Episode 4: Panic! at the stroller parking
If you guys remember, we had last seen my stroller before riding the magic carpets. I parked it in the stroller parking by the Swiss Family Robinson Treehouse, in the area clearly marked STROLLER PARKING, in faux bamboo lettering. I had also taken the precaution of locking one of the back wheels to the frame, so that it would be a PITA to roll long distances and hopefully a foil to any would be thief.
Imagine my surprise when I walked back over to the stroller park, and did not see hide nor hair of my stroller. I looked around, I walked around the corner, I walked down near JC, but NO STROLLER! There were other strollers, but not mine. At this point I began to silently panic, oh my gosh, Ive lost my new stroller within the first hours of my trip, Mark is going to kill me after all the money I spent, what am I going to do with no stroller for the rest of the week, oh my gosh, oh my gosh, oh my gosh!
Logically I knew I had locked it, but really the g-luxe is such a lightweight stroller, it could be very easily carried away, without even rolling it. You could have probably folded it up and just carried it out of the MK easy-peasy.
At this point my phone is ringing and its my mom, she is standing in front of the CP and wondering where we are. My words come out all in one giant rush- OHMYGOSH I LOST THE STROLLER, IDONTKNOW WHERE IT IS, IT MIGHT BE STOLEN ! At which point my mom tells me to calm down and that she would come help me look for it. I started wandering further afield, down past the dreaded water tikis of doom, down to the stroller parking outside of Pirates (nope not there) and eventually wandered under the awning of pirates, in a last ditch effort to find my stroller.
There, off to the left, in a kinda obscure corner, was my stroller! It was like the clouds parted and the angels sang and I was *this close* to getting down on my knees and hugging it! Oh stroller, let us never be parted again!
It still baffles me why some CM decided to drag my stroller (with the locked back wheel) all the way from the legit stroller parking at the treehouse, to the dubious looking stroller parking at pirates. I cant tell you how many times Ive seen CM moving strollers OUT from under the over hang at pirates to the clearly marked stroller parking outside. Why on earth would someone do the opposite!
Oh well, I called my mom to let her know that the stroller was safely recovered and we met up on the bridge to adventureland en route to CP.
We were a little early for our ADR ,which I managed to snag at the very last minute due to extreme ADR stalking (airing on TLC this fall
)- but Everett was fading fast and I went to check us in to see if they could seat us early.
The woman was very nice about it, and told us she would see what she could do, and not two minutes after receiving our pager it was going off and we were ushered inside.
Now, I know I should have been taking pictures, but I was hungry (third trimester- dont judge!
), and I knew we had a limited window with Everett being amenable to eating, so I put the camera away and concentrated on getting everyone fed.
The characters started coming around quickly, but honestly, Everett wanted to part of them. It wasnt that he was scared, he was just tired and cranky, and frankly not interested- which pretty much persisted throughout the trip. If I asked him if he wanted to meet a character his response was always No, I fine, but if a character went up to him, he very happily interacted with him. This might be a spoiler, but the Chef Mickey characters were much better at this than the Pooh characters at CP. The characters at CP just seemed so rushed that I waved them on, not even bothering to try.
I made my first trip to the buffet for DS, bringing back kid friendly staples such as mac and cheese and chicken strips. I got the DVD player set up, and DS chose the Aristocats, and very happily ate his food while watching his beloved kitty cats. While I started feeding DS, my mom when and got her first plate and then we switched.
I had never had dinner there before, and I was surprised at how much I enjoyed it . I didnt have high expectations, but I loved the edamame salad with ginger and seaweed, and the peel and eat shrimp werent bad either. The buffet wasnt anything overwhelmingly spectacular, but it wasnt awful and Id certainly eat there again. My mom pretty much agreed with me, even though she stuck with more pedestrian fare like salad and roasted turkey.
One part Everett really did enjoy was the Friendship day parade. At first he didnt seem like he wanted any part of it, but when he saw the other kids lined up and marching, well that sealed the deal. He always wants to do what other kids are doing. He and my mom got up and marched around with Pooh and friends, and he had the biggest grin on his face.
We then had dessert (once again I blanked on what we were eating, what can I say, dining reviews arent my thing), settled the bill and were on our way. Id say we were in and out in a little over an hour, wed probably have been out earlier if I wasnt dead set on eating my weight in shrimp (third trimester- dont judge!) .
Me and DS on the way out
When we left the Halloween party had started so we made our way out quickly. I did make one stop at city hall to buy the tickets for the Halloween party on the 28th, and Im really glad I did because it ended up selling out! I was able to buy five tickets with the military discount, for me, my mom, and my friends Bryan, Amy and Shane.
We then hopped on the monorail and in no time we were back at our CR room (oh how I was spoiled!).
Now came the trickiest part of the evening- putting Everett to bed. While me and DS were at the MK, my mom had set up the daybed, cleverly using all available furniture to rig a bedrail across the top of the daybed (so he wouldnt fall out the top), and also one on the side of the daybed (so he wouldnt fall out the side). He seemed pretty happy with the results and climbed right in.
The only problem was that he showed no sign of actually wanting to lay down and go to sleep. He kept talking and singing and popping his head up to look at me, and finally I got the idea that if I pretended to go to sleep, he might do the same. My mom had already left the room to go sit in the lounge log into work and she what she missed in the evening, and I turned out all the lights and got into bed myself.
That did the trick, even though he tossed and turned for a bit, he did lay down and eventually fell asleep- success!
My mom came back a little later and both of us were able to go outside on the balcony to watch Hallowishes, which was indescribably awesome. Being able to watch from the comfort of your balcony, with your little man tucked away in dreamland inside was beyond my wildest expectations. I did worry a little that the fireworks would wake him, but he slept right through.
I couldnt believe that I managed to stay awake that late after an early morning and busy afternoon, and I soon joined DS in snoozeland. I did have a nagging worry in the back of my head that he wouldnt sleep through the night, but my fears were unfounded, I didnt hear a peep from him until 7am! Which is very close to a world record sleep in for my DS!
Next up- a whole day at MK!
I think we're going to be the same way this time with the Dumbo/Carpets/Triceratops. I wouldn't have thought he'd remember our trip last year that well, but he knows we're going soon and all he talks about is how he's "cited to ride Dumbo."
I can't fault you for that. You've got to do what you've got to do. Otherwise you're the evil, horrible parent who is bothering everyone else around you. 
)
and to think he doesn't realize he has years of this ahead of him... He is too cute...
That Contemporary.
