Laughter is good medicine

Things that made me laugh this week:

Colin. Often. He is trying to learn how to wink. See video for further hilarity.

Coming downstairs to find this:

Why yes, that would be a naked Colin, all up in the medicine shelf, trying to chug some benedryl. Why naked? You'll have to ask him.

How utterly unmotivated I am to continue working where I am. Office morale is in the cah-rapper. Cause of problem is blissfully unaware of his role in it. Ghoulishly excited to see who’s going to snap first. Somewhat wary that it may be me.

Playgroup at our house. Watching the boys enjoy a chatty lunch.

How proud I was in my first attempt at homemade buttermilk pancakes until I read about my Sister making some Swedish confection that I can’t even pronounce. Ableskiphopperdoers? Abtasticskidoers? Abhadabbadoers? Pancakes anyone?

My Spring has no Sprung

My poor blog is sadly lacking in attention these days. A combination of stressful days at work, chaotic evenings at home, and that lil thing called Facebook is keeping me from posting those deep dark inner pointless thoughts that make up my Bumble World observations.

But hey, facebook is down for maintenance! So how about an update?

• Colin is in high-Rascal form these days. He even kicked Daycare Donna! gasp Oh, and the kid has some kind of special powers for charming plane captains. We got to have another tour of a cockpit on our recent flight to Sac-Town. The pilot even put on the WARNING! WARNING! WIND SHEER! PULL UP! sirens for him. Scared the crap out of both of us! And Rob got more free drinks because Colin made the flight attendant laugh. We heart SWA!
  
• We went home last weekend for my Dad’s 70th birthday. That’s a bit of a mind trip eh? Seven Zero. The big seventyreno. Top Pop looks good though, that chessie cat grin hasn’t aged a day. There was a great celebration and I got to see many of my Pop’s Peeps that I haven’t seen since probably our wedding. I think it’s cool that my parents have cool friends. Makes hiding in a corner less of a necessity at social functions. The kids all presented “why we love Grandpa Fred” using their letter to describe him. Colin lands on E – so Grandpa is ENTERTAINING. And Grandpa is EXTRA SPECIAL. And Grandpa is EDUCATIONAL! He did really well with the big words!
  
• Rob is busy painting the garage. It’s a dang big garage so it’s taking some time. But it looks primo and I can’t wait to see it all come together. That man of mine, he sure can make a Man Cave.
  
• We saw the Tax Man, and the Tax Man treated us well.
  
• Daylight savings is kicking my ass. Still. I can’t seem to get to bed before 11pm. And dinner has not been on time since the dang clock switched over.
  
• I need to start working in my garden, but our weather has been just a bit bi-polar. I’m going to attempt spinach this year and move my tomatoes so they get more of just an idea of sun. Hope it works. I missed having some ‘matos to munch on.

And that, my friends, is about it. Keep your fingers crossed for me. I have some irons in the fire that will hopefully come through in the next month.

We did it, we did it, I can’t believe we did it!

Back in the days when we were never having children, I cringed anytime Rob brought up Disneyland. Crowds, pushy people, lines, kids everywhere… how about Italy? Then we had the Bumble and I began my stall tactics. “Maybe when he’s five, or eighteen, or whenever.” No rush.

Then the Bumble began to get interesting, and the idea of Disney became a little closer to reality. Then the Bumble became hilarious to watch when he experienced new things. And we also wanted to see Rob’s 99-year young grandma and other relatives who live in the area, so we decided that maybe now would be a good time for a trip.

Our family has established a new tradition in which my parents are dragged along join the fun of the first trip. Something about seeing the joy on their grandkids faces (we think it’s because they feel guilty that they only took us once). Flights were booked, hotel reserved, car rented. The trip was on!

We flew South on Wednesday and met up with my folks at the hotel. We visited for a bit and then mapped out our strategy for the next day. Okay, let’s be honest. I pulled out the detailed itinerary I had crafted based on website and guidebook suggestions, which took into account a trip to the nearest starbucks, time to park, time to get to the shuttle, eyerolling by Rob, and be in queue a half hour before opening time.

Luckily for us Mom is hooked up with the magic blue ‘capper parking pass and also had scored us free parking, so we decided to drive to the park rather than sweat with the masses on mass transit. Oh the sweet sweet joy of being waved into the special close-in parking. Let’s savor the moment. . Ahh.

Selfish enjoyment of close parking aside, it really was convenient to be close to the shuttle, the less distance Mom had to walk, the better. We got in the park just fine and got mom hooked up with her zoomer. We hit the northern half of the park and I admit I was more than a little bothered by the lines. One reason we went in February, during the week, was to avoid the weekend and high-season crowds. I think I was naively thinking that there would be less people than there were. But even Mom was surprised at the lines we had to stand in for just about every ride. Colin took it all in in his usual serious-fun way. The Bumble just doesn’t really crack a smile when he’s taking in new situations. We knew he was having fun because he bounced around in between rides, but during them? No. Smile. At. All.

We made it until about three and hit the wall. When we planned the trip we agreed that we’d cruise the park until it became not fun, and not worry about having to hit every ride. The last two rides we attempted broke down as we got to the front of the line and the “yea let’s go!” refrain became “screw it, Mickey.” So we left the herd behind and hung out at the hotel (too cold for the pool) until dinner. During our meal I tried to browbeat Mom into using the handicap entrances, I mean, she’s entitled and all, and hey, no lines. Her argument was that she is perfectly capable of standing in line and while I agreed, Hello!? No Lines?

On day two we decided to try out the “for the love of pete let’s skip the lines!” strategy and cruised past the insane lines at some of the more popular rides. More sweet sweet joy. Overall the crowds seemed more manageable and we got to much more on day two than we had on day one.

Colin continued to amaze us all with his willingness to try anything. He even had arms up on the railroad roller coaster! And I went on it too! And I didn’t barf! Whee! Mom drew the line at using her wheels to get us on Indiana Jones and we weren’t willing to wait for an hour for it (the fast pass system? BLOWS. We never got to take advantage.) so we ended up our day with a trip on the railroad and a churro on main street.

We went, we thrilled, we got a little teary at our big boy, we rolled with the mood swings of a nap-skipping toddler, and we had a fantastically magical time. And that was our Disney adventure in a nutshell. As Colin woud say, in his best “just chugged a cold glass of milk” breathless way, “Dat was a good day!” (yes, he says that after drinking milk, why? Because he's a Bumble)

Rides Ridden (in no particular order):
Autopia
Tarzan's Treehouse
Big Thunder Mountain Railroad
Disneyland: The First 50 Magical Years
Innoventions
Pirate's Lair on Tom Sawyer Island
Astro Orbitor
Buzz Lightyear Astro Blasters
Enchanted Tiki Room
Finding Nemo Submarine Voyage
Haunted Mansion
Jungle Cruise
Mr. Toad's Wild Ride
Pirates of the Caribbean
Chip 'n Dale Treehouse
Dumbo the Flying Elephant
"it's a small world"
King Arthur Carrousel
The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh
Peter Pan's Flight
Storybook Land Canal Boats
Disneyland Railroad
Mark Twain Riverboat