For each bad thing there is something good.
That thought is never more prevalent on my mind than today. Early this morning, my grandfather had a heart attack. He's doing alright, but he's in the cardiac ICU so not entirely out of the woods. It's especially poignant for me because my other grandfather, who's no longer with us, also had a heart attack. He didn't recover.
I don't know if I've told you how much I loved, still love, my Granddad. My son looks just like him. Same color hair, similar body type. And sometimes, even, the exact same laugh. We have a picture of my Granddad from when he was a little boy and I swear, the eyes, the face, the little cheeks, are so similar to my little peanut. I get that reminder every day.
Now to have my Grandpa in the hospital just reminds me of all that. It makes me so grateful that our family was fast acting enough. That the EMTs got there in time, that he's still here. It wasn't that way for my Granddad.
I've got a weird combination of sorrow and joy going on right now. So it's in that frame of mind that I recount for you one of my favorite moments from this trip. It ranks right up there with
MNSSHP.
It was our magical moment.
And a Magical Moment, part of the Year of a Million Dreams.
And it further displays the power of matching shirts. Does anyone else miss Jiri as much as I do?
So, we left the Crystal Palace hoping to turn over a new leaf. DS was excited to go on Buzz Lightyear, so we took it as a good sign. At the end, I got his picture behind the bars with Emperor Zurg, they came out so cute. Afterwards we met Buzz over by the Carousel of Progress. DS really enjoyed that, he volunteered to get his picture taken with Buzz, which was a huge deal for the child who was so shy of characters.
Now what I hadn't told you is that we chose this day to wear our Pirate's Life for Three shirts. I must say, we looked darn cute. Everyone was complimenting them, cast members, other vacationers, it was a lot of fun. After riding the TTA, DH stopped a CM to ask her to take our picture, just the three of us. I had mentioned wanting one, there are so few from this trip. It came out great.
We weren't sure where to head next, but thought, why not try the Speedway? It's the first year that DS was tall enough, so we thought, let's give it a whirl. And he was really getting into quite a stride now, going on the rides really well, so we were going with it.
I opted to let DH and DS go on the Speedway together, for a couple of reasons. One, I thought it would be a nice bonding experience for them, and two, I wanted to take pictures! And I got some really good ones of them in that little car. DS did a good job driving, or so I'm told. Well, he loved the Speedway, so I know that when we go in December, most likely, I'll be going on and it'll be my mom taking the pictures. Unless she's brave enough to let DS drive. We'll see.
IASW had a nice short wait, so we headed on that, as I knew DS would love all the dolls. And he did. He loved the dolls, he loved the animals, he loved how colorful it was. I know the song may annoy some, and it may stick with you for the rest of the day if not several months after your trip, but I just love it. I've always loved IASW, and I always will. And to see DS loving it, well that was just great.
Now we were game.
DS had been doing so well on these rides. We'd gone on a lot in rapid succession, and he was having a good time. We thought we'd be brave.
We thought we'd be pirates.
We thought we'd try The Haunted Mansion. It deserves to be typed in full. You'll see why.
So as we're walking up, in our matching shirts, I notice a CM eyeing us. I think, oh, how nice, he's noticing our shirts. Now we're sort of pre-occupied as we're parking the stroller and whatnot, and talking to DS and telling him we're going to "find the ghosts." Now this was a huge deal. I wasn't sure how DS would feel about this ride, I wasn't sure if it was too scary for him, but he was in a good mood, I was in a good mood, and it seemed like it was now or never.
Then the CM approached my husband.
I thought oh no.
Please don't scare my son, please don't scare my son. I didn't know what was happening as DH and the CM were conversing. Until I caught two words.
"...magical moment..."
DS was offered a magical moment.
And it was. Oh, so magical.
He got to be an honorary caretaker.
I won't lie. It involved some bribery. DS was wary about the ghosts, and wasn't sure what was happening. We did what any self-respecting parents would do.
We promised candy. Oh yes. We did. We wanted this for him, and we knew he'd like it. While the Crystal Palace may have been too much, I knew this would be just right. When you know, you know. And the poor CM looked at us, and said, I don't have any candy. And we said, don't worry, we'll take care of it. But he did have something else for DS. You'll see.
We went into the servants quarters, where DH and the CM, whose name was Mike (and who was SO nice) helped DS into a mini version of the cast member costume, complete with a name tag, reading Junior Butler. They had a devil of a time getting it on him.
And just on the off chance that Mike's on the DIS, THANK YOU SO MUCH! You were awesome, and that was such a special moment for us.
Honestly, it was so cute. DS looked a little nervous, I took a ton of pictures, and there's a beautiful one of him and DH. DH made it so much fun for him, right along with Mike. Honestly, if it weren't for my DH, I don't know if we could have convinced DS that it was fun, you know? My husband has this knack for making everything good. He's just that guy. One of the reasons I love him.
When I noticed the bells hanging for the different ghosts, I commented on them.
Mike said, "Oh, yes. Those are our dead ringers."
Ba da bum.
So my little honorary caretaker, all dressed up like a Haunted Mansion CM went with Mike, with us close behind, to perform his junior butler duties. Which involved him "helping" to open the doors of the Haunted Mansion for the waiting guests. At which Mike announced to other cast members and the whole crowd, "We have a junior butler here today, helping us!"
It was simple, guys.
But it was wonderful. When it was all over, DS got a little certificate, and a free invisible dog.
Poor DS.
He wanted to know where the dog was.
Ba da bum.
So we did what any self-respecting parents would do. We told him we had to go on the ride to find the dog. Mike asks us if we'd like to skip the stretching room and we say yes. I didn't worry about how DS would react, it's more other people. If you've got a screamer in the room, it'll scare the heebity geebies out of a toddler, you know?
So we're escorted straight to board the ride.
And this is the funny part. My little boy, my honorary caretaker, such a good sport, Spiderman at the ready...kept his eyes closed for 75% of the ride. That poor thing. He didn't cry, didn't fuss, didn't yell, but didn't want to look. And we never indicated that it was scary, and nobody else did either. We were looking for ghosts, it's fun, yah! But 75% with the hands fully over the eyes. I mean, full hand coverage of eyes.
And if that's not cute, I don't know what it is. Because he finally opened his eyes during the final graveyard scene, at which point, we "found" the dog. And you know what? He wasn't even freaked out by the hitch-hiking ghosts. Go figure.
And that, my dear friends, is how you ride the Haunted Mansion.
I am not sure if it's better than the previous song Proud Mary or not....which I have had stuck in my head since I woke up this morning. 
I don't see the duct tape or the rope either. You know, you promise certain things in your PTR and then nada, zilch, zero. Pfffft. 
for your Grandfather.
