Disney 2005: Day 3

In which there is wild life and western shows.

We started our day with another character breakfast, this time Donald's Breakfastasaurus. She greeted Donald with the enthusiastic hug, kiss and conversation that were the hallmarks of the happy moments. Then, Pluto and Goofy came by together, and things turned bad. She became so upset that when Mickey came by afterward, she kept alternating between happy hugs, and crying and pulling away from him, which I'm sure confused poor Mickey a great deal. Naptime after breakfast allowed us to catch "It’s tough to be a bug". Frankly, parts of that show still scare me, so it was a no brainier to have Anabelle skip it.

At lunch she discovered what would be another favorite vacation pastime: squirting herself silly with the spray bottle fan until she became a "soggy baby". We then all had a great time walking through the Asian safari. Anabelle kept asking to go in with the bats, which are about as big as me. I asked, "Aren't you the same girl who was afraid of the Winnie the Pooh ride?" This would be where we finally started to figure out her hang up with animatronics. The jungle trail was followed by some character greetings, where we happily watched her run up to both Mickey and Minnie. She always made sure to tell each of them that she had seen their significant other, she’s very considerate. She still wanted no part of Goofy though, even with Mami. We spent a lot of time looking at the flamingoes too. She likes flamingoes. I taught her that after we left they're called "flamingwents." (I'm very educational to have around).

In another brilliant idea, we tried to take her to Rosa’s favorite, the Festival of the Lion King. Rosa went first, and we chased her saying, “Lets catch Mami”, right until we entered the theater. Then “Let's catch Mami” switched to “Wanna go baaack!” I carried her to Rosa and by the time the first singers started, the room itself had scared her to the point that I had to take her out. She was so flustered several cast members came up to ask if she was OK. We went to get a hug from Donald to help her relax, and then walked over to look at some statues of the characters fishing. (Donald catching a shoe being the highlight.)

We bought her a set of Mickey and Minnie ponytail holders that she called "Little Bitty Mickey" and "Little Bitty Minnie". She asked for them by name, and liked to hold them at naptime. As we left the park, we looked down and asked, "Where's Little Bitty Mickey" to which she answered, "On the floor". Despite my running back to find him, he was long gone. She's very good at stealthily dropping things out of the stroller preventing you from see them while pushing. The embarrassing part of this story is we bought a second set two days later in EPCOT, and later in the day Little Bitty Mickey was again "On the floor". Now she has a set of two Minnie ponytail holders. We did buy her a third set, which we didn’t show her, and put straight into the luggage. (See, we can be taught.)

It was with some nervousness that we traveled over to the Hoop-dee-doo, based on our previous theater experiences. Rosa changed Anabelle into the pretty red-checkered square dance dress that she made (Yay, Rosa!), and we entered carefully. Apparently, when there’s food involved, Anabelle will go anywhere. (That’s my girl.) She happily walked in and we went up to the balcony with no problem. Anabelle spent the show singing, clapping, napkin waving, hokey pokeying, washboard playing, and laughing along, and we all had a great old time. Miss Dolly asked where we were from, and Anabelle talked to her for a bit. Six Bits was the best I’ve seen, his style contained an odd but effective combination of Curly Howard and Jackie Gleason. He passed our table a few times, stopped to return Anabelle’s blank stare, then took her fork, fed her a piece of chicken, and left without changing expression. Rosa and I were so stunned she didn’t freak out we forgot to take a picture each time.

Anabelle panicked again as we got on the crowded boat to leave Fort Wilderness, which did not help Rosa, who had a reaction to something in the strawberry shortcake, and ended up nauseous and with a migraine. To top it off, the baby also stunk up the bus ride back. After changing the Hoop-de-poop. I took Anabelle to the fountains so Rosa could take care of herself.

As fatigue gripped us all, we canceled the remaining breakfast appointments (except for Anabelle’s birthday) and resolved to sleep later in the mornings.

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