An APRIL Adventure in Autism: 2008 (8/8) Time to Say Good-Bye....

[KathyRN137]

I love, love, love the caricatures! Those are great -- especially yours!

I think I might want one of the entire family, together!

I didn't really like the way Ed's came out, and the paper is different than the kids' so they don't look quite right when grouped together.

I agree that mine was better. If only I had that tiny waistline!!


Kathy

 

[IluvXU]

Thanks for sharing Sci Fi with us. I would love to go there, been there as a kid and know DH would like it. But not a place for our "crowd" yet. Sorry the experience of getting seats was dicey...

Yea for spreading the Disney magic to the family! I think the drawings are fantastic... such a fun thing!

 

[moparop]

I love your dream team story! How cool to have the random pick be a family who was on a first vist and with a mom at the hotel feeling under the weather. That makes it triple-y cool!

What a pain at Sci-Fi. It's so hard to get excited for a meal you've waited that long for.

I love your charicature! What a hot momma!

 

[KathyRN137]

IluvXU: Oh, that parked car seating would never work with your gang! But, didn't I read that not all the tables are set up that way?? For the life of me, I can't remember noticing when we were there,

moparop: I was tickled about the "winning" family, too. It's so great when someone wins something and they can really use it. I wonder what the mom thought when they told her the story?

"Some strange lady wearing a red shirt and green shoes came up to us, gave us these, then asked us to take a picture with her!" La mujer es muy loco!


Kathy

 

[mousescrapper]

Kathy,

great end of your Studios day...


sorry about the crazy wait for Sci-Fi...glad you catched your car in just the nick of time....

nice comments from Tricia ...she does get it

I like the drawings too...your's is a HOOT... I'm sure that is what my kids would say about me...actually Mae gave me an early Mother's Day gift yesterday she made at school...and the two lines I giggle at the most are my age..."25" just 10 years off and in the line "where is your mom's favorite place to go?" she says the store Target...Michael chimes in "no, WDW you knows she's always planning on the computer"

 

[mousescrapper]

oh forgot to say love the group shot pic!


that is great...nice HAT

 

[KathyRN137]

Thank you!

Yeah, I'm guessing you'd like to go to WDW a whole lot more than Target!!

Feel better!


Kathy

 

[karriemouse]

Isn't it funny, I was kind of thinking the same thing. Seems nobody likes Americans... hopefully WDW magic will change their minds, one guest at a time!!


Kathy

Hey! International traveller over here! We Americans!!!

(However there's always a few of my fellow countymen on the flight over who I wouldn't mind dropping in the Atlantic!)

 

[MRYPPNS]

just checkin' in to say Hi and that I'm caught up here.

 

[KathyRN137]

just checkin' in to say Hi and that I'm caught up here.

Hi!! Congratulations!!
How're you and Baby Danica doing???

Are you getting any sleep at all??

Kathy

 

[KathyRN137]

Kathy

 

[Belles.mom]

Coming out of lurkville to tell you that I'm all caught up also. I read all of your reports because
1. You are a awesome writer!
2. I get some great tips...I have a 5 year old girl with ASD.

So keep on writing.

Quick question. Has your son always liked the rides and shows? We are DVC owners so we go about every 1-2 years. Our last trip was March 2009 and our next will be June 2010...working 'round Kindergarten now...

Belle is getting better but we still have problems with loud noises, and the dark.

Thanks for your help.

 

[KathyRN137]

Belle is getting better but we still have problems with loud noises, and the dark.

Thanks for your help.

to the report and Happy Mother's Day to you!!

Billy made his first trip to WDW when he was five and he's made a lot of progress since then... although as you may have read, he still has sensitivity to loud noise, fire, and the dark.

Also, I remember that he was afraid of the non-face characters back then... now he hugs them and plays with them freely.... although he seems to have figured out that there is "someone in there" and sometimes tries to look in their mouths or the part of their costumes that allows them to see!

That's why we always let the character handlers know in advance that he's autistic so the character CM won't be startled when Billy starts sniffing them or petting them!!

He has progressively been getting better with the loud noises... especially fireworks... although we use earplugs. I've seen many kids wearing the earphones to muffle the noise as well. As far as the dark, well, we always have him ride with his Daddy on dark rides if possible because he knows Daddy will protect him! He'll grab his arm tight and hide his face, but usually there's something else going on that he loves like music or motion, so he sort of has a Love-Hate relationship with these.

Luckily, there isn't a rsingle ride he won't do!

I think we waited until our third trip for the biggies like Space Mountain and Rock & Rollercoaster.... now they are some of his favorites!

You'll probably see that Belle will progress in the same way as she gets older, but if you have any concerns about the hyper-sensitivity issues, perhaps her
Teacher or her Occupational Therapist can give you some suggestions. I find that they usually have great ideas!

Thanks for reading and hey! Don't be such a stranger, okay?!


Kathy

 

[KathyRN137]

Hey! International traveller over here! We Americans!!!

Oh good! It's so nice to have friends!

We're not all that bad, are we?!

Kathy

 

[KathyRN137]

Gaaahhh! Tried to put up another chapter and the dang thing timed out on me while I was getting all my pix added!! Don't you just hate when that happens?!

(Next chapter coming soon...)


Kathy

 

[KathyRN137]

Chapter eleven: Talk About Animal Magnetism!




Tuesday, 4/22/08



Oh, I just loved tuning into the Weather Channel that week! Another prediction of “sunny, high in the low 80’s” put a big smile on my face as we puttered around the villa getting ready for a morning at the Animal Kingdom. Breakfast consisted of cold cereal in the room again... such a timesaver! Once more, our goal was to get to the park reasonably early, but I didn’t feel any pressing need to get there by rope drop... this was to be a Hakuna Matata vacation all the way!



We had slept well. It was very quiet around our villa at night... no traffic noise, no loud neighbors... just the soothing sounds of birds, frogs, and insects that I probably don’t want to think about! Uggh! Insects! Something we normally don’t worry too much about when we visit in November!



Granted, it was a bit early for love bugs, but because it was so dry, I had been a little worried about the possibility of palmento bugs in and around our room. After all, there were some palmento trees scattered around the resort. Luckily, I hadn’t yet seen one of these huge, flying cockroaches that are common in Florida and are so named because they like to live in the trees. If I had, I wouldn’t have been able to sleep until Ed terminated it with extreme prejudice!!


Yes, it’s tough to be a bug! (At least when I’m around!)


We arrived at the gate exactly at 10am... late for us, but I know the time is correct because according to our camera, that’s when this picture was taken:

The crowd was so modest that we didn’t even bother using the “secret entrance.” We had only three goals for the entire day: Expedition Everest, Dinosaur, and the Kilimanjaro Safaris... so we took our time enjoying the lush green atmosphere of the Oasis and the cheerful merchandise displayed on Discovery Island.

Billy, as usual, made no secret about what he wanted to do. “Snow Monster! Snow Monster!” he chanted. “”I want a Snow Monster, pleeeese!!” Normally, he has a long list of attractions he wants to do at each park and he expects to do them in a certain order... but not at Animal Kingdom! I think if he had his way, he would just ride Expedition Everest over and over again all day long! So, our first order of business was to get the gang to Asia as soon as possible so we could sign on for our expedition up the Forbidden Mountain.

We rode twice, which is my limit, and I promised him that we could come back at the end of the day for more. The kids and I love this ride... it’s such a thrill! What a great way to begin the morning!


I normally don’t purchase ride photos, but this one from our first ever ride in 2006 was priceless:

Despite the look of sheer terror on her face, Tricia had absolutely loved it and immediately wanted to go on again!! Go figure!! Billy’s face is hidden, but if you look closely, you can see him laughing. He always laughs non-stop on EE… especially when the Yeti appears! It may not be the reaction the Imagineers were anticipating, but he just loves it.



We met up with Daddy and it was off to his favorite ride in the park... Dinosaur!

It was cool and dark inside the Dinosaur Institute and we zipped past the giant T-Rex skeleton so fast, there wasn’t time for a picture. Still no line until we reached the bottom of the stairway and barely enough time for Billy and me to put in the squishy ear plugs so we could enjoy the ride. Off we bounced in our Time Rover to search for the elusive dinosaur.



Ed and I sat on the outside seats and we put the kids in the middle so they wouldn’t get jounced around quite as much. Yes, I took one for the team and hung on for dear life, my teeth clacking together and my head whipping from side to side as we rode out the meteor shower. Whew! Ed had to help me climb out of the vehicle when it was over because I was still feeling a bit rattled!



Up the stairs we climbed and we found ourselves stepping outside once more into the bright sunshine. We cruised on over to Chester and Hester’s gift shop looking for... well, I forget! Another memory card for the camera, perhaps??



It was really getting warm... it always seems that way in DinoLand because of the lack of shade:

We ducked inside the coolness of the gift shop and nosed around a bit. There I found a few items that we could use the following evening at the Pirate & Princess Party.


You may recall from the pre-trip that we had decided rather late in the game to do the party and opted not to dress up, simply because of the cost factor. (The party tickets were enough of a splurge in and of themselves!) But, I still wanted to show a little bit of pirate “spirit,” and was thrilled to find a set of pirate/princess Minnie ears! I wanted to get a set for Tricia, but her eyes fell on a replica of the medallion necklace worn by Elizabeth in the POC movie, so she opted for the bling rather than the ears. Billy already had a pirate shirt we had brought from home… a Target find… but that still left Ed with no “accessory.”



After a bit of searching, he settled on a pirate eye patch and (clip-on) earring set. I was satisfied and since the purchases were small, I just tucked them into my bag rather than have them sent to the resort. I didn’t want to risk them not arriving in time. We left the store and the aroma of McDonald’s French fries did not escape the nose of their biggest fan.



“I want fries, pleeese!” Billy asked, pulling on my arm. “Pleeese, Mommy!” It was 11:30 and we should’ve been thinking about grabbing lunch before the midday crowds descended on the counter service restaurants, but for some reason we didn’t. Perhaps we weren’t quite hungry yet. In any case, Ed went over to pick up some fries from the PetriFries (!) cart and the rest of us found a spot to sit in the shade so we could have a little rest and Billy could get his fix. Ed, knowing that the rest of us would not be able to resist the urge to nibble, brought back two boxes, one for Billy and one for the rest of us to pick on, and we washed them down with water that we had brought along.

Sadly, I understand that McDonald’s is no longer available at Animal Kingdom. I hope Billy will be satisfied with plain old Disney fries the next time we visit!


Well we just sat there for a bit and people-watched, talking about what we wanted to do next. It was nice not having to run around trying to get everything done… working with a detailed Operational Plan is good because we get to see and do a lot, but it’s bad because it can make you feel as though you’re running from place to place crossing things off the list instead of just relaxing and enjoying the atmosphere of the park. It took me many trips to learn this lesson, but I think I’m beginning to get the hang of it!



Our last visit to the Kilimanjaro Safaris had been only so-so. Not only were we sitting in the last (and most bumpy) seat of the vehicle, making it difficult to take any decent pictures, it seemed that there had not been quite so many animals roaming about to get pictures of! We decided to cross the park and journey to Africa for another shot at seeing more plentiful wildlife.

View from the bridge:

As we entered the village of Harambe, however, we were distracted by the sound of drums coming from near the Tusker House. Our old friends, Tam Tam’s of Congo were beginning their performance at the Dawa Bar, so we stopped to look and listen.

Remember how Tricia learned the dance last time for her school project??!!

It was quite crowded, however, and it was difficult to see. We stayed for only part of the show, then squeezed our way past the ever-growing mass of on-lookers and found ourselves drawn to the crates filled with replicas of African musical instruments at some nearby carts.


Billy really enjoyed shaking these. He tried them all!

Uh-Oh! A Pin Kiosk...

Now Tricia's on her favorite kind of safari...

She bought a little, she traded a little, and Ed found a special pin for me!

When we had finished and were ready to continue on our way to the safaris, we noticed that the number of people in this area of the park had swelled tremendously. Talk about animal magnetism... it seemed as though everyone was being drawn to the safari at the same time! We began to re-think our non-plan. “Let’s get out of here!” Ed suggested. “This is crazy...let’s go do something else...we’ll come back and ride the safari later." Faced with this...

... it seemed like a very good plan, indeed!




Kathy

 

[mousescrapper]

great beginning of the day!

I like your Hukana Mantra

Nice pin score how sweet.

The picture at the end reminds me of how it looked on our AK day lst month....

 

[KathyRN137]

I like your Hukana Mantra

I had a completely different outlook this time around!

That must be the most wonderful thing about living near WDW and being able to visit several times a year... there just doesn't seem to be as much pressure to run around and cram everything into one little week!


Kathy

 

[KathyRN137]

Chapter 12: It’s Just Nature’s Call!



Still Tuesday, 4/22/08 ~ 12:15pm

The Animal Kingdom


Feeling a bit claustrophobic in the growing Harambe crowd, we took the footbridge back over to Discovery Island, stopping to examine some of the exhibits along the path. One of these was a “hollow log” and the idea was to place your hand inside and feel the sensation of bugs crawling over your skin.

Gee! What fun!

Billy decided he didn't care for the creepy-crawlies. He would rather look at the water and wave to Donald and his nephews as they hiked along the bubbling stream.

We followed the stream to Camp Minnie-Mickey and queued up for the 1:00 Festival of the Lion King. The line waiting outside the theater was long, but the queue was shaded, and the doors soon opened. I was glad that Disney had decided to enclose this and provide air conditioning, because it really felt good about then.


Warthog Section!! Grunt like a warthog!!

My pictures didn’t come out too well, but pictures never seem to do the show justice anyway, so I won’t post many. It was fabulous, as expected, and we filed out of the theater with Mom humming Circle of Life. The lines were very long at the Character Greeting Trails so we did not stop, but no matter… we were hungry now and decided to pop in at nearby Pizzafari for lunch.

The kids both had plain personal-sized cheese pizza and I believe Ed chose the pepperoni. I had the Chicken Ceasar salad, which I always find to be quite good here. Frozen lemonades were a refreshing choice for beverage/dessert.

As usual, Ed and Billy secured a table for us in the furthest room while Tricia and I got our meals. I had barely finished my last bite of salad when I had the camera out and began snapping pictures of the animal murals covering the walls...

...and the tiles on the floors....

...and even the chairs!

Here’s Tricia laughing at her mother for taking a picture of a chair!

A big hug... someone’s getting a bit tired!

A quick stop in the restroom and then, refreshed and refueled, we decided to make another attempt at the safari. So back down the path we went toward Africa. We had some unexpected entertainment along the way!

A tremendous wait was posted at standby, so we utilized the GAC and were admitted to the FP queue. We still had plenty of time to read all the animal identification cards and watch the storyline about poachers develop on the small TV screens positioned overhead. It wasn’t quite enough to occupy Billy, however, and he paced back and forth incessantly. Ed had to latch onto him and hold him tight, wrapping his arms around him and holding his body in front of him. This made Billy giggle so hard he began passing gas... and not very quietly!!



Tricia was mortified and I have to admit that I was a little embarrassed, too, but Billy thought it was hysterically funny. And so... he laughed all the harder! Which, of course, resulted in more gas being expelled! I struggled desperately to keep a straight face. Trying to get it together, I decided to use this as an opportunity to reinforce good manners.


“Billy, what do you say?” I coaxed.


He threw his head back and looked up at his Daddy with a huge grin. “Excuse me!” he chuckled loudly. Ed just laughed.


“Dad!” Tricia whispered loudly. She stepped back as far as she could from her bubbling little brother... perhaps to avoid the gas cloud... perhaps to pretend she wasn’t with our family... I don’t know which. “It’s not funny!” she hissed. “Make him stop!”


“It is funny, and I can’t make him stop,” Ed replied, “He can’t help it!” But now both of them were laughing... at us! Tricia looked as though she wanted the ground to swallow her up right then and there.


“What??” he protested as I shook my head at them. “It’s funny!” he insisted. “Right, buddy?” he said to Billy, hugging him tighter. Billy just kept laughing. And farting. “He’s a boy,” continued his daddy, “and boys think farts are funny!”



I sighed. It’s too bad this couldn’t have been happening while we were out on the savanna; the smell might be blamed on the animals! All I could think of was how happy I was that we were in an outdoor queue! Fans above us helped circulate the air. Between them and the shade afforded by the covered queue, it was fairly comfortable temperature-wise.



Eventually the little gaseous explosions stopped emanating from my youngest and we approached the safari vehicle loading area. Thank goodness! I fumbled with the camera, hopefully choosing the settings that would yield the best pictures despite the bright sun and the bumpy ride.

Now, the big question was: would the animals be plentiful on this afternoon’s safari, or would they once more prove to be scarce??



Kathy

 

[jcc0621]

Boys