAN'T FIND ANYTHING. But of course, I can't get it out of my head.

So that past few years, I've had a love/hate relationship with Disney. I really hate the commercialism, the expensive crap you have to buy, the attitude they seem to promote that little girls need to be rescued by princes and that will make their lives whole. I hate the T-shirts with mouses all over them, the shoes with Cars on them , and how it costs $82 to get into one park. But I love their movies...The Little Mermaid, Lady and the Tramp, Beauty and the Beast, Dumbo. (Yes, I realize that most of the movies that I love promote the "needing a man to be happy" premise, but I can't help it.) And Workaholic loves Disney...it's the happiest place on Earth!! So away we went with Sam to the Magic Kingdom for a day.

And I have to say, my love with Disney is starting to grow again. Take a little kid there, and you will see it. The wonder and magic in their eyes. The squeals of all the little girls in the crowd when Tinkerbell flies from the top of the castle before the fireworks show at the end of the night. Sam is young enough that she didn't know if we skipped the ride It's a Small World because it was closed down, or if we missed one of the parades because mom and dad didn't feel like sitting in one place for 45 minutes to grab a good seat. She just sat back, took everything in, and generally was a good girl and didn't throw a single fit all day. By the end of the night, she just stared at the Electric Parade with a "what the hell is all of this awesome stuff?" look on her face. She waved at the characters when we told her to, and watched half of the fireworks before drifting off to a mouse-filled sleep. And her daddy and I did what I never thought I would do...bought a sketch of a Disney character from one of the shops to hang in her room. (Workaholic says it is OK because we actually bought it AT Disney, as opposed to someplace like Target.) Damn you Walt, you are making me believe again.