Turning 62 with Tyler - Disneyland!! (Week 116 Part 2/2)

Wow, this post is super late - but I'm at least posting it before the next week's post. (yay kathy?). This post is about our Disneyland trip last week on my birthday 9/28/08. Nothing beats free admission on your birthday - plus Tyler and Will (thanks M!) were free as well. We were a little worried about it being a long day for Tyler - but we were determined to make it fun! We headed bright and early to Disneyland - and was surprised that it was pretty busy for a Monday!

Here we are on the tram after parking. Tyler was so excited as we headed over! We watched some Tigger and Pooh videos on my iPhone on the way over.
Disneyland was decked out for Halloween! I prefer Christmas decorations, but Halloween is still nice. :) They give birthday admissions a button with your name on it, and I had them put Tyler's name on it so that he could wear it. All day people were wishing him happy birthday, and he'd point at his button and say: "It's my Birthday!!". I am totally confusing him...Here we are right on Main Street. Tyler was very excited to see the horse drawn carriages and kept saying: Mickey!!!

Here we are in front of Sleeping Beauty Castle. I was so excited to start the day - I had read up on toddler tips and had a game plan for the day. I like being prepared, what can I say?

Our first stop was directly through Sleeping Beauty's Castle (by the way, there was barely any water surrounding the castle - it was mostly mud!!) and straight to the Dumbo ride. Tyler was not too interested in waiting in line but we managed to make it through. He loved the ride!

Afterwards we rode the carousel - another hit for Tyler! Yippee! 2 for 2 so far! :)

Next on my list was to hit up Toon Town - meet some characters and the activities there. First we picked up a giant tub of popcorn - Tyler was SO excited - he ate that tub all day happily. I couldn't believe it when it was almost empty by the end of the day!

Our Toon Town experience was not so great. Sigh. We started with the Roger Rabbit ride - WHAT a mistake! Tyler was completely freaked out - and I don't blame him. It was dark and there were bright lights and shining noises and stuff - ugh! Never again! By the time the ride was over, he was hiding his face in his arms. Poor little guy.

When we came out, he saw Goofy and yelled "DOGGIE!!!!" - yay! We got in a short line to meet Goofy but Tyler completely ran away at the last minute. Awww. Goofy still liked Will though. :)

Hi Goofy! We managed to get this picture when I grabbed Tyler and quickly snuck over to stand near Goofy. Hopefully it was because he's not that familiar with Goofy...surely this wouldn't happen with Mickey, right??

No such luck. Aiya! We waited in a line to see Mickey and the whole time I was preparing Tyler by telling him that Mickey would be larger than he was on TV. Even had opportunities to play and see different things while waiting inside the house. Here's Tyler saying hi to the chickens inside Mickey's house.

That didn't work. When he saw Mickey he was scared too! We stopped trying to meet characters after that. :)
Here's some other shots in Toon town - visiting Donald Duck's boat house.

We left Toon Town pretty quick after that. Next stop - It's a Small World! Huge fan favorite - not scary, nice music (Tyler loves music!) - no problem, right?

Tyler was excited when we were on the boat - yay - good sign!

... until we got in. As soon as it got darker inside, Tyler started getting concerned and then scared. Aww. Here's Tyler scared at Small World. :(

Hmmm. Maybe these rides are not Tyler's thing. Let's see. Tyler LOVES to pretend shooting guns - especially laser guns (he goes: pew pew!!). He's going to LOVE Astro Blasters! It's all shooting! YAY!

He was a little worried walking through the waiting area since it was darker, but having his giant popcorn tub calmed him.

No such luck. Too dark, too many bright lights moving around and things popping up. Boo! Here's the photo from the ride - you can't even see Tyler because he's hiding in Will's lap!

Ok, no more of those rides - I was pretty sure all the Fantasyland rides (Snow White, Peter Pan, etc) would all have the same reaction - darkness + moving things = Tyler being scared! We put Tyler in his stroller and walked around until he (quickly) fell asleep. Whew! Will and I found a quiet corner on Main Street and had some quiet resting time as well. I was woken up by Cruella deVille telling us we were wasting money by napping! HAHA! She was so funny - the little girls were in line to meet her and she would have these hilariously mean things to say, like "Mangy little thing aren't we..." to a little girl with long curly hair as she picked up a strand. Heehee. Turns out our spot was where the characters came out from behind-the-scenes, so Will and I got to enjoy watching the characters interact with the kids. And Tyler got a nice long nap!

What ride would Tyler like... OH! The submarine Nemo ride! YAY! Tyler loves Nemo! The line was probably the longest we waited in all day - but Tyler was really excited to see Nemo! Even as we were in submarine, he was looking out the holes and asking "Where are you, Nemo??" He really seemed to enjoy the ride - yay! (but wasn't feeling the part where the scary sharks come out...)

Next up was Tyler's FAVORITE ride of the day - Autopia! He laughed and giggled and screamed in excitement - he LOVED driving the car and the ride! I'm just happy that he found one ride that totally hit the spot - yippee!

Here's Tyler with his Driver Licenses after the ride. He was so excited that he started to really get upset because he was done waiting in line!

The rest of the day was pretty low key - we figured we would just walk around and enjoy the environment! The parade was about to start, and we managed to squeeze into a nice spot right on the curb! Yay!

15 minutes before the parade, we could start to see the people down the street performing already (they'll stop in an area and do a 15-ish minute performance before they move down the street and do it all over again). Tyler was so curious about what was going on down the street! At one point, he was so excited he actually stumbled and almost fell down into the street. Heehee.

Tyler's favorite characters - Tigger and Pooh (thanks to the tv cartoon). It's hard not to get into the celebratory spirit when there's so much singing and dancing and excitement going on!

At one point, Tigger came by and saw Tyler waving at him - and came up and high-fived and danced with Tyler. AHHH! Tyler was so excited!! I don't think there could have been any other character that would have made him as excited. He loves Tigger!

At one point in the performance, the dancers passed out Minnie drums to the audience to help with the beat - Tyler got one and was totally into bumping it! Yay what a fun parade!

Since Tyler LOVES Tigger and Pooh - I figured he would have to love the Winnie the Pooh ride near Splash Mountain. I even took him on this ride back when he was only 6 months old and he had no problems and was excited to see everything! Bad idea - ended the ride hiding his head again. Sigh.

By this time, 630ish? - we decided we might as well wait around for the fireworks at 8pm. We headed over to Adventureland and rode the Jungle Cruise. Yipppee - Tyler loved it - I think rides that are outside in the open air really make a difference - he's totally not as scared. Afterwards we went to Frontierland and hung out at the shooting range. Another hit - Tyler really enjoyed shooting the gun (outside!).

We walked around and pretty soon it was fireworks time. Tyler's FIRST ever fireworks! I'm usually quite a stickler for Tyler's bedtime, and didn't even let him stay up for fireworks for 4th of July. It was really exciting - Tyler ooh'ed and ahhh'ed throughout the whole thing and got so excited!

We stopped by a store on Main Street and got Tyler some baby Tigger and Pooh stuffed animals. He was only supposed to pick one but we gave in when he couldn't decide which one he wanted. I don't blame him - they are both so cute! He plays with them every morning in bed now! By the time we got to the tram after the fireworks, Tyler was fast asleep.

Whew, what a long day! What we learned - Tyler still doesn't like anyone dressed up as a character (and that includes Santa and the Easter Bunny) and doesn't like rides that are dark inside. He loves driving cars and fireworks and parades. :)