Year of a million dreams

So it is billed by Disney this year. You know, the theme they come up with to aid in marketing the park to people. Well, this year, it lived up to it's hype. Oh yes, it was everything I could have hoped for. So the funny part came a day or two before we left when I was putting my son to bed. He said he wanted me to see something and he pulled out a brochure from school. Apparently the same travel company we had booked our trip through had teamed up with their school district to promote trips to Disneyland. In the brochure it showed a father and son posing with Buzz Lightyear. He pointed to that picture and said, "Look, you were right." I was right, Buzz was real. He had a picture proving it and he hadn't even met him or thought he was going to meet him. Somewhere a bunny is hiding colored eggs, healthy and alive. My kids are funny when they meet the one person they want to meet, their first reaction is stunned silence. Not screaming and running to them, just stunned awe. So it was when we were in the Inovation center or whatever it is waiting for my wife's sister to meet us there and Buzz comes in and goes over to play Guitar Hero on one of 3 XBOX 360's they have set up right next to the "Healthy You" center. The irony was not lost on me. He watched Buzz play XBOX and we talked to the "handler" and told him how much Ethan loved Buzz. When the song was done and Buzz turned around, Ethan just stood there. Like he couldn't believe it was really happening. We got some great pictures of them together. He loved going on the Buzz Lightyear Orbital Blaster and for his souvenier he got one of the guns you shoot on the ride. I know it will be something he will talk about and cherish for a long time....and it was worth every headache, the 13 hours of driving and all of the money spent.
Now don't get me wrong, I love my girls and I'll post about them and the whole trip and my cute twins(Cameron gave us some the cutest pictures with Winnie the Pooh and Eyeore ever!) but my Ethan and I have a special bond. I wasn't around much for the first two years of his life as I was working a second job nights to pay the bills so I tried to spend as much time with him as I could and he has always adored Dad and wants to do stuff with me. After we moved out here to Eagle Mountain, he kinda made friend with the boy across the street who was his age. But then that boy thought it would be cooler to be friends with the older boy who lives next door to us and they said they were "Dudes". Ethan wasn't included in that and he came home in tears. I heard the story when I got home from work and I took him on my knee and told him that he and I could be "Dudes". And we have been ever since. And there are times when he calls me Dude, that I know he is expressing more than our relationship as parent and child but as friends, as that special someone who cares about you no matter what. It is a bond I hope I never lose.

Killing the Easter Bunny

My son loves Buzz Lightyear and has since he was 2. He has told us on more than one occasion that he wanted to grow up to be Buzz Lightyear. He has been Buzz for 3 of the last 4 Halloweens. My mother-in-law made him the most gorgeous and awsome Buzz outfit I have ever seen(when he bends his knees you see the knee joints). He still dresses up in it on a regular basis. He just turned 6 and for the first time in our kids lives, we are going to Disneyland. We have talked about it for 2 years and finally had the financial ability to do so. Our biggest motivation is so Ethan could meet Buzz. Sure my two daughters love the Disney Princess' but not to the extent that Ethan loves Buzz. So it was today as I was pouring his cereal and he was sitting there coloring yet another picture of Buzz(he is becoming quite good at it), and I said it looked really good and then I said, "Who knows, maybe someday you'll get to meet him." He looked me straight in the face and said, "Dad, Buzz isn't real."
The Easter bunny was dead. The cute 2 and 3 year old that wanted to be Buzz had accepted the truth that Buzz wasn't real. Have we waited too long to see his joyous face when he meets Buzz at Disneyland?? Did I blow that Kodak moment because I felt the kids were too little? Only time will tell, 2 weeks to be exact. I can tell he still loves him, just because he still draws him and still plays as if he is him but has the childish innocence of dreams been snuffed out? I'm hoping not. He still believes in Santa and the tooth fairy(he checks his teeth every day for a loose one) and the Easter Bunny. When he meets the under-paid sweating teenager stuck in an oversized suit will he laugh and smile and hug him and believe in Buzz again?
After he told me Buzz wasn't real I just gave him this look that said, "Don't be so sure." I know we are going to Disneyland, my wife knows but we haven't told the kids at all. We want it to be a surprise so I couldn't say anything. I guess I'm just crossing my fingers that somehow a part of his hope and innocence will be restored and I suppose in some ways...I'm hoping that some of mine will be too. It's too soon to kill the Easter bunny.