Mickey... we see you!

The little one had her first glimpse of Mickey mouse two days ago. This is her first trip to Disneyland where she can remember things. The last time was when she was 1 1/2. Not exactly the perfect age to get hyped on the mouse.

This time she watched Mickey and we watched her and it was truly amazing to see the kid believe. She knows her parents are the real Santa, but thinks Mickey mouse is real!

We drove all Thursday to Anaheim with a quick stop at the Malibu temple.

Friday was spent at Disney from morning to night and it ended with the fireworks and an exhausted bunch of kids and adults. We spent Saturday visiting friends and drove back. Our drive back was interesting as we made 2.5 miles in one hour on I-5. It was raining and at one point folks started switching off their engines. The next exit was 6 miles away and we thought we were going to spend the night on I-5! Thankfully it started moving again and we got home a good 2 hours later than planned, but got home.

There are tons of pictures and many won't make it to the blog..

This last photo sums up the excitement.

It was great to go with friends and family to a place where "your dreams come true" and "you believe in magic" and you watch that sparkle in your five year old girls eye as she gets up and blows kisses at Mickey mouse when she can barely stand up after "walking the most in her whole world life" close to 10 in the night..

For our family thanksgiving is about being thankful..

to Eisenhower for coming up with a highway system that can get us from SFO to LA in 6 hours (okay 9 hours but we are still thankful)

to Toyota for making a van that makes it worthwhile and bearable to have two little kids and a mother in law who need a comfortable ride get there without them taking out all their anger at the driver

to friends and family who make the trip memorable and finally

to Walt Disney for having the vision to make our birthday long weekends fill up with fireworks in November!

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From one world to another

My mother was standing next to me on top of the steps at Sri Kumaran stores in Mylapore during the temple festival. As I videotaped the procession of the various gods on their vaahanams(props, if you will) and the gods rolled past us one by one, with a pit stop or two at shades built for the purpose, an elderly uncle asked me a very simple question:

"Ange Americala indha maadhiri edhavadhu unda?"
(In America, do you have anything similar to this?)

His tone was suggesting that I would make him proud by answering in the negative. Being born with a disease called "dontknowwhentoshutuposis" my reply was

"irukku mama. USA-layum indha maadhiri oru utsavam irukku!"
(yes uncle. even in the USA they have something like this!)

My mother saw the mischievous glint in my eyes and took me six feet away from said mama and asked,
Mom : "where in gods name was there a procession like this in the US of A?".
Me : Mousaandavar Kovil-la idhe maadhiri oru oorvalam irukkamma.. (in the mouseaandavar temple there is a procession just like this!)
Mom : Adhu endha Kovil? (what temple is that? I don't remember)
Me : Walt-aalvaar kattina Kovil! (the one that the devotee Walt built for the Mouse)

When I calmly told her that the Disney parade is the american version of the Kapali utsavam, she started laughing.

Had that been said that to my grandma, she would have said "siva sivaa", "enna piththukuli thanam" or something to that effect and hit me on the head with some blunt object. Mom on the other hand actually liked that logic, especially after my other comparisons.

In the utsavam, the vinayagar and nayanamars go first and peps up the crowd, much like the initial clowns and characters that walk in costume at the head of the disney parade.

Then of course come the vendors selling popcorn, cotton candy, little flourescent toys, etc. much like the kaathadi, bangle and pori kadalai sellers who have a three minute time window, to use the artificial sense of emergency to make a quick buck.

This is then followed by the band (naayanam) and the floats with the stars of the parade. Different gods, different props. The priests hand over sacred ash, vermillion and fruits and flowers to the crowd much like the cartoon characters sprinkle glitter around. The disney parade is on motorized floats while the Kapali floats are carried by people and that seems to be the only difference.

People who have a zillion gods and godesses can have the luxury of selecting the parade favorites. If not, you have to go for funny ducks and adorable mice!

Mylapore -> Los Angeles
Vinayagar -> Pluto
Chandikeswarar -> Goofy
Karthikeya -> Donald duck
Kapali and his -> Mickey mouse and his
consort Karpagambal -> consort Minnie Mouse

It is almost one for one! Mickey mouse brings up the grand finale in LA while Kapali's entry back into the temple closes the parade in Mylapore. One has got to wonder if Walt Disney was a mylapore resident at some point.

When you accept the Dinsey Utsavam to be a replica of Kapaliworld, you are truly on your way to bliss!

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The road to happiness

The road to happiness is paved with smiles. Cute little smiles that we get from the little ones.

Considering that San and me have birthday's just around thanksgiving break, we have spent many a celebration at a themepark, and the special ones are in what is supposed to be the happiest place on earth, aka Disneyland.

The irony of it is that as the number of kids went from 0 to 1 to 2, and the kids got older, the happiness somehow seems to be muted, or to be fair, lets say "has mutated"!

This post is a travel through time, to the very same place, over the last 8 years...

1999 : Newly marrieds, jointly celebrating birthdays for the first time, holding hands, walking through the special parade, staying in the park till till closing time, the fireworks, finding out that all it takes to make the Mrs. happy is to get her to toontown, that too after being married for 5 months! The adults could mark the Disneyland map with the best makeout places.

2003 : New parents, taking grandma to show some place outside San Jose before she went back to India.. it was our way of telling the first time grandma that we wanted her to have some fun before she went back with memories of sleepless nights, emergency C-sections and avent bottles! Daddy spent most of the day in the Baby Care room with a sleeping Jr., with two backup bottles of breast milk ready to be warmed up, while mom and grandma went to the various rides and attractions. Finally when all of us stood in the line to take a picture with Mickey, Jr. decided to grab the permed hair of the lady standing in the next section of the serpentine queue and created a little side attaction. By the time we managed to extract that lady's hair from Jr.'s grip, Mickey himself was ready to honor us with some extra photo time! We did not stay for fireworks as it was too cold. Daddy could mark the Disney map with the best Child care places, locations where you could warm a bottle of milk, where to store stuff in an icepack, etc.

2004 : A near miss as we go to Universal Studios and decide against Disney because my parents want to spend a day with my cousin. I told them that the mouse wins hands down, but they didn't listen! Now they have to wait for their turn...

2006: Taking all the maternal great grand parents to see Mickey and Friends, along with grandparents, parents and the kids. An interesting trip where we had enough hands to distract the kids during feeding time, but started having wheelchair issues toward the end of the day. A trip where the parents felt relaxed because the kids were fed and nothing else seemed to matter. By now, daddy had also gotten used to the "we won't be seeing much if we spend all our time feeding the kids!' routine. In short, daddy lowered his expectation on the percentage theme park covered in one day metric. The single brother in law was given some tips from my previous trips, which might come in handy when he gets married! We actually stayed for fireworks and this time, Daddy and mommy know the wheelchair map of Disneyland.

2007: A trip with the cousins, aimed at making the little girls happy. Everything goes well till we go on a ride called "Mr. Toad" and then Jr. gets shocked. She stops eating, has a long drawn face and starts asking philosophical questions like "Why do I have to eat? Why do I have to do ANYTHING?" and freaks us out. We pull out of the park before the evening parade for the first time, with a protesing little one in tow. Jr. has suddenly lost interest in this world and refuses to go on any ride, eat anything, do anything at all, while the little one wants to go on every ride but is either too young or too short to go on anything! We hurried back home, but did manage to break her hunger strike in Legoland the following day. We are still at a loss to understand what happened to her in the park! Did she see something? Did she hear something? Why would a kid suddenly shut down like that? Was it related to the fifth year immunization shot she got earlier in the week? A million questions, none of which matter now, considering she is back to her usual self! We did have some fun when she started smiling again during the afternoon parade but the smiles were few and countable! Daddy and mommy can now show you the fastest way to exit the park!

Guess that shows how a Disney trip evolves with time. Next time (I am sure there will be one more trip, when the little one goes through HER princess phase), we are going to use all the learning from the previous trips and hope to have a great time!

One thing is true, irrespective of the theme park we are visiting. As long as the feedings are on schedule, the kids are okay, the moms are not stressed out and the dads don't have to take the brunt of the abuse for the kids not eating, the trip is a success and everyone comes out happy! If the kids stop cooperating in the eating department, even Disneyland becomes hell on earth!

On the bright side, the whirlwind LEGOLAND trip was good. The girl ate lunch, played, even started dancing again! At dinnertime, she started acting dull again and we just checked out a day ahead and started driving back in the night! Drove through I-5 last night knowing that we could always handle this better when we were home!

Will post pictures and videos of the trip tomorrow.

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