Happy Holidays from the Bricker Family to Yours

It’s my favorite weekend of the year, and one we usually spend at Walt Disney World. That won’t be happening this year, but only because our traditional post-Thanksgiving trip was delayed by other travels–we literally just got home yesterday from a Christmas trip to three of our favorite theme parks on earth–but more on that later (and via photos throughout this post).

As I sit here writing this at approximately 3 a.m. in a jetlagged stupor, I feel like a kid on Christmas morning. Not a creature is stirring, except for Yossarian the Cat who really wants attention, and won’t stop meowing and biting my ears. I’m excited because the Detroit Lions managed to pull off a win (or rather, the Bears managed to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory with terrible clock management). I’m excited because it’s Black Friday and there are actually a lot of really good Disney-related deals this year.

I’m also excited to start celebrating Christmas at home. To get out our Twinkly tree and all the other stuff I bought on clearance in February (we really cleaned up at Crate & Barrel when prices dropped to 75% off). To finally start using our excessive collection of Christmas coffee mugs. (Is it weird that over half of our mugs are for a holiday that lasts less than two months? Don’t answer that.) But I can’t do any of that until Sarah and Megatron are up. So now, I jot down thoughts and round up deals.

Quiet mornings like this one, in the shadow of Thanksgiving, are also a great time for reflection. And I wanted to share some of these with you because some of them pertain to you…and because the cat is in more of a talking than listening mood.

Let’s start with one of the big things for which Sarah and I are both thankful, which is the readers and commenters of Disney Tourist Blog. We want to once again reiterate how thankful we are for all of you and try to express our earnestness. This isn’t perfunctory praise or insincere sentiment, like a band shouting “we love [insert city they’re in].” We really and truly mean this, from the bottom of our hearts.

We are so incredibly appreciative of your support. Whether you lurk silently, comment on every single post, or somewhere in between. Your support means the world to us–probably far more than most of you will ever know. Thank you so, so much.

This is doubly true during a year when artificial intelligence has made blogging more challenging. As a writer who never uses AI, it’s been a little concerning to see the proliferation of computer-generated garble. To see that junk food content perform well is disheartening. Likewise, to have Google and other AI platforms take content and pass it off as their own.

So thank you all for supporting the real, human-created content on this website. I’d like to think it’s better than AI-generated fluff, but then again, I’m a biased and subjective human who cannot match the objective reasoning of a robot. I sometimes feel like Dwight as he tries to outsell the computer during the Dunder Mifflin Infinity website launch party. I know the writing here isn’t always perfect, and I’m certainly more verbose than the average computer, but I hope it’s useful, entertaining, and engaging.

As always, we greatly appreciate your readership–and when you share our posts with your friends, family, colleagues, etc. We truly are thankful to have the best and most thoughtful readers. That may seem like a trite platitude, but we really mean it. Spend any amount of time browsing the comments section here versus most other websites and you’ll see the contrast. There’s a reason why the first rule of the internet is never read the comments. 

Thankfully, that has never applied with you all. That has also been doubly true this year, as I’ve done very little moderation. Stuff still gets flagged for whatever reason from time-to-time, but it’s almost always approved. (Side note: I’m thankful most of Disney’s assorted controversies that gave rise to increased moderation seem to be in the rearview mirror.)

As we reflect this weekend on all the ways we’re grateful, we couldn’t pass up the opportunity to stop and share a very sincere and heartfelt thank you. Again. You all deserve a round of applause.

As long as we’re on the topic of thankfulness, I thought I’d share a quick Baby Bricker and family update in the form of other things for which I’m thankful.

First and foremost, I’m thankful for Sarah. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: taking care of a baby isn’t just a full-time job. Those are only 40-some hours per week, whereas this is 24/7. Unfortunately, Megatron doesn’t even give us weekends or holidays off! And actually, this isn’t a job at all–it’s more like volunteer work…that we’re paying to do?!

Sarah is up at all hours. She’s doing it all. She’s making healthy, home-cooked meals for Megatron and me, and no matter how much I might grouse about preferring frozen pizza, I really appreciate the effort she puts into keeping us healthy. (For anyone who’s ever asked how we’re fit despite eating so much Disney food, that’s the answer.)

I continue to be in absolute awe of Sarah and somehow love her even than ever. She’s so good at everything she does, but watching her be a mom–something she wanted for so long–has been truly magical. She’s definitely the Megatron of Mothers (or Barry Sanders, if you’d prefer). The best to ever do it.

On a more lighthearted Megatron-related note, I’m thankful for Disney’s exceptional lost and found.

I’ve mentioned before that Megatron hates wearing socks, to which many of you responded recommending Sock Ons. Well perhaps those do work if you’re not raising Houdini Junior. But Megatron is very persistent, watches what we do, and adapts to reverse-engineer and undo what’s been done. You know how velociraptors learn to open doors? That’s Megatron with anything…including the door to her “baby-proof” gates.

So we should’ve known better when reading reviews before buying baby shoes, believing that they’d be “impossible” to remove, and only buying one pair before a trip. Those puppies were constantly being thrown on the ground, and while most of the time we caught them being jettisoned, we did have to make three separate trips to lost and found. And against all odds, returned home with that one pair of shoes! There were some shoeless and sockless hours in between, though.

Oh yeah, Megatron’s major milestone is that she’s walking now!

What a game-changer this has been already. She had been cruising for a few months and would do laps of our living room with me each night before dinner with her little baby walker. That meant she was still putting her weight on something else, but she had been getting more surefooted. She was also able to stand for longer and move faster.

Then cruising with the walker transitioned to walking with me holding both of her hands. In the blink of an eye, we were walking down Main Street with her, and got the sense that she wanted to walk on her own. (A sense we got because she made clear to us that she wanted to stand on her own. And with that, I got my first bittersweet taste of how it feels as kids start to outgrow their parents.) As fitting and picture-perfect as that would’ve been, there wasn’t really the space for it, nor did we feel it’d be safe between the crowds and hard ground…so we kept holding her hands.

A few days later, Megatron took her first unassisted steps in an empty dining room one afternoon at Casbah Food Court. I can only assume she was inspired by an excellent adventure on Sindbad’s Storybook Voyage!

Far less picturesque of a setting, but we can’t plan where and when life’s special moments will happen. It would’ve been magical no matter where it happened, even at the DMV. Those first steps are indelibly etched into my memory. What a moment.

So many of these major developmental milestones have happened in the blink of an eye. I still remember the day that she finally rolled over, and how overjoyed we were when it happened.

It seemed like that one took a while, but everything since–sitting upright on her own, crawling, standing, walking–has happened way too fast. How did our little baby go from having trouble rolling to now wanting to walk independently in so little time?!

We’re also thankful that Yossarian the Cat has come into his own as a great big brother. He actually started out as being scared of Megatron, which was probably because she was loud, wiggly, and foreign to him.

The last time we brought home a loud, wiggly, little critter, it turned out to be his younger brother, Walter E. Dogsney, our miniature dachshund. Yossarian probably still wishes we kept the receipt and returned the dog.

Eventually, Yossarian became indifferent towards the dog. Occasionally, they’ll cuddle or the cat will do a “drive by” licking of the dog, but Walter definitely loves Yossarian more than the other way around. We expected the cat to have similar sentiment towards the baby. Boy were we wrong.

Yossarian loves Megatron.

I can’t quite pinpoint why or even how this attitude adjustment happened. I do remember one night after we put the baby to bed only to come back to her crying, and the cat curled up right outside of her crib, totally unbothered.

They’ve gotten even closer since, to the point that Yossarian comes to Megatron when she’s upset and purrs in her face. He’ll walk in circles around her, sit next to us, and rub his nose on her. It’s like he knows exactly what to do to calm her down, make her smile and laugh. (Nothing is funnier than a cat!)

Yossarian has always been affectionate with me; he’s definitely “my” cat and 90% of this blog’s posts (including this one) have been written with him on my lap. He usually avoids almost everyone else, except Sarah’s mom and sometimes Sarah (not always–she’s to blame for the dog acquisition, and Yossarian holds grudges for decades).

Still, we never expected Yossarian to be so loving towards a baby. Especially given that he’s 17 years old and slightly stuck in his ways, and she’s slightly, uh, exuberant. But love her he does, and he’s been a huge asset to us in helping with Megatron.

Much less surprising is that Megatron loves Yossarian.

She gets excited whenever she sees him, and few things instantly cheer her up like Yossarian the Cat. The chance to pet him has averted many a meltdown, and induced 180-degree attitude improvements.

She loves him so much that “cat-cat” was one of her first words (oddly enough, she hasn’t quite mastered “Yossarian” yet). When we go places, looking for stray cats is a favorite activity that likewise brings instant excitement. Same goes for squirrels or other small furry creatures.

Amusingly, many of Megatron’s favorite Disney attractions are those that contain critters that could plausibly be cats. I’m debating a list of her favorite rides (like Sarah & Tom Bricker’s Top 15 Disney Attractions, but much less detailed)–partly for fun, partly for our own sake so we can look back on it–and about half of the entries would be rides that contain cat-like animals.

It’s interesting to discover which animals are and are not cats to her. Mickey is not, which is fitting given the cat-mouse dynamic. She also sees him a lot, both in person and via plushies. So she recognizes Mickey and Minnie independently, as their own species or whatever. Pooh also is not a cat for the same reasons. Beast and bears (of the non-Pooh variety), on the other hand, are cats. So she also loves them.

We recently took a 16-hour flight, which is a long time for anyone, but especially a baby. We don’t normally let her have any screen time, but decided it was better than the alternative about halfway through the flight when things were going a bit off the rails.

Wanting something that wouldn’t be overly-stimulating, I saw “A Horse’s Tale” on the in-flight relaxation video screen. That instantly did the trick, as Megatron waved and cheered at the “cat-cats.” I’ve now watched that one video three-dozen times, which is not an exaggeration (it’s 21 minutes long and I’ve watched it for approximately 12 hours).

Most importantly, we’re thankful to have a baby who is happy and healthy.

One of the things many readers said in response to our past baby posts is how they loved each new stage more than the last. That the childhood experience just kept getting better and better. Wow do we feel that!

I honestly don’t know how it can get any better than it is right now. If I could freeze this moment in time, at the almost 14-month mark, I would. Well, not actually because I’ve seen enough Twilight Zone episodes to know that’s a fraught idea–and because I can’t wait to see what happens next.

Megatron is at a point right now where she’s incredibly inquisitive, able to learn and retain new concepts, and wants to explore everything. Her personality is coming out, and she’s both funny and smart. (I know every parent probably thinks this about their babies, but I swear it’s true!)

And at least from my perspective, this is making her more fun and less of a challenge. Sure, she has more and more opinions that are somehow both strongly-held and fleeting. That can be interesting to navigate. But we can also see who she is as a person take shape, and there is something really special about that.

Cheesy as it might sound, I’m also thankful for the Disney Parks.

I find myself very conflicted because, on the one hand, I take issue with a lot of Disney’s recent decisions. Not just the recently-announced closures or the poor execution of some big-budget projects (although those things too). But also, the last few years of cutbacks, price increases, nickel & diming, and so forth.

On the other hand, I’m realizing more and more that…they’ve got me. Hook, line and sinker. 

As Sarah and Megatron walked hand-in-hand through the castle, my eyes welled up. My heart overflowed with emotion when my daughter took her first steps in a food court. It was equally emotional, albeit in a very different way, when she got scared of a mischievous monkey (a not-so-fond memory in the moment, but one that’ll age amusingly).

I’ll never forget when she locked eyes with Mickey Mouse on a parade float way off in the distance and vigorously waved back at him, clearly thrilled that a celebrity saw her in that sea of people. Every time she sees a character and her eyes light up all of my assorted grievances melt away, and that moment is literally all that matters.

One of the things Sarah and I like to do is sit in bed after Megatron falls asleep and watch the little ‘moments’ slideshows our phones create of her. While a lot are the small but meaningful ones at home (with her BFF, the cat), a lot are from the Disney Parks.

We’re so fortunate and thankful that we have two parks in our backyard and are able to travel to the others. Even if we couldn’t visit regularly, we would (and do) have full slideshows of incredible memories from single days in the parks.

Now I get why some of the parents who complain most about Disney’s decisions continue to go. It’s these countless little moments and experiences that are etched into your memories. They’ve got you too, don’t they? Who are we even kidding with the complaints…

Finally, we’re thankful for our families. That they’ve been so helpful and supportive and genuinely excited for us and Megatron. The grandparents have come out to visit multiple times and, thankfully, help out a bit. We are second fiddle to her now, but that’s okay, because she is more adorable than us.

Above all else, we’re thankful to be so loved, to have a healthy and happy family, and to get to spend this holiday season together. We’re also looking forward to our first Christmas vacation to Walt Disney World as a family of three, as we continue to make up for lost time after not traveling together at all last year while Sarah was pregnant.

For now, though, it’s time to get back to enjoying my favorite weekend of the year, having a belated Thanksgiving feast, putting up those Christmas decorations, and watching some of our favorite holiday specials on Disney+ and Hallmark! We hope you had a nice Thanksgiving with family and friends, enjoy the rest of the long weekend, and have a happy holiday season!

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YOUR THOUGHTS

Any thoughts you have in response to our latest update on Baby Bricker? Does Disney “have you” hook, line and sinker, too? Any other parental wisdom or recommendations to share? Alternative ways to keep those socks and shoes on baby’s feet??? Anything else you’re interested in reading about with regard to Megatron, babies in the parks, etc? Agree or disagree with our takes here? Hearing your feedback is always appreciated, so please share your thoughts below in the comments!