Leaving the Place With No Magic to visit the Place With All the Magic...And Back Again

The kids and I conquered Disneyland today. I know it is a potentially crazy action when one is 6 months pregnant and waaaay behind in her work. Both house and actual paid.

But today, I needed it. My kids needed it. It has been one of those short tempered, kids can do no right in Mommy's eyes kind of weeks. I had one of these last minute ideas earlier this year and while it involved 1 extra kid and 1 less pregnant woman, the outcome was just as wonderful and amazing.

We hit a bunch of rides right away: knocked down Zurg on Buzz Lightyear's Astro Blasters, rode the ponies on the carousel, remembered how looooong the line is when you want to ride the boats on the Storybook Land ride, looked over all Disneyland on Dumbo's back and remembered just how terrifying the Pinocchio ride is and that there is a reason there is never a line.

We stopped for a snack at the Hungry Bear restaurant (best fries ever), rode through Winnie the Pooh's ride and remembered to pick up Mommy's favorite candy. We rode the train to Tomorrowland, glanced at the line at the new Nemo ride, hit Buzz Lightyear again and ended our day with the Jungle Cruise.

On our way out, as we got on our tram, Nathan was explaining-in great detail-how we were leaving Disneyland and returning to our city. He told me that "Disneyland is just a magic land where your dreams come true. The city we live in is not very magic." I squeezed his hand and wondered why I was so blessed to have such a wonderful day with my babies.



And then I slammed Nathan's fingers in the car door.


Sorry, what's that? Oh yeah, you read that right.
I buckled Lucy in her seat, I closed the door called for Nathan and heard the most terrifying sound I have ever heard in my whole life. His fingers were caught in the hinged side of the door. I had to open the door to get them out. The amazing thing is, despite the screaming and terror I saw in my son's eyes, I was able to stay so clear minded. It reminded me (later upon reflection of the evening's events) of the scene in Seinfeld when Elaine had to drop off an annoying house guest at the airport. "I was going faster than I've ever gone before, and yet, it all seemed to be happening in slow motion. I was seeing three and four moves ahead...I knew I was challenging the very laws of physics."

I had an ice pack on my boy's hand right away-thankful that I'd brought it and that it was still cold. I was holding him, making sure he was breathing and comforting his sister inside the car who was very unsure of what happened, but was very sure it was not good.

That's when I started to lose it just a little. There was a LOT of swelling, even more hysterical 4 year old screaming in a way I had never heard and a surprising lack of people coming to help us considering the volume in which he was screaming. I had to go to my Rock when it comes to medical situations. I called Carol.

After the phone call, I was calmer. We were quite sure that fingers were not broken and we got in the car to come home when Nathan, once again, gave us the beautiful "wrap it up" statement for the evening: "Mommy, this was just a sad ending to a really good day. But our whole day wasn't sad."

Ahhhhh.

Stay tuned tomorrow for a couple of shots from our day today...including the fingers!