Zoë Calamity: The last word in little girls.

Zoë (in a dramatic drawl): Mommy….I’m sad
Maryanne: It’s ok baby, just don’t make a big deal about it

We started the day bright and early.  Getting through the airport for our 9:00 flight went very smoothly.  Zoë was excited to fly in an airplane.

From Disneyland

Our flight arrived and by 10:30 we were loaded up in the rental car and on our way to the hotel.

From Disneyland

We stayed at the Candy Cane Inn, a nice little hotel (with a 7-11 next door to supply milk and slurpees!) on the corner of the Disneyland block. It was about a 5 minute walk to the front gate which was a nice little stroll and helped build Zoë’s excitement.

The game plan was to start our Disney trip with the “Princess Lunch” at Aeriel’s Grotto in California Adventure.  While waiting for our seating, Z saw a ride off in the distance with some silver age looking “space ships” flying around in a circle.  When I asked her if she wanted to ride in them after lunch, she had a look of “are you serious” on her face and said “sure!”.  Getting into the lunch was the real start of Z’s day.  She was so incredibly excited to see all the princesses as they came around and met with her.  I thought she was going to explode when Cindrella came out.  For those with girls, the Princess Lunch is definitely a must.

After lunch, we headed over to the “space ships” (the Golden Zephyr).  I was unsure as to how Z would do with the ride since well, she’s never been on an amuzement park ride before.  I was really happy to see that she absolutely loved it.

From Disneyland

After this, we headed over to the main park. Standing at the beginning of Main Street was Captain Hook. Z was excited to see a pirate and was happy to have a picture taken with him.

From Disneyland

We walked down Main Street while Z soaked in the Disney magic. Zoë of course had to scope out a map of the place.

From Disneyland

Her first rides in Disneyland were Dumbo and the Teacups. These became the staple of her Disney experience. She absolutely loved them. On Dumbo she loved being able to go up and down. In the Tea Cups she wanted to “spin fast!”. I love that my daughter likes the rides that spin around and go high in the sky.

From Disneyland

From Disneyland

The next stage of our journey took us to Toon Town. The best Disney moment happened here. She saw Minnie Mouse and Goofy standing around meeting people and she took off like a shot running towards them.

From Disneyland

She was so excited waiting in line to see them.

From Disneyland

There was a somewhat loud and obnoxious family a few people ahead of us and so the character handler told the folks in line to try to limit it to 2 pictures per family. When Zoë got to the front of the line, I think that rule got tossed aside. While each character signed Z’s book, the other would play around with her. Z was in absolute heaven.

Goofy actually drew a picture of his face in Z’s book and when he handed the book to Minnie he kinda struck a “ha-ha, top that!” pose. It was pretty funny. It was really great to see the characters going out of their way to make her day.

From here, she had some fun exploring Minnie’s and Mickey’s houses. She was a little confused that she couldn’t pick up the props in the house, but liked exploring.

From Disneyland

After you go through Mickey’s house, you can wait in a little line and get in to see Mickey. She was very excited to see him.

From Disneyland

From Disneyland

By now it was getting close to dinner. We asked Z what she wanted and she said “quesadilla”. As Maryanne pointed out, there is no place to get one in the park. We ended up eating at the one “Mexican” place in the park, over in Frontierland. It was actually really nice. The food was good and it was practically empty. With the sun on it’s way down, we got to relax in the courtyard and have a quiet (something rare in the park) meal. Next it was on to Pirates. We hit the ride just right. We walked straight in and hopped in our boat. Z didn’t quiet know what to think about this ride. The drops at the beginning threw her off a little, but she warmed up to the ride with the help of Maryanne’s excited pointers of “look Zoë, pirates!”.

It was dark when we got out and there was a Dixieland jazz band playing, so Zoë danced to the music a little and they threw her a necklace that she ended up wearing the rest of her trip. By this time we were all getting a little tired, so it was back to Fantasyland for Dumbo, Teacups and Carousel and then back to the hotel.

Zoë was really tired and wanted to go “to my own home”, but eventually calmed down and was excited to sleep in a grown up bed for the night.

From Disneyland

(highlights of day 2 coming soon!)

Zoe and I sat down this morning for a little interview about her experience at Disneyland.

Momma: What was your favorite ride at Disneyland?

Zoe: The teacups

M: Who did you go with?

Z:Tiki tiki tiki. They’e the tiki tiki tea cups

M: Who did you ride on them with?

Z: Daddy.  Momma, please give me a sticker and I put it on Minnie. (She puts a sticker on her baby Minnie stuffed animal that “appeared” on her stroller.)

M: Hey, who is that Minnie? where did she come from?

Z:  She just be magic

M: What do you mean?

Z: Where she come from?

M: She just showed up on your stroller, didn’t she?

Z: Yes.

M: Who did you meet at Disneyland?

Z: Mickey. Mickey club house. Maybe that must be his house.

M: Who else?

Z: Minnie

M: Who else?

Z: Ana

M: You did see ana! Why was she there?

Z: Them just be magic! And I say aaaah! to her.

M: Why were they there? Was it someone’s birthday?

Z: Yeah! Jack’s birthday.

M: How old was he?

Z: 3

M: And we got to see him on his birthday?

Z: Yeah

M: What did we do with them?

Z: Walk with them and go to jungle cruise. We went on cars and went all around and I went “uh, ouchie!”

M: Did you?

Z: Yes  (I have no idea what she’s talking about here.)

M: What else did we do with them?

Z: We went on dumbo with them. That was a ride. we went on the merry go round. It goes round and round and round.  And then you push a little line and go out of that place.

M: Where did we stay?

Z: In the candy cane inn.

M: Good remembering! Did you sleep in a crib?

Z: No! In a big girl bed.

M: Was it enormous?

Z: Yes.

M: What did you wear when we went to Disneyland?

Z: A Snow White costume. No, not Snow White, a Cinderella costume.

M: Did you get to meet some princesses?

Z: Yes.

Then the interview came to an abrupt end.

Zoë’s first day at Disneyland has been a blast. She got to meet lots of princesses and see some of her favorite characters. We’re all worn out from such a busy day, so a full report will have to come later. Here’s a teaser pic:

…and haven’t updated in forever! Well, we’re all heading down to Disneyland tomorrow, so we should have plenty of stuff to update soon. With pictures!!

Here I am bugging our little princess when all she wants to do is read

Zoe can say pretty much anything she wants to, but she has some made up words that she uses pretty consistently. (Remember the Eckhart debacle? Similar.)  The two she uses most often:

Yiicanyou! This is always said very enthusiastically, and often to herself in the mirror. It’s as though it’s an affirmation of some kind. Sometimes it becomes yiicanme, but not often.

Robock.  We’re fairly sure this is her version of a swear word. Not like a mutation of an existing swear word- her own word that she uses when she’s frustrated at someone.  If you tell her to do something, or more usually, to stop doing something. and she doesn’t agree, she’ll stare you down and say “Robock!” very sternly. We thought she was saying “robot”, but when we asked her what it meant she said it meant “oh no”, which is what we were telling her was the phrase she needed to use instead of

Crack! which is her version of the word “crap”. Which  is my fault that she knows. In my defense, I use it nowhere near as often as she does, and I stopped using it completely when I heard her say Crack! for the first time.

Here’s a special treat for Auntie Liz. You guys can watch it if you want, but there’s no toe-tapping beat in this one.

It’s been a week, and Zoe has stayed in her big girl bed all night long every night, and, more impressively, during her naps- none of which she has actually slept through.  That means that for at least an hour every day, even though she really doesn’t want to be there and in all actuality could just get up and play with her toys, she is staying in her bed.

Hooray for Zoe!

Zoe now has a big girl bed.

The world as we know it might be over. We’ll let you know.