A World of Laughter, A World of Tears

Well it was inevitable. We've been in L.A. for over 4 months now and we finally did it. Yes, we finally visited "happiest place on Earth". David's mom was here for a week and what she wanted to do most was take the girls to Disneyland. Once David got over his severe bitterness over the fact that she didn't take him to Disneyland when he was a kid we decided it would be a fun thing to do.

We kept the whole thing very hush hush from Asha partly because we didn't want to deal with constant questioning about when we were going and partly because we went on a Friday to avoid the weekend rush and I was scared to tell Asha's teacher that she was missing school to go see Mickey Mouse. Have I mentioned Ms. Lucy yet? She's really nice and great with the kids but she scares the bejeezus out of me. She's very particular about attendance and punctuality. On the first day of class she pointed out all the parents that were late which included me (traffic, in L.A.? Who knew?). So I told Ms. Lucy that Asha's grandmother was visiting and we were going "out of town". David thinks this was lying but Disneyland is in Anaheim which is a different city! We had to take 4 different freeways to get there!

Anyway, on Thursday night we told Asha we were going somewhere special the next day but we didn't say where. When she woke up the next day we asked her where she thought we might be going. She said "well I was thinking about it nast light (she pronounces "last night" like that and I have never corrected her because it's so damn cute. Does that make me a bad Speech Pathologist?) and I was thinking maybe we were going to Randy's Donuts". Randy's Donuts is a lesser known L.A. landmark. It's a walk-up donut place with a giant donut that's about 30 feet in diameter on the roof. You can imagine that it's very intriguing to a 4 year old. I think she might think that they sell 30 foot donuts there. Well we told her that we were not going to Randy's Donuts but in fact were going to Disneyland and she was pretty excited all the while questioning about the availability of donuts at Disneyland.

 Look at me embedding pictures into my blog!

Well, I was pretty prepared to hate Disneyland. The Disney corporation represents many of the ills that plague modern society in my mind: mass consumerism, marketing that targets children, anti-feminism etc. etc. But the trouble with Disneyland is that, well, it's kind of awesome! The rides are really fun and well maintained. The most popular rides have a "fast pass" system so you can essentially skip the long line-ups. The parade and fireworks were fantastic. There is crap to buy EVERYWHERE but it's surprisingly not shoved in your face. You can even bring in your own food so you don't have to shell out $8.00 for a piece of pizza if you don't want to.

We did most of the typical Disneyland stuff. We went on the "It's a small world" ride. David had never heard of the ride or the song. Sometimes I think he lives in a bubble. He once asked me who Bono is. I mean, really?? Anyway, I described the ride as what I imagined an acid trip would be like if one were to drop acid. Since I was expecting it to be demented I found it quite enjoyable. David was somewhat disturbed by it. Nia, on the other hand, thought it was just about the best thing ever.
Asha met not only Mickey Mouse but also Ariel, Sleeping Beauty, and Cinderella. She told me that they weren't the actually princesses but just ladies dressed up as them. I'm not sure if she thought Mickey was an actual mouse. I don't want to ask in case she thinks he's real and I burst her bubble. David and I went on the Indiana Jones ride. He had a little talk with me the night before about how Disneyland was going to be fun and I shouldn't spoil it by being no fun (i.e., bailing on all the rides). I responded by saying that the only thing less fun than a mom who doesn't go on rides is a mom who spends the day at Disneyland barfing. We decided that Indiana Jones was a happy medium between Space Mountain and the teacups. The Indiana Jones ride was, well, awesome! We rode around in a jeep and were chased by rolling boulders and creepy crawlies. We went right through a ghost and felt bullets whiz past our faces.

So all in all it was a great day. Is Disneyland the happiest place on Earth? Well judging by the number of kids have complete and utter meltdowns at any given moment I'm going to say no. Was it worth going to? Definitely. At the end of the day we asked Asha if she thought Disneyland was better than Randy's Donuts and she said that she hasn't been to Randy's Donuts yet so she wasn't sure. We'll get there someday and I'll let you know what the verdict is.

P.S. On a completely different note... I feel like this blog is very Asha-centric and I am always commenting on her genius and ignoring Nia's. This is purely because of their respective ages I am sure. Well I have decided that Nia is also a genius because today she learned to blow her nose. Now if you're not very familiar with kids this may not sound impressive but I have met many a 5 year old who can't do this! She's 13 months old! She may not walk yet but she is a nasal genius.