Aw man, isn't a trip to Disneyland a rite of passage, regardless of whether you realize the characters are people dressed up? (Which I would have thought was obvious even to the non-HG, let's be honest.) I don't think the point of Disneyland is being fooled into thinking they're the real deal. That would be like never watching movies again because you know they're all just actors ...
For the record, Tokyo Disneyland is the BEST. Imagine a Disneyland where the entire nation is fanatical about cuteness, cartoons and dress ups

Presuming, here, that "best" is synonymous with nightmarish?

A friend who raised two gifties took her children to Disneyland religiously when they were young and she thought we should go now while DD would think she's meeting the real Mickey so I was getting all psyched up but it certainly misfired. I should have handled it better but DD doesn't seem all that heartbroken over it so all is good.

I love Disneyland. To me, it's pop culture installation art at its grandest. So we'll get there eventually, just not right away like I thought.

DS23mo: Peugh! It smells like iguana in here.

Enough said!

At 2.5, my DS found a bin that had 75+ hot wheels cars in it. He had a blast playing with them. After the usual zooming and exploring with them he sorted them all into seemingly random groups that he called friends. Different colors, different uses, trucks with cars, etc. After a little while we realized he was sorting by hubcap style.

At a store, he will tell you he would like such and such new car because it is friends with the airport police car and yellow race car... Still the same hubcaps.

Very observant! I'm not sure I would ever have figured out the sorting criterion, there, unless he said something about it.

DS11, at 2.5, was obsessed with license plates. He knew every one in our apartment complex, and he knew people by their license plate number. He couldn't tell you what kind of car anything was, but he knew whose it was by the plate. When DD was born, he was 3.5, and he went off with friends for the day; he came to see me in the hospital, gushing about the "111xxx" motorcycle he saw, and the "222zzz" truck he got to ride in.

Background: dd8 went to a school last year that used abeka in 2nd grade and it was extremely easy for her and she likes easy. She is now homeschooling, and over summer we did singapore 3 which she blew through and started the year with 4a. It was tougher but she did the semester in 6 weeks. Now we are starting Abeka 5 bc considering we went so fast, the repition of abeka will be good, but remember this kid doesn't like to have to think to hard.

Conversation in Sams with as much drama as you can imagine.
Dd8: mom, you make my brain hurt. Its going to explode. Its going to get bigger and bigger and then explode.
Dd10: your brain is going to grow the size of an elephant and you will be a big head with legs.
Me: your brain will not explode, you will just get smarter.
Dd8:mom, you are not seeing the future here. My brain is a muscle that will get bigger and bigger and then explode. I will be 9 or 10 yrs old having a funeral because my brain exploded.I don't want to die. I want to have 10 kids.

DD insists on watching the new Curious George Halloween movie with subtitles on so she can read the lines along and act out all the parts including George.

Mana, how is the Curious George movie? DS loves the show, but I don't want him to be scared by spooky costumes. Is the movie pretty tame?

DS23mo is loving making up his own songs these days. They tend to be vehicle-themed, but one lyric stood out:

"This is the way the banana car splits..."

Call me biased, but I thought the double entendre was clever.