Precious Moments and Melt Downs

[crisi]

My PM with my son (3 1/2) is nearly the same story as DeePs. He's been home 2 months, and still wears the pirate hat, sword and the all important hook and makes me sing the pirate song (which I don't know the words to, so I do a lot of yo-ho-ing). Two days later Captn Hook (!) came by with the character caravan. My son wasn't too interested in actually touching any of the characters, but by that time had warmed up enough to actually touch Pluto. He wouldn't get close to Captn Hook, but he did make my husband go up and get his picture taken with him.

My daughter (2 1/2): We were staying the the Wilderness Lodge and they'd spent the night in Grandmas room up on the fifth floor. I got the kids from Grandmas room and we started walking to the main lobby to see if the Character Caravan was there. It was, and from the fifth floor my daughter looks down and yells "MINNIE!" Seemed to take forever to get down those five stories. We also have a great picture of her in Tiggers lap with his arms wrapped around her.

All the meltdowns were mine. They had a fifteen minute nap on the launch, then wouldn't go back to sleep (lesson, if they fall asleep on the launch, just ride the boat). I got sick of chicken fingers within two days and was dying for a sit down meal.

 

[phoebusII]

Meltdown: When my daughter was 4 she knew who the villians were and had a lot of fears that trip. Our first afternoon we went to MGM, got caught in a downpour and were soaking wet. Our first attraction was the Muppet Show. A monster came out into the audience 3 times. She was so scared that she cried for at least 20 minutes after the show and kept saying she wanted to leave this place right now. We had a quick dinner and went back to the hotel.

Precious moment: Went back when my daughter was 5. She knew to hold her hand out during the Epcot parade so the parade members would come and touch her. She was taken out into the parade twice to dance. Then we went straight to dinner at Morocco and she got to dance with the belly dancer. The look on her face was pure joy. By the way, she loved MGM this time.

Meltdown: My 2 year old son was scared of the Rainforest Cafe, so I wolfed down my dinner, wrapped his in his napkin and took him outside while husband and daughter finished their dinners. I fed him outside and we played under the Christmas tree so it actually turned out to be kind of a precious moment.

Precious moment: My husband was picked to play the Beast in the Fairytale Garden (?), where Belle tells stories. He was beaming and so excited it was like he was a kid again.

 

[Lesley]

Meltdown turned Precious Moment:
We were in Epcot when my ds (4 at the time) just got into a horrible mood...nothing pleased him..wasn't tired, hungry or sick...and this had been happening most of out trip so dh and I weren't being the most tolerant of it. Ds wanted his passport stamped at the American Adventure, but didn't want to ask, so he and dh sat down on a bench outside (grumbling at each other) and I went into the shop to get the stamp. When I came out there was Chip, making it his business to cheer up ds.....when he didn't get much of a reaction at first he sniffed ds's foot and fell to the ground! Chip then proceeded to remove ds's shoe and offer it up for smelling to the gathering crowd. Ds was giggling like crazy! It turned our day around! We figured out about a month later than ds has a sensitivity to food dyes...particularly red 40....and he had been drinking fruit punch the whole trip....rotten mood and behavior explained!

Meltdown #2:
My dd was 22mo on our last trip. Meltdowns are very common for her...at least 2-3 each day...she's an intense kid. This was the worst of our trip. We were having breakfast at the Maya Grill. DD decided she wanted to see what was at the pastry bar and was walking just a bit ahead of me (the restaurant was fairly empty and this wasn't an area where folks were carrying coffee or anything dangerous). As she got up to the pastries the man who was already there getting a muffin turned to walk away and walked right into her, knocking her down. He was profusely apologetic and I wasn't upset....she's easy enough to miss, it was an accident. She was not hurt physically. She did the usual little cry out from falling down and stopped when I picked her up....but then, just a few seconds later, began to scream. Not a hurt scream...an angry scream...a "I'm really ticked off that I got knocked over" scream. I took her outside, but it was a good long time before she calmed down. I think it was her first experience like that and she was genuinely offended and not able to understand that it was an accident...bad situation all around. And I think she would have recovered more quickly had I not been frustrated by the fact that this was the 3rd or 4th meal in so many days I'd had to interrupt to take her outside and my dh wasn't taking his share of the responsibility...I was on the verge of meltdown myself!

Precious Moment #2:
DD's first character meal when she was 6mo......she kicked and waved her arms and screeched in happiness at seeing the characters! I have a photo where her arms are a blur! There were others during our more recent trip, but this will always be one of the best!

 

[akghutton]

Just wanted to say that my husband and I will be taking our son(2) down to WDW for the first time this August. I have loved reading these postings and can't wait to experience many precious Disney moments with my husband and son. (Hopefully the meltdowns will be few and far between). Of course, usually I am the one crying that I want to stay and live a Disney World on check-out day.

Thank you all for sharing your Disney memories!

 

[MickeyMonstersMom]

I've been to WDW before, and am taking my son and daughter (not "D" yet??) in August. I'm greatly anticipating the precious moments, as well as realizing that the meltdowns may be inevitable. And given some of the accounts here, I'm sure some of those meltdowns will be mine as I watch my children experience the magic for the first time!

 

[Tiiiigergirl]

I've posted this before just ignore it if you've already seen it.

Meltdown: Our son is a special needs adopted child and on our first trip to WDW he was 7. We had toured the parks for 6 days straight commando style. By the last day his patience was wearing thin and he had idiots for parents. We kept threatening to pull him out of the park but didn't. Eventually we realized he needed a NAP and so we started to take him back to the hotel but he blew up. He screamed just at the entrance to EPCOT. He yelled that he wanted a new family and threatened to run away. It was my worst nightmare because he started to dart off. It was a good lesson for all of us to rest.

We weren't even sure if he liked the trip until after.............

Precious moment: We had taken a cruise and got a family picture. I had it displayed on our shelf. I caught him looking at it with a bemused expression on his face. He turned to me and said, "We really are a family aren't we." It made everything worth it just to hear him say that.

 

[BuzznBelle'smom]

No meltdowns to report, but a precious moment for each kid, and a joint one:

PM #1: DD was 4, it was our first trip down, I had huge misgivings about taking them in the first place. After dinner we walked into Morocco, and there was Aladdin, signing autographs. She walks up, hands him her book, and he says, "What's your name, Princess?" She walks away afterward, and in an amazed voice says, "Mom! Aladdin KNEW I was a princess!" I had tears in my eyes when I replied, "Of course he did, Sweetheart, a guy like him has to be able to spot a princess!"

PM #2: On our second trip, DS was 3. he was asked to be in Storytime with Belle, but refused--no surprised given his personality. When we went this year, he was 4, got asked again, and this time he played Gaston! He really got into it, had a great time. I was in tears because we've been through so much with this kid, I wouldn't know where to start except that we've really had to keep the faith that he'd be okay, and here was my proof that he was!

PM #3: On that second trip, DD had been waiting patiently to see the Main Street Electrical Parade--we go off season, they only run it Sat., our arrival/departure day. So, we had to go arrival day even though we'd all been up since 5 am (some of us earlier ). After, we hightailed it back to the Poly and our lagoon view room. We quickly got the kids in pajamas, explaining that it had been such a long day...when they were ready for bed, I said, "Wait, I think there's tiem for just a little more magic today." We took them out on the patio just as the castle was changing colors, and they watched the MK fireworks from the room. It just doesn't get any better than that!

 

[DisTwix]

Well -- the kids in question aren't mine, but I love them dearly and have shared in some of the best moments at Disney with them.....

Precious -
Getting walk in seating at CRT (there were SEVEN of us!!!!!) with a 3 1/2 year old princess lover - She was dressed as Snow White. The look on her face when princess after princess came over to her and sat by her - she was all round amazed eyes. It made me realize how real it all was to her - and how special it made her feel when they came over to chat with her and have their picture taken.

ALSO - a meltdown AND precious....

It was our (me, best friend, her husband and their two daughters, then 9 and 20mo's) first trip to Disney, March 2000. We wanted to kick it off properly and started the first day off with supper at Chef Mickey's. Everyone had had a long day, and the youngest LOST IT when she first spotted Goofy (her then favorite). I guess she just hadn't expected him to be 6 ft tall and hulking!!!!! Character after character came over to our table, but she wasn't having any of it. It was too much for her to take in - they were too big and too real! At any rate - it made for a long dinner. We headed back to the TTC on the Monorail, she was sitting in her stroller and looked up at me and her Mom and with her huge sad blue eyes and two blonde sprouts said,"I saw Micky. I kwied."...."I saw Goofy. I kwied." .... and on and on, every character was listed out and told about. It was as if she'd been waiting her whole life for this one moment and she blew it. It was sooooo sweet, the look on her face and the sound of her voice, it still makes me tear up. Sooooooo precious....

I love this thread.....

 

[laureng]

I'm getting tears in my eyes reading all these stories! How am I going to react when it's my own children???? And we aren't planning to go until November 2003!

Thanks so much for sharing!