Disneyland, HK

When Hong Kong Disneyland first opened a few years back and we started discussing when to take Steffi, I was resolute that she should be a minimum of 7 years old before we took her. Anything younger than that, I felt, and she would be unable to really appreciate both the place and how fortunate she was to travel abroad at such a young age.

But as it turned out, maybe I'm a bit too old-fashioned. Every day (or at least what seemed like everyday), she would come home from school and regal us with stories of how this classmate or that schoolmate had just returned from Disneyland. I immediately recognized it as the pressure-papa-by-making-him-feel-that-I-am-the-only-child-left-who-hasn't-been-to-Disneyland ploy. Nevertheless, I must admit the tactic still turned out to be effective.

So in one of those father-daughter negotiation sessions, I promised her that if she met a number of behavioral conditions, then we would take her in March, 2010. She then promptly delivered, and promptly reminded me of our deal.

Still, I was determined that the trip would be a learning opportunity. I wanted her to understand that we were not stepping out to the mall, that this is a big thing. (That's papa-speak for a big expense)

So I took out of those square telephone memo pads and made a countdown calendar. I stuck it to her wall and told her to tear a page a day and when she tore all the way to zero then we would go to Disneyland. I wanted to pound into her young mind that this is something that she should view with much anticipation.

At the time I made the calendar we were still 114 days away, and I was quite certain that she would lose interest around the 50-80 day range. But as it turned out she remembered everyday and now here we are

Tomorrow we head to the land of Winnie the Pooh and Mickey Mouse.