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First of, something just for treebyleaf:
So anyway, my weekend with Ben:
I got a call Saturday morning from Andy Dehnart. He is the journalist who is interested in writing a feature about Ben and Disney World. A while back he saw me post something about it on metafilter, and sent me an email asking for more details. He is a freelance journalist, and also a journalism professor at a nearby college. I actually remember reading a feature he did on Trading Spaces for Salon last year, and liked his style.
So anyway, he was in town Saturday to do a story on Mission: Space and wondered if I would be taking Ben to the park that day. Silly question, really. He hooked up with us at the Transportation and Ticket Center, and tagged along for a typical day at the Magic Kingdom. We chatted a little bit, but mostly he played the detatched observer. For his troubles he got to ride Snow White's Scary Adventure nine times, poor guy. Overall it was a nice day in the park. I put up some pictures here if you are interested.
On Sunday I was feeling somehow reluctant to go back to the Magic Kingdom for a third day in a row, having myself ridden Snow White's Scary Adventure more than twenty times in the past 48 hours. I mean, it's a nice ride and all, but...
So on a whim I tried taking Ben to Disney/MGM. I had to drag him out of the car. All the way to the tram he was trying to pull me back to the car, complaining loudly. As we sat down on the tram he started making his normal "frustrated" sounds (something like, "ya ya ho HHEEEEHHHHGGGG!" and "ke to has to HEHHHiieeaAAAHHH!!"), and then climbed up in my lap, gave me a pleading stare, and said, "Daddy, I want CAR!".
Alrighty, then. Needless to say, we gave up on Disney/MGM. From there I headed over to Epcot expecting more of the same, but willing to at least give it a try. When we parked he wasn't eager to get out of the car, but he wasn't fighting it either. As we walked towards the entrance he would stop every twenty or thirty feet and just look up at Spaceship Earth, screening it with his left hand (kind of like the "I'm crushing your head" guy from The Kids in the Hall). Then he started one of his conversations with me, that went something like:
(Ben) "Fun."
(me) "Fun"
"Fuffin."
"Fuffin."
"And a-goofin' "
"And a-goofin' "
"And I go fuffin."
"And I go fuffin."
I have no idea what it means, but we have that conversation often. So as we walked and talked, he got a smile on his face and even started skipping. We went through the turnstiles and for the first time since we arrived here in August Ben was actually in a different Disney park than the Magic Kingdom. Yay! We went on Spaceship Earth, which lasts a little over 20 minutes. Ben loved the whole thing, turning and looking around at everything. Not surprisingly, his favorite part was when you come around a turn where you hit the explosion of media in the early- to mid- twentieth century, and there on a large video screen is the scene from Snow White where the dwarfs are dancing and singing the yodeling song.
After Spaceship Earth he took me over towards the side of Future World with The Living Seas and The Land, but changed his mind and decided to explore a garden path instead. Then we kind of meandered over towards the World Showcase, but again he changed his mind as we neared Mexico. I assured him that I wasn't going to take him on any scary rides, but he still didn't want to walk that way. I didn't want to push it, because I wanted him to enjoy being in the park even if he wasn't ready to explore very far. We wound up walking back by Test Track and then the Mission: Space plaza. On a whim, I took him into the gift shop to see what he would think of it. He wound up walking into the Mission: Space Race training area, which has a big collaborative game and also a bunch of other side exhibits to interact with. One of the areas is a climbing play area, kind of like the ones you see at McDonald's but with a space theme. He was thrilled! He wound up playing and climbing around in there for almost an hour. At one point he even sent a video postcard to his grandma (I did all the typing, but he picked the background and posed for the camera).
From there we spent some time in the Wonders of Life pavillion, and a good long time in the Mouse Gear gift shop and the Art of Disney store. All total we spent nearly three hours in Epcot, and for most of that time he was smiling and skipping. This was a definite victory. Overall we had a very good weekend.
So anyway, my weekend with Ben:
I got a call Saturday morning from Andy Dehnart. He is the journalist who is interested in writing a feature about Ben and Disney World. A while back he saw me post something about it on metafilter, and sent me an email asking for more details. He is a freelance journalist, and also a journalism professor at a nearby college. I actually remember reading a feature he did on Trading Spaces for Salon last year, and liked his style.
So anyway, he was in town Saturday to do a story on Mission: Space and wondered if I would be taking Ben to the park that day. Silly question, really. He hooked up with us at the Transportation and Ticket Center, and tagged along for a typical day at the Magic Kingdom. We chatted a little bit, but mostly he played the detatched observer. For his troubles he got to ride Snow White's Scary Adventure nine times, poor guy. Overall it was a nice day in the park. I put up some pictures here if you are interested.
On Sunday I was feeling somehow reluctant to go back to the Magic Kingdom for a third day in a row, having myself ridden Snow White's Scary Adventure more than twenty times in the past 48 hours. I mean, it's a nice ride and all, but...
So on a whim I tried taking Ben to Disney/MGM. I had to drag him out of the car. All the way to the tram he was trying to pull me back to the car, complaining loudly. As we sat down on the tram he started making his normal "frustrated" sounds (something like, "ya ya ho HHEEEEHHHHGGGG!" and "ke to has to HEHHHiieeaAAAHHH!!"), and then climbed up in my lap, gave me a pleading stare, and said, "Daddy, I want CAR!".
Alrighty, then. Needless to say, we gave up on Disney/MGM. From there I headed over to Epcot expecting more of the same, but willing to at least give it a try. When we parked he wasn't eager to get out of the car, but he wasn't fighting it either. As we walked towards the entrance he would stop every twenty or thirty feet and just look up at Spaceship Earth, screening it with his left hand (kind of like the "I'm crushing your head" guy from The Kids in the Hall). Then he started one of his conversations with me, that went something like:
(Ben) "Fun."
(me) "Fun"
"Fuffin."
"Fuffin."
"And a-goofin' "
"And a-goofin' "
"And I go fuffin."
"And I go fuffin."
I have no idea what it means, but we have that conversation often. So as we walked and talked, he got a smile on his face and even started skipping. We went through the turnstiles and for the first time since we arrived here in August Ben was actually in a different Disney park than the Magic Kingdom. Yay! We went on Spaceship Earth, which lasts a little over 20 minutes. Ben loved the whole thing, turning and looking around at everything. Not surprisingly, his favorite part was when you come around a turn where you hit the explosion of media in the early- to mid- twentieth century, and there on a large video screen is the scene from Snow White where the dwarfs are dancing and singing the yodeling song.
After Spaceship Earth he took me over towards the side of Future World with The Living Seas and The Land, but changed his mind and decided to explore a garden path instead. Then we kind of meandered over towards the World Showcase, but again he changed his mind as we neared Mexico. I assured him that I wasn't going to take him on any scary rides, but he still didn't want to walk that way. I didn't want to push it, because I wanted him to enjoy being in the park even if he wasn't ready to explore very far. We wound up walking back by Test Track and then the Mission: Space plaza. On a whim, I took him into the gift shop to see what he would think of it. He wound up walking into the Mission: Space Race training area, which has a big collaborative game and also a bunch of other side exhibits to interact with. One of the areas is a climbing play area, kind of like the ones you see at McDonald's but with a space theme. He was thrilled! He wound up playing and climbing around in there for almost an hour. At one point he even sent a video postcard to his grandma (I did all the typing, but he picked the background and posed for the camera).
From there we spent some time in the Wonders of Life pavillion, and a good long time in the Mouse Gear gift shop and the Art of Disney store. All total we spent nearly three hours in Epcot, and for most of that time he was smiling and skipping. This was a definite victory. Overall we had a very good weekend.