To the man who makes our family complete, keeps us on the move and always learning and growing. To the man who dedicates his time, his talents, his life and his love to us: Thank you. We love and appreciate you and all that you do. You make every day better just by being around, and we are so very happy to celebrate this Father’s Day with you at home!
Words in this case are just not enough, so watch our amazing Dad in action in our lives since coming home from Afghanistan in November. I think you can see just how much he loves us too!
Happy Father’s Day, Papi. We love you more than we could ever say!
Then, like 5 minutes later, it was time to get off the bus.
We went one way, they went the other. We exchanged hotel room numbers and as soon as they walked away I kinda felt like “Well that was dumb, I should have gotten their actual phone number!” Luckily, the next day they knocked on our door the night before they would be checking out. We chatted in the hallway and let the kids run wild, and this time we exchanged emails. It turned out we had quite a bit in common and I was really excited about these new friends.
So Kat (the Mom) and I exchanged a few emails and it turned out they only live about 2.5 hours from us! We decided to just go ahead and make a plan to get together, and ever since the kids have asked me at least once a day “When are we going to go see Other Max?”
(See, cause they have a cousin named Max. And their cousin named Max….his Mom’s name is Cat! Is that weird, or is that weird?!? I know, it’s weird!!)
Yesterday was finally The Day. We took the three littles and drove out to Pennsylvania for our grand reunion. The great part was both our husband’s seemed to think the two of us were slightly odd to just be like “Hey Random Person I met once on the bus! Let’s hang out!”
But I say being a grown up can make it downright difficult to make friends sometimes, so if you get a good vibe from someone just take a leap and see how it turns out! I’ve tried making friends with my kids friends’ parents….sometimes that works, sometimes it doesn’t.
This, however, worked out A.W.E.S.O.M.E. This, was totally meant to be!
We arrived at their house about 12:30 to hugs and smiles and kids who acted like they have known each other for always. Scott and Dean got straight to preparing lunch on the grill. Hamburgers and hot dogs, chips and soda, cheese and crackers and fruit. It was delicious and we were hungry!
Max had even chosen special cups for each of the kids at the store. Pink kitties for the girls, a lion for Little Man and a frog for himself. How sweet!
The children quickly devoured their food and moved on to the first activity: swimming!
Well. Some of them did. Max was very encouraging for everyone to “Go swim? Go swim?” But if you asked him “Max, why don’t you go swim?” He would exclaim “NO! COLD!” Haha! In the picture above I think that is actually the exact conversation he is having with Vi. Yeah, you go ahead and swim I’m going to stand here…..It wasn’t actually THAT cold, the water was 80 degrees. So, we decided to go with “Refreshing!”, right, Scott?
Here are Max and Bug, just hanging out like they’ve been best friends forever or something.
Then the boys played Catch. Cause that’s what boys do. The kids loved it!
It was great because The husband’s had a ton to talk about and they really hit it off too even if it took a little convincing to get them to think making friends with strangers on a bus was a good idea. Scott used to be in the army too. That’s why they were staying at Shades of Green, of course, but he could have been any branch of the military, you know? So that was great. And they both have grand plans to move someday to the middle of nowhere and own a farm, so we are planning to be neighbors for that big adventure should it ever come to pass.
See so that’s how it works: Meet people on the bus, kids hold hands, plan a cookout, plan the next ten years of your lives together living a mile down the road from each other in rural Idaho. Makes perfect sense, right? No?
Maybe that’s just me.
After we were done planning to be neighbors, we took the kids to Chocolate World.
CHOCOLATE. WORLD.
(If I could have in that moment I would have beamed all my friends from Colorado who are stressed out and dealing with wild fires STRAIGHT to Chocolate World.)
We went on this ride that tells you about how they make chocolate, except you can’t hear any of it because there are cows in the background the entire time singing the most obnoxious song ever written. Worse than It’s a Small World. For Reals. But you get over it because they give you free chocolate at the end!
Mmmmmmmm ,chocolate……
Annoying singing cows can’t completely ruin chocolate! Or can they????
Because the free chocolate was just a tiny candy bar and what the kids really wanted was to eat THIS Candy bar…..
….And we were after all at Chocolate WORLD, we went and got milkshakes. Dark chocolate milkshakes for the girls and a peanut butter chocolate one for Dean and I to share. Little Man shared a little bit of everyone’s. Our sweet new friends even insisted on paying for the shakes! Seriously, I was starting to love these people. How did they know buying chocolate was like a free pass straight into my heart for all time?!?!
Then the kids went a little bonkers.
We decided with all that chocolate-energy a little playground time was in order.
Once they were a little less hyper after all the running and climbing and swinging and digging, we headed back to their house for some more swimming and dinner. They swam a little but the pool was in the shade and it also started to rain.
It rained for just a few minutes while dinner was cooking and we were treated to this beautiful double rainbow!
Besides that, I got to hold the Baby and give her a bottle while I chatted with Kat as she prepared dinner. I almost died of happiness. Clearly, my love of babies is being transferred to my daughters and they both got their turns with this sweet lil’ love too! Mary Ann is a cuddle-bug!
Can you even HANDLE that much cuteness?!?! Seriously!
Dinner was lovely out on the patio again, the kids played a bit on the swing set out back as well. In what turned out to be a milestone moment, Max even shared his most beloved toy with Little Man:
Yep. A Shotgun. Our boy thought this was the coolest toy EVER.
At about 815 pm it was finally time to say goodbye. Our sweet boy didn’t want to leave and he started to cry. His new friend came and gave him a great big hug, and we all promised to get together again really soon!
I am so happy for our “chance” encounter with this beautiful family. Who knew a five minute bus ride could turn in to a friendship that may just be the best Disney souvenir we’ve ever had!
Thank you Kat & Scott for such a wonderful, memorable day! We hope to see you all again soon!
I could never be a food blogger. I love reading food blogs, and I’ve tried a few times to photograph my own culinary endeavors. But I will never be able to join their ranks. And here is why.
Exhibit A:
I needed to make treats for Little Man’s last day of school picnic.
I was going to make ice cream cone cupcakes, but my friend Amy suggested these might be slightly easier.
What on earth is THAT ALL ABOUT?!??!You can see I tried several variations of striping. They all looked terrible and none of the lines were straight and I don’t think they resemble snow cones AT ALL. The first mistake here (of many) was using store bought whipped cream flavored frosting. It sounded delicious, but I think it wasn’t stiff enough or something like homemade would have been. It was very gloopy, and I made a huge mess and it didn’t even turn out pretty. Blah. Good thing 3 year olds aren’t now for being harsh critics.
Exhibit B:
I made a Pioneer Woman recipe for dinner. If you don’t know her, you should. Pick any recipe off her website, I’d be willing to bet you love it! I have her book and I have loved every single thing I’ve ever made from it.
I took this photo in the process. But really it was so I could text my husband to verify “Parsley….yes?”
I had picked it from our awesome garden. I was pretty sure it was parsley, but there are a LOT of plants out there and he’s the plant guy and if I didn’t pick it up off a clearly labeled grocery store shelf….well, it’s best to double check I got the right plant is all. It was kind of a pretty picture though. I thought I would continue trying to photograph my food making efforts.
I tried taking an artistic photo of bread. It didn’t work.
I gave up.
At least I have the cutest helpers ever though!
And the cutest taste testers too!
So, yeah. I don’t have a future in food blogging that’s for sure. I guess I should stick to posting videos of my herd of children and writing about deployments and stuff.
That is, if school doesn’t melt my brain of course. Which, on the basis of this post, you might come to the conclusion that it already has!
*Edited to add: Would you believe the three year olds didn’t even get to eat the cupcakes? A bomb threat on the campus where Little Man goes to school meant we had to evacuate the building and there was no end of school party. This week really isn’t going so great so far, is it?*
*If you saw the poem on here earlier, it has been removed. It was not my son’s work. It was pointed out to me later today after I published this post that it was actually taken from a pretty well known author. I’ve removed it, and apparently am having a lengthy conversation about “plagiarism” with my child tomorrow. The joys of parenting never end!*
Our little Pudah, who is growing up so fast, is an artistic and gentle soul.
He loves to read, and to write, all kinds of stories. But his favorite kind involve dragons and magic and little boys who become heroes.
His imagination is un-tameable. His hair is, too.
He has taken up the violin this year at school. It’s been challenging, but it’s a difficult instrument. He’s very musically inclined. I played violin for 7 years in school and it has been wonderful to have this activity to share together as I practice with him. Here’s a song from his concert last week:
This Pudah. He’s our thinker and our worrier. A kid who frets and wants to fix things for everyone.
He is sensitive and introspective, at heart.
You might not be able to tell it though, if you ever met him.
Because frequently you will find him doing this:
It might be hard to sense his sweet and tender spirit, when he’s busy making this face:
Or this face:
Or this face:(He’s the kid in the camo jacket, front right)
Yeah.
My kid is totally the kid making a face in his class photo. He says he was “sneezing”. I say that I have a good three years of photographic evidence which proves otherwise.
In other words, besides being unbelievable perceptive and loving, he’s also got a silly streak a mile wide.
It makes him one heck of a big brother.
(This video is from last summer, but Pudah wanted me to share it. Scenes like this take place frequently between Pudah and Little Man. Brothers. Are. Awesome.)
He’s creative and quiet. He’s crazy and loud. He’s a deep thinker and a big mover. He’s the most outgoing introvert you will ever meet.
He’s one of a kind. And, in case you can’t tell, we quite simply love him to pieces.
I love you, Pudah-Buddah. Thanks for always keeping things interesting!
Being in the north east now, it is strange to see posts from all my friends in other places like Georgia and Colorado talking about the end of the school year.
My kids are in school until June 21st.
Sounds lame right now, but I keep reminding them they will STILL be out of school come August when all their friends out west are buying school supplies and headed back to the classroom. There is something to be said for summer lasting until after Labor Day.
In my world though, there is no such thing as Summer Vacation. My dreams of taking time off this summer to just enjoy my kids and blog and go to the pool and review pharmacology notes (my only “B”!! Argh!) were tossed aside when I was informed by my graduate school counselor that time off…..wasn’t really an option. Well. It was an option if I had a personal emergency or extenuating circumstances. But just wanting to hang out with my kids didn’t make the cut as a valid reason.
So. Here we are.
On my plate this semester are two classes which I thought sounded relatively benign but which are already pretty much making me want to cry on a daily basis.
First. Health Assessment.
Sounds easy, right? I’ve been a nurse for awhile. I’ve assessed lots of people, from newborns to 90 year olds. I rock assessment!
Or at least. I thought I did. Up until the point that I had to make my husband be a fake patient and actually video tape myself pretending to do an assessment about an imaginary disease process.
There is a reason I didn’t go to acting school like my siblings, people! It’s cause I stink at that stuff!
Plus, my husband has other stuff to do besides sit on the kitchen table and pretend to be a sick person while I do take after take of pretend assessment. He has research and plankton that are counting on him!
(He also go all A’s in his classes this last semester, by the way. Just have to give him a little shout-out, cause he’s awesome!) He’s a good sport about it though. Of course, we’ve only done one video so far and have five to go so we will see how he feels about me in a few weeks.
Second, Research II.
Research part I was a lot of statistics stuff. It was hard, and I didn’t really get it, but I got it enough in the moment to write my papers and survive that semester. Now it’s come back to haunt me for a second go-around and I am not sure how it is all going to turn out. I had to come up with a clinical question, and now I’m digging up and sorting through various research articles. I have to find at least 10 relevant to my topic and then write a giant paper about it. Finding articles is time consuming. Reading each one to decide if it really answers the question I am asking is time consuming and somewhat discouraging when you’ve spent all that time finding the articles only to have to toss them out because they aren’t a good fit. And then make a poster. And not like a cute, artistic science fair looking poster, I’m talking about one of those big decent-enough-to-present-at-a-legitimate-conference poster that you make on your computer somehow. I’m not sure how.
All this to say: I’m stressed. I have basically no free time. And I miss writing! So, if you don’t hear much from me this summer at least now you know why.
(I am writing this while my computer is trying to download my latest assessment video, which is nearly 20 minute long. I should probably be reading research articles instead. I need a t-shirt that says “I’d rather be blogging”)
I was sitting at the bus stop with my girls last week. We were happily chatting away, as we do most mornings, I’m not even entirely sure what we were talking about. Whatever it was, somehow it triggered a seemingly unrelated thought in Vi, and she said:
“Mama, you know I like to rock my head at bedtime? And sometimes I suck my fingers. It helps me go sleep!”
Yes, baby, I know you do. And that’s ok. Maybe someday you won’t need to do that anymore! But Mama sucked her thumb till she was 10 years old. It’s not a big deal.
“Yeah, but Mama, when I was in Ukraine, the nannies don’t like it when I rock my head. The nannies would kick me and yell “YOU STOP THAT!” The nannies would step on my chest, right here (pointing to her sternum) and their slippers were so hard and so heavy and it hurt me. Why they do that, Mama? I just want to rock my head!”
My heart cracks in two when I hear these stories. But I have learned with time not to show her how extremely upsetting it is to me, as it really freaks her out. So instead, I keep my face calm. I scoot just a little closer to her, and put and arm around her shoulder for a tight squeeze.
“I’m sorry that happened to you, big girl. I’m really glad you live here in our family now.”
She smiled. “Me too, Mama.”
Our girl has come a long way. When she speaks of Ukraine these days, she gets a far off look in her eyes as if recalling a bad dream. Bits of her past still come bubbling up to the surface, although with less frequency. 14 months home, and she is almost unrecognizable from the girl we met in Odessa.
I decided I wanted to make a little video to help her see just how far she has come. To help her see how much she has changed. When you live with a child, the changes can seem subtle and develop so slowly that you really don’t see just how huge the difference has become. I don’t think she realizes how much she has changed either!
For Vi, the biggest difference you can actually see is in her walk.
In Ukraine, she wasn’t able to receive the treatment her cerebral palsy required in order to make her as mobile as possible. The orthotics she has here would just be too expensive for an orphanage even if they had the right kind of doctor to prescribe them. And since they have to be tailor-made to each child and remade every 6-8 months as they grow it’s not as if they can be used as “hand-me-downs” like so many other items in an orphanage must be used. She is also receiving physical therapy and occupational therapy through the school system which has contributed to her amazing strides in physical ability. We also do daily stretches at home as prescribed by her physical therapist a Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia.
Of course, this is not just about “walking normally”. This is about the fact that a maladaptive gait pattern can lead to wear and tear on the hip and knee joints, which can result in the need for surgeries like hip and knee replacements in early adulthood. The more correctly she walks, the greater the chance that we can avoid these surgeries in the future.
Looking back, you can see just how tight her body is, just how precarious her balance. You can see her left foot waaaaay up on her tiptoe, her right foot turned so far inwards at times her toes are nearly pointing at her left leg. You can see how much her whole body has to compensate when she walks in order to stay upright.
Then you look at her now! Her walk more evenly measured, still with a little quirk to it but her legs are significantly straighter. You can see that she can now run without having to hold on to something. She can hop in one place. She can even do a little walk-skip-hop without having to hold hands! I won’t lie, when she first came home I couldn’t even imagine she would be able to perform such a feat. She can also step down one step or up on to a curb without falling over, although I didn’t catch it on the video it is another huge accomplishment.
I am amazed at the difference, and I just had to share. So proud of our big girl!
Remember. For you, it’s just one day a year. One day. To stop and think, to reflect on the enormous sacrifice some service members and their families have made. The ultimate sacrifice. For one day, just let that pain, that sorrow, that immeasurable loss find a place in your heart. Remember.
Memorial Day. For you, it’s just a day. You can shut your computer, and walk away when it gets too overwhelming to look at.
For them….it is every day. There is no other reality except the one where their beloved did not return from war.
I am going to provide some links, and I would suggest taking a few moments out of your day today to visit them and read their stories. Leave a note, let them know you were there today, on Memorial Day, to honor and remember their loved one. Let them know that their families and their sacrifices are not forgotten.
Taryn lost her husband Michael six years ago in Iraq.You know what she did? She created The American Widow Project, to help other war widows connect and find a place in the world that now seemed to have no place for them. Pretty much one of the most amazing things I’ve ever heard about. Visit her blog, and visit the American Widow Project. I promise you will not be the same.
Rachel lost her husband in Afghanistan in 2010. She was pregnant when he left for deployment and he never met their beautiful daughter in this life. Her writing about her love for her husband, her challenges as a young widow, and just trying to find out how to continue living after this loss is a perspective I think every American should read. You can start here, with the post she wrote just days after he died. Leave her a comment, or send her an email. Let her know that her husband’s sacrifice is not forgotten.
Here is a facebook page honoring this fallen hero. You can go all the way back to the day the page was created, and read through his wife’s journey of unimaginable loss. Those two young boys in the first photo of this post….his sons. So young, they likely will not have any real memories of their father who fought and died for all of us. Photographs and stories will be the only way they will ever know him. You can join this page, leave their Mommy a comment and let her know that their sacrifice and loss is not forgotten.
Here you can see the faces and names of all the men and women who have lost their lives. As of this writing, the most recent name on the list is 23 year old Army Sgt. Eugene M. Aguon. Killed May 16th by a car bomb in Kabul, Afghanistan. My challenge to all of you this Memorial Day would be to find a soldier among all those faces. Choose one, and find all you can about them. Google them, read about their lives and their families left behind. Take that family in to your heart, keep them in your thoughts and prayers at least for this one. single. day. Perhaps though you will find a week from now or a month from now…three months from now….this soldier’s name will come to your mind again. Their family will be heavy on your heart again. Because they will no longer be “a soldier killed in action”. They will have become a real person to you, with love and family and hopes and dreams, who you can honor and remember all year long.
Military families often feel invisible. I cannot begin to imagine what those who have lost a loved one in war must experience when they feel forgotten. Let’s carry a tiny fraction of that burden today by reaching out to these families.
As it turns out, completely by coincidence, Disney’s Hollywood Studios is doing Star Wars Weekends from May to June that started THIS weekend!
We couldn’t have planned it better on purpose if we tried! We had no idea it was going to be Star Wars weekend until a few days before we left when we started deciding which parks we would visit on what days. Dean and I were both so excited because our Little Man is currently obsessed with all things Star Wars. He loves the old movies, he loves the new cartoons. He loves light sabers. He loves Storm Troopers. He loves, loves, LOVES Darth Vader and Luke and Darth Maul and Anakin.
And today, Disney made our littlest Boy’s dreams come true!
I have to admit, when we first arrived i started to freak out. The whole place was madness. It was the first day of the series of weekends and so all the real hardcore fanatical fans were out in full force. (Force. Get it? Force? Ok. I’m a nerd.) There was apparently limited edition merchandise to be had, and people had been camped out for hours, and it was just madness. The first line to see a character that we saw was for Chebacca and it went up a hill and around a corner and must have been at least an hour long. We saw a little bit of the Jedi Training show and got our first glimpse of Darth Vader. Little Man started screaming when he heard the lightsaber noises “Go fast, Daddy! They are fighting, they are FIGHTING!!!!!”
We discovered it was too late to sign the kids up for the Jedi Training, because sign ups started at 8 and it was now 930. They had filled all the spots for every show all day long by 845. I told you, it was madness!
And so, we started a serious quest to meet some characters. We were told we could find the droids and Luke or Leia over near the “Darth Mall”, a giant tent gift-shop they set up for all that limited edition merchandise. When we got to that area of the park, my heart sank. The line to get inside was easily 3 hours long! As we approached the back of the line, a smiling Disney employee was making a repetitive announcement “The line for the mall is to the left, the line for the characters is to the right!” A glimmer of hope! We walked around to the right. We kept walking.
More employees pointed the direction we should go. We kept walking. All the way around to the back side of the building. There was a door. And maybe three other people stood in the line right inside the door, waiting for the droids who would appear in about 5 minutes!!! We asked the young girl in charge of this line, and she explained that we were, in fact, in the right place and that yes those hundreds of people really were in line just to buy stuff.
Awesome. We will stay in this line.
Minutes later, we met the droids! Then Daddy tried to feed the children to the Rancor.
Turns out he wasn’t hungry. Oh well!
We had been informed that in about 15 minutes Luke would also be there, but we would have to go back outside and around the building to get back in line. On our way, I heard a family standing outside discussing how it was not feasible to wait 3 hours in line to meet the characters. I shouted to the Dad of the group “The characters are this way! Follow MEEEEEEE!” He was like “What?” and I was like “I’m not kidding, this line is to buy stuff. The other line is this way and there is no one in it! Come on!” and a very excited group of people followed us back around the building.
We let several families in front of us, since we were waiting for Luke, and when we went inside we ended up being first in line to wait for Luke to come out. It worked out perfectly! Luke came right over to Little Man, and took him by the hand!! It was totally the best moment of his little 3 year old life!
After that we decided it was time to go find some bad guys. On our way to find them, we also found some wandering storm troopers (or clone troopers, I don’t know. Guys in white armor.)
The girls may, in fact, be grabbing this guys backside.
The line for Darth Maul ended up being a bit long and kind of hot. We tried to keep the kids happy by spritzing them with water, and someone on our way out of “Darth Mall” had handed Daddy some tiny toys which provided a little entertainment. It was well worth the wait though! Darth Maul was super scary! Here is Little Man, wearing his “brave face” after his encounter with the dark side.
Luckily, the wait for Darth Vader was much more pleasant as it was completely covered and shaded. The characters would sign and take pictures for about twenty minutes, then take a five minute break to “see if there were any Jedi in the area”. Still, these lines moved pretty fast. Little Man was visibly nervous watching Darth Vader interact with other people, and he continued to practice his “brave face” while we waited our turn.
After our bad guy encounters, we took a little break and played in the “Honey, I shrunk the kids” area. Vi has also seen pictures of the boys running around and playing in here and wanted her own photo on top of the giant ant. After all the fuss she made over wanting this picture, you would think she would look happier about it. Ah, well. Here it is.
Then, we ran around and played. This slide was a big hit. Little Man looks terrified.
But here he is at the bottom, clearly quite proud of himself!
They also had a giant rope-climbing thing, which was incredibly difficult for Vi to navigate. It’s a one way go though, so once we were in there was no place to go but up to the top and back down the other side. I had to do a lot of lifting and pulling, but we made it eventually and she felt very accomplished.
Our final quest for the morning was to find Anakin Skywalker. He is definitely Little Man’s favorite from the cartoon series especially. We found the line, but they had some other Jedi out first so we got to the front and then let people go ahead of us until Anakin arrived. While we were waiting, Little Man met a Jawa.
Finally it was time to met Anakin! Check out Little Man’s “hero worship” face. He was in total awe of all the characters coming to life I think, but this is the best picture I got of him regarding one.
I put together a little video of all the characters we met this morning. It all worked out, and we saw everyone our Little Man wanted to see the most! I was so worried the morning was going to be a total bust when we started out but it turned out wonderful. Hooray for Disney magic!
We headed back to our hotel at this point and took a much needed nap. The kids really wanted to see the fireworks show but there was no way that was going to happen with out nap time!
At 5 o’clock we got up, had an early dinner, and headed over to Magic Kingdom again. We did a few rides like Monster’s Inc. Laugh Floor, Buzz Light Year Star Command and The People Mover. Bug and Daddy did Stitch’s Great Escape while Little Man and Vi danced.
And of course, we ended the day with the light show and fireworks!
The late night made for the first real tantrum of the trip. Daddy offered to carry Vi from the monorail to the bus on his back. She said NO!, and then proceeded to have a HUGE tantrum about the fact that she was walking! We were trying so hard not to let her see that we were laughing, because it was just that ridiculous. He offered again about two minutes later and she crossed her arms and scowled at him, so we kept walking. She threw herself on the ground and screamed that it wasn’t fair she had to walk. We made it to the bus eventually though, and learned a little lesson about being nice to people who are trying to help you instead of being scowly-tantrum-monsters. Then we got to bed without too much drama. Considering the long days, excessive amounts of fun and new experiences, I am seriously impressed that we made it all the way to Day 4 until a major meltdown.
We are resting tomorrow and going to the pool. Our last day at the parks will be Animal Kingdom on Sunday!
Day 3 of our Disney Do-Over we got off to an early start for “Extra Magic Hours”, where resort guests can get in to certain parks an hour or so before everyone else.
This meant getting up Extra Early though. Which with little ones, as we all know, is a bit less than magical. Once we pried them all out of bed though, they were excited to get going!
First stop: The New Fantasyland!
The very first thing the girls wanted to do was Story Time with Belle. The line was kind of long, but it was brand new and so I guess thats to be expected. They only take in a fairly small number of people at a time and it is a whole interactive experience. First we got to see Maurice’s workshop, then walk through a magical mirror. In a big room with the enchanted dresser the kids were given various parts to re-enact the story. Vi was chosen to be “The Beast!” and she was just about beside herself with joy. Bug was a magic picture frame. Little Man didn’t want a part, but he did decide to go see the princess at the end when she was giving out book marks.
It’s two minutes long, but I promise it’s worth the watch to see her roar!
Then we met Ariel. We also rode the Under the Sea ride,which was cute and fun.
This is the moment Vi said “Hey! I can see your belly button!” Again, with the Stating the Obvious Child. Ariel said “You can?!?! Where?? Well that’s not fairr I can’t see YOUR bellybutton!” and then carried on signing books. I was just relieved Vi didn’t ask why she could see her “underwear” (a.k.a. clam-shell bra)
Of course, we had to ride It’s a Small World. I think they have changed it some, as I recall there being flags from all the countries somewhere near the end before but they weren’t there anymore.
We also rode Winne The Pooh. And at this point I just have to say, whoever invented Disney Fast Pass had better be set for LIFE because it is the best idea EVER. None of the lines were super long, maybe 30-40 minutes, but we even circumvented most of those by using the FastPass system and cut our waits down to 5-10 minutes. It was awesome. Cause let’s face it, no one wants to stand in line for 40 minutes for a 3 minute ride!
We made our way over to another new area of the park, Story Book Circus. There is a lot of construction going on with even more new stuff coming soon too, Magic Kingdom is almost unrecognizable in places! In a good way though, I am really enjoying all this new stuff. This area had a small rollercoaster called “The Barn Stormer.” Because there are 5 of us, and Vi was the only kid big enough to sit alone…she had to sit alone on this one.
As you can see, she is not happy about this idea. I might have backed out and just not had her ride it except that we went to Six Flags Great Adventure for her birthday and she rode Skull Mountain. TWICE. which is easily 10 times more scary than this tiny roller coaster that even Little Man could ride!
And what do you know, we got to the end and she had a great time! All smiles and cheers for herself “I did it! I did it!! That was SO FUN!!!”
Another cool down time was in order, but this time Mom and Dad learned from their mistake and the shoes and socks came off first. I did give Vi my socks because when she runs around she often scrapes the tops of her big toe on her more affected leg along the ground. Which, on pavement, can hurt quite a bit. They got soaking wet. Again. And had a great time in the process!
We decided to try and dry off a bit before riding Dumbo and while waiting for our FastPass window. So we grabbed some cotton candy, and watched some clowns.
Dumbo is of course a classic ride, but with a whole new look now. They have two simultaneous Dumbo rides going, one for FastPass holders and one for Stand In Line Forever-ers. Highly efficient!
This…is my favorite picture of the day! It was so awesome how suddenly the people all managed to disappear and Little Man was left there standing alone and in awe. I uploaded it to facebook and titled it
“Flying Elephants = Mind. Blown.”
There’s Daddy and his best buddy, flying an elephant!
Then we headed over to Frontier land to do the Pirates of the Carribean and Jungle Cruise. But, I don’t have photos. I did tell Vi when we got on the Pirates ride that we would come off the ride AS pirates. She was a little worried, but when the ride ended she stated “Mama….I don’t FEEL like a pirate. So..I think I am still me!” The jungle cruise is always funny, but it was interesting to see how Vi really couldn’t grasp that kind of humor. You know, cause the tour guide says things but they are funny because they really mean something else. Vi kept shouting out “NO!!!!” or “I DON’T WANT TO!!!” Luckily we were at the front of the boat and the driver leaned over a few times away from her microphone and said “It’s ok, I’m just kidding!”
We headed out at that point to get back in time for dinner and bed before I had class at 830pm (I know, I am so committed! I went to class the night before as well! My classmates were highly impressed.) At about 745, as all the kids were finishing getting their pajamas on, there was a knock at our door.
It was our new friend Max and his parents and baby sister from the day before!! They had remembered our room number (which I told them as we were parting, to try and help Bug feel better about the situation) and came by to see us! It was really fun. The kids ran around in the hallway and played and we chatted some more. They are just a really nice, really sweet family! We got to talk adoption and things and realized we don’t live THAT far apart, so we exchanged emails and decided to get the kids together sometime soon. I am really looking forward to it. I am also convinced that if we can get THIS Max and the kids’ little cousin Max together….the world might implode from awesomeness/Chaos! Meeting cool people is definitely an added bonus of this disney trip that I wasn’t anticipating! The kids clearly shared an immediate bond for whatever reason on the bus the morning before, and I am so happy that it looks like we will be seing more of this very cool family in the near future!
This morning, Bug made a new friend who’s name was Max.
This little boy was waiting for the bus with his family just like us, and he immediately decided Bug was his new best friend! He wanted to hold her hand and take her all around, and sit next to her on the bus, and walk with her until it was time for our families to part ways, since they were going to Magic Kingdom and Daddy still had to activate our tickets. It was sad. You now how sometimes you meet people and it just feels like you should be friends forever? Or is that just me? Well, anyways, it felt like that.
We went in to a gift shop while Daddy got the tickets, and bought Little Man an autograph book. One of the only things we did back in January was get the girls’ autograph books in downtown Disney, but we didn’t think our little boy would really want one. However, I changed my mind this go around.
Then we the monorail. Vi spotted a gentleman standing at the top of the platform, one of the monorail workers.
“Hey! Are you a PIRATE?!?” She asked
The man looked confused. We all looked confused.
“A pirate?” he asked.
“Baby girl, he’s not a pirate!”
“No Mama, a PIRATE, a PIRATE who flies this trains!”
“Ahhhh, a PILOT?”
“YEAH!! A PIRATE!”
He was in fact wearing a small pin shaped like wings, just like the pilot on the airplane had been wearing. The man looked relieved to discover he did not look like a pirate for some reason this morning.
We took our first monorail ride. This was exciting, up unti the moment that I realized Little Man was no longer carrying his prized possession: A small lightsaber Daddy had bought him back home a couple months ago and which he has become very, very attached to as his Star Wars obsession has grown.
Here it is, the last photo of the lightsaber: We had it on the bus.
So our first stop at Epcot was guest relations, we had them call the gift shop where we had bought the book. No dice. The lady we had bought the book from wasn’t there and the guy who was there seemed like he looked for about 0.2 seconds before saying it wasn’t there and hanging up. Sadness.
Luckily, Little Man hadn’t noticed it was missing so we just carried on about our day hoping to avoid a meltdown for as long as possible.
First stop, Spaceship Earth!
The kids loved this ride. At the end, it shows you “Your Future”, and puts your head on a cartoon. Daddy’s picture was…..Creepy. Ha!
Mama and Bug ended up on the big map once you exit the ride, it shows where some of the recent riders are from all over the world! Really neat! (You can’t see the lines, but it is NOT saying we are from South America. Promise I did actually connect us to where we live!)
We also got to play some games and learn about clean energy!
Of course one of the main attractions of Epcot is visiting the different countries! First stop: Mexico! Little Man was pretty scared by the volcano inside, but we survived. In the line I also met a really neat lady with 4 adopted kids, and we chatted awhile. Yay for making more random connections at Disney!
While in Mexico, we met Donald Duck. We waited in the line and just as we got to the front, Donald had to go “talk to Daisy” (a.k.a. go potty) The Disney Cast Member who informed us of this happened to be a little person. Vi, ever the tactful one, blurts out very loudly “Mama, why is that guy SO SHORT???”
Yeah. Thanks, Vi! I guess I would assume that a kid who gets a lot of stares because of her own disability would naturally be more sensitive to others who are different. It seems to be the opposite. I don’t know if this is because she is really drawn to those who are “different” because she feels connected to them in some way, or if she is just incapable to observing something and NOT pointing it out….but it was an awkward moment.
I explained “Well big girl, he was born that way, just a little bit different. Just like you are a little bit different, right? But that is ok, people come in all shapes and sizes, there is nothing wrong with that!”, hoping that this was an ok answer for the large audience of people who were now staring at us.
This cast member came right over to our stroller as I finished my statement and said “Yeah and you know what ELSE? You know why ELSE I’m so short?”
Vi shakes her head no, looking a little bit scared. I’m holding my breath.
“Because! Because I didn’t eat my vegetables like my Mama told me to! So make sure you always eat your vegetables and listen to your Mom, ok?!”
Breathe out. Clearly, my child is not the first kid to (rudely) point out the obvious, and this gentleman had a great response prepared. He smiled and gave me a wink.
5 minutes later “Donald was done talking to Daisy” and we got our turn.
We also rode the Malestrom in Norway. Afterwards in the gift shop, we took pictures with this giant troll statue.
Bug whacked the troll in the stomach with her bear-on-a-stick. Little Man shouted at her “Hey! Don’t do that, there’s a BABY IN THERE!” in reference to the troll’s big, round tummy. He’s such a crazy kid these days!
At some point, we decided it would be a good idea to let the kids cool off playing in this fountain. It was not. They got SOAKED.
Not such a big deal, except for Vi’s braces. Yeah. I didn’t think that one through very well. We had to take them off and really her shoes are too big to walk in them very well without the braces. Not my best parenting moment. At least it was hot enough out that their clothes dried pretty quickly even though their shoes did not.
We met Chip and Dale, and then met some butterflies:
We also rode Ellen’s Energy Adventure and saw some dinosaurs. That was a great moment for our little guy, he was thrilled to see a Tyrannosaurus Rex! Most of the rides at Epcot, at least the ones we could all ride, are pretty educational. I thought that was neat. The girls and I even got sneezed on by a brachiosaurus!
And finally, my favorite part of the day: SeaBase! Vi has seen a photo of the boys inside this shark’s mouth in our digital photo frame, and she was SUPER excited to get her own photo made in the same location. Like SUPER EXCITED. In case you can’t tell from her face.
One of the last things we did was an interactive “Turtle Talk with Crush.” All the kids sit up front, where the turtle can see them, and the parents sit on the benches behind. The turtle tells us about the turtle world, and we tell him about the human world. Hilarity ensues!
The kids did WONDERFUL, even though it was kind of a long day. No major tantrums, no meltdowns. Just a really enjoyable, fun, family day! Luckily most of the lines were around 10-15 minutes, it is not extremely crowded this time of year which is nice!
And that was basically our day at Epcot!
On the way back to the hotel, we stopped by the gift shop anyways even though they had said on the phone they didn’t have the light saber. A nice guy named Dave was working and he helped me look all around for it. No dice. He apologized. I said it was my son’s favorite toy and I hoped we would be able to replace it. I walked out. 30 seconds later Dave comes running behind me calling “HEY WAIT!!! IS THIS IT?!??!” And he’s waving Little Man’s light saber!!! He said he found it on the counter behind a small sign that said “Register Closed”. I don’t know if Little Man tucked it back there or if someone found it during the day and put it back there, but I was SO happy to see it!!! I told Dave I wanted to hug him, he smiled and said he was happy to help.
I walked around to the bus stop, triumphantly, but Little Man who didn’t even realize the light saber was missing didn’t get what all the fuss was about. Daddy and I informed him that the light saber would be staying at the hotel from now on though.
I did actually connect us to where we live!)
