wilma-bride
<<This space intentionally blank>>
- Joined
- Jul 13, 2005
- Messages
- 22,681
Tiredness, Tantrums and Tempers Fray And Thats Just the Adults!
I woke up feeling tired after a long day the day before and a late night. Usually, at this point in the trip, I am well and truly ready for some down time since I dont sleep well at all and Im starting to get tired. And, when I get tired, I get touchy. And grouchy. And so do my kids. And thats not a good combination. At this point I should say that I also am touchy/grouchy when tired.....see if you can guess where this is heading lol
Still, no time to rest on our laurels since we were off to Epcot this morning. Sian had arranged to meet her friend, Victoria (Tora Millypoops) at Epcot. She and Victoria met through the DIS and have been exchanging emails and Christmas/Birthday gifts for the past few years but hadnt ever met in real life. Sian was quite excited but a little bit nervous too.
We were ready on time (surprisingly since none of us could seem to get going this morning) and caught the bus, arriving at Epcot in time to catch the end of the opening ceremony. The plan was for John and Gary to do the FPR for Soarin Fast Passes while the rest of us headed for Test Track since we didnt get to ride the other day.
We had quite a wait for the boys so entertained ourselves taking photos until they finally arrived.
Test Track was a walk-on, which was great, and we all really enjoyed it. And, as an added bonus, it didnt break down once. This, in itself, is pretty amazing as TT usually breaks down at least once while we are there (and usually while were on it). We all love Test Track and were pleased that it was a walk on.
After TT, we went over to The Land for some breakfast in Sunshine Seasons. Sian had arranged to meet Victoria at 10 but, while we were having breakfast, she walked past with her parents. They stopped and had a little chat. As they were off to ride Living with the Land, we agreed to wait for them and then the girls could head off together as originally planned.
In just a little while, they were back. Victoria and her family already had FPs for Soarin so we gave Sian her FP and arranged to meet them at Club Cool a little while later. Meanwhile, the rest of us went for our flight on Soarin. While we were in the line, someone was messing about with the chains. Thinking it was one of the boys, I snapped at them - however, it turned out it was Rea. I was not happy that she had taken it upon herself to start acting like a child and told her so. The kids were all starting to grate on my (already raw and sensitive) nerves and I ended up telling Daniel to just stay away from Matthew. Since the two of them seemed to have a habit of winding each other up and getting each themselves (or each other) into trouble, I thought it best if they stayed away from each other. Little did I know at this point that Nat took what I said as an indication that I was annoyed at Matthew, which wasnt the case at all. I was to find this out later in the day I still reckon you should have said something at the time, mate. I probably should have said but at the time I wasn't too upset about it.
After our ride on Soarin' we went up to play with the jumping fountains, then took a ride on Journey into Imagination with Figment.
We evntually ended up at Club Cool where we met up with Sian and Victoria, who had spent most of the time walking round to various Photopass photographers and having pictures taken. We took a picture of the two girls ourselves, had a quick chat with Victoria's parents and then said our goodbyes.
We needed to go shopping this afternoon as the kids all needed trainers and, as we were still hunting for the Tuscan Raider, I suggested we may find it at the Disney shop, Character Premiere, at Premium Outlets. Having agreed we would head there a bit later, we decided to do a whistle-stop tour of World Showcase.
It was really, really hot today and, to be honest, I dont think anyone was really in the mood for it. We decided to catch the boat across the lake (to save our poor feet), which was quite pleasant and gave us a bit of respite from the sun.
In Germany, we spent some time watching the miniature railway but were slightly concerned about Godzilla invading the tiny village!
Nat and I were keen to do some tasting of various drinks around WS and, as luck would have it, before long we came across a booth selling a very yummy-sounding Tangerine Royale Mimosa. It would have been incredibly rude not to try it so we decided to share one.
And very nice it was too. I offered Gary a bit to try but he wasnt that impressed. I asked Nat if John would want to try some and so she said really quietly John, do you want to try some of this. John, who was at least 100 yards ahead of us at this point, stood no chance of hearing her and so, not having received an answer, Nat declared that he obviously didnt
I did ask him....it's not my fault he didnt hear me. It was very nice to have a couple of drinks on the way round; makes World Showcase far more enjoyable!
On we went, stopping just long enough to buy more alcohol in France, in the form of a Grey Goose Citron Slush.
The kids spotted Marie from Aristocats so they had some pictures taken with her.
In the UK, we stopped for fish and chips, which we took over to the benches in front of where Off Kilter perform. We were soon visited by a very friendly squirrel, who took a bit of a shine to Rea (or was it her chips)?
After lunch was finished, we were all getting a bit fed up of the heat so we decided to continue round to Canada and then head back to the hotel.
At Canada I asked the kids to pose with the totem poles. Daniel started playing up and refused to put his head through the hole properly. From day one, if the kids had been playing up when we tried to take a photo, they had been told to sit it out but, for some reason, Daniel didnt take too well to being told to get out of the picture and started having a tantrum. Nat tried to explain why he wasnt allowed to be in the shot but he wasnt having any of it. And, secretly, I was a bit peeved that Nat didnt think Id done a good enough job of disciplining him. Oops, more cracks starting to show! Lol, I was a little to keen here to stick up for Matthew as he had previously missed out on a photo op with the Cars at HS
Still, we carried on although there was most definitely an atmosphere. With the benefit of hindsight, this should have been the point where one (or both) of us decided it wasnt a good idea to go shopping this afternoon and made arrangements to spend the afternoon apart to give us all a chance to unwind and recharge our batteries. Still, hindsight is a wonderful thing and, being relative newcomers to the whole holidaying together lark, we ignored the warning signs and soldiered on. Nat wanted to have a quick look in Mousegear before we left the park so we headed on over there.
On the way, Daniel spotted a photo opportunity and a chance to fulfil his lifelong dream of becoming an ice-cream man.
While everyone was looking in Mousegear, Daniel asked if he could have an ice-cream. I quite fancied one too so I said he could. When it came to it, though, I didnt really want one so I just bought the girls and Daniel one. Since Nat and co were in Mousegear, we waited outside while the kids ate their ice-creams.
By 1 oclock we were on the bus back to the hotel. After a quick detour back to the room to get car keys, more money and for Daniel to put some socks and trainers on, we were on our way to Premium Outlets.
Once there, we decided to go our separate ways and meet up later. Having found and purchased the trainers Daniel wanted (Geox), we headed to Character Premiere where Daniel found the elusive Tuscan Raider. Daniel decided he wanted one himself so we told him to choose a different one, on the basis that if Nat and John had managed to find it as well, we wouldnt be stuck with two of them. Daniel, however, insisted he wanted that one so we bought the two of them. When we met up with Nat and John a bit later, Daniel produced the Tuscan Raider only to find that Nat and John had already got one too. So we gave the extra one to Matthew and all was well
I was soo pleased we had found the elusive raider as it had become a bit of a mission for John and I knew Nicola and Matt really wanted it!
Having had our fill of Premium Outlets, we decided to head for Downtown Disney as Daniel still wanted to get some Lego and the rest of us wanted to have a look around. We spent a very pleasant couple of hours looking round the shops. Nat took some brilliant pictures of the kids at World of Disney and outside Once Upon a Toy. Yes at this point the kids were being very co-operative and sharing and taking turns quite nicely (should have known that wouldn't last!)
As we were all feeling quite hungry by now, we decided to see if we could get a table at T-Rex since wed enjoyed it so much last week.
We were in luck and were shown to a table straight away. While we were eating, Daniel said he had decided he wanted to buy a bucket of Lego so I told him we could go back after dinner but we couldnt spend too long there as we were all tired and needed an early night. Matthew told him he could only have 5 minutes, at which point I snapped at Matthew (sorry Matt) that it wasnt his place to tell Daniel what to do. From there on, its all a bit of a blur. Nat wasnt happy with me for shouting at Matthew, Matthew was crying, Ellie was shooting daggers at me, I was feeling indignant that all of a sudden I was the baddie in the whole piece. And it generally all got a bit messy. It ended up with Nat storming off in one direction and me in the other and poor, bemused Gary and John left with the kids in the middle of the restaurant wondering what to do for the best. Nat and I are very different when it comes to arguments. I flare up and calm down again just as quickly whereas Nat likes to have a good old sulk. Unfortunately, I tried to talk to Nat while she was still mad and this made matters worse. In the end, we paid the check at the restaurant and Gary suggested we go our separate ways for a little while and then meet up to go back to the hotel a bit later. I wish I could properly explain my behaviour at this point but I'm afraid I can't. All I can say is that I'm very conscious that Matthew is very full on and will push the boundaries whenever possible. I think I'd had enough of him but was a bit cross that Joh had told him off before I had the chance to.
To cut a very long story short, I ended up catching the bus back to Kidani while Gary and the others drove back. By now I was panicking that the cruise was going to be a major disaster and the plans for our last night would be ruined since there was no way Nat and John were going to want to share with us now.
When I got back to Kidani, I spoke to Gary and was all for booking Nat and John into a room at Pop Century for the last night. Gary suggested I let things calm down a bit but I was worried that it would all be too late by the next morning. In the end, I sent one of the girls down to tell Nat we needed to talk about the next few days. Nat came up to our room and we ended up having a good old chat in the bedroom (while poor Gary was stuck in the bathroom) and sorted out a few things. We had a good heart to heart and properly explained how we were feeling and, as a result, we sorted things out and gave each other a big hug
I was really relieved that everything was sorted out and we both agreed that we should have said something before it got out of hand. A lesson learned for next time
Unfortunately, we didnt get our early night as we still had all of our packing to do. We only planned to take two cases on the cruise and leave the rest with bell services, to be transferred to Bay Lake Towers for our last night at Disney. Eventually, we were sorted and fell into bed absolutely knackered. I was later to regret my hasty packing as I had left a few things behind that I could have done with on the cruise...nothing too major though!
I would just like to say, at this point, that we still had a really lovely day and today's argument in no way took away from the great holiday that we had - however, it's fair to say that it was a major incident on this day so we felt it only fair to our readers to include it (just so you don't think it was all moonlight and roses).
It's also fair to say that this was the point at which we stopped keeping count of the Mothers vs Kids score
Next up: DCL, Here We Come (or Who Knew There Was a Distinct Lack of Restrooms Beween Orlando and Port Canaveral?)
I woke up feeling tired after a long day the day before and a late night. Usually, at this point in the trip, I am well and truly ready for some down time since I dont sleep well at all and Im starting to get tired. And, when I get tired, I get touchy. And grouchy. And so do my kids. And thats not a good combination. At this point I should say that I also am touchy/grouchy when tired.....see if you can guess where this is heading lol
Still, no time to rest on our laurels since we were off to Epcot this morning. Sian had arranged to meet her friend, Victoria (Tora Millypoops) at Epcot. She and Victoria met through the DIS and have been exchanging emails and Christmas/Birthday gifts for the past few years but hadnt ever met in real life. Sian was quite excited but a little bit nervous too.
We were ready on time (surprisingly since none of us could seem to get going this morning) and caught the bus, arriving at Epcot in time to catch the end of the opening ceremony. The plan was for John and Gary to do the FPR for Soarin Fast Passes while the rest of us headed for Test Track since we didnt get to ride the other day.
We had quite a wait for the boys so entertained ourselves taking photos until they finally arrived.
Test Track was a walk-on, which was great, and we all really enjoyed it. And, as an added bonus, it didnt break down once. This, in itself, is pretty amazing as TT usually breaks down at least once while we are there (and usually while were on it). We all love Test Track and were pleased that it was a walk on.
After TT, we went over to The Land for some breakfast in Sunshine Seasons. Sian had arranged to meet Victoria at 10 but, while we were having breakfast, she walked past with her parents. They stopped and had a little chat. As they were off to ride Living with the Land, we agreed to wait for them and then the girls could head off together as originally planned.
In just a little while, they were back. Victoria and her family already had FPs for Soarin so we gave Sian her FP and arranged to meet them at Club Cool a little while later. Meanwhile, the rest of us went for our flight on Soarin. While we were in the line, someone was messing about with the chains. Thinking it was one of the boys, I snapped at them - however, it turned out it was Rea. I was not happy that she had taken it upon herself to start acting like a child and told her so. The kids were all starting to grate on my (already raw and sensitive) nerves and I ended up telling Daniel to just stay away from Matthew. Since the two of them seemed to have a habit of winding each other up and getting each themselves (or each other) into trouble, I thought it best if they stayed away from each other. Little did I know at this point that Nat took what I said as an indication that I was annoyed at Matthew, which wasnt the case at all. I was to find this out later in the day I still reckon you should have said something at the time, mate. I probably should have said but at the time I wasn't too upset about it.
After our ride on Soarin' we went up to play with the jumping fountains, then took a ride on Journey into Imagination with Figment.
We evntually ended up at Club Cool where we met up with Sian and Victoria, who had spent most of the time walking round to various Photopass photographers and having pictures taken. We took a picture of the two girls ourselves, had a quick chat with Victoria's parents and then said our goodbyes.
We needed to go shopping this afternoon as the kids all needed trainers and, as we were still hunting for the Tuscan Raider, I suggested we may find it at the Disney shop, Character Premiere, at Premium Outlets. Having agreed we would head there a bit later, we decided to do a whistle-stop tour of World Showcase.
It was really, really hot today and, to be honest, I dont think anyone was really in the mood for it. We decided to catch the boat across the lake (to save our poor feet), which was quite pleasant and gave us a bit of respite from the sun.
In Germany, we spent some time watching the miniature railway but were slightly concerned about Godzilla invading the tiny village!
Nat and I were keen to do some tasting of various drinks around WS and, as luck would have it, before long we came across a booth selling a very yummy-sounding Tangerine Royale Mimosa. It would have been incredibly rude not to try it so we decided to share one.
And very nice it was too. I offered Gary a bit to try but he wasnt that impressed. I asked Nat if John would want to try some and so she said really quietly John, do you want to try some of this. John, who was at least 100 yards ahead of us at this point, stood no chance of hearing her and so, not having received an answer, Nat declared that he obviously didnt
I did ask him....it's not my fault he didnt hear me. It was very nice to have a couple of drinks on the way round; makes World Showcase far more enjoyable!On we went, stopping just long enough to buy more alcohol in France, in the form of a Grey Goose Citron Slush.
The kids spotted Marie from Aristocats so they had some pictures taken with her.
In the UK, we stopped for fish and chips, which we took over to the benches in front of where Off Kilter perform. We were soon visited by a very friendly squirrel, who took a bit of a shine to Rea (or was it her chips)?
After lunch was finished, we were all getting a bit fed up of the heat so we decided to continue round to Canada and then head back to the hotel.
At Canada I asked the kids to pose with the totem poles. Daniel started playing up and refused to put his head through the hole properly. From day one, if the kids had been playing up when we tried to take a photo, they had been told to sit it out but, for some reason, Daniel didnt take too well to being told to get out of the picture and started having a tantrum. Nat tried to explain why he wasnt allowed to be in the shot but he wasnt having any of it. And, secretly, I was a bit peeved that Nat didnt think Id done a good enough job of disciplining him. Oops, more cracks starting to show! Lol, I was a little to keen here to stick up for Matthew as he had previously missed out on a photo op with the Cars at HS
Still, we carried on although there was most definitely an atmosphere. With the benefit of hindsight, this should have been the point where one (or both) of us decided it wasnt a good idea to go shopping this afternoon and made arrangements to spend the afternoon apart to give us all a chance to unwind and recharge our batteries. Still, hindsight is a wonderful thing and, being relative newcomers to the whole holidaying together lark, we ignored the warning signs and soldiered on. Nat wanted to have a quick look in Mousegear before we left the park so we headed on over there.
On the way, Daniel spotted a photo opportunity and a chance to fulfil his lifelong dream of becoming an ice-cream man.
While everyone was looking in Mousegear, Daniel asked if he could have an ice-cream. I quite fancied one too so I said he could. When it came to it, though, I didnt really want one so I just bought the girls and Daniel one. Since Nat and co were in Mousegear, we waited outside while the kids ate their ice-creams.
By 1 oclock we were on the bus back to the hotel. After a quick detour back to the room to get car keys, more money and for Daniel to put some socks and trainers on, we were on our way to Premium Outlets.
Once there, we decided to go our separate ways and meet up later. Having found and purchased the trainers Daniel wanted (Geox), we headed to Character Premiere where Daniel found the elusive Tuscan Raider. Daniel decided he wanted one himself so we told him to choose a different one, on the basis that if Nat and John had managed to find it as well, we wouldnt be stuck with two of them. Daniel, however, insisted he wanted that one so we bought the two of them. When we met up with Nat and John a bit later, Daniel produced the Tuscan Raider only to find that Nat and John had already got one too. So we gave the extra one to Matthew and all was well
I was soo pleased we had found the elusive raider as it had become a bit of a mission for John and I knew Nicola and Matt really wanted it!Having had our fill of Premium Outlets, we decided to head for Downtown Disney as Daniel still wanted to get some Lego and the rest of us wanted to have a look around. We spent a very pleasant couple of hours looking round the shops. Nat took some brilliant pictures of the kids at World of Disney and outside Once Upon a Toy. Yes at this point the kids were being very co-operative and sharing and taking turns quite nicely (should have known that wouldn't last!)
As we were all feeling quite hungry by now, we decided to see if we could get a table at T-Rex since wed enjoyed it so much last week.
We were in luck and were shown to a table straight away. While we were eating, Daniel said he had decided he wanted to buy a bucket of Lego so I told him we could go back after dinner but we couldnt spend too long there as we were all tired and needed an early night. Matthew told him he could only have 5 minutes, at which point I snapped at Matthew (sorry Matt) that it wasnt his place to tell Daniel what to do. From there on, its all a bit of a blur. Nat wasnt happy with me for shouting at Matthew, Matthew was crying, Ellie was shooting daggers at me, I was feeling indignant that all of a sudden I was the baddie in the whole piece. And it generally all got a bit messy. It ended up with Nat storming off in one direction and me in the other and poor, bemused Gary and John left with the kids in the middle of the restaurant wondering what to do for the best. Nat and I are very different when it comes to arguments. I flare up and calm down again just as quickly whereas Nat likes to have a good old sulk. Unfortunately, I tried to talk to Nat while she was still mad and this made matters worse. In the end, we paid the check at the restaurant and Gary suggested we go our separate ways for a little while and then meet up to go back to the hotel a bit later. I wish I could properly explain my behaviour at this point but I'm afraid I can't. All I can say is that I'm very conscious that Matthew is very full on and will push the boundaries whenever possible. I think I'd had enough of him but was a bit cross that Joh had told him off before I had the chance to.
To cut a very long story short, I ended up catching the bus back to Kidani while Gary and the others drove back. By now I was panicking that the cruise was going to be a major disaster and the plans for our last night would be ruined since there was no way Nat and John were going to want to share with us now.
When I got back to Kidani, I spoke to Gary and was all for booking Nat and John into a room at Pop Century for the last night. Gary suggested I let things calm down a bit but I was worried that it would all be too late by the next morning. In the end, I sent one of the girls down to tell Nat we needed to talk about the next few days. Nat came up to our room and we ended up having a good old chat in the bedroom (while poor Gary was stuck in the bathroom) and sorted out a few things. We had a good heart to heart and properly explained how we were feeling and, as a result, we sorted things out and gave each other a big hug
I was really relieved that everything was sorted out and we both agreed that we should have said something before it got out of hand. A lesson learned for next time
Unfortunately, we didnt get our early night as we still had all of our packing to do. We only planned to take two cases on the cruise and leave the rest with bell services, to be transferred to Bay Lake Towers for our last night at Disney. Eventually, we were sorted and fell into bed absolutely knackered. I was later to regret my hasty packing as I had left a few things behind that I could have done with on the cruise...nothing too major though!
I would just like to say, at this point, that we still had a really lovely day and today's argument in no way took away from the great holiday that we had - however, it's fair to say that it was a major incident on this day so we felt it only fair to our readers to include it (just so you don't think it was all moonlight and roses).
It's also fair to say that this was the point at which we stopped keeping count of the Mothers vs Kids score
Next up: DCL, Here We Come (or Who Knew There Was a Distinct Lack of Restrooms Beween Orlando and Port Canaveral?)
)
I can't wait to read about your Cruise 
