GoingSara

Last week, we took our first-ever vacation as a family (there was that one trip to Tennessee when Isaac was tiny, but that doesn’t count as vacation).

What follows is a lot of gushing, and the ironic/snarky side of me is crawling into a corner and crying at the sincerity. Because we went to Disneyland and it was, dammit, magical.

The drive down was smooth; this was also the first car trip over two hours for Isaac so we didn’t know what to expect, but he was happy to look out the window and watch the trucks. At one point, we saw three semi trailers each hauling two other brand new trailers piggyback. They were bright and shiny and someone had clearly arranged them for maximum attractiveness; one set was all shades of blue, one was blues and greens, and one was red-orange-yellow. A few hours later, we stopped at a rest stop along I-5 and the trucks were there! I walked Isaac over to get a better look, and one of the drivers offered to let him climb in and honk the horn! He was so excited.

I’m pretty sure we could have just gone home at that point and Isaac would have considered it an excellent trip, but we drove on and got to Disneyland Sunday evening. We were staying at the Disneyland Hotel. The Disneyland Hotel is in the middle of some pretty major renovations, including ripping out one of the pool areas. So the internets are full of terrifying stories about the hell that is the Wonder Tower, with its construction and detours. Guess where our room was.

I figured as long as we were going to be dealing with construction, Isaac might as well get to watch it. So I asked if there were any rooms with a really good view of the action. Some calls were made to a mysterious back room to check on the week’s work, and we got our keys. We didn’t really appreciate the awesomeness until the next morning – we were in a second-floor room overlooking a big field of dirt populated by excavators and front loaders and a thing that ripped rebar out of the ground. They were just getting started when we left for the morning, but when we came back to the room not only were all the machines going, there were GUYS on HARNESSES with POWER TOOLS working on an overhang just under our window. Isaac was beyond thrilled. So that was our daily pattern – parks in the morning, a few hours back at the hotel to recharge and watch The Construction Show and swim in the (other) pool, and then back over to the parks.

We spent five days in the parks, split pretty evenly between the Magic Kingdom and the California Adventure side. He loved the rides, but I think his favorite thing was the Pixar parade, which featured very clever floats and gymnasts and alien cheerleaders and, at the very end, Mater and Lightning McQueen. The last two were also available for photo ops during the day, and Isaac was so excited to go right up to Mater’s teeth. Having so much time meant that we could go at Isaac’s pace and take a lot of breaks without feeling pressured to keep going going going.

The costumed characters were non-thrilling for him; he doesn’t really know Micky and Minnie or the other classic Disney characters. We saw Pluto in ToonTown and Isaac said, “Dog!” but ran right by him to see something more interesting. He was momentarily excited to see Buzz Lightyear later, but was content to view him from a distance. To him, Disney pretty much equals Pixar. Weird. Sorry, Walt.

One of the things we’ve been looking at lately is Isaac’s sensory diet, and how to help him get the sensory input he craves. The good news is, I now know how much sensory input Isaac needs for optimal functioning. The bad news is, it’s Disneyland. Kidding. But almost all of his sensation-seeking behaviors stopped while we were there, which was interesting. He talked a lot, too, and was super-affectionate with us. Some of that was probably just from having time to focus on Isaac Isaac Isaac without all the distractions of normal life, but I think that ramping up his sensory input will do him some good.

So, anyway…amazing trip, and we’ll go back as soon as we can.

Isaac’s vocabulary corner: his favorite phrase is THE END, which not only means the end of a story, it also can be used to comment on or demand the end of any situation. Daddy picks Isaac up at Grandma’s? The End! We check out at Target? The End! Finished the popcorn? The End! Seriously, it’s freaking adorable.

THE END!