Trip Report ASD and Pooh Sized Dec. 2009

[Tiggerish]

I sit up quickly and tell them how fine I am just embarrassed.:

I can so relate to this. Before I was dx with MS and started using a rollator, I would fall down while walking on a regular basis. People always rush over to help and all you want to do is disappear because "normal" adults don't trip on a perfectly flat sidewalk so you immediately say you are alright, even if you are bleeding profusely.

Very much enjoying your "double" trip report.

 

[koolaidmoms]

I want to preface my comment by saying, I do stuff like that all the time. I can trip over lines painted on parking lots. But I have to say,the way you're telling the story is hysterical! I can't wait to read about the rest of your day. I'm very sorry about your pain, though; I hope it got better quickly.

It really was funny.

DP and I have the ability to often find the humor in things even when we are in the most tragic of circumstances. It is our coping mechanism.

 

[PrincessSarah314]

Well I just managed to wander my way over and read the entire TR up until now! I think I am the person you referenced in the beginning about asking for more Poohsized info in the May report!

I love the dual-perspectives. I can't wait to read more!

 

[C&G'sMama]

Well I just managed to wander my way over and read the entire TR up until now! I think I am the person you referenced in the beginning about asking for more Poohsized info in the May report!

I love the dual-perspectives. I can't wait to read more!

Thanks for coming over. You may have been and you were right, I am honestly glad you pointed it out.

The two of us have been truly enjoying writing this together and while we are both Pooh Sized we have different issues and as DP says we remember things differently (as I mentioned in one of my earlier posts, I forgot an entire 5 hours of one day).

This week is nuts, hopefully we'll find some time to write more soon, probably not 'til the weekend.

 

[C&G'sMama]

Good Lord, I hope you all are laughing. We sure do. And if it was me I'd be laughing harder. No offense to DP while embarrassing it wasn't exactly life threatening so why not laugh.

When DD was 14 days old she had a colostomy. We know now in the scheme of things it was pretty minor but it scared the heck out of us. A friend of ours who had 2 sons that had to have their skulls opened as babies to because part of the brain had fused to them was with us. She had us on the floor laughing. One woman in particular was a tad annoyed with us until she found out we had an infant in for the same surgery has her husband. She smiled and said "oh, he'll be fine".

So laugh, enjoy, because it was pretty funny, wait until I get to the part about bowling for old people (not on purpose, just a matter of fact).

 

[Disneylvr]

I am loving your TR, especially from the perspective that DH and I are both very Pooh sized and our 6 year old daughter has ASD. I never thought of posting our trip reports on this board. I have started a couple on the regular TR board but they really weren't read so I never finished them. Thanks for sharing and I can't wait to read more!

 

[clkelley]

I may be wrong, but the evening your kids were at the Poly Kids Club was also probably the evening Celine Dione was doing her Christmas Parade taping at the Grand Floridian. (It rained for two days straight, right? So the celebrities Christmas parade taping was spread out throughout the resort so they wouldn't get wet, and the main taping was pushed to Sunday.) That entire area was NUTS. Some friends of mine went to Kona for sushi and it took them 90 minutes to get on the monorail so they could get back over to Fort Wilderness.

 

[C&G'sMama]

Here are some random pics from this trip. DP suggested I go back and put them in my past posts, 1. I'm too lazy and 2. I'm not sure the day of all of them, some, but not all, I'm counting on her to clear that up. Note the lack of pictures of the photographer (DP) I think there are some I can load to Photo Bucket. Once we get our Photo CD I can add more too.

DS loves his crocs. He didn't care how cold it was. And we figured since he was in the stroller most of the time he'd be fine wearing them.

Mama with her very Blue grown up drink at Victoria Falls

DD and DS hamming it up.

DS on that rainy Thursday at MK, I'm still looking for the picture with him wearing his Peter Pan hat over his Poncho.

Our Princess (at least while we're in Disney World and she's still a child)

 

[disneymom3]

We slowly make our way to France. WS is pretty crowded on this day. There seem to be very large groups of cheerleaders all over. One group has taken up a huge amount of space on the bridge between UK and France to stop and take pictures. I think DS and I may be in a few of them as there was just no room to maneuver his stroller safely around all the chaperones taking pictures and the people walking toward us. I tried to smile whenever I did this.

I do not like the benches that are attached to the tables here. They do not move and for someone of size that can be really uncomfortable. We squeeze into our table (which in my mind was too small for our food) and the seats.

.

Cracking up at you in the pictures!

I totally agree about those tables at Mexico. They are AWFUL! And I will be watching where we are seated at Boma so thanks for the warning.

Your daughter dressed as Tink is completely adorable!

 

[SueM in MN]

Very cute pics - especially the hamming it up one

and that blue drink is very BLUE!

seeing the stroller picture made me think of a possible reason for the mysterious stroller fitting in the Pirates elevator on one ride and not on the next ride. I wonder if on the 2nd trip, it was slightly reclined or had the push handle extended. That elevator is pretty small and a small change in the recline or handle could make it not fit. I was thinking while I was putting DD to bed and noticed how much bigger her shower chair looks when it is reclined a tiny bit.

 

[koolaidmoms]

The stroller does not recline it stays in one position (kind of like a big hammock). The handle does move up and down but does not extend. I actually put it in the elevator and rode up with DS and the stroller the first time and it took me a second to position it correctly. Then I fit in with it - with all my Ursalaness. I think they were more in a hurry and just didn't want to be bothered IMHO.

 

[SueM in MN]

The stroller does not recline it stays in one position (kind of like a big hammock). The handle does move up and down but does not extend. I actually put it in the elevator and rode up with DS and the stroller the first time and it took me a second to position it correctly. Then I fit in with it - with all my Ursalaness. I think they were more in a hurry and just didn't want to be bothered IMHO.

Well, just a thought. Someone else had rented a stroller like that and talked about reclining it, so seeing the picture, I thought yours did too.

I do think that you are right on the 'hurry' part. If it is a tight fit, they are not likely to mess around trying to fit it if it's busy. I do know that for wheelchairs that are taken into line to the boarding area, their 'norm' is to get people to use one of the attraction wheelchairs if at all possible. That way, the person can just pick up an attraction wheelchair from the exit and use that to get to where their own wheelchair is parked. It's not an easy attraction to get the wheelchair/stroller from boarding to exit and they have a relatively short time for the transfer.

 

[rodeo65]

Loving this report - especially the two sides to every story approach!

 

[cranbiz]

Then they were stopping each car before we reached the turn off for the Polynesian to inquire where we were going and take a quick glance in our car. I don't think this is normal and we were curious but felt it best not to ask. I don't know.

I have loved reading your reports. I'm so glad that you all had a great trip.

My input to what I quoted.

This is a normal event for a night where there are perimeter fireworks. For the MVMCP, MNSSHP, PPP, there are fireworks locations set up around the park. The roads are blocked off once the fireworks are armed (for safety). Security is inquiring where you want to go to keep unnecessary traffic out of these areas. It's easier to turn cars around at STOLport or Seven Seas Dr than at the Contemporary.

 

[Desiree1972]

I have finally gotten to the point where if I say look me in the eyes (I tell him the lens of the camera is my eyes) or do something surprising as I take the picture I sometimes can catch him looking at me. This was the second year in a row we did not have to get school pictures retaken.

Just wondering if you have read the book (Look me in the eye) as told by a grown man with asd - QUITE FASCINATING!

loved your trip report

 

[C&G'sMama]

We got the Photo CD today. So here a few from that that include DP

 

[ireland_nicole]

I love the pics- especially the photopass one from DHS and the one of the kids hamming it up- and of course DD as Tink!

 

[rockiesfan]

I am really enjoying your dual-perspective report. You both have a real gift for seeing the humor in things, and for being able to retell it so that we all see it too!

 

[koolaidmoms]

After resting a bit we get everyone ready to go to Epcot. DP takes the wheelchair back to the front desk as there is no way I can use it.

I hobble down to the elevator and to the car. It takes quite awhile but I make it. When we park at Epcot fortunately we park near the end of a row (this never happens to me) so I can hobble to the tram. We make it into the park and DP goes to get a wheelchair. Because she is going to push me in the wheelchair DD has to push DS in his stroller. She complains but when is offered the choice of pushing me or her brother she quickly changes her tune!

I am NOT a good patient but I am playing one for the sake of DD and DS. They really want to be here for our last day.

DP plants us by a mister while she goes to get FPs for TT. The FP time is over an hour and a half later.

We start by going to Innoventions. We have never gone to Innoventions on any of our 15 trips. It was pretty cute. The kids had a great time. They put clothes on frogs using velcro (hooks and loops). They thought it was great that they could keep them. The kids then went to play some of the video games. DS was frustrated that he could not play them. He started a full blown tantrum with jumping up and down and screaming but we got him into his stroller and out of the area quickly so it went down just as fast as it started.

We go to the little Coke tasting place which both kids love. They think this is the best place ever. I stick with the German Mezzo while they are tasting everything – even the Beverly.

We head back around to TT after and I sit out front while they head off on their ride. Again, I don’t ride because of a size issue more than a control issue. The first time my children came out after riding the first words they said were, “Mommy, you would hate it.”

We pick up a FP for KP for Germany in about an hour. We take the boat across from Mexico to Germany. Lesson learned back the wheelchair up the ramp to the boat and down from the boat. DP tried to push me up it and there was just no way that was going to happen. There is a slight lip to the ramp and on the way out of the boat she almost dumped me out of the wheelchair when it hit the lip and the wheelchair stopped but she didn’t stop pushing.

We go to pick up our Kimmunicator and start our mission in Germany. We had done 2 missions on our last trip China and France but we thought this one was a bit better. The kids loved the clues and trying to figure everything out. They really needed our help to do it but when they saw the ending they were so excited.

We had reservations for dinner at 7:30 pm at the Nine Dragons in China so we decided to walk around to the reservation. I felt bad for DP as much of this is on a slight incline between Germany and China but we make it with minutes to spare.

Dinner at the Nine Dragons was surprisingly good. For years of having everyone say it was not worth it as there are so many Chinese restaurants this was the only place we could get ADRs this night so we took them. We were all VERY pleased with our meals and would go back in a second. The only thing that is difficult about this restaurant is that the tables in the center of the main room are lined back to back and the distance between the tables seemed very tiny. I was in the wheelchair so I was place in an aisle at the table. They wanted me to transfer to a chair but I asked instead to please remove the chair as this was easier for me.

After dinner we slowly made our way out of Epcot walking around by TT for one last ride. The last night is always the saddest one. Or is it?

 

[C&G'sMama]

So we get to Epcot around 4:00 and rent the wheelchair. First DP wondered if I offended anyone by my “bowling for old people comment” I apologize if I did. But here’s what’s in my mind. There are a few inclines in EPCOT. While I’m not in the best shape I managed the inclines okay. The issue was the declines. I wish a wheel chair had a handle more like a stroller.

I don’t think DP realizes how many times I almost lost her going down hill. And if there were people in front of us walking slow on these hills, I got very scared. And all I could think of was “I am going to lose control and these people are going to go down like bowling pins”. She says later she did realize and was using her good foot to steer. We must have been quite a sight. I guess there was one close call where she thought a guy was going to land in her lap near Space Ship earth.

We got the fast passes for TT and went to Innoventions. As DP mentioned we had never taken the kids before. They enjoyed it. We went through the safety house. The 2 kids were on their own as I had DP in the wheel chair. We got really caught up in it and didn’t realize the kids were having problems figuring it out. But, a CM helped them so they were okay. DS really wanted to do a KP mission. So we decided to go for it. They sent us to Norway to pick up our Kimmunicator and we did our mission in Germany. They still talk about the singing Beer Steins. We also used this day to finish up their masks.

We thought about skipping our reservation for Nine Dragons and just using CS credits but DS loves Chinese food and neither of the kids had ever eaten in an actual Chinese restaurant. They’re used to take out from the local joint. I agree with DP that is was very good. The kids wanted to go on TT so we went one last time in the Stand By line.

Of course the kids always want to do “one more thing” but we said we’ll go on Spaceship Earth for our Good Bye. We got back to the hotel and let the kids go for a short swim (it was rather cold). Everyone (but me) went back to the room. I went to the main building to get a luggage cart. Again, this was the other time I didn’t like this resort (the other time was when I was unpacking the car).
After I was done packing for the night I had planned on getting an ice cream sundae (alone) from the food court but I got there too late and settled for a Haagen Daz bar. Oh well, off to bed to finish packing tomorrow.

Innoventions

Club Cool