Back at POR, Bunny shocked Nana and me by announcing, “But, I’m not tired!” This, accompanied by much dramatic gnashing of teeth and rending of garments.
This being an encore presentation of “No Nap for Me” by Bunny, I was unimpressed. I was in no mood to cajole, coax, or wheedle. I knew I had to get her attention and fast. She really needed her rest. And if she didn’t get to sleep fast, it would throw us off for the rest of the day’s schedule.
“Bunny, you need to lie down in the bed right now. Here are the rules for going to sleep: close your eyes, don’t talk, don’t move, and TRY to sleep. I’m telling you, we are NOT going swimming unless you take a nap first!”
I turned off all the lights and lay down beside her. Nana too, took this opportunity for a little rest. Primed by the promise of swimming later, Bunny drew on all her five-year old resources and managed a nap.
Okay, it was a brief nap. Only about 30 minutes long, but she had upheld her end of the bargain, so I was had.
Bunny and I donned our swimsuits and headed off to the Ol’ Man River Pool at POR. It was NOT all that warm out, around 75 degrees, but I had promised, and a promise is a promise.
I was heartened to see several brave souls surrounding the pool area. I later learned that they were actually amphibian aliens, cleverly disguised at tourists. And none of them were actually swimming, just lounging around the pool watching their offspring cavort in the frigid waters of Ol’ Man River. I’ll bet you no self-respecting Louisiana bayou ever held such cold water.
Bunny wasted no time in submerging herself in the freshly molten ice that filled the pool.
I, on the other hand, wasted a great deal of time doing so. I had to do the bob-and-gasp maneuver. You know, bob a minute portion of your body under the water, gasp and bob back up. Repeat repeatedly, each time getting one-quarter inch more of your body wet.
By the time I was up to my neck, I was shivering and my teeth were chattering.
Good GRIEF!!! Wasn’t this pool supposed to be heated?
“Bunny!” I hollered hopefully, “Aren’t you cold?”
“NO!!!” she replied, splashing happily, although she, too, appeared to be shaking and her lips looked blue. To me.
As I glanced around, I discovered that the hot tub area had more than its fair share of visitors, and no wonder.
As I shivered and muttered in the water, I heard a child’s voice shout, “Bunny!” I turned quickly, and saw a young girl, a few years older than my Bunny shouting in the direction of a teenager.
And then one of those space-time rifts occurred. It seemed I was glimpsing into the future. And the future scared me.
It seems the bikini-clad teenaged girl being shouted at was also named, “Bunny”. That was unusual, because Bunny’s real name is not shared by too terribly many other people.
So when I saw this other, older “Bunny”, a shocking realization struck me full in the face: Bunny is going to be a teenager someday. A teenager with a figure. Heaven help me, I’m in trouble. Suddenly that whole Rapunzel locked away in the tower philosophy was looking pretty reasonable. Bunny, I’m afraid I can’t permit you to date until you’re 30, maybe 35.
I’m sure she’ll understand.
I’m just kidding about the not dating until she’s 30 thing. I think. Really, I just hope that Bunny and I have as good a relationship as I’ve had with my own Mom over the years. If Bunny loves me anywhere near as much as I love my Mom, I’ll be one happy parent.
As I bob in the icy water, I am shaken from my reverie by Bunny asking, “Can I go down the slide? Will you catch me?”
Well sure, because now, I’m really out to extract all the sweet innocent childhood moments possible out of this and every other day in the foreseeable future.
Bunny is not yet a swimmer, but she is wearing a flotation suit, and I, her super-mom will be waiting for her at the end of the slide. And I was not worried. Bunny, being a fearless child when it comes to really scary things like enormous waterslides, and running off from her mother, has mastered many a big scary waterslide, and the one at Ol’ Man Island is pretty tame-looking by comparison.
Bunny careens down the slide several times before I begin to feel life support systems shutting down. I think my warp core was destabilizing. I was probably sustaining heavy casualties on decks 2, 11, and 12.
During critical times such as these, I often find my mind lapsing into TrekSpeak. I can recall a time when Bunny was a toddler, and I had set up an elaborate system of gating in our small apartment. Basically, half the living room had been seceded to Bunny, and the other half was still the adults’ domain. In the middle, was “no-man’s land”, a regular Maginot line of plastic playpen pieces lashed together with plastic ties. The pieces were intended to be snapped together to form a hexagon but my formation of choice was a straight line across the living room. Destructive, drooling adorable toddlers on one side; grown-ups on the other.
From time to time, Bunny would manage to find a weak spot or a plastic tie would outlive its usefulness and disintegrate, at which point she lost no time in attempting a break for freedom.
When this happened, I would glance into the living room and think, “WHOOOOT! WHOOOOT! WHOOOOT! Warning…containment systems are failing. Shields at 40% and falling. Warning….Warning…”
Similarly, when my sister and her husband (aka, “the Sweaties”) had two young sons in diapers, they referred to the odiferous evidence of a diaper in need of changing as the child’s “warp signature”.
So on this day, when my mind starts shouting, “Whooot! Whooot! Warning! Warning!”, I tell Bunny I HAVE to go over to the “hot pool” to get warmed up.
“Wait for me!” she cries.
Aha. She *is* cold.
It is crowded at the hot pool. Bunny climbs all over me because children don’t believe in sitting still in the hot tub. Somehow, during this process, my earring gets caught in her hair, and what ensues is a sad and painful comedy of errors. I shout (in pain, and surprise), which startles Bunny, so she jerks away, so I shout louder and grab on to her to hold her still. This startles Bunny further, so she jerks farther away and starts shouting herself. This causes me more pain, so I yell even louder, and tighten my death grip on Bunny. This really concerns Bunny, so she flails about wildly, and screams louder.
That was fun.
I am still surprised that the earring didn’t rip right out of my lobe. Once I got Bunny calmed down, I was still attached to her hair at my earlobe. It took me several minutes to extricate myself, but we finally managed, and my ear remained attached to my head.
By this time, I have had more than enough fun and frolic poolside, so I suggest we go back to the room for a warm shower. Naturally, Bunny thinks this idea lacks merit, so I change tactics and move right into insisting that we leave. I’m the adult, so I win. This time.
Back in our room, Nana is up and at ‘em, and ready for dinner. We’re going to ‘Ohana tonight, and I can’t wait. My sister and her family stayed at the Polynesian where ‘Ohana is located during one of their previous DisTrips, and they had rave reviews for it. Besides, I was planning one of those snarky little phone calls to my sister once we got there. You know, one of those, “Oh, hi! Guess where we are?” phone calls. Well, she’s done it to me, so fair is fair, after all.
Bunny and I change into new designer t-shirts for dinner. Although dinner at ‘Ohana is not a particularly formal event, I feel the occasion calls for my finest understated black V-neck t-shirt with a simple black Mickey head against a white background rimmed with a thin red outline. It’s simple, elegant, and subtle.
Bunny is sporting a pristine (for the immediate moment in time) white t-shirt featuring Dumbo the flying elephant and a circus-tent background, with the following announcement: “I’m six years old today!” It was true enough for all practical purposes. We were within days of her birthday, anyway. And as stated previously, this trip was meant to be a celebration of her birthday as well as Nana’s.
To accessorize Bunny’s ensemble, I have chosen a colorful “silk” flower lei, purchased from the dollar store for this occasion. She is delighted with it.
We make it over to the Poly drivin’ like pros now
, and we are enchanted. Is there anything prettier than the Polynesian resort at dusk? I make Bunny pose for a number of photos en route to the restaurant.
When we arrive, we discover that we are actually a tiny bit early for our ADR, so we wander off in the general direction of shopping diversions to bide our time. Nana scores some scrapbooking supplies, and Bunny is tempted by a number of new plushy friends. Before I can be worn down by her wheedling, we are summoned back to ‘Ohana for dinner.
We are seated sort of in the back off to the side at a table that looks to be a less-than prime location. It is a little difficult to see, but we are able to witness some amusing attempts at hula dancing by ‘Ohana patrons.
Mmmm. The food. Yummy, yummy, and again, yummy. I am very fond of the peanut dipping sauce for the wontons. And the honey-coriander chicken wings. And then it just gets ridiculous. They brought us so much food, and they kept bringing it and bringing it. When they started bringing us the grilled meat, Bunny piped up, “Um…I would like a hot dog, please!”
I just laughed and so did our server. He told her he would bring her a hot dog if she didn’t like the rest of the food, and I really wanted her to try it. Bunny is a big fan of “meat with stripes”, which she enigmatically requested one night for dinner. After a great deal of discussion, I finally figured out that she was asking for a grilled pork chop. You know, the stripes that the grill leaves…?
Bunny was convinced to try the “real food” and discovered that she liked it just fine. No hot dog was needed that night.
But the real piece de resistance was dessert. Oh my, that bread pudding! A culinary tropical paradise you eat with a spoon!
It is served family style, in a largish bowl, bread pudding with bananas foster sauce, topped with vanilla ice cream. My only complaint was that Bunny dove into the ice cream and left precious little of it for Nana and me. That did not diminish our rapture by much, however. We were very sorry indeed that we were so incredibly full from the earlier portion of the meal, or we would have been begging for seconds!
Once we got home again, Nana, having obtained the recipe, made this incredible dessert for us at home, and for one small moment, I was transported back in time to that wonderful evening. Ah…paradise!
As we were finishing our meal, Bunny was summoned to participate in the broom and coconut races. She went with the other children, but I could tell her energy was seriously flagging. When she got back, she wanted to sit on my lap and rest her head on my shoulder. Which was fine with me, because typically, Bunny is way too busy to be super snuggly, so this was a rare treat for me.
After a few moments, though, Bunny noticed a little girl, about three years old, being seated, along with her family, at the table next to ours. They appeared to be an extended family, with some grandparents along.
“Hello, there!” Bunny called out, and the little girl waved to her. That was all the encouragement Bunny needed. She went over to her table and talked to her for a bit. Or tried to. The little girl was just a little shy, and a bit younger than Bunny, too.
A grandfatherly gentleman at their table informed us that the little girl’s name was Esther, “She’s a beautiful little Chinese girl,” he informed Bunny, with a charming southern accent. And she certainly was beautiful, too.
I appreciated that they were all so friendly and tolerant of Bunny barging in at their table, but they welcomed her “intrusion”. We chatted with these friendly folks for a bit, about where they were from, and what they had done at the World so far.
After talking with Esther for a few moments, I saw Bunny take the lei from around her own neck, and gently place around Esther’s. Then she proudly skipped over to me and said, “Mama! I gave her my flowers!”
“Well that was very kind of you!” I said, “Are you sure that’s what you want to do? To let her keep them?” (I just wanted to make sure she wouldn’t have “giver’s remorse” on the way back to the room; I didn’t care about the lei…)
But Bunny just hugged herself and whispered, “Mama, I feel all warm inside!”
Esther’s “grandfather” was very warm and kind about the gift, and tried to get Bunny to take it back, but I assured him that Bunny really wanted her to have the lei, and that it was her gift to give, if it was okay with their family. They thanked Bunny, and wished us a wonderful stay.
As we walked back out to our car, I told Bunny I was very proud of her for sharing her lei. She was very happy with herself for sharing, and even though it was a little thing, she is a just a little person, after all, and I was grateful to see her developing a generous and loving spirit, and spreading a little pixie dust of her own.
Coming up next: Bunny steps on her birthday cake and rats on me at Soarin'! NMAmy, this is the episode where I need to call you to the witness stand, so consider yourself summoned!!
Still, I don't know how I can help myself. I HAVE to go back! OH...and please stick around. I will be needing you on the next installment or possibly the one right after that to testify on my behalf regarding a "patootie" comment....
And here's hoping my multiple quotes worked out ok.
I also loved the Star Trek references!
for the past 2 days. Thanks for keeping me entertained but I will have to return to work one of these days, though I'm thinking I might need a few more days 
