... Breath Taking

There is no other way to describe the events of this day. Yes we had to wake up early to get to breakfast at 7:30 but it was so worth it. Saturday, March 14th, we were able to splurge with some of the money given to us by Make-a-Wish and get reservations for Chef Mickey's. It's a 

"character" breakfast at one of the Disney Hotels. The meal was buffet style, great food, and Mickey, Minnie, Donald, Goofy and Pluto came around to every table to say hi, give hugs, sign autograph books, and pose for photos. Every 20 minutes or so a song would come on that all the characters would come out and dance to too. It was so great. The kids hardly ate their breakfast but truly enjoyed the company. Bill and I enjoyed the food and the smiles.

  

Because we had already parked the car at the hotel we decided to take the tram to the Magic Kingdom for part of the day because Olivia had an appointment that day with the princesses. 

 Fortunately we left Livi's sunglasses at the restaurant so we got to ride the tram twice around the entire park! YAY! Once we finally got through the gates Olivia wanted to watch the musical on Main St again and then we got caught at Cinderella's Castle with a full 

production of "Believing in your Dreams" complete with Mallefocent (the wicked Queen from Sleeping Beauty) and other main Disney characters... yes even several of the princesses. Aaron was excited to see Peter Pan as well, whom he had met the previous day. It was a great showcase that ended with fireworks and loud cheers, of course. (Seeing all of these things was a huge bonus to getting the park as it opened.) 

From there it was off to Thunder Mountain to repeat the thrills from yesterday. Much to our dismay, as stated before, Aaron was not allowed this time around. Livi and I rode it and loved  

it. Once Aaron and I worked through our tears of frustration and heartbreak, we went off to Toon Town. On our way across the park we stopped for a quick ride in "It's a Small World", some characters' autographs and bought Disney Pins for the kids backpacks while Bill looked in to a Disney Vacation Membership. Bill's always looking out for our future. (We decided to get pins everywhere the kids go as a souvenir. So far they have the Statue of Liberty for our New York trip, Washington D.C., Savannah, Georgia, Chicago, and now Minnie and Mickey for Orlando. I'd say

it's a pretty impressive collection, especially at their age.) Once we got to Toon Town Aaron quickly forgot his woes and was excited to see Pete the cat's face plastered all about. (He say's, "No Pete mean. I like Pete." He's probably the only kid who does!) We decided to ride Goofy's barnyard roller coaster. We got the cast member who was to take us to the proper place in line, 

using Livi's pass when all of a sudden Livi is bent over the chain hurling into the dirt. She had been saying her tummy felt bad and that was why she didn't eat breakfast. We assumed she was over tired, hot, and dehydrated. We had gotten a complimentary stroller for the day and she had been drinking water and staying out of the sun. ??? We got her cleaned up and she agreed to take it easy until, 5 minutes later, and then she wanted to ride the ride. We calmly talked her out of it bribing her with Minnie's house and then we were off to meet the Princesses. 

   

The princesses, Cinderella, Aurora, and Belle were in a meet and greet area where families could wait in line to meet them, have pictures and autographs. They also had Tinker Bell and two other fairies from the new movie sensation, Rosetta and Silver Mist. The village had given us a pass that we were to give to the cast members to get Livi right in to have a special time with them. Olivia was nervous and extremely excited. When she's nervous and excited she shuts down and doesn't respond. The cast member helping us was getting all worked up and excited for her and she was showing no interest let alone excitement. He mentioned that Aaron seemed more excited than she. She looked at me with those all telling eyes and I understood. The fairies, we all went right in to, and amidst the other children that were in there the kids were able to get some face time. 

The princesses, well, that's another story. Aaron needed to use the restroom. (Side note, we are

 so lucky that we didn't have to deal with any baby stuff! YAY!) While Aaron and Daddy were gone they came out to get us for the princesses. They noticed that Aaron was missing and asked me if we wanted to wait. I knew that Aaron would love seeing the princesses and so agreed to wait. They came back to get us a while later and Dad and Aaron still weren't back. Less than a minute later our boys were back but then there was a shift change (at least it seemed so), people that were in line were coming and going and our kids had fallen asleep in our laps! After almost an hour I

asked someone if they had any plans to get us back and within 2 minutes 

 they were back to get us. Aaron and Bill didn't go in after all, we didn't want to wake Aaron. Livi loved it. She was in there all by herself and got quite the special attention. She met with each of the three princesses and each of them gave her kisses. They also took photos and signed both the kids autograph books. Then with both cheeks and forehead covered in differing shades of pink she took pictures with all three. They even drug me into one of the pictures. It was really cute listen to her converse with the princesses. They kept asking how old she was and laughing at the maturity of her answers/comments given.

We woke up Aaron and Dad and then we were off to Downtown Disney. Princess Olivia had another appointment at 3:00 at the Bibbidy Bobbidy Boutique. The Wish foundation had scheduled a complete princess transformation. Livi was not looking great. We told her that she didn't have to do it if she didn't want to. We could do other fun things. (I felt like the mom at the amusement park carrying the ton of souvenirs and cotton candy in one hand while dragging the lifeless child behind me. I didn't want to be that mom.) Olivia was insistent and so I carried her hurriedly and she sometimes walked slowly to get to our destination. Which happened to be at the complete opposite end of downtown from where Bill and I had thought. He dropped us off and by the time we got to the Boutique, in the Disney Store, Bill and Aaron were right on our heels. Both Dad and Mom very winded and needing a spa treatment of our own. 

 

 We wanted Aaron to have a little fun so we signed him up for a Pirate's Package which was hairstyling with color and glitter. Aaron loved it. The attention for him was spectacular, the

photographer didn't hurt. He even had a Mickey Mouse head painted on to the back of his head. He got a lot of attention for the rest of the evening. Olivia was set to get the royal treatment. The idea behind the boutique is that the workers are "Fairy Godmother's in training." (It was really cute. All the ladies could guess who kisses Livi where by the color of lipstick on her face.) She chose to be Belle and because of her short hair we opted for the Belle wig as opposed to a hairstyle. A changing room was set up and she walked in having her breath taken away. She literally gasped at the sight. Everything was laid out so nicely and with such importance. I helped

her get dressed in her ball gown and decide which "slippers" would be best. (Originally she chose the gold flip flops to match the dress and so that everyone could see her pretty toenails but then changed to the rainbow slippers because the flip flops hurt between her toes.) She climbed into the salon chair, that they turned away from the mirror and the transformation continued. Make up, jewels just to the side of her eyes, manicure... the whole 10 yards. Then the wig. I cried. There were other moms watching their daughters get different things done. They said, "Oh, are you not used to seeing her with long hair?" Probably thinking I'm a sap. I said, "No, I'm not used to seeing her with hair. This is part of her Wish." They got a little teary eyed as well. When

the chair was turned around her face was beyond words. She truly saw herself as a princess. It was... priceless, breath taking. There 

 been a photographer there taking pictures the whole time. He got some great shots. She was in heaven. (This picture on the left was a first glance into the mirror.) She was even doing the head toss/shoulder shrug/finger flip to get the long hair out of her face. Aaron ran up to her spun the chair around, looked at me and said, "Where's my Livi?" It was fantastic! Then we were off to her photo shoot. So cute! After the shoot, we picked out the photos we wanted and then walked outside to wait for Bill and Aaron. She started crying and shared with me how much she missed Grandma. I knew it was coming. Whenever she has a really special moment, something near and dear to her heart, she feels very close to my mom and starts to miss her more. It definitely tugged at my heart strings. (I'm sure me crying in the salon didn't help. She's smart. She knows why I cried. She knows Grandma went through it too and would've loved to have seen that moment on this earth.) 

DISCLAIMER: Much to my dismay we had not charged the camera the night before so the pictures of this evenings events were extremely limited.  Good thing the ushers at the show only had to tell me once to put the camera away. I only had enough battery for two pics. Thank goodness for scanners and the internet.

We got things settled, quickly found a deli/cafe for dinner and chowed. We had a show to see and had to pick up our tickets at 5:30. It was 4:30 and it was clear back on the other side of downtown. By this time Olivia's shoes had already been switched back to her Crocs, her wig and crown had come off, and Aaron's multi colored painted/glitter confetti flecked hair had already smudged onto Bill's shorts! The sandwiches were delicious. Livi still was not feeling up to par so she ate some yogurt and granola, which was also delicious. During dinner Olivia asked, very timidly, if she could change back into her regular clothes. No problem. She was itchy and didn't feel very comfortable. She's very much into functional fashion, as am I.

We arrived in time to pick up our tickets to the show, very exhausted, but ready for the show. We had purchased tickets to Cirque du Soleil's La Nouba. I didn't know at the time of booking but we had purchased front row seats. !!! I told Bill, if anyone has a chance to go to Orlando

and only do one thing, whether it be a park or whatever, they should definitely see this show. It was the most amazing entertainment of my life. Our seats were out of this world, even though our necks got a little sore. The tightrope was directly over our head, as well as the trapeze net. The "sheet guy" as I called him ran and flew with his feet a near 5 feet over our heads. INCREDIBLE! There were 4 little Asian girls who did these AMAZING tricks with sticks and string tossing spools into the air!!!  Guys in circle things, on bikes. Trampolinists, people walking up the sides of buildings, balancing acts, ballet...I'm going to stop right there because as I sit and think about it my mind is a whirlwind of color and sound and... AAAWWWWW! Words, no matter how talented one may be, could not do the performance justice. Olivia, admittedly, did fall asleep from sheer exhaustion at one point but Aaron applauded the entire time.

Of course our night ended with ice cream back at the village and sweet dreams.

Yes, breath taking is a good way to describe this day.

... Magic Kingdom

I have been somewhat avoiding this, my journal, knowing that this particular post would be really hard. There were so many things that we did and of course zillions of photos... 947 to be exact... I knew this post would take a lot of my time. That being said, here goes nothing.

Friday morning, March 13th, we arrived Thursday evening, Bill and I woke up extra early to go run. We had both agreed that we didn't want our exercise routine get away from us especially with all the food that would be so freely at our fingertips. It was weird that at 6:30 am it was still dark! The sun didn't even start to rise until 7. (At home it's getting light at 6.) I didn't particularly like running in the dark, especially in a new place. I didn't listen to music so I could be more alert. I always wonder when I'm running outside, "What would I do/be cable of doing if someone was to come up and attack me from behind?" Normally I think I could do a pretty good job of defending myself, I'm pretty fit, but when I run... it takes all my energy... would I have any to fight back? I digress... I'm in a thoughtful, yet weird mood tonight. Anyways, back to the fun.

Oh yeah, by the way, the week got so full, that was the first and the last time we ran for the duration of the trip.

Friday was a full day at Disney World's Magic Kingdom. Mistake #1: waking the kids up. They were on PST, basically we, I, woke them up at 5 am. Livi bounced right out no problem. Aaron had to be roused a couple of times, finally slipped out of bed and then laid back down on the floor. Bill advised me against it but I let my excitement control me and well, we headed to breakfast at the Gingerbread House.

The drive to the park took about 30 minutes, not bad, and as soon as I started seeing signs of our destination I could hardly contain myself. Bill even was nice enough to slow down on my request so I could take pictures of our entrance. As soon as the kids saw Mickey and the other Clubhouse characters they lit right up. 

We parked our car, rode the train/cart to the "port", took the ferry across the lake, and then, then we were there. At the "Happiest Place on Earth"! WOW! It was great weather, with just enough humidity to de-intensify the sun. We got through the ticket turnstile, Livi using her "Minnie  ticket", Aaron his Mickey, and us with Goofy. I took the fam straight to the first souvenir shop we saw, not even inside the gates, and had them pick out an autograph book and pen. At first I was trying to look for less expensive items, then remembered... "We don't have to do that this trip!" Thank you Make-a-Wish!!! Livi got a Minnie book with a Tinkerbelle pen and Aaron the "classic autograph book" and a Mickey pen. We stuck them in my backpack 

and we were off. From then, everything is a little bit of a blur. We watched the Disney cast members do a musical performance on Main St. USA. I don't know who I watched more, the dancers, or Olivia. And so went the trip. Everything that I loved was magnified 10 fold in my daughter's eyes.  Even Aaron was caught up in the magic and really came alive. (To this day, cliche or not, he is a very different little boy. As if all the anxiety of the past year was washed away by all of the amazing things he was able to experience. Daily, now, we look into eachother's eyes and smile. I can't explain it. All the frustrations that have been there are gone. I have found the love for my sweet little boy that I have been so longing for, and he has let himself be open to the love of his family. Where before he would pick at and torment for attention, now he plays and laughs. We've all noticed the change, and it is a welcome sight.)

As we made our way into the park we ventured around Cinderella's castle and saw her Fairy

Godmother standing in the shade of it's beauty. This was their first of many autographs/photo opps with the Disney characters. Olivia and I dutifully wore our Give Kids the World and Make a Wish buttons respectively and so it was noticed why we were "Celebrating" for our visit. The Fairy Godmother planted a big kiss right on Livi's forehead, where it stayed for quite a bit of the day. (I didn't think much of it, but toward the end of the trip I realized... I didn't see any other girls with kisses.) Very special. Everyone of the cast members commented on it too. Knowing that it was from either the princesses or Fairy Godmother. 

Off to the rides! I believe the first ride that my kids have ever ridden at Disney would be the Snow White and the Seven Dwarf's ride. (I'll have to check on that.) I know the first "ones" we rode were that one, Pooh Bear, and Dumbo. Bill did his part to help and wore a purple lanyard around his neck that the village had given us. It held our tickets, for safe keeping but also, and "handicapped" pass for Olivia. We were able to go in either the handicapped lane which cut our wait time to practically nothing. The longest we waited for a ride was maybe 10 minutes and that was for Dumbo. After waiting in line for the Fairy Godmother's autograph the cast member also told us that because Livi was Make-A-Wish, we didn't have to wait in the character lines either. That's when the purple lanyard got passed to me. Understandably Bill felt awkward cutting in front of people so blatantly. I too felt weird about it until I saw a little girl Olivia's age trying to brush her long hair out of her face. I surprisingly almost started to cry and told Bill, "You know what? I don't feel bad. These parents can be happy all they have to do is wait in a line when I waited in the hospital for days wondering if my child was even going to live." I was happy to wear the lanyard in the character lines. A bit self-righteous, maybe, but I guess no one can judge till they've stood in my shoes. I was and still am grateful to all the people who recognize challenges as simply that. They can't take the 

pain away, but they sure can add to the pleasure. A couple of times, lines would be short and so we'd wait like everyone else, until a cast member saw the Make-A-Wish button and then would usher us to the front anyways. Everything was so great!

I was amazed at the wonderment placed into our children's eyes as they experienced "It's a Small World" for the first time. Needless to say once was not enough.

Bill and I were itching to ride some "bigger" rides and so talked the kids into the "Haunted Mansion". We practiced our spooky laughs while waiting to try to take the edge of the anticipation off. It worked. I still get scared from that ride. At times I don't know if I was making jokes about it for mine of Olivia's sake. Aaron rode with Daddy and did rather well himself. We tried to keep it even. One cutesy ride for every grown up ride. They did really well. "We told them it's good to go on all the rides so you can see ALL of Disney World." They ate it up. Pirates of the Caribbean was fun. The drop was exhilarating for us all and we were able to enjoy the gift shop at the end. Aaron got the gun, Livi, got sunglasses.

   

More character signings and then the Jungle Cruise. It was great to go on for nostalgic

purposes as well as the fun. My mom LOVED the Jungle Cruise. I remember her talking about how hilarious the tour guide was. Their jokes are so corny, hearing the banter reminded me of my mom. The kids loved it. And then just in the nick of time, great seats for the parade. The parade was spectacular. The song was so great, as all Disney songs are. It said, "It's the time of your life..." and it was. Some of the classic cartoon characters were on floats as well as the princesses with their princes. They even had an evil villains' float. With every princess that came Olivia's mouth 

dropped more and more. She just about fell over when Prince Charming, Snow White's man, blew a kiss to HER! I cried. Sappy I know, but come on. My little girl's dream was so real for those 

moments. She even gasped and raised her hands to her face at the surprise of it all. More than one princess was caught by Livi's gaze. They all did such a fabulous job at making eye contact and recognizing the individual children that were there. Aaron spent the duration of 

 the parade on Bill's shoulders and was quite content. 

Add to the euphoria a little reality and the kids had a meltdown around 3:00. We snapped out of it with a tease of a roller coaster and a few more rides. Aaron was convinced that he was going to do Splash Mountain. He kept saying, over and over, "It's not scary. Me no scared." He settled for Thunder Mountain. The kids loved it. Aaron technically was 2 inches too small but the worker didn't mind and let him on. (The next day his heart was broken in a million pieces when the new worker "did" his job and said no to him. He cried his sad little tears saying, "It's not fair." I cried too. He was right, it wasn't fair. Stick to the same rules everyday.) Regardless, we all loved it, and can't wait 'til Aaron is the coveted height of 40" to ride all the rides. (Or at least most of them.)

We ventured over to Tomorrow Land where the kids got their "licenses and we drove the race

cars. Aaron was so proud of himself, at the end of the race he "bumped mommy" with his car. He thought it was hilarious. (And talk about skill, I took this picture of Livi and I while driving. I'm 

 getting real good at the self photography thing.) The kids and I also flew the rockets up on top of a building. The three of us got to sit together and had a great time. It was the end of a long day and I wasn't so sure I could handle another round and round, Bill knew he couldn't, so I gave it a try. I'm glad I did. It was really nice. Much

better than Dumbo. And a great view. We also got to cool down on the "Laugh Floor". This was FANTASTIC. We all laughed out loud for the entire show. It's from "Monster's INC" and it's different monsters on screen interacting with the audience. Bill and I were amazed at the technology of it all. They did jokes with the audience members as if the comedic monster was live on stage. Aaron was sitting on my lap and the monster/comedian said, "And how about this two headed monster over here?..." A live feed of Aaron and I was put up on the big screen. He asked about where we were from and made some jokes about it. We had a blast. Bill and I agreed that it was nice for Aaron to be in the spotlight.

 

As we left the park there was another parade happening in front of the castle. We stopped to watch and then it turned into a street dance. They pulled the audience into the street and we got to dance right along with the cast members. They were sweating buckets, but looked as if they were having the time of their lives. We surely did. Kudos to Bill for sacrificing his mad dance skills and standing on the sidelines to take pictures for us. We love you Daddy!

We drove back to the village with the intention of getting to bed early. We had 7:30 breakfast reservations with Mickey and the gang on Saturday. But when there's basketball hoops and ice cream who can think of going to bed before 10!