The Sentimental Mess That Is Myself

I have talked time and time again on how I get mushy over the littlest details of any Pixar movie. Really, how can you not, with the tiny fin holding the tiny Nemo egg in Finding Nemo to the final goodbye scene in Toy Story 3. I am getting choked up right now typing this, no joke.
But I need to strengthen up, be a strong mom! How can I be the strong mom when my kid comes to me in tears? Just seeing that my kids are upset for some reason breaks me in two, as I always want them to have the best and brightest memories ever. Not possible, I know, but I think my sentimental meter gets another notch or two every time we see a Disney movie.
I know there are a lot of you out there that when you read this, you will be nodding your head and saying "Exactly!! This is why I cry too at this part!" At least I hope you will so I am not alone in this.

1. Toy Story 3 Final Goodbye Scene

Two special thanks for this scene.
1. Special thanks to the director of this movie, Lee Unkrich, for turning around a very dismal scene in which the toys were almost burnt to a crisp to the most bittersweet scene in which the toys get a new life with the little girl Bonnie.
2. An uber thanks to Randy Newman, for creating a sweet heart wrenching soundtrack to this final scene. Every violin made me cry a bit more.

2. Lion King

I remember getting a bit sad when I saw this movie many years ago, but now it has increased ten fold with having kids. Simba loses his dad, and right after the big speech of how the great kings look after Simba and his dad via the stars?? It reminds me of how my dad uses beautiful analogies to explain life, and seeing Simba and Mufasa is like seeing Jack and Brian. The whole father-son aspect tugs my heartstrings ever more so now that I have sons.


3.Disney 50  Animated Movies

Just search this video up. It shows clips of every animated Disney movie. The tearjerker in this one for me is the song that they use for this clip, called Dreams. "You, you're in my dreams."
Once again relating this to my sons. The bonus is to see Jack get excited over every Disney movie in this clip that I loved as a child. Sentimental value galore.



4. Tangled Paper Lanterns

This cute little scene where Rapunzel finally sees the lanterns for the first time. Plus the scene right before it is killer  -the king and queen cry silently since they are still releasing the lanterns yet their daughter is not found. My husband recognized that it was nice that there was no dialog in that scene, just actions. I think Disney secretly did that so it would give everyone a chance to wipe their eyes from crying.


5. Up- Carl and Ellie

The moment where she holds his hand as they are reading just because. The setting up the nursery. The moment in the hospital. Enough said.

The Epcot Photos

Chip and Dale were very friendly. Very huggy. They were one of the nicest characters that we met so far.

This was a great moment in Epcot. It was one of the hottest days when we were there. 86 degrees, a gorgeous wind that would blow every now and then.  Charlie was napping in his stroller and we decided to just park by a huge hill and just sit. Jack was running around the hill when he met a friend named Anna. They played together for a bit while Brian and myself just enjoyed our moment there, discussing on what ride to go on next. You know, typical Disney vacation talk.

 My favorite story of this trip - the boys met Princess Aurora. You see how they are posing? She told them to pose that way as "regal gentlemen." At the end, Brian told Jack  "alright, goodbye to Snow  White." The Princess looked at Brian and said "Princess Aurora." Corrected by a princess.

Sorry, this was the friendliest character we met. Jack's favorite, Mary Poppins. She was awesome. She chatted them up for a good 2 minutes. That is a long time when you met a Disney character. You see how Jack was holding her hand there? He stayed that way the whole time that they talked. She told him in the end to "be a good boy to your mum and dad and it was lovely to meet you." Followed by a warm hug and kiss on the hand to him. My heart flew in happiness for Jack. He was over the moon.

The Hollywood Studios Photos

Pluto was trying to cheer Charlie up....

It wasn't working.

I was in Pixar heaven. I have been waiting to see this for soo long.

The Pixar street is too short and too narrow. Make it bigger Disney!

Waiting to meet his heros Buzz and Woody

A character lunch at Hollywood and Vine. It was a Disney Jr. character lunch so the  boys were in heaven.

Couldn't get enough of the characters dancing and singing

Jack showing his friends where the ducks were hiding.

Brian and his best friend, Bill Cosby

Pixar parade was about to start.

The parade song was stuck in my head the whole day and next. 

The Magic Kingdom Photos

Standing in line at the resort, ready to go to Magic Kingdom.

My heart leapt when I saw this sign and Jack watching it.

First character meet! -with Piglet

A lovely family photo.

Jack took this photo. Notice the happy expression on Pooh's face.

Meeting Buzz!!

My son the daredevil and loving the Astro Orbiter

The new Fantasyland looks beautiful, especially the whole Belle's village aspect. It was at this point that I couldn't believe our unbelievable luck that we were there.

Another roller coaster that Jack went on.

Every kid gets a "1st visit" button to Disney. I thought with it we would have gotten some free drinks or whatnot. We didn't.

The Disney Tradition

Isn't it a dream that once you have a child, you would want your kid to like all the stuff that you like? Of course you would want to have them form their own opinion and have them discover something on their own, but there is that one thing that you would want to have to have passed down to your kid. And their kid, and their kid's kid.Then you can proudly say that if you child ends up liking She's so Heavy ( I want you) by The Beatles, you can say, yeah that was my influence.
It is a fact that Brian and I are Disney fans. Pixar? Yes please? Classic Disney movies. We are right there. One of the things that binds Brian and myself is that we both grew up on Mary Poppins, and we seem to laugh at all the right moments.
That trait is now passed down to Jack. He loves watching it and mimics all moves that the penguins do in the Penguin Dance scene. He has only seen little clips of it online, but we cannot wait til he sees the whole movie. Because if he wants to see it over and over again, I would not mind.
Another trait that has been passed down is the love for the Disney classics. Lady and the Tramp, Bambi, Aristocats, Dumbo are all movies that we have shown Jack and he loved right away. All movies that I loved watching as a little kid , and in all the parts where I would go " awwww, so cute" he will now say the same thing.
Up next - Peter Pan and Alice in Wonderland. The Disney version, not the Tim Burton one. No offense Tim, but Johnny Depp would scare my kid in that he will never sleep in his own bed again.

The New Fascination

This is all my fault. I truly blame myself for this 1,000 %. It all started about three weeks ago when Brian said the magic words of " Maybe we can take a vacation this year."

My mind immediately went to Disney World. It shouldn't have, since we are and always have been planning for the big 5th year birthday bash for Jack at Disney World. We wanted to have that year as his first year there, so he can remember it. So he can go on the rides. With us.

So I said to Jack, wouldn't you like to go to Disney World and see where Mickey Mouse lives?

Well of course any kid would want to go see Mickey Mouse. You want to see him today? Put on your shoes and let's go! My mind is spinning and obviously cannot wait for two little more years to go to Disney. I must, must,MUST STOP telling Jack what a wonderful place Disney World is. Because that is really all he ever talks about now. He wants to see Minnie, he wants to see Mickey, he wants to see Mickey's big house ( the famed castle that you see everytime you pop in a Disney DVD. God, what terrific marketing )

Update - I first wrote this post about two weeks ago. Since then, he hasn't really asked to take a Disney Vacation ( yes, he says it just like that ) but he does ask from time to time to go to the Disney Store. That is free and right around the corner. We can give you that much son.

PS - I wonder with all these Disney mentions, if we can score a great huge discounted trip. The power of the blog and the interwebs. Here's hoping.