The Red Shoe Pope: Baby's First Vacation

DISNEYLAND!!

Lainey took her first vacation last weekend. And where better to go than the happiest place on earth?

We had a blast and were so lucky to go with Grammy and Umpa and stay at the beautiful Grand California hotel which is in the California Adventure park. Which afforded us the convenience to go back to the room in the middle of the day to recharge and then head out again. It also gave us the privilege to enter the park an hour before all the "regular" folk.

Lainey was a real trooper. Her first rides were the train, which she thought was really cool, and It's A Small World, which was a little bit of sensory overload for her. Surprisingly, the new Toy Story ride and Winnie the Pooh scared the hell out of her but she loved the Haunted Mansion and Snow White's Scary Adventure. That's my little weirdo.

To make her more comfortable we would wave at the characters on rides. On the second day I rode Splash Mountain solo and actually waved at the Brer Rabbit.

Oh yes I did.

Thank goodness I was in the back of the log and I don't think anyone saw me. I guess that's one way Disneyland changes when you go with a baby - you get to lose yourself in the magic. Here are some other ways it changes:

- You spend more time searching for the right pair of mouse ears than you do waiting in line for rides

- In the middle of screaming your guts out on Space Mountain you wonder what your baby is doing

- You constantly ask "do they really need to have the sound turned up so loud?"

- Strangers ask if they can take a picture of your baby (okay, I'm bragging here - 2 different people asked to take a picture of Lainey because she's so cute! Can you blame them? Did you see the picture at the top of the blog?)

Lainey had a great time. She loved playing in the hotel and crawling between our room and Grammy and Umpa's. She also loved people watching, shopping and eating everything we ate. Here are some more pictures showing how much fun she had.