The Old Man at Disneyland

It's been a while since I've posted. I will do a better re-launch soon, but in the mean time I wanted to share this quick story.

Wyatt and I were reminiscing about our recent trip to Disneyland last night, and he asked me earnestly, “What was your favorite day?” I thought for a moment, and I responded that I really loved the day that we spent a long time in Carsland (our favorite!) before going to our special dinner and watching Paint the Night Parade. I know he also enjoyed that as we have discussed it multiple times, and even re-watched the Paint the Night parade on Youtube together on several occasions. I asked him the same question and his reply was “the day we met the old man”. I had almost forgotten this, although it was so special in the moment. We were walking through Fantasyland, and it was a very crowded day. An older cast member wearing the uniform of a sweeper and holding a broom stopped us and asked if we had a minute. I replied that we did, and he gave me a beaming smile, then he crouched down to address Wyatt. In a conspiratorial tone he told him that every single thing that is part of Disneyland is filled with magic. And that he had found a penny that day, and now that penny was full of magic, and he wanted Wyatt to have it. He asked him to take good care of it, and that holding magic also held responsibility. The look of absolute reverence on Wyatt’s face is one I wish I could have captured on film. We got out his magical penny and he played with it for a while before asking if I would put it back in a safe place. If I had been thinking I would have taken a photo of Wyatt with his new friend, and his magical penny, but instead we have the wonderful memory, as well as the penny to take us back to that moment anytime we want, and that is almost better. 

Today I want to challenge you to look at the world, or a moment of your day through the eyes of the child you used to be. I promise it will look brighter and shinier than you ever imagined.

Choose Your Own Adventure

When I was in elementary school, I was a big reader (still am) and one of my favorite kind of books were the "Choose Your Own Adventure" books - If you aren't familiar with them, you should check them out as soon as you can. I would read them over and over, making different choices each time, and watching how the story unfolded with just one element changing. I recently attended an Usborne books party and was reminded of these kind of books, and an idea started to percolate in my mind. I decided to have a "Choose Your Own Adventure" fun day with Wyatt. I had a vacation day coming up, and nothing in particular planned for it, so it was perfect timing. This was our first time out of the gate, and I already can't wait for the next one.

First Choice of the Day - Breakfast:

Choice 1 - Pancakes at Slappycakes
Choice 2 - Donuts at  Pip's Original Donuts
Choice 3 - Breakfast at home - Kid's Choice - anything you want that we already have

Wyatt surprised me with his choice, but ultimately decided to go with Choice 3, opting for a hot chocolate and a strawberry pop tart, much like he does many mornings. I shouldn't have been too surprised, our boy is not much of a morning person, and it takes a while for him to get excited about the day. We still need to make it to Slappycakes one of these days though!

Pop tarts also make a great hat

Second Choice of the Day - Adventure One

Choice 1: Chuck E Cheese's
Choice 2:  OMSI
Choice 3: Oregon Zoo

Wyatt chose Choice 1 on this one, I wasn't surprised at all, we are members to both the zoo and OMSI and he was been to both many times. He has been wanting to go to Chuck E Cheese for the very first time for months now. He was quite overwhelmed at first, I don't think he played a single game for the first 10 minutes, he just walked around and looked at everything. He found his groove though and soon he was slipping tokens in the machines like an old lady manning the slots in Reno. In typical Wyatt fashion, he was talking to everyone and having a great time. Since today was all about Wyatt, we ordered our food, but Wyatt got to decide when it was time to take a break and eat, so I sat and ate pizza while he wandered around playing games. This is one of the best parts of Chuck E Cheese - the number system that you get on the way in, and the armed guard at the door that doesn't let you leave without a child with a coordinating number. I still can't handle not seeing him regularly, but it does make me feel okay about letting him be independent while i eat a few pieces of pizza.

Kid Size Air Hockey with a new friend that kept bumming tokens off him

Mama's Favorite - Ski Ball!! 

Taking a Little Ride with the Mouse Himself

Pizza/Churro break - Showing off his tickets

We spent WAY longer at Chuck E Cheese than I had planned on, so choice 3 had to be adapted since it was pretty late by the time we got out of there.

3rd Choice of the Day - Mini Adventure 2

Choice 1:  Powell's City of Books
Choice 2: Petsmart (to check out the fish section)
Choice 3: The Mall (for the play area and Thomas train table)

He choose Door # 2 (After initially asking if we could go to OMSI still). He absolutely loves checking out all the cool fish they have, and he asked (for about the 10th time) if he could get a frog for our small tank that Stingray Steve-Gold the Betta vacated when he moved to his new bigger apartment. Today was a good time for it, so we added to our family and brought home an African Dwarf Frog. He's actually pretty cute.

Meet Slimey

Final Choice of the Day - Dessert

Choice #1 - Take Slimey home, and then go out to Papa Haydn for Cake
Choice #2 - Get pie from Burger King and eat it on the Couch
Choice #3 - Take Slimey home, and then go back out for ice cream at Rimskys

Wyatt was feeling pretty tired by the time we got to our final choice, and he was ready to be back at his house, so we went to the conveniently located Burger King (its in the same parking lot as Petsmart) and Wyatt got a Hershey Sundae Pie and I got a Snickers Pie, and we all went home to enjoy them. Slimey didn't get any pie, but he did get a new house, and some would say that's even better. Not me though, I'd go for the pie.

All in all it was a pretty great day - Wyatt was responsible for making all the choices and he thought that was pretty cool. Kid's don't get to be in charge of their destiny very often, and  I can see this becoming a regular tradition that gets more sophisticated as he gets older. I'm already excited to start planning the next one. I think next time we will try printing out the choices for him to read since he has been doing so well with his reading.

If you would like to hear the day in Wyatt's own words, here is a link to his video recap -  Wyatt's Choose Your Own Adventure Day Interview

Don't forget to Subscribe to his YouTube Channel while you are there!

Remembering Packy

"How lucky I am to have something that makes saying goodbye so hard." - Winnie the Pooh

Packy - Photo Credit Oregon Zoo

Today is a sad day in Portland, OR. Oregon Zoo’s beloved elephant Packy, Oregon’s famous son, and possibly our most famous resident, was euthanized today after a losing battle with TB. At 54 years old, he was the oldest Asian elephant in North America and on April 14, 1962  he was the first elephant born in the United States in 44 years, and only the ninth since the first one came to America in 1796. A radio contest was held to name the new baby, and  Packy was already of voting age when I came along in 1981. The year Wyatt was born, Packy celebrated half a century on this planet. So many of my memories of the Oregon (and hopefully Wyatt’s as well) include Packy. I have attended many birthday parties for Packy, hoping in my heart of hearts, to have my name chosen to serve the big guy his cake (it never was), but that didn’t make me any less excited to see him enjoy it. I have watched his squish a giant pumpkin, move a giant log, squirt water from his trunk, and walk across his enclosure, seeming to strut his stuff for the crowd. I have observed him in many settings through my years attending the zoo, always larger than life. From the old The elephants were a must see in my family anytime we attended the zoo, and so many of my memories of Packy are intertwined with the memories of loved ones I visited the zoo with. It didn’t matter how many times I saw him, I was always in awe of how big he was, how strong he was. He inspired me to learn about elephants (did you know elephants have 4 knees??), and helped me to foster a lifelong love of the species. 

Wyatt in the Elephant Land's feeder 2015

I’m not the only one he had this affect on, Portland’s love of Packy was so ingrained, in 2008 a bond measure passed that gave the Oregon Zoo $125 million to improve zoo exhibits – part of this improvement would be the $53 million and 6 acre Elephant Lands exhibit. We were lucky enough to get to tour the new exhibit before it opened for the elephants, and I plan to tell Wyatt every time we visit about how he got to play inside the giant elephant feeder.  

Portlander’s hearts are broken today, but Packy changed the world for the better, he was instrumental in the improvements not only to our own zoo, but to elephant breeding programs across the world. My heart goes out to Bob Lee, Elephant Curator, and all his other caregivers at the Oregon Zoo, while we all feel the loss, they have truly lost a family member, and it will take time for that wound to heal.

Details of Packy’s Memorial Event have not been finalized, however in an email I received from the Oregon Zoo, they stated they are planning something later this month, and details will be available on the Oregon Zoo website http://www.oregonzoo.org/ and also on the Oregon Zoo Facebook Page https://www.facebook.com/oregonzoo/

If you have memory of Packy to share - Wyatt and I would love to hear them in the comments!

Introduuuuucing Wyatt and Mama

This is our very first blog post. EVER. So I wanted to take a few minutes and introduce ourselves. I'm Jessica (also known as Mama) - for now most of the posts will be written by me, and star Wyatt (although I fully expect him to write his fair share in the future). Wyatt is 4 years old, loves the rain, video games, toys, playing, reading, and learning. We want to share our world with you. Currently his favorite colors are black, light black, and rainbow. This might (will) change tomorrow - so we will be reporting this crucial information on a somewhat regular basis. I'm a *cough, hack, sneeze* year old mom

We both work hard during the week, Wyatt at preschool, and me at my desk job - so on the weekends, and sometimes even in the evenings when the stars align, we like to let our hair down and have some fun. In this blog we will be sharing the things we do, the new foods we try, the toys we play with, the songs stuck in our head and probably a little of whatever else pops into our heads.

Part of my reason for starting this is to capture our memories, to have a place to look back and see all the adventures we have had. All of our triumphs and disappointments. The last 4 years of motherhood have flown by, and I wouldn't trade them for the world. They have made me even more aware that I need to catch these moment's as they fly by. Its also to share with YOU, introduce you to new things, and hopefully inspire you. I hope you stick with us as we find our way in the blogiverse.

Thank you for reading,
Jessica (AKA The Mama)