and we're back. [Walt, Wizards, and....Woolungasaurus?]

[kaoden39]

Man there is so much more planning required for going to WDW than there is for Disneyland. I think that if I am going to plan a trip I need to plan for a year.

 

[bumbershoot]

It's insanity.

And why do you think I started so early? Oh yeah, you all thought I had lost my marbles, I know you guys....but really, it was all necessary!

I have literally sat on my bum almost all day, except to tend to the small one (who has again picked up his BOB books to read out loud, slowly) of course and for various things for me as well, just doing all of these ADRs. And please note...this is just ONE ADR per day! Some people do two and even three per day (especially those on the Deluxe meal plans)! I cannot even imagine.

 

[kaoden39]

Now I understand why my WDW friends were stressing over my no stress Disneyland trip. They have no clue how easy Dland is compared to WDW.

I had Loren to the ortho for the second opinion. He wants to do surgery and remove it. So sometime over the summer Loren is having surgery on his tibia to remove his "tumor".

 

[bumbershoot]

Yikes! I haven't checked in to your TR for a bit, and it moves fast so I miss stuff...what was the official diagnosis? Is the removal more for looks than b/c it's dangerous? (hope so)

I'll check in later tonight...but just in case the info is WAY back in the depths of your pretrip, that's why I'm asking here.


Found the latest mentions...so it hurts, poor kid.


All of that reminded me of when E was a baby...I never had it looked at, but for about a year he had this little knobby hard thing just at the base of his finger going into his palm. Freaked me out, but the way I get UNfreaked is to research. And found that it was almost for sure a ganglion, which is nothing, and will go away. And it went away. But for that period of time while it was still there, it was a bit nervewracking! I did period checks on it...size, did it move, etc etc... Poor kid, glad he was tiny enough it didn't bug him too much!

 

[kaoden39]

Yikes! I haven't checked in to your TR for a bit, and it moves fast so I miss stuff...what was the official diagnosis? Is the removal more for looks than b/c it's dangerous? (hope so)

I'll check in later tonight...but just in case the info is WAY back in the depths of your pretrip, that's why I'm asking here.

It is benign. The main reason the ortho wants to remove it is the location and a comfort issue for Loren. It is on tibia right above his ankle, and about the size of a tangerine. Dr thought that if it is so visible that it needed to be removed. He says that part of Loren's growth plate has over grown almost like a hook off of his tibia right behind his fibula. You can really see it in the xray and he explained it better than the ped dr did. And he put a rush on the surgery, so that it doesn't interfere with school and marching band.

 

[bumbershoot]

Tell his growth plate that that was a silly thing to do, and it is to stop immediately. "Don't do that again!"

 

[kaoden39]

I swear, it has scared me half to death. Loren feels a lot better about it too.

 

[bumbershoot]

to you guys...

 

[kaoden39]

to you guys...

Thank you Molly.

 

[bumbershoot]

End of year PE BBQ. We're supposed to bring a side dish and a drink or we "don't get to eat anyone else's food". Well, we're already bringing veggie dogs and safe buns. DS hates potato/pasta/etc salad. We'll bring some safe juice, but gosh, do we have to bring a side dish?????

Oh, and I'm working out after the BBQ, so I'm not eating at all.

 

[Brady's Mom]

End of year PE BBQ. We're supposed to bring a side dish and a drink or we "don't get to eat anyone else's food". Well, we're already bringing veggie dogs and safe buns. DS hates potato/pasta/etc salad. We'll bring some safe juice, but gosh, do we have to bring a side dish?????

Oh, and I'm working out after the BBQ, so I'm not eating at all.

How about a couple of bags of chips?? I swear when we go to stuff like that all my kids want to eat are the chips. Really, we do have chips sometimes at home???!!! If you bring the chips you've fulfilled your side dish responsibility (if you really feel one) without having to go to too much effort.



(And if it were me - I wouldn't bring chips or a side dish since I would already be bringing all the stuff I could eat anyway - just sayin')

 

[bumbershoot]

Well we left before you replied, and chips were in the running! But I decided to be super nice, and stopped for this nummy asian noodle salad thing we get sometimes. Rather expensive.

I figured...no one's going to want to eat this, so we'll be able to bring it all home! Even the cashier at the store was with me...she said "just leave it in your cooler bag (OK she didn't know I had a cooler bag) and if someone talks to you about it, then bring it out, but otherwise just take it home".

Lo and behold...some other group was using the BBQ itself, so the PE staff bought some BBQ chicken from Costco, supplied forks and cups, and...that's it.

So we couldn't cook our veggie dogs. Therefore, I brought out the noodles. And many people enjoyed them! So there we are. Glad people enjoyed it...but this kid was roaming the tables asking what people had bought and sort of glaring about it...dude, I saw you come in, you brought a bag of chips (not that there's anything wrong with that! I almost did myself! and 6 other people did as well, with only one duplicate!)...I brought nearly $20 worth of noodles...don't glare at ME, little dude.

I said none of that. But I thought it...


One of the staff members asked if E would be taking ballet, b/c he'd love to have him in one of the dance classes. Said he wanted to get a hip hop class going for the littler kids, and that he'd LOVE to have E in a hip hop class. I can't picture E in hip hop (though he does love poppy music), but I sure can in ballet! So I have to check the cost (it's one of the extra-cost things at our Y) and see about it.


I despise the new Huggies denim-look diaper ad. Adults admiring the toddler just makes me squirm. Plus, if you want a denim dipe for your kid, just buy one! I did! A "recycled" diaper from a company run by a dad...he uses materials from old clothes, and on this dipe he'd then embroidered a Celtic knot on the rear of it. Super-cute. SUPER-bulky. E rarely wore it, but I adored looking at it!

 

[kaoden39]

Thank you, thank you, thank you!! I am not a fan of those diapers or the ad. I made a sarcastic comment on facebook about them and my niece comments back that she has her son in them. She is obviously not my child. It is being used as an excuse for not putting her son in pants.

 

[bumbershoot]

It is being used as an excuse for not putting her son in pants.

Gah!

Now, there is NOTHING like a cutie little cloth diapered bum. I mean, have you seen some of those fancy-pants things nowadays? And when I say "nowadays" I don't mean to hearken back to some mythical time...I really mean "now", because even in '04 they didn't have as amazing cloth dipes as they do now!

So on the hottest day, SURE, keep the kidlet in a cute shirt and a cloth dipe while at *home*.

But not a plastic one...and not a plastic one designed to look like a denim Speedo.

 

[kaoden39]

I couldn't agree more. And frankly they are a little too much like a Speedo. And there is no one that really looks good in one of those.

 

[bumbershoot]

We had been thinking about the xmas party on our last night. But now I keep reading that it's just not worth it. And when I think about paying for things that I pretty much get (or, if it's changed like Halloween, used to get) at DL, it makes me a little ill in the pocketbook.

So maybe we won't do that.

Robert has started to talk about "repurposing" that money...and that can really only mean one thing...that he's starting to think about APs, just in case...


ETA....it could mean one other thing. Adding the hopping option onto the tickets.

But, of course, if we did that, it makes the upgrade-value of the tickets higher, so we'd get credit for that, if we decided to go to APs towards the end.

 

[kaoden39]

It's all good. I vote for the passes that work at all the parks.

 

[bumbershoot]

It's all good. I vote for the passes that work at all the parks.

Can you imagine??? That's a LOT of money to think of all at once, but upgrading bit by bit... Start with 7 day no hopping tix from undercovertourist. Use those, upgrade to 10 days (not much money at all), upgrade to hopping (52 plus taxes each)...then AP... Then the BIG AP later on... Gracious goodness me, gives one a thrill to think of, doesn't it?




Then at the same time, I'm excited b/c I found an extra little tiny bit of money to put towards the car...1.48 from bad math with a transfer between accounts, plus 23 cents b/c I left my cash at home while going to Costco and had to pay the account back, and didn't want to deposit change, and then 5 cents b/c I had to put the cash for the TourGuideMike subscription into the account and didn't want to deposit change.... Wow, that's going to get me far! But hey, it's still money.


And then back to the spending side, E needs all new clothes. Well, not socks. He's good with socks now. And actually his shorts are still working for him. But these constant growth spurts are now causing his shirts to be too short and his ankles are about to show.... If it could possibly get nice here and STAY nice, he could last with the shorts for longer, but I know that's not going to happen, so next month I believe some money will be shunted over to clothing! oldnavy.com here we come.

 

[kaoden39]

Darn kids grow so fast. Especially boys. Now my girls were able to wear their clothes and shoes much longer than Loren. He out grows shoes so much, he is a size 13 right now and he is just turning 14 so I know he is still growing. Oh my it's fun.

 

[Brady's Mom]

My almost 14 yr old is only wearing about a 10.5, makes me glad he's not in a 13!! Yikes!

I at least have 2 that are close together, so poor Nathan seems to get a LOT of hand me downs. He doesn't seem to mind. And yes, it can get rather expensive when you have those growth spurts, I hate it when all 3 of my younger kids have them at the same time - especially shoes! I love summer and shorts and sandals. They can go for a loooonnnnggg time in shorts and barefeet in the back yard.

And just for the record - I HATE those denim look diapers, too.