Disney Day 5: Magic Kingdom

So yesterday was the big day, the day I knew Leah was going to love above all others:  The Magic Kingdom.  I had specially packed her ‘Punzel dress for her, since I was determined she was going to meet Rapunzel on our trip.  We had breakfast at the hotel, Mickey waffles again, YUM!  I had wisely decided she should not put on her dress till AFTER breakfast, which was a good call considering the amount of syrup she had all over her.  Then we got back to the hotel and she enjoyed a strawberry fruit roll up that turned her pink.  So yeah, good job we just let things wait a bit.

We left for the Magic Kingdom around 9 and had to hop the tram.  I gave her the choice of the monorail or the boat once we got to the other side and she decided she wanted to ride the monorail, so we did.  There were a bunch of old people from NC on our monorail ride and the ladies went nuts over Leah and her outfit.  They asked if we had bought it at Downtown Disney, and when I said no, that it had been made by a friend, then they just went absolutely crazy!  She smiled that little impish grin of hers which if you didn’t know better, you’d swear meant she was being modest, but in reality means, “Keep it coming, ladies.  I live for this stuff.” 

We got off and through security and as soon as we hit Main Street USA, she went nuts seeing the castle. I knew from my online research that Punzel was supposed to be at a theater on Main Street, so I started looking around, and we ran into the Mayor of Disney and had a great time with him and his wife, chatting and taking pictures.  He’d been stationed in Blackstone, VA at one point and I got to hear all about his adventures there. 

When we finally got done with him, we went back towards the front and I happened to spy a “Fast Pass with the Storybook Princesses” kiosk.  I just knew this must be where they had stashed Punzel since I had seen on Mary’s pictures her girls reading a book with Punzel.  I got our passes for about 2 hours later, and we were off!

We headed to do a ride, since Leah is all about the rides, and our first ride was It’s a Small World.  This seemed appropriate since it was the first ride I took Penny on as well.  Leah liked it well enough, although she really was happy to get off and go wait on line for 20 minutes to do Peter Pan’s flight.  She is a bit of a challenge in the line waiting department. She climbs the barriers, swings from the ropes, etc.  It’s a wee bit embarrassing.  I do my best though.  So we did Peter Pan and she loved that, and then we found we had time left, so we went on Cinderella’s Carousel, whatever the official name of it was.  I got her up on a horse and took a couple of pictures and was prepared to ride the thing, when Leah informed me that she is a big girl, thank you, she does not need her mom riding with her any more and she wanted to do it herself.  There were no objections from the Disney staff, so with a giant lump in my throat, I got off and let her ride it herself.  She was so proud of herself, it was just amazing.  Afterwards, we watched the Mickey’s PhilharMagic 3D movie which practically had her doubled over laughing and was a great quick break before we hit the big time…

Meeting the princesses was such a treat.  Leah was literally star struck, no matter how kind and nice and gentle they were, she could not force a single syllable from her lips.  It was hilarious.  Cinderella asked me if she’d seen us before and smiled a big toothy grin at me, and I was like, “Ummmmmmmmm…”  She really wanted an answer.  I told her I didn’t think so, and I checked our pictures, it doesn’t look like she was one of the other princesses we had met the day before, but who knows!  There was a party of 7 ahead of us taking up Punzel’s time, and but after Cinderella, Leah was seriously about to pass out, so meeting Punzel was more than she could bear.  She was in a little kid coma.  She had the little stuffed Pascale that came with the doll the hotel had given her, and she kept waffling as to whether or not she was going to show it to Punzel, so it was in the bag, out of the bag, in the bag, out of the bag.  Finally she decided to show it to her and it was her turn. 

I am not even kidding when I say that *I* cried when she met Punzel.  It was just clear how much love these women devote to their jobs and Leah was just star struck by meeting her favorite princess.  Punzel got right down with her, signed her book and patted Pascale and talked with Leah so nicely and kindly.  They hugged and admire each other’s dresses and hair and it was just such a special moment.  Just awesome.

So the people ahead of us moved on from Aurora, so we decided to go meet her and Leah took her time with her.  The Disney photographer snapped a few pictures and then turned to me and said, “That’s quite an assortment of rings on your necklace!”  I said, “Yes, this was my husband’s wedding ring, and mine.  He passed away recently.”  and then I really started to cry.  She was like “Oh my gosh!!”  I sniffled, “Yes, this trip to Disney was the last thing he really did for us” and then showed her the picture charm of the two of us that I had gotten from my secret Santa.  She looked at it and the rings and then she started to cry.  It was kind of hilarious, two grown women sniffling, and to her credit, Aurora kept Leah very busy while the photographer and I hugged it out.  I’m sorry I don’t remember the photographer’s name, but she said, “I love that you keep your rings so close to your heart”.  And then it was time to go, so she said she’d keep us in her thoughts and prayers and we left.

We had about an hour before our lunch reservation, so we headed to Adventureland. Leah caught sight of Aladdin’s Magic Carpet ride and had a great time putting us way up in the air and then plunging us down again.  then we hit Pirates of the Caribbean, which she immediately wanted to jump on again, so we did.  Then we went back to the Crystal Palace for lunch with Pooh and the gang, and she enjoyed eating a pickle, marching in Pooh’s Friendship Parade, and meeting Pooh, Tigger, Piglet, and Eeyore.  She tickled Pooh’s tummy and pulled Eeyore’s ears.  Then she caught sigh of the fact that Pooh had a zipper up his back and grew immediately suspicious.  So we hightailed it out of there!

Lunch was a blur of rides.  We got a Fastpass for the Little Mermaid, did It’s a Small World again, watched the movie again, and Pirates again.  I talked her into the Haunted Mansion, and at first she was scared, but she wound up loving it and demanded to do it a couple of times, so I was impressed by her bravery on that score.  We went over to FantasyLand and were just in time to get in the front of the line to meet Gaston, which took up just enough time to get us into Ariel right on time.  It was hilarious watching Leah with Gaston—she is well aware that he is a “bad guy” and she really didn’t want anything to do with him, although she did it for me.  He was pretty hilarious, actually, saying stuff like “It’s hard to be so beautiful isn’t it?  I know.”  and “tell Belle you enjoyed hugging me” and crap like that.  Leah resolutely refused to hug him, but honestly, it was just so funny.

the new Ariel ride is beautiful and fun and I am pleased to see they are building a new Snow White ride as well.  Something to come back for!  By now it was after 6, so we had fastpasses for Winnie the Pooh (which came with a surprise fastpass for Dumbo) and rode the tea cups and then Winnie the Pooh and Dumbo.  Then it was clear exhaustion had set in, so we headed out.  The Electric Light parade was about to start, so we picked a great time to leave.  There were all of 8 people on the boat when it left, and we got to the parking lot in record time.  Leah fell asleep in her car seat before we ever left the parking lot and I carried her up to our room and then ate a PB&J for dinner.

A lovely day and another to come!  Plans for today include meeting Mickey Mouse and Tinkerbell, doing “lots of rides, Mama, ALL the rides!”, and a dessert buffet and fireworks…  Hard to believe it’s the last day of our trip, but it has been a real balm to the soul.

Disney Day 4: EPCOT

So EPCOT is my favorite place in the Disney Universe.  It satisfies my nerdy girl inner core (the first scenes of Spaceship Earth are all about the awesomeness of reading and writing!), my OCD (getting that World Showcase passport filled out is a labor of love), my love of international cultures, and it’s just damned fun.  So I was REALLY looking forward to it.

I was a wee, trifle, tiny bit sore from AK the day before, but I figured it wouldn’t be that big a deal.  We arrived early enough that we were able to park right outside the gate, thus negating the need for a tram ride.  I have been to these parks for YEARS, literally YEARS, and this has never happened to me.  I thought it was awesome.  The stroller I borrowed is HUGE and it is a pain in the butt to get on and off the trams, so it was a big plus for me to just walk into the park.

As soon as we got inside, I told Leah I thought we should go up in “the big ball”.  She was all for it, but she was scared, as well, and clutched my arm the whole way through the ride.  When it was over, she realized it really wasn’t scary and demanded to do it again!  So since there weren’t any lines, I said sure, and we did it again and this time she enjoyed it a great deal more. 

It seems like there is a lot more “stuff” at EPCOT than I remember, so I got turned around a bit and wound up not really being able to figure out the map.  Thankfully there was a helpful cast member nearby who pointed me where I needed to go and we were off to Imagination!  Leah was not as enthralled with it as I might have thought, and didn’t care to do it again.  The old Imagination ride WAS far superior than this one, in which Disney has sold out and brought in Eric Idle, who I adore but it just really didn’t need to be re-done with a celebrity endorsement in my opinion.  And I think in some ways, kids might be savvy to that even if they have no idea that’s what’s going on.

So we made our way over to the Finding Nemo ride.  Leah remembered so much about the Nemo musical that we saw, she just LOVED this ride.  It was another “get off, get right back on” deal and she was delighted by the jellyfish in particular.  Then we went to The Land which was right next door, since they have a new ride called “Soaring” which I was excited to try.  There was no way we were getting on that any time soon, so we got a Fast Pass (or as I like to call it, a Legal Line Skipper) and then we ate lunch down there.  It was already crazy hot outside, and the A/C felt so good.  We ate our brown bag lunch and then splurged on buying dessert at the restaurant—key lime tart for Leah and strawberry shortcake for me, although she didn’t eat much of her tart and she ate all my strawberries!  We caught sight of the boat ride and she thought it looked like fun, so we jumped on that.  She was especially thrilled with the fish farm/hatchery they have down there and in particular the tilapia they were raising for some reason gave her a real thrill!  She wanted to jump off the boat and pick all the fruits and veggies they were growing in their greenhouses and I was once again smugly proud at how healthy my kid is.

We finished up there and had about 4 hours to kill before we had to be back for Soaring (yes, it is that popular!).  So we decided to start walking the World Showcase.  I got Leah a little passport and we headed out.  We got over to Canada, the first stop, and let me tell you, my dogs were barking already.  It was hot, darn hot!  There are 3 things that absolutely drive me bonkers about Disney:  1. people who walk/cut in front of you; 2. people who stop in the middle of a path/street/road for no apparent reason; and 3. people who take pictures in random spots.  well yesterday, EPCOT was full people who would cut in front of us, stop dead, and take a picture.  AUGH!  So I was getting frazzled.  We left Canada and just as we were about to get to the United Kingdom, some doors rolled open and out popped Minnie Mouse.  Leah was battling that stroller, she could not get out fast enough.  As soon as I got her out, she ran like hell to Minnie, as fast as her legs could carry her, and flung herself into Minnie’s arms.  Oh joyous day!  There were plenty of other characters there too, and when enough of a crowd had gathered, we were taken back behind the doors and sealed off from EPCOT so we had plenty of time to meet and greet.  We saw Pluto, Minnie, someone named Shaker and another one named Big Al, Stitch, Captain Hook and Smee, and Goofy.  Leah has recently gotten in to the show “Jake and the Neverland Pirates” thanks to her friend Daniel, and so Captain Hook being there was a BIG deal.  In fact, she totally dissed Smee, which made Captain Hook laugh heartily to no end.  We went around and greeted everyone and she was on cloud 9, let me tell you, when we left.  We made it to the UK and found the passport station and what should be going on right next to it, but Pooh and Tigger were there.  well, you can be damned sure we saw Pooh and Tigger too!  The nice thing about it was that the guy at the passport table told us to just enjoy Pooh and come back for the passport when we were done.  So we didn’t have to wait in either direction, which was great!  Although it also kind of sucked since I wanted to talk to a real British person about William and Kate’s baby and I didn’t have the chance.  But they’re probably sick of Americans talking about that anyway.

We walked a bit further and came upon Mary Poppins.  Mary dared to ask Leah about her friends at home, which Leah took as a sign that she and Mary were friends, so she sat right down on the sidewalk, informed Mary that her best friends were “Dot Dot, Chunk, and Anna” and the proceeded to give Mary her life story.  Mary looked a bit deer-in-the-headlights when the encounter was over, but Leah was smugly pleased with herself and Mary is the only character we’ve met in 3 days that Leah actually spoke to, which made me happy anyway.

We next went to France and met Princess Aurora and then Morocco and then the wheels came off the bus.  It was crazy hot, my feet hurt, I was tired, Leah was tired, and she wanted ice cream, which I had said no to back in France.  We were wandering the showcase looking for ice cream when she caught sight of a line for Snow White, but we were told the line was closed, which caused further hysteria.  Mercifully we finally found some ice cream somewhere between Germany and Norway, and we each enjoyed a cone, which cooled us off considerably but didn’t do much for my aching feet.  I told Leah we were going to go on the Maelstrom in Norway so I could sit for a minute and she enjoyed it a great deal, actually.  Then we went into Mexico since I was hoping to find a sombrero with Mickey ears for my buddy Amber, but unfortunately I didn’t see any.  On the plus side, they have a boat cruise in there, so we sat on that and relaxed a bit longer.

It was getting close to time for our FastPass turn on Soaring, so we started heading back to The Land, and I would be lying if I said my butt wasn’t dragging.  I know I was making tired-ugly-Susan-face, but I was sweating, smelly, hot, and sore.  We got to Soaring and they had to measure Leah since it has a height restriction, and mercifully she JUST squeaked by the requirement.  We rolled on in, being happily kept company by a British Rastafarian and his 5 year old daughter who was ADORABLE, and then sat on the simulator. I was just grateful to have something to sit on, but let me tell you, in the entire history of awesome rides at Disney, this is in my top 3.  it is absolutely incredible.  it felt so real, I was convinced I could stick my toes in the ocean at times.  It’s a kind of gliding simulation, but so much more.  Impossible to describe, but when it was over, everyone applauded.

Then I executively decided it was time to go home, but Leah wanted to go see the fish on the boat ride one more time, so we did take that little cruise once more.  then I about limped back to the car, and drove us to the hotel.  I told Leah if she would give me 20 minutes to stretch out, I would take her down for dinner, but somehow that turned into an hour, and that turned into, “Let’s order pizza and have a picnic!”  So we did, and she watched Barney on Netflix and peeled the pepperoni and cheese off the pizza while I ate some wings and watched TLC’s new cheerleading show and then put Leah to bed.  I took a hot shower and collapsed.

I loved being at EPCOT, it was a great day.  By the end of the day, we’d walked over 8 miles, and it was just so hot and exhausting.  I was happy that Leah enjoyed it so much and I will definitely bring her back again sometime soon!

Disney Day 3: Animal Kingdom

So I woke up at 4AM, bright and early, ready to go.  Mainly this was because I was exhausted after 2 days of driving and arriving here only to swim and tear around the resort, so I went to sleep at 8.  Same thing happened today, fell asleep last night around 9pm, and here I am up at 4!  Ugh!

Leah woke up around 6:30 and demanded I go back to sleep, so I did for a while.  She watched movies on the iPad till about 7:30 and then decided she wanted to go look around.  We got dressed, grabbed our cups and headed out to see all the different areas of the hotel.  I loved, loved, loved 101 Dalmations and still do so I was excited to see Pongo and Perdy standing guard outside that area, and Herbie the Love Bug has also always been one of my favorites, so it was fun seeing him!  Leah organized some races, meaning she ran and I chased her, around and around and around the Love Bug area, until I finally coaxed her back to the room around 8:45.  we quickly packed our brown bag lunch and headed to the car. 

The nice thing about Disney is that, so long as you want to go elsewhere on the Disney property, it’s all very well marked.  We got to the Animal Kingdom in about 2 minutes, so I think it’s worthwhile to drive to the parks with the car.  Our resort pass was our ticket to park for free and we arrived at Will Call and got our passes for the parks no problem whatsoever.

The Animal Kingdom is the largest of the 4 Disney theme parks.  I decided to explore without the map, and we just sort of followed the crowd.  We wound up on the African section and decided to go to the Kilimanjaro safari to see the animals.  Basically you climb aboard a big truck and drive around for a good while, maybe 30 minutes?  and see the animals.  All the animals seemed to be on the right side of the truck and Leah had sat on the left, so that required a bit of shifting, but otherwise we enjoyed the safari very much.  We saw elephants, rhinos, hippos, a sleeping lion, giraffes, gnu, and all kinds of stuff I don’t remember the names for.  It was a lot of fun and she enjoyed it a lot.

After that, we strolled around some more and found a little train ride over to Discovery Island or something so we took that.  There wasn’t anything to see except posters for Disney’s new movies, and the whole ride took about 2 minutes.  Leah didn’t want to get off and go see Rafiki.  So we took the train back, picked up the stroller and decided to go to see Mickey and Donald over at Camp Minnie Mickey.  We were waylaid by a very enthusiastic Discovery Station employee who wanted Leah to reach into a log and see what she could feel.  She flatly refused and hid under my shirt.  Thankfully another kid came along and did the searching and then we listened to a short lecture on how animals protect themselves.  She got a little Discovery pass and a stamp, and that was just fine, thank you very much, but we have Mickey Mouse to see!

We got over to the greeting trails as they are known there and got on the Mickey line.  Mickey had just gone in to take a break, so we had to wait MAYBE 2 minutes for him to come back out.  we were about 15th in line and when Mickey re-emerged, there were about 200 people behind us, but Leah was PISSED that we had to wait.  Still, I made her be patient and she muscled through it.  We got up to Mickey and she staunchly refused to go up to him unless I came with her.  So I managed to get in those pictures, anyway!  She shook his hand and then we posed for pictures and Mickey charmingly kissed my hand.  Then the photographer pointed out Leah’s little puffs looked like Mickey’s ears, and so Mickey obligingly went wild over Leah’s hair, which thrilled her to no end.

We said goodbye to him and went over to King Louie and Baloo.  Same thing, I had to go with her for pictures, but this time no cast member took our picture, so I’ll have to grab that off the PhotoPass website eventually.    Then I saw the line for Donald Duck was very short, so we went to see Donald and she was actually fine being alone with Donald, which I was surprised about!  I don’t know if it’s the cartoon voice or what, but I’ve always found Donald mildly terrifying, so I was proud of her to be so brave!  Unfortunately my camera was on the wrong setting, but there was no line to go see Donald again, so I made her go back and pose and Donald was very nice about it and I got a good picture.

After that, she decided she wanted nothing to do with any more of the meet and greet stuff—she saw Pocahantas but didin’t want to wait in line, same with Minnie Mouse, Goofy and Pluto, and Chip and Dale.  So we grabbed the stroller and decided to go over to Asia since there was a rapids ride that she was tall enough to go on.  Unfortunately it was closed, and we just missed the flying bird show, so we walked over to Dinoland USA and rode the flying triceratops ride, which is like the famous Dumbo ride at Magic Kingdom, only dinosaurs.  It was OK except our dinosaur didn’t go up and down, which was a disappointment.  We left there and she wanted to go on a nearby ride that seemed to be a cross between a tea cup thing and a roller coaster, but unfortunately she wasn’t tall enough.  So we found the Dinosaur ride and decided to go on that.  Basically the idea is that you are working with a rogue paleontologist to go and get an iguanadon just before the meteor crash that killed all the dinosaurs.  you board a Humvee type vehicle and go through.  Had I realized what it was, I would have skipped it, but at the time it seemed like a good idea given the lack of much else to do.  It was a lot of dinosaurs roaring in your face, black lights, strobe lights, loud noises, and the vehicle bounces all over.  I looked at Leah and she was holding on for dear life with her eyes squeezed shut.  Thankfully it was a 2 minute thing and it was over but she announced her intention never go to on such a thing again.

By now it was only noon.  Leah didn’t’ want to go on the walking trails to see the animals and really, I was kind of disappointed in that there didn’t seem to be much really “to do” there.  It’s a BEAUTIFUL place to go and look at, but if your kid doesn’t care much about seeing the animals, you’re kind of out of luck.  So we found an obliging bench, broke out our picnic lunch, and discussed our next move.  She said she just wanted to go back to the hotel and go swimming, which was fine with me. 

As we were following the exit signs, I happened to see that we were just in time for the Finding Nemo musical show, and I convinced her to go see that, and I’m glad I did.  It was Broadway quality as far as I was concerned.  I’ve never seen the movie, but the stage show was pretty incredible.  Leah’s favorite part was the bubbles coming down at the end, and after every single song, she’d ask me, “Is it over?” so I don’t know that she liked it very much, but I loved it!

It still took us almost an hour to get back to the park exit, so we got back to the hotel around 2pm.  All in all, the Animal Kingdom is OK, but I didn’t love it and I don’t think it really lived up to my expectations of it.  There is not a whole lot “to do” and it turns out my kid is more of a do-er and not a see-er, so unless that changes, I don’t foresee us going back any time soon.

I collapsed on the bed for a few minutes, but I had seen the housekeeping cart only 2 rooms away so I knew our time to relax was going to be limited. 

Sure enough, about 10 minutes later, there was a knock on the door, so I told the lady we would be out in just a minute and got Leah to change into her bathing suit and off we went to the pool.  We rented a lifejacket for the week so she could swim more independently and then swam for almost 2 hours.  It was cooling off considerably and my teeth were chattering when we finally got out.  We wrapped up in towels and I got Leah’s shoes on her, turned around to pack up the bag, and she was gone.  Just like that.  I couldn’t find her anywhere.  I knew she wasn’t in the pool because the lifeguards are excellent about that sort of thing, but I searched under tables, in the shrubs, everywhere and the kid was gone.  Finally after 3 or 4 minutes, I contacted a nearby security guard for help and he seemed very unconcerned about it.  He looked around a bit, but not with any sense of urgency.  I was fighting panic, when out from inside the hotel, Leah strolls, crying.  Apparently she had run in there and then gotten confused and scared. 

Needless to say, she remained firmly attached to me as I marched her back to the hotel and she was in a firm time out for quite some time.  Mama was NOT happy.  We had a stern lecture about running away, but the minute we headed out for the gift shop and dinner an hour later, she took off again. So I caught her and grabbed her and made her walk march step with me and she is now aware she will spend today on the kid leash, something I did not have to resort to yesterday. Grrr.  We visited the gift shop at the hotel and she zeroed in on a hot pink tie dyed t-shirt without which nothing else would do, and I got her some flip flops to wear to the pool.  I regained control of my senses enough to say “no way!” to the $90 Cinderella castle.  Then we headed over to the cafeteria for dinner, where Leah decided she wanted a salad and I got a quesadilla.

sure enough, she had to go potty shortly thereafter, so we gathered up our stuff and headed into the bathroom  I hung our cups on the bag hook on the back of the door, and she decided to play with the door while I was ‘indisposed’, and one of the cups fell off the hook and spread soda all over the floor.  AUGH!  I made her get paper towels and clean it up, and after we got it cleaned up, I grabbed the other cup and our bag and sure enough, the other cup fell to the ground and Leah’s orange drink went everywhere.  Gawd, I was mad at myself!!! AUGH!  And one of the cups broke, darn it! 

After that fiasco, we came back to the room and watched TV.  I was exhausted, got everything hung up and settled down for the evening, and decided that Leah could finish her movie and then it was bed time, when there was a knock on the door.  I looked through the peephole and all I could see were balloons.  COOL!  So I opened up and a man was there with balloons, a Rapunzel doll, and an autograph book.  He gave everything to Leah and I asked him who had sent it and he said they came from the front desk.  I thanked him profusely and he left, and then I had to prevent Leah from all but gnawing through the box in her excitement to free Punzel from her cardboard prison.  she managed to pop one of the balloons up on the cottage cheese ceiling, but that just made her laugh more than anything, and she played with Punzel for quite a while.  Around 7:30, I told her it was lights out and I went to take a shower.  When I came back into the bedroom area, she was passed out and snoring like a man, fully under the covers, not even her hair poking out.  So I’d say she was good and tired.

So I sat up till about 9:30 and then I turned in as well.  I am REALLY looking forward to today’s adventure, EPCOT, which is my personal favorite of all the Disney parks.  I am excited to find out the Maelstrom has no height requirements, I know she’ll love Imagination, and there are just so many great rides over there, plus they have a new Phinneas and Ferb thing that will drive her wild.  So I think we’ll have a fun day and will probably take a break mid-day like today, only we will go back to EPCOT later on rather than just sit around the hotel.  Although frankly, Leah LOVES this hotel, so maybe it’s not such a bad thing!

Disney Blog Days 1 and 2

So last May, Mike and I were talking and we decided to give Leah a trip to Disney World for Christmas. My initial plan was to go in early December, because I wanted to see the Christmas decorations, but it just always gets to the point that December stresses me out and there's so much going, so I decided to postpone the trip till January. Initially it was going to be me, my mom, and Leah going, but my mom had to cancel, so I decided to upgrade our hotel to one on a Disney property: the All Star Movie Resort. The main benefit of this is that there are shuttles to the parks, so I won't have to drive as much, plus there is a heated outdoor pool so we can swim. So we left bright and early on Sunday morning. We decided to ingratiate ourselves onto the Savannah Wellses and let them host us overnight. Leah was a trooper on the way down. I learned from driving to my dad's the previous weekend that it is better to stick her in a pull up for a long car ride, even though on a day-to-day basis, she is fully potty trained now (THANK GOD!). We did just fine getting down, only hitting one snag in North Carolina where we saw a tractor trailer that had gone airborne and was stuck up in the trees alongside I95. The cops were standing around fairly unconcerned, so I can only assume the driver was a goner, which made me sad. And also made me wonder how the heck they were going to get the truck out of the trees.

Leah watched her new Jake and the Pirates DVD a couple of times through and then fell asleep. She slept for about 4 hours of the trip, which I thought was pretty incredible. We stopped off in SC for gas and to make a lunch break at Wendy's, and she got some hilarious Where's Waldo glasses with her meal that of course, she just Had. To. Wear. Buy they're darn cute on her.

We roared into Savannah around 5:30 and hung out till about 8:00, when Amy fed Russell and Leah her famous "chicken n rice". Then she and I set about preparing our sandwiches for a fine English tea party to go with, what else, Downton Abbey! I put Leah to bed, and Russell disappeared, and Downton came on, and for the next hour, we had tea sandwiches, Savannah grey tea, cookies and little delicacies. It was really, really lovely and I hope we can do it again sometime! Amy makes a mean chicken salad.

So I tucked into bed around 11, and Leah was coughing like crazy. I couldn't quiet her cough, and she wasn't able to sleep and was starting to get upset, so I ran to a local Walmart to get some cough syrup. Now, you might have noticed Leah has a new car seat. It is a Dora car seat, and I like in that I had gotten her a booster that I didn't feel she was very safe in. However, every time I look in the back of my car when Leah isn't in it, I get scared that there's a person sitting in the backseat. A person with a huge orange head. So I get in the car, it's dark, I'm tired, and as soon as I start the car, I hear from the backseat, "Hola! Soy Dora!" I swear to you, I thought I would have a heart attack and die on the spot. I was thinking "Oh my God! It's alive! The car seat is alive! She's coming to get me!" In fact, it was Leah's DVD player roaring to life, but I am convinced that some day, like Chuckie in Child's Play, that seat is going to attack. So I got some medicine and gave it to her, which helped her sleep till about 2am when the coughing started again. I didn't feel good about giving her more medicine so soon, so I put on the hot shower and steamed up the bathroom and took her in there. That seemed to help a lot. Then I propped her up on the couch and she fell asleep, as did I, till about 7 when she came back in the bedroom with me and put on a movie on the iPad till about 8:30 while I continued to doze. Then she announced it was time to go see Mickey Mouse. So I got up and got dressed and got her dressed. She voiced some concern that "that little lady and little man" were going to miss us, so I told her we'd stop by and see Auntie Amy on the way home again, which seemed to ease her sense of guilt that we were jumping in the car. We made another quick stop at Walmart to pick up day time medicine, a vaporizer, and a few odds and ends, and hit the road. We got to FL in no time, and got down to a Chick Fil A outside Orlando and stopped. I look for CFA while traveling since they ALWAYS have a play area and WiFi. Good thing I did, since Leah wanted to run around for nearly 2 hours, which was fine with me since we were way early to get into the hotel, and I have some drama going on with my service learning placement for school this semester and was able to email and cell phone that to some resolution, at least to the point that it can wait till I get back from vacation. Around 2, we left CFA and got to Disney around 3:00. I was a little worried because we weren't supposed to be able to check in till 4, but there was a bit of a line at check in, so I decided to chance it. Happily, we made it just fine and got a room in the Toy Story section, which means nothing to Leah whatsoever, since I don't think she has seen much of it. But we have parking right outside our building, and we were able to bring everything up in just 1 trip, which was great. Once that was settled, I did shed a few tears for Mike, wishing he was here to see this and be here and experience it with us, but a quick text to my friend Amber set me to rights! We changed into SHORTS (It is so nice and warm down here!) and then we set about exploring.

Right outside our door is a huge courtyard with a giant Buzz and Woody and various other Toy Story toys. Leah enjoyed climbing on those and seeing what was what. We took lots of pictures and started walking. right nearby is a playground, so she wanted to climb on that for a while too and enjoyed the slides and such. But really she was too excited to keep moving. We walked a little bit further and she laid eyes on the Fantasia pool and saw people swimming and yelled "IWANNAGOSWIMMINGRIGHTNOW!" So we headed back to our room, got changed, and went swimming until it got cold. After changing yet again, we headed over to the cafeteria to have dinner. we bought our "unlimited refill' cups and enjoyed a nice dinner before coming back to the room around 7ish. Leah watched TV for an hour and then I announced lights out. So far, so good! We have enjoyed ourselves very, very much and have only been here for what? 16 hours? Today we will check out the Animal Kingdom. I was going to take the bus, but I have borrowed a massive stroller and I think it would be a pain in the butt to take the bus, and we get free parking with our resort permit, so I think we might drive. My plan is to go until Leah gets crabby, come back to the hotel for a nap and a swim, and then go back later. Tomorrow we will do EPCOT and then Thursday and Friday we will be at the Magic Kingdom. I'll try to update the blog as much as I can. :) More pictures will be on Facebook.

All I Want For Christmas Is…

…a fast forward button. I’d like to get the next 7 months out of the way and not have to actually live through them. I’m tired of the day-to-day struggles, the ever expanding mounds of paperwork, the family tensions, the phone calls, the uncertainty of what’s going to happen next. I would like to wake up and it’s next summer and everything has happened, everything is settled, everyone is happy or at least happier. I don’t want to live through the first anniversary of Mike’s death. I don’t want to survive turning the calendar to 2013 and leaving Mike behind in “last year”. I don’t want to go through Christmas, New Years, his birthday, Valentine’s Day, Leah’s birthday and our wedding anniversary without him. It’s hard enough going through every day, regular days, without him.

Please help!

As embarrassing and humbling as this is, I am asking all of my loyal and first time readers to please pass along this website: Save Leah's House We are under threat of foreclosure and I really don't want to lose our house after everything we have been through. My sister and I were talking about if we could find 300,000 people to give us $1, we could pay off my mortgage entirely and I wouldn't have to uproot Leah and traumatize her further. Even if you can't donate $1, would you please consider posting this link on your website, Facebook, blog, Twitter, etc? I'm so appreciative. Thank you!

A Word About “Entitlements”

In the aftermath of last night’s election, I’ve been reading a lot of comments from people who didn’t vote the same way I did.  Not in a gloating sense or in taking joy in their misery (and believe you me, some of them put the misery I felt in Bush’s re-election to absolute shame!), but just to see what they are afraid will happen in Obama’s second term.  Here is just a sample of one of the comments I read today: “the entitled are still sitting at home while I work to support their laziness.”  I chose this one because it’s pretty anonymous, but there were some that made my hair curl.

Because, I’ve got to be honest, I’m sitting at home, taking a handout right now.  For anyone who may be reading this who doesn’t know, the condensed version of my tragedy is that my 38 year old husband collapsed and died at dinner just about 4 months ago.  I was a stay-at-home mom to our daughter and a graduate student.  I had and have no intention of returning to my previous career, so I had allowed my certifications to lapse and I cannot return to my former employer without passing tests, and a whole lot of rigmarole.  I’ve been out of the workforce for nearly 4 years now.  So the types of jobs I could currently probably get fairly easily would not pay my bills.  I am already facing foreclosure on our house and am attempting to force the banks into helping me with loan modifications so that I can maintain our home.  It’s the only place my daughter has ever known, and to rob her of that security after her father died literally before her very eyes is heartless and cruel. 

To date, I have not received my husband’s official death certificates.  This means I cannot receive any settlement from his former employer (the federal government), although there is limited money to be obtained from them when the death certificates are issued. 

This means that I was forced to apply for my husband’s Social Security.  It was the most humiliating day of my life the day I went through my Social Security interview.  My husband was a very proud man, and one of the things he was proudest of was that despite being disabled, he went to work every single day and earned his pay.  He did not collect Social Security, although he was certainly entitled to it.  When I had my interview with SSI, I felt like a total and complete failure.  But I literally had nowhere else to turn to attempt to support myself and my daughter.

Social Security is not adequate to meet our mortgage payments and utilities and other expenses.  I attempt each month to put Leah’s share of the money into a separate spot for her.  Sometimes I am successful, sometimes I am not.  This month she needs a winter coat, among other things, and it’s not easy to save up and continue to fully commit that money to savings.  But I do look forward to someday handing her as much of that money as I possibly can and telling her that her father wanted her to have it.

I am not out buying Cheetos and cocaine and sitting on my couch watching soap operas.  We have stopped eating out even half as much as we did.  I spend 6 hours every 2 weeks combing circulars and comparing prices so that I can get good food cheap.

I am not sleeping around and trying to get pregnant so I can have lots of welfare babies. 

Every month when that money is deposited into my bank account, I weep.  Because all it is is a symbol of what I’ve lost and my inability at present to care for myself.  And if I become employed, they will take the money back.  So whatever I make has to be able to compete with what Social Security is giving me, and frankly, I very much doubt that being a checker at WalMart is going to come close.

But the fact is, yes, I am entitled to that money.  For years, literally years, Mike and I have both paid into that system, and if you’re employed, then check our W2 or your pay stub and you will see where Social Security is deducted from your pay.  Every year, you get a statement from Social Security that indicates what your award will be if are disabled or if you retire, and what your survivors will receive if you should suddenly die.  You are entitled to that money.  Let me repeat that:  You. Are. Entitled. To. That. Money.

And make no mistake, every time you make a blanket statement that says “those people just sit around and collect their check while I’m out working”, you lump everyone like me and my daughter into that category of good-for-nothing, lazy bastards that allow you to make yourself feel good when you have no idea what “those people” are going through.  And unless you have personally interviewed every single recipient of Social Security, which in 2009 was somewhere in the neighborhood of 55 million people, I’ll thank you to keep your opinions to yourself.  Are there people who take advantage of the system?  Probably.  But the vast, vast majority of us are honest people who need some help.

I wish to God I didn’t have to rely on Social Security right now.  I look forward to completing my education and returning to the workforce.  But I am thankful that I have it to rely on and that while everything else is on hold, we are able to have food, electricity, gas, and warm clothes.  And I’m sure that my fellow recipients feel the same.