For the love of a mouse

I was making my morning cup of coffee while my husband held our 10 month old Noah. I pulled my Mickey Mouse mug from the cupboard and placed it on the counter. My son spotted it immediatly and started to point and smile. As my husband walked into the living room Noah turned around to keep the mug in his line of vision, pointed and said 'ickey!' Both Matt and I stopped and looked at eachother completely stunned. We both heard it, clear as anything. He was saying Mickey!

When I started telling people that we were going to be taking our then 7 month old son Noah on his first trip to Disneyland people couldnt understand it. I got a few comments like, 'But he wont even remember it' and 'he is going to cry as soon as he sees those characters!' To be honest, the trip wasn't even so much about him as it was about our family as a whole enjoying some time together. But it turned out to be probably my favorite family vacation ever; even with a baby in tow.
The first time I went to Disney I was in grade 2, and I hardly remember it. But to literally see Disney through my own childs eyes? It was beyond magical.

We prepped him a bit before the trip in hopes to calm his potential fears. My mother had a large Mickey Mouse doll aswell as a Winnie the Pooh and we took them out for him to play with. He immediatly latched onto the Mickey and began showering the stuffy with kisses whenever he saw him. By the time we left on the trip we could even ask, "Where is Mickey Mouse?" and he would turn to wherever he was. A good enough start we thought.

Then the opportunity arrived. On our first day in the park Mickey Mouse was just beyond the entrance. We immediatly ran over (sorry - walked fast, there is no running in Disneyland!) and lined up for our turn. As soon as Mickey came into my sons line of vision he began leaning over from my hip trying to get a closer look. When it was our turn to meet him, Noah immediatly dove for Mickeys arms and began planting kisses on his nose. I nearly cried! It was the sweetest moment ever.

Ever since that day he has had a big love for Mickey. He points to any image of him in a picture frame, he gets excited when the home video of our trip comes on, he smiles whenever he sees him on an article of clothing, and he sleeps with his Mickey stuffy every single night. He is even having a Mickey Mouse themed birthday party.

'You brainwashed him,' you may be thinking. Not true. Sure, we did expose him to Disneyland, but the love of the mouse came to him all on his own.

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To learn more about travelling to Disney with a baby, you can check out my post Doing Disney with a baby