Honey Pots

Le got to do the winnie the pooh ride 4 times and the kids only 3 times each ... figure that one out (hint: i visited the restrooms with each of them once!) Disneyland with toddlers, you learn every restroom, water fountain and how to package up snacks so they all get eaten! Oh yeah, and you get to watch their little mouths drop open with wonder at every turn. Madi is a seasoned Disneylander - nothing really surprises her - in fact she fully expects every character to stop and hug and kiss her, like they are family. Denny on the other hand doesnt seem to have retained any of the January experience and this is all very new to him. Being 21 months instead of 11months has definately changed how he experiences Disneyland.

He got to go on his first height restricted ride today, he measured 32 and a half inches, half an inch above the minimum to ride on the Autotopia cars. And boy, besides the queue almost driving him (and mum) to distraction .... he loved it. He rode with Le and madi rode with me. Le reports: he couldnt see a thing but he steered by himself the whole way, wouldnt let me touch the wheel, so i just planted my foot on the accelerator and let him drive. Madi on the other hand was a little more distracted by the quite sever jerking and bumping that occurs when your steering doesnt match the track direction. So I had a commentary of "driving is hard, isnt it" but she admirably stuck her head out the side and did her best to steer us right (and left).

We chained up the stroller, and used the "public transport" today. Denny was in his element. He loves riding on anything. I am not sure if the submarines counts as public transport but we did that ride too. Now, the queues for it are always long, and well ... with good reason it was a cool ride. We only had to wait abuot 20mins - with a backpack of snacks(teddy grahams and cheerios - or circles as denny calls them) the wait seems to go a bit faster. The newo submarines, complete with Australian accents, was really fun. The kids really enjoyed looking out the portals, especially in th efirst part, but then it has quite a few scarier parts, with moray eels popping out right up close to the portal, sharks, exploding mines ... sharks ... but I think the kids would do it again. We talked them through the scary parts. Le and I were looking at the size of the footprint and the whole ride seems to take abuot ... 15 mins and the space is really small so they must be doing some good trick of making it feel like you are travelling a mile but you really only go 100ft. Hopefully when we go back next monday or tuesday there will be short queue and we will do it again. Our submarine was called SeaFarer. That is really a note to self - as madi will be sure to ask, and now i have somewhere I can google :).

Disney closed early tonight, 6.00pm - but it had fireworks at 5.45pm - which is just perfect for us. Normally the earliest they have been on is about 9pm or even later - which makes it a really long night for us. So Denny was ... again ... subdued through the whole experience - but we got a great spot just coming out of frontierland, past the tiki room, to the left of the castles -- there were a lot of trees so I was a little worried, but we stood right behind a little a little pond and the fireworks are actually off to the side of the castle and so denny pretty much buried his head in my shoulder and watched the refledctions rather than the actual fireworks. Towards the end he started talking, counting the fireworks, and telling me the colours. So I think if we get another chance he will be more into it next time. Madi loved the whole thing, she was chattering away, singing the christmas carols (where does she learn the words from?? DVD's). They are christmas fireworks so a lot different form the ones we saw last year, a lot gentler, very pretty. So it was a good introduction for Denny. I cant wait for another early set so we can see them again. It is so wierd that it gets dark about 5.00pm here - but now for 5.45 fireworks I appreciatiate the early dark.

We walked with the crowd down mainstreet towards teh gate as the park was shutting at 5.00 - and the kids had both fallen asleep before we reached the gate. Game Over.