I'd forgotten where I was in the story. Almost started the 27th over again. Might have been interesting to see how I tell it!
We had a leisurely breakfast, yay. Oh, before the breakfast, just to tell the whole story, E bought his third Disney present, the Buzz "hyper blaster" that he's wanted for 1.5 years. I do not know why they are labeled for 5 and up, but they are, and despite everyone else getting them for their littles, we stayed firm (we have few lines in the sand but that's one of them), and he was so glad to get it (he was just playing with it now, actually, that's what reminded me to go back up (I was almost done with the day) and mention it here).
We were dressed for the relatively cooler morning, and I knew it was going to get warmer later, but for now, bug's land was on the list, and I knew what that meant. WATER. So I wasn't going to change E's clothes quite yet.
And sure enough, as soon as we reached the Bountiful Farms area, E was off in that yellow cylinder, water jets and overhead sprinkler area, getting soaked. And oh what a difference 1.5 years makes, b/c I told him he wasn't allowed to complain about wet shoes if he did that, and he didn't complain! Woo!
I didn't take any pictures of that, but soon his upper body was all wet and it was time to get further into bug's land.
We have never noticed him before!
Halfway wet kid + stick bug.
Well first, the lady at Tuck and Roll told E he was too wet to ride. Whatever. So I did the girl's trick of changing his shirt while not exposing his chest (I know, he's a boy and who cares, but I still don't like partial nudity in the parks), and the back of his lower half was dry, so I felt that was enough. Instead of going right back to Tuck/Roll, we went to the Ladybug Boogie (aka teacups without the extra added spinning). Fun as usual!
Our tip for comfort is to find one of the two ride vehicles with the *sliding* door, rather than the door that swings open. It's just easier for hubby to get in that way...but hey, maybe in a year, or even earlier, he won't have that trouble anymore! Something to look forward to! For now, however, it's easier get in the sliding door ladybug.
That ride is enjoyable b/c you switch direction, b/c it goes in a figure 8. If you haven't noticed that, watch the ride, and as you ride, you can feel the switch to the other track. It's interesting.
Once that was done we went to the "bumper cars". And that's where I made one of the most important discoveries EVER.
There's a left-hand pedal for adults who aren't steering.
OMG I can't believe I didn't know this. When I think back on my comments about the ride, I'm embarrassed. I've been contorting myself like you wouldn't believe, to get my right leg (sometimes I've sat nearly sideways to cross my left leg over) over to the close pedal...I've come off the ride having charlie horses in my leg...and all this time it wasn't necessary. There's a left side, farther away, convenient to the parent who isn't steering (or even if the parent IS steering it's probably more comfy to stretch their leg over), pedal.
So that discovery is
, but realizing I never knew this is
.
With that discovery, I HAPPILY went on it 2 or 3 times with E. It was nice to be able to tell him "I'll go on this as many times as you want", and we were able to say that more times than not (Mulholland Madness being a big exception) on this trip.
We only did one round on Heimlich (his choice!!!!). There was a line! What's up with that?
Once more on the Ladybug Boogie...
And then E was drawn once again to the water area (I will note that on *this* trip, the really really really wet area well inside bug's land was off limits for E...it just wasn't what we wanted on this trip...he did a perfectly fine job of getting sopping wet elsewhere though!).
Little note for parents. Shoes ON at ALL times! And try to watch where your littles are going. There was a parent/grandparent (could have been older or older-looking dad, could have been younger grandfather, I just coudln't tell) who was watching an older and a younger. The younger hated having wet shoes on and they let him take them off. Then he went wandering. I noticed the CM trying to figure out who he belonged to, but the dude was so little he wasn't really responding to the questions. The CM got a woman involved, they were looking around...I figured it out quickly and I had seen the boy...I was halfway between where the boy was and where the family was seated, and I could tell that the family couldn't see what was going on b/c of the yellow cylinder things, so I went over and told him that the CM was trying to figure out who the boy belonged to. I'm sure it wouldn't have even been a deal IF the boy had been wearing shoes. It took them almost 10 minutes to get his shoes on...that kid was stubborn (as was E...is...but not about shoes anymore) and challenging! However, the shoes were at last put on, and more fun was had by the boy.
E, meanwhile, was just having a blast. Robert ran off to snag a tortilla, which neither E nor I wanted. While gone, he also did the bread tour. Guess he needed the carbs, LOL. And with all the walking, his blood sugars were spectacular all week.
Oh, another note, this time for the older kids. Don't decide to make the yellow cylinder things into your own personal speedway. It's not appropriate for time trials. Why? Because there are other children coming through perpendicular to your trajectory. And they can't see you, and if they see you they aren't anticipating that you're going to shoot for Mach speed. There was a very narrow miss that was a miss by sheer luck, and I was glad that E's time in there was coming to a close, b/c I didn't want to be there for a non-miss.
Du-renched.
Thank you, Sept '07 Cast Member in the bathrooms of bug's land, for showing me that it's OK to snag a diaper changing station towel to use as a quick-dry tool after water play! I used that method this time, and soon E was relatively dry and warmer, though he had wet shoes as expected (I was "bullied" that morning into leaving his Crocs at the hotel...when will we all learn???).
And so, dry and happy, we went to the Animation Academy. Went through 2 classes. We drew Donald Duck and then Pluto. Those were really complicated for E and he was getting frustrated, so he decided to draw what he wanted. That might not be 100% OK to use the paper in that way, but it's better than NOT doing it, or having a frustrated little, or have to leave b/c the kiddo won't shush. Our first time through, the helper guy was Bryant, who had helped Eamon the first time we did the AA. Eamon recognized him! It was cool. It's the helper that sticks around to talk with people, so E went up to say hi and show him his Donald-based alien monster attack scene. Bryant either has a great memory or is really good at acting like he remembers people, and he made E very happy by remembering him. Yay for CMs.
The helper is also the one who does the next class, so Bryant taught us to draw Pluto. Robert did very well with PLuto. I did not. And E had another alien monster attack scene.
We walked through the art shop after, and a CM saw my roll of drawings, and offered me a rubber band and a bag to carry them! Wonderful!
After all those Monsters, of course we had to go on Monsters! While in line we met a great family of 3...dad caucasian, mom Japanese, young daughter...they had been to Tokyo
Disneyland...they hadn't been to DLR before, and were following what an AP holder friend of theirs told them to do. But their friend was a little sketchy on the DCA details. We told them they had to do the Animation Academy and spend lots of time in that building. We saw them later on, and they had gone to the building and spent AGES in there! They were so thankful that we'd told them about the building.
Well, it was getting later in the day, and the day before we'd gotten a phone call from DVC telling us about a member's event at 5 on Wednesday. Sounded fun, especially since they mentioned prizes! We had that planned, so we decided that we could call it a day and make time for the "party" and swimming. We had found out, quite by surprise (though it was in the schedule I printed, I just didn't notice it!), that fireworks were scheduled for that day too, so we had another chance! The fireworks, in one way or the other, were on our schedule that night. We stopped at the bakery on the way, getting some iced lattes for the grownups and a snack or two to share.
Well as we walked to the Grand Cal, we saw Lightning and Mater, so of course we had to stop.
This is where we discovered that we HAVE TO get a drinks holder for the stroller. The Volo is a glorified umbrella stroller, and has no cup holders. There are "aftermarket" devices that I've avoided getting. However, when both of us are carrying cups and trying to push the stroller, it's difficult. Robert made the intriguing decision to put his large cup of iced latte in the canopy, which was closed (scrunched back so there was a well). While in line...E decided it was too sunny, and he reached up quickly and slammed the canopy open. Shooting the latte cup off, and spilling the latte everywhere.
That was so embarrassing, and of course NO CMs came by. People kept getting in line behind us and would look at the latte and look at us...if we're indoors we'll always clean up after ourselves, but this was outside, it was hot, it was drying rapidly...I guess I could have run to Taste Pilots to get napkins, but it seemed silly...the other guests didn't seem to think we'd done quite enough, though...sigh.
Then we got into a conversation with a family of 4 using a Sit and Stand. Robert became drawn to the sit and stand. It took him a week to really understand that those strollers are for families with TWO children; one young enough to sit, one old enough to stand (or perch on the little seat). It would just be weird for us to use one, IMO. I'm not sure he agrees even still, but at least he understands the words coming out of my mouth, LOL.
We had the photopass person take pix of E and the cars...disappointing. Too far away, could be nearly any kid. And my pix were of him looking at the photopass camera, LOL.
From there we went to the GCH, after again seeing that HUGE line for Grizzly and again opting to not ride it.
Hubby had to spend some time on the phone in their lobby, b/c he'd gotten a message from
amazon and the microsoft people, so he and E went to the lobby while I checked out the Grizzly Outfitters store for the Crocs...I coudln't find them, but as I was leaving, I saw the DCA-morning family again! The daughter took me right over to them (they are all the way in the back, not visible until you're right on them). I was glad to find them and get the price, and it was wonderful to see them. They had stopped at the PWC like we suggested, and had just as yummy a breakfast as we had later. They were having fun! It was wonderful to re-see them (we hadn't re-seen the family from Monsters, and wouldn't until the next day, so this was the first re-seeing moment of the trip, LOL).
Then I joined the guys in the relatively brightly lit lobby (no xmas tree sucking the light away!) and took some pictures (like my avatar) while Robert put out the fires of the recruiters (right and left hand are barely aware the other exists, it seems) and found out that the second to the last ditch amazon job wasn't to be his.
We went on back to the room, freshened up and went to the DVC thing. We were late, but they didn't mind. Asked us a trivia question about something we had talked about only the day before...what character has 3 names? Aurora/Briar Rose/Sleeping Beauty, of course! So we won a DVC carshade doohickey, and we each got a black with silver metal DVC logo hat, and one DVC pin (goofy climbing matterhorn), as did everyone else. Then they took everyone over to see the Grand Cal villa model, which of course hubby hadn't yet seen. He hadn't seen ANYTHING yet...no villa model or anything! Can you imagine? It's crazy enough that we did it, crazy enough that we haven't even been to WDW, but he hadn't even seen the model! Well that was taken care of, and he's madly in love with the villa now.
E was a bit interesting there. Kinda funny, kinda crazy, kinda annoying. He finally settled down and went into a closet, where he closed over the door and played with his Buzz laser thing or maybe the "hyper blaster".
Hey, it lit up, right? I stood outside the closet and chatted with some adults, checking in on him every so often. He was very happy in that closet, LOL.