The First Haircut - Disney-style!

I hear a lot of people ask, "Why would anyone in their right mind take an infant/toddler to Walt Disney World?" First of all, I'm not in my right mind. Second, we took this trip for us. We just believe that vacations are for family and he's part of our family. I'm not knocking people who vacation alone or with only their spouse, leaving their children or significant other behind. I'm just saying it doesn't work for us.

We knew going in that there would be maybe 3 or 4 things that would be specifically for him. The rest of it would be for us. And we were going to make the best of it.

This really is Oldest Boy. I know he looks exactly like Little One. Just trust me.

We followed the touring plan that Mr. MOTH designed (using the Unofficial Guide - his Disney Bible) and for the most part we experienced everything on our list (with Disney, you don't "ride" or "see" things, you "experience" them). We had a character breakfast with Mickey Mouse and Co. at the Animal Kingdom (I claimed this was for our son. It was SO not.) He got to see Playhouse Disney Live! (Mr. MOTH looked at me during the performance and said, "You see all of these parents singing along? It means they're up at the crack of dawn, too!") Oldest Boy had his very first taste of ice cream just before the fireworks display in the Magic Kingdom. It was one of those experiences that was...unforgettable. He was fighting that first taste - shaking his head, pushing the spoon away - and then I snuck it in. He paused. And then DOVE for the spoon. I think he ate most of it! We also learned that almost-one-year-olds sleep through an amazing amount of noise (fireworks, Fantasmic, Illuminations, pretty much every live show).

We also took a day and went to Universal Studios where I took this photo:

That is ONE person in the Jurassic Park ride. My husband. That was a very unique experience for him, one he still talks about to this day.

And, of course, we inadvertently started a tradition:

That's the Barber Shop on Main Street, USA. Now, here is where I would insert photos of the actual haircut and the adorable "First Haircut" Mouse Ears he got, but this was back when I was still suspicious of digital photography and only took photos of the priceless stuff with my film camera. (Hey, I entered the 21st century a few years months later) And there's some video somewhere - also not digital.

Since this series of posts is supposed to be about what went wrong, I'll give you the rundown: Oldest Boy got four (4!) teeth while we were there; he got his first major head gash on the coffee table in our room; we broke the zipper on our luggage for the return trip and had to use duct tape (courtesy of the front desk - they were not surprised by this request AT ALL. We are such hicks...) to hold it together; our flight was delayed for the return trip, which we had correctly scheduled at naptime; we finally boarded and I sat down to find out that the passenger next to us wasn't on the plane yet. I sat our son down next to me and bent down to shove my diaper bag under the seat when I heard a *thud* and a SCREAM. Yeah. I let him fall off of the seat. The perfect ending, no?