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I survived Disney! It was both a very magical trip and completely exhausting. I basically took zero photos as I'm not allowed to take photos cause of HIPPA and all that. And when you're there with an adorable kid who wants to bother taking a sweaty selfie instead. It was super hot and I sweat in places I haven't sweat since working at the ren faire, but I managed to drink at least 6 bottles of my 16oz refillable bottle every day and didn't get dehydrated. Going with Make a Wish is pretty damn impressive, you skip all the lines and we met a huge list of characters (Woody, Jesse, Buzz, Stitch, Mike & Sully, BB8, Vamparina, Doc McStuffins, Fancy Nancy, Pluto, Micky & Minnie, Tinkerbelle, Cinderella, Ariel, Snow White, Aurora, Pooh & Tigger, Anna & Elsa, Olaf, Elmo, Cookie Monster, Big Bird, Patrick, Donkey & Shrek, 3 Trolls, a minion...i think I'm forgetting someone)
We stayed at Give Kids the World which is basically a resort for Make a Wish families, and it was pretty amazing. All the food is free, all the rides are free, all the entertainment is free. The "wish fairy" left a gift for him every day in our Villa when we came home. It took a few nights of us staying there for him to get into the routine and then he very much didn't want to leave.
A few highlights for my own memory:
- We stopped at walmart to get souvenirs for the kids back home and he was sooooooooo excited to go to Walmart. Like best happy photo we got was him in the cart.
-We showed up at Magic kingdom and he kept going on about wanting to go "inside" the castle...so I asked and they squeezed us into the the super posh restaurant up there...(I.E. like $80 a plate fancy). But he was SO happy to be in there, unexpectedly so.
-As we were walking through the parks suddenly Pooh and Tigger appeared and we got to meet them. He was in heaven. I think the textural quality of the characters in fur was amazing as he just wanted to touch them and hug them. And they were SO GOOD with non-verbal communication it was basically his first language.
-When we met Olaf there was a beach backdrop with an oversized glass of lemonade...he went and tried to drink out of the straw. The handler went "well that's a new one" haha
-We'd be cruising through somewhere with him in his medical stroller and he'd suddenly see a gift shop, or a balloon vendor and he'd vault out of the stroller and do his adorable tippy toe race-walk into the store leaving one of us sprinting after him.
-His face of pure joy when the minions 3D ride simulator was going.
-The moment when we're all eating breakfast and I realized he too is just eating and playing his Ipad. This was huge progress and SO rewarding. eating regular meals at a table for a week and he "got it" in a way he never does when people just hand him food and he resists for attention. I'm actually really sad that that part of the trip ended.
-Him coming into our bedroom to wake us up because the sun was up.
I then slept all day Monday, had a wicked headache I couldn't shake all day tuesday, and Wednesday was productive and then went to work. Today is my last day before I return to the regular grind of my real job.
We stayed at Give Kids the World which is basically a resort for Make a Wish families, and it was pretty amazing. All the food is free, all the rides are free, all the entertainment is free. The "wish fairy" left a gift for him every day in our Villa when we came home. It took a few nights of us staying there for him to get into the routine and then he very much didn't want to leave.
A few highlights for my own memory:
- We stopped at walmart to get souvenirs for the kids back home and he was sooooooooo excited to go to Walmart. Like best happy photo we got was him in the cart.
-We showed up at Magic kingdom and he kept going on about wanting to go "inside" the castle...so I asked and they squeezed us into the the super posh restaurant up there...(I.E. like $80 a plate fancy). But he was SO happy to be in there, unexpectedly so.
-As we were walking through the parks suddenly Pooh and Tigger appeared and we got to meet them. He was in heaven. I think the textural quality of the characters in fur was amazing as he just wanted to touch them and hug them. And they were SO GOOD with non-verbal communication it was basically his first language.
-When we met Olaf there was a beach backdrop with an oversized glass of lemonade...he went and tried to drink out of the straw. The handler went "well that's a new one" haha
-We'd be cruising through somewhere with him in his medical stroller and he'd suddenly see a gift shop, or a balloon vendor and he'd vault out of the stroller and do his adorable tippy toe race-walk into the store leaving one of us sprinting after him.
-His face of pure joy when the minions 3D ride simulator was going.
-The moment when we're all eating breakfast and I realized he too is just eating and playing his Ipad. This was huge progress and SO rewarding. eating regular meals at a table for a week and he "got it" in a way he never does when people just hand him food and he resists for attention. I'm actually really sad that that part of the trip ended.
-Him coming into our bedroom to wake us up because the sun was up.
I then slept all day Monday, had a wicked headache I couldn't shake all day tuesday, and Wednesday was productive and then went to work. Today is my last day before I return to the regular grind of my real job.
