Character Mania!

One of the reasons that we haven't hadn't Disney World before now is that Jackson was absolutely terrified in characters in costumes. I envisioned walking around the Magic Kingdom dripping sweat while dragging a terrified and exhausted child behind me. But we recently ran into our local baseball mascot at our Children's Museum, and he wasn't afraid at all, so I knew it was safe to make the trip. One of the things that I didn't realize was that the characters aren't just wandering around the park waiting to scare small children anyway. For the most part you have to wait in lines to meet them, so really they could be mostly avoided if you have a phobic child. Plus, I think they must hire tiny teenage girls to play the characters because most of them are really quite small, despite the big masks. Anyway, Jackson decided that he loved meeting the characters, so we toted him around from park to park so that he could hug them. He kept asking, "He going to talk? Why he not talk?" but otherwise was pretty awed by the whole thing.

THIS WAS THE FIRST CHARACTER THAT JACKSON MET, AND HE JUST ABOUT BURST OUT HIS LITTLE FLEECE PULLOVER IN EXCITEMENT. LOOK AT THAT GRIN!

JACKSON WAS CONVINCED THIS WAS AN OCTOPUS...NO CLUE WHY...

THE TOY STORY MEET AND GREET WAS PROBABLY ONE OF THE HIGHLIGHTS OF THE TRIP FOR ME. THE CHARACTERS WERE SO SWEET, AND CHECK OUT THIS AWESOME PICTURE ON ANDY'S BED:

WE ALSO DID A CHARACTER BREAKFAST WITH THE LITTLE EINSTEINS AND JO JO. JACKSON WAS VISIBLY DISAPPOINTED THAT HIS FAVORITE CHARACTER ANNIE DIDN'T MAKE AN APPEARANCE, BUT WAS SO HAPPY TO MEET

LEO, JUNE, JOJO, AND GOLIATH.



THIS PICTURE DIDN'T COME OUT THAT GREAT, BUT I WILL LOVE WINNIE THE POOH CHARACTERS FOREVER BECAUSE AFTER WE MET POOH, EEYORE, AND TIGGER, THE HOSTESS TOLD US THAT JACKSON WAS THE BEST BEHAVED CHILD THAT THEY HAD HAD ALL DAY. I DON'T CARE HOW MUCH THEY PAY HER TO SAY THAT: IT MADE MY WHOLE WEEK. LUCKILY SHE DIDN'T SEE HIM TWO DAYS LATER WHEN HE HAD A FALL DOWN DRAG OUT TANTRUM IN THE MIDDLE OF THE MAGIC KINGDOM BECAUSE MATT PUT KETCHUP ON HIS HOT DOG (OR SOME OTHER EQUALLY INANE REASON - WE WERE NEVER QUITE CLEAR ON IT).