In case you haven’t guessed by now, we were headed to see Cirque du Soleil. I had bought the tickets 6 months ago when the dates were first released. Okay so I didn’t actually buy them. I couldn’t swing the cost past Dh. It was just too much for him.
Luckily Nanny thought it was a smashing idea and had been looking forward to seeing them and especially looking forward to sharing them with her dancing grandchildren.
For it is Nanny’s side of the family that we get our love for dancing from. All my Aunt’s and my cousins on Nanny’s side are either musicians, artists or computer geeks(okay I don't know how that fits but it's true).
As a preteen Nanny was invited to join what later became the National Ballet School here in Canada (the one Eeoyre auditioned to get into) but sadly her parents thought it was a foolish waste of their money. That is probably why she pushes Eeoyre to dance so much. Anyhow, enough armchair psychology.
As you may remember, Nanny has already gone home to her Aunt's birthday party and is not joining us to see la cirque tonight. So we are stuck with an extra ticket, and a feeling of regret that she can’t watch with us. Nanny actually thought about flying back just for the night to watch the show with us. I promised her we would see Cirque when it came to Toronto in September. However, we didn't. Maybe next year. It should be noted that Nanny goes along with a lot of things just to please her grandchildren but the one thing Nanny was looking forward to at Disney was Cirque. Therefore I was a bit sad going through the motions of getting ready.
The plan was to take the boat to downtown Disney and have dinner at the Earl of Sandwich again before seeing the show. We had tickets to the first show at 6:15. We loaded the boat at 4:20. I put Jedi in the stroller. In hindsight, I should have made him walk and kept the stroller back at the room.
Here we are on the boat going over.
At some point Jedi gets back into the stroller. He does look pretty tired in that last photo.
“Mom! Jedi sleeping” Cindy nudges me on the boat and points to what appears to be a sleeping Jedi.
Sometimes Jedi fakes it, so I poke him playfully and hope that this is the case.
I poke and he doesn’t budge.
Oh dear.
The “Plan” for the day called for an afternoon rest. Clearly, the plan wasn’t followed. Immediately I feel the need to cast the blame on someone. Who could I blame? Dh of course.
“Didn’t you and Jedi have a nap?” I accuse Dh.
“I did.” He replies.
“Evidently, you were the only one who did. What was Jedi doing?”
“Playing
Lego I guess.”
“You guess? You were supposed to lie down with him. It was the plan. Urgh!”
“Yeah well, he didn’t want to. What’s the big deal?”
“The Big Deal is that now he will miss dinner and possibly even miss the show. Remember the show you thought was silly to spend $100 a person on so Nanny decided to pay for it? The one we’ve all been looking forward to.”
“Aw, he’ll be fine. Don’t worry.” And with that Dh slouches back into his seat and doesn’t give it another though.
I hope he’s right. Experience with Jedi tells me otherwise. He has a habit of falling asleep early and then staying zonked out until around 11:30 or midnight. You know just when I want to go to bed myself. Then he gets up all bright eyed busy tailed and hungry. Those hours do not fit with my plan for tonight. For one, he would miss the show and two, we are all staying in one hotel room. He can’t be bouncing off the walls while his siblings are sleeping.
The plan must be followed. Isn’t it the mantra we all repeat while at Disney?
I try to relax and enjoy the rest of the ride. I don’t do a very good job at it though.
We land in downtown Disney and head straight to the Earl of sandwich.
Jedi does not wake up even under special attention from his siblings. He sleeps all through dinner. I didn’t record what we all ate for dinner. I was too focused on the fact that the plan was screwed up. I know we had problems with Eeoyre the first night we came here for dinner but it went better the second time around. I mean compared to the first night. It was still a trip to a restaurant with Eeoyre that always requires me to speak to the staff in very explicit tones. “Please clean off that knife before you cut my son’s sandwich. No just wiping it on the cloth will not do. If there is anything remotely green or even resembling something that resembles a vegetable he will not touch it so you might as well just throw it out. If possible could we get his meal completely separate? As in none of his food actually touching each other? Thanks, I appreciate it.”
After Earls we took the boat to the Westside where the Cirque du soleil show is. We were on time but still had a sleeping Jedi. So far he had slept through two boats rides, a walk to and from the restaurant and of course dinner. We did have part of a pizza sandwich for him for when he woke up, or for Dh when he got the nibbles later.
Speaking of hungry-Poppa wasn’t. He didn’t have anything to eat at dinner. He said he just wasn’t feeling well. I suspected he had gotten into the rum at the pool this afternoon. So Poppa was pretty tired. However, he still had the whole show to watch so I figured he would be able to catch up on his sleep during the show. Shame I know but you can’t teach a dog new tricks. Nanny insisted on buying Poppa a ticket and felt he should come with us. Since she paid I wasn’t objecting. Poppa only objected quietly when the kids couldn’t hear. He wouldn’t dream of spoiling their excitement about it.
When the boat dropped us off at the theatre, Dh left us. I wasn’t sure where he was going and was kind of annoyed that he would just leave us again. Poppa took Eeoyre and Cindy into the gift shop and I attempted to wake Jedi.
I honestly didn’t believe I would be able to wake him so boy was I surprised when he opened his eyes and although was sleepy seemed to be in a good mood. I had to sit with him and give him cuddles to ease him back awake but it worked. He was excited to be at the theatre and looking forward to the show.
Poppa and the other kids picked out a small present for Nanny. They bought her a Cirque reusable grocery bag. She uses it all the time. I bought the CD for the kids. I thought I would take advantage of Dh’s absence to spend money. He’s never fond of it.
By now, Jedi had fully woken up and the three kids were raring to find their seats and get the show on the road.
Now if only I could find Dh.
I figured he was in the bathroom. I was getting past slightly miffed and moving along into the major leagues of irritation.
Finally he comes strolling back with a huge smile on his face.
“Where have you been?” I demand.
“Can’t tell you now. Tell you later “ he whispers and closes the subject for discussion.
UGGHHHH.
I don’t want the discussion to end. I think he should tell me where he was but I don’t want to lose any more time arguing outside of the theatre because like the kids I just want to get in and get to my seats.
Up the stairs we go and when we are guided to our seats I say a silent prayer of thanks to tour guide mike and am glad that I read his advice. Our seats are great.
The pre-show is funny and at one point they were mocking fun of Dh who went to buy Jedi a drink as we couldn’t take any inside the theatre.
Finally when we were all settled in our seats I ask Dh again.
“Where were you?”
He flashes me a wide grin and says “taking care of something”. Then he tells me that he managed to get the money back from Nanny’s ticket. That explains the big smile. I tell him I’m still angry that he just left without communicating with me. He rolls his eyes. I realize again there is no point in trying to talk to him. At least not now. I file the issue away in my mind to be brought out again at a later date.
The show starts and I forget everything else. It’s mesmerizing. I loved it. The kids loved it. Dh was glad he went but is no hurry to go see something like that again and Poppa felt it was too loud. Even though the seats were comfy he couldn’t fall asleep.
Many months later Poppa phoned me to tell me that the cirque show we saw at Disney was on a TV station. He thought the kids might like to see it again. They did. We all watched it through to the end. It wasn’t the same as being there and seeing it for the first time but it was still spectacular. I’m really glad we went.
Since it was the early show it was just getting dark as we boarded the boats again.
When we got back to the Hotel, Cindy went for a swim with Dh and the rest of us went with Poppa to get a snack from the food court. The boys pressed our last pennies and filled up our book. I went to the registration desk and paid our bill.
Tomorrow as our last day.
As we walked back to the room I was explaining the “plan” for our last day. We were being picked up at 3 pm to go to the airport so we had the whole day in the parks but we needed to be packed up and check in out luggage.
“How many pieces of luggage do we have Mom?” Eeoyre the inquiring mathematic mind wants to know.
“We each have a piece to check in, a piece to carry on and the stroller” I reply.
“Don’t mean strollers?” Eeoyre asks.
“No. We talked about this. We are only taking the new stroller home. The old one is broken and needs to be throw out.” I answer.
Eeoyres face drops. He loses the tan he’s acquired in the last few days.
“No, you can’t leave it here. It’s my stroller. I won’t let you” he shouts and stomps and before I have recovered from the shock of seeing my almost 10 year have a tantrum usually associated with a two year old he’s taken off into a full fledge run towards our room. We’re about halfway back to the room at this point. It’s the end of our trip and I figure Eeoyre knows the way back so I just let him go.
“It’ll be okay Mom.” Jedi says. “Eeoyre can have my stroller” and Jedi grabs mine and Poppa’s hands and leads us back.
Both strollers have been parked outside of our room for the last few days. We return to find the old stroller missing but no sign of Eeoyre. I was wondering if Dh had already taken it to the garbage while we were out.
I use my room key and hope that Eeoyre is inside. Sure enough he is. He is sobbing. His whole chest is heaving. He has wheeled the broken stroller inside and parked it by the bed. He tried to get in the stroller but he just couldn’t so his body is on the bed and his legs are in the stroller. The stroller is lopsided as it has lost a wheel and makes a clanging noise with each deep breath Eeoyre takes. Dh is sitting beside him rubbing his back.
I hang back at the door for a moment. Dh meets my gaze. He shrugs. I turn to look at Poppa behind me. His eyes have filled up with tears and he hiccups back a sob. He can’t speak. He can’t watch Eeoyre this upset. He goes to his room and even through the door and Eeoyre’s sobs I can hear my father wail.
My breath catches in my throat.
My eyes blur and I know what I have to do.
Click here for the next morning.
http://www.disboards.com/showpost.php?p=31239285&postcount=746
I could imagine that exact scenario happening with my family when I was younger.
Hi, I'm back and all caught up!! Your countdown is getting short!! 
And I'm betting that you are still the owner of a broken stroller! 
And I'm curious as to what your DH was planning!
