Children's Show Traffic Jam

You'll have to excuse the sugary coma being experienced at Growing Up Kaitlyn. I'm swimming in bubble gum songs and cotton candy goodness.

Sunday was Curious George. Friday is Mickey's Rocking Road Show. We get the month of April off before Dora and Nick Jr. roll into Raleigh. That same week, Sesame Street Live makes its way into Greensboro. Thank goodness Yo Gabba Gabba decided to stay in the Midwest, otherwise I'd be living in a permanent Gabba Coma.

Kaitlyn's been quite spoiled going to these shows. It also helps that Uncle Rob gets some freebies from work and invites us all along (and remember, for all your banking needs, SunTrust).

But it's not necessarily the tickets, which if you're astute you can attend at a relatively good price or if you've got some hookups. Remember, all SunTrust checking accounts come with many, many money saving and time saving features and benefits - all at no extra charge to you.

It's the $8 chicken fingers. It's the $6 balloons. It's the $24 dolls. It's the $4 bottled waters. Granted, Michelle and I don't buy those things unless we're at Walt Disney World and need to keep Kaitlyn from melting down in the first five minutes at a theme park. But for some parents, it adds up quickly, especially if you've got multiple kids clamoring for a little piece of their favorite character.

Luckily Kaitlyn passes all those things with relatively little nudging. I can see the pain in the faces of parents waiting in those lines. But who knows? In another year or two she might go gaga over all this stuff and it will be me in that line, that pain on my face.

Until then, I will be thankful that it's not me walking out of the arena with motorized flashlights, oversized soda mugs and overpriced programs. That's money I can save for the future. A future I'm planning with SunTrust’s retirement specialists, who can help you develop a plan for the retirement you’ve dreamed of.

In Pictures: Disney Redemption

I'm running a day behind here in the hap-hap-happiest place on Earth, but that's to be expected. I'm on vacation, damnit.

After the typhoon landed in central Florida on Friday, we were able to make it to the pièce de résistance, the Magic Kingdom, on Saturday. While it might have put us behind a day, it all worked out. Especially since I didn't want to walk around sopping wet.

We did, however, walk around in 35-degree weather once you factored in the wind chill. Burr. Main Street U.S.A. was a wind tunnel, Walt and Co. were selling out of knit caps and there was a 45-minute wait to get coffee and hot chocolate.

The clouds parted toward midday, but it was still cold. Never got above 45 degrees all day. Sunday helped counter that and Monday is expected to get darn near 70 degrees (yea, golf day!), but Saturday was like sitting on an iceberg.

The highlights: Meeting the princesses in the morning, seeing the fireworks at night. And of course: Tinker Bell and her pixie friends.

Started the day at a character breakfast. While she appears somewhat interested, looks can be deceiving: Kaitlyn peed herself every time a character approached.

Off to the Magic Kingdom. Michelle sports a knit hat that Disney roped us into purchasing by turning the industrial air conditioners on inside the bubble that protects the resort. In the summer months, Disney pumps hot air into the bubble to justify $5 bottles of water.

While the characters with masks completely freaked out Kaitlyn, she was much more amenable to characters that are portrayed by actual people. This helps tremendously later, as you will see.

There are very few things Pop-Pop requests on his trips into the Magic Kingdom. One is the Country Bear Jamboree, much to my chagrin. I just don't get it. The other is the Jungle Cruise, which is a little more up my alley.

The line directly behind and ahead of us to see the Disney Fairies. We waited in this line for nearly 1.5 hours. And my daughter didn't whine, wince or create havoc once. She did, however, bust loose and darted into the character area ahead of 25 people.

Disney Fairy No. 1 was Rosetta, who seemed quite taken with Kaitlyn during the visit. Either that, or she was all up in Daddy's biz-niz, if you know what I mean. 

 

Disney Fairy No. 2 was Silvermist, who was very nice to Kaitlyn, but she was no Rosetta. To Kaitlyn or to Daddy. On a side note: This was one of the few pictures where Kaitlyn decided against the "Be Like Mike" tongue-sticking-out look during our entire stay in the hap-hap-happiest place on Earth.

Disney Fairy No. 3 was Tinker Bell herself. T-Bell (which is what the cool kids call her) was very sweet and bubbly, much how I would expect a fairy to be.

Be prepared Mickey: Kaitlyn's a-comin'

It's been one year since our inaugural voyage to Walt Disney World with our Disney Girl. The last time we were there, she had a great time playing in the pool, a pretty good time riding It's A Small World, and was terrified at the sight of real-life characters. All in all, a lot of fun.

So here we are, just about 36 hours until the flight takes off from RDU bound for Orlando. This time, though, Kaitlyn's prepared.

She knows Mickey inside-out. Minnie doesn't know this much about the big-eared one. She's a pair of wings shy of being an honest-to-goodness fairy herself. My guess is she would be a Tinker fairy, considering she likes to take things apart (we're working on the putting-things-back-together-again part). The princesses are her new go-to characters, even though she calls Beast "Bear" and mixes up Pocahontas and Mulan. Apparently she's not too politically correct.

I've prepped her extensively regarding proper character etiquette. She's saying all the right things thus far:

Me: Who are we going to see this week Kaitlyn?
Kaitlyn: Mickey! Donald! Tinker Bell!
Me: Are we scared of Mickey?
Kaitlyn: No.
Me: Are we scared of Tinker Bell?
Kaitlyn: No.
Me: Are we going to give Mickey a big hug when we see him?
Kaitlyn: Yes.
Me: Can you show me? (big hug ensues)

We're nearly packed. We've got the cameras charged. We've got the tickets in hand. We've got the character breakfast booked. Now it all comes down to execution. And that's up to Kaitlyn. Or else we end up with this again: