It could be worse

Most of my adult life I have been a glass half full gal. So it should come as no surprise that with parenting I view all situations with an "it could have been worse " moto. Raising 3 neuro-typical children and 1 special needs child I have plenty of opportunities to say this to myself. Most recently Caroline ran up from the basement where the kids had been playing to tell me Mitchell was sticking his head in the toilet and he didn't he any clothes on. What could have been worse? In my mind worse would be if he had gone to the bathroom before hand and kept his clothes on so they are now soaked. But being the neat person he is these days and I'm sure thinking ahead for mommy's reaction (ha ha) the toilet was clean and his clothes were dry enough to put right back on after a stepping into the shower. I think if I didn't see things the way I would have lost my mind a long time ago. Yesterday when Mitchell decided to pee through the second floor railing all over the couch, it could have been worse how? Easy, if someone was sitting on the couch.. No one was hurt in the incident and it sets a pretty low standard for the rest of my day.

Letter to the Editor

Since my recent letter to Lockport Legend has been published I feel it is a good time to share what happened to us. As you will read, DCFS came to our house on March 27 - Mitchell's 6th birthday. We do not know what prompted the call to the hotline the weekend prior nor do we have confirmation of who made that call, we likely will never know. I have decided it is time I start making people aware of what special needs families live with. Mitchell has Autism and it's not going away. I have a voice and I am going to put it to good use.

7:40 ~ Time To Turn Off The Lights

Most nights for the last 3 months Mitchell likes to turn off all the lights in the house at 7:40pm. It beats running around the house at 9:00pm flipping all the lights on but it's still annoying. We have done homework by flashlight, held cub scout meetings in the dark and tonight I got to clean a bathroom by memory, in the dark. It's humorous because Steven and Caroline just yell "oh Mitchell" and continue what they are doing without sight until he has moved onto another room. Just another adjustment we make at Ivey central.

T.B.I.F. - Disney's Coming to an End

I know we returned home 2 months ago but I've been a little preoccupied to finish documenting our trip.

Too Bad It's Friday - the end of our vacation is near. The forecast called for rain and we needed to check out some more sights at Animal Kingdom. I've visited the park on rainy days before and it usually clears out quickly but there are still things to do in the rain. Lucky for us since it was a doozy of a day. Our first stop in the park is the Lion King. The show was about to start and we got rock star spots in the front, thanks to Mitchell, the makings of a good event. have you ever seen the show? So worth it. The kids all enjoyed it and in accordance with all things Disney, it was the just the right length to tell the story but not lose the little ones in the middle. The powerful songs sung by powerful voices really draw you in.

After the show we started toward Expedition Everest for fast passes. The ride is all the way on the other side of the park at a dead end so you have no choice but to go grab your passes then backtrack to another attraction and return later for your turn. UGH. I think everyone saves Animal Kingdom for the end of their trip so if you miss it, oh well. The streets are narrow and I finding the signs difficult to follow, might just be me, but I think they like you wandering around because then you'll be hungry and thirsty and your kids will want ice cream.

We wound our way through the crowds and happened upon a trail around the backside of the Tree of Life. It was quiet and gave a great view of the carvings. We checked out a bug exhibit and looked at the tree through an insects eyes - all of them. hee hee.

After we snagged our fast passes we headed to DinoLand for lunch. What a zoo that restaurant is. I am finally getting the hang of the meal plan tho and picked up some juices instead of desserts, a tip I learned Thursday night and everyone had an item they would eat. Caroline and Steven both won a stuffed animal at the arcade games and we enjoyed our non-wait at the TriceraTop Spin. Caroline finally got to ride the Primeval Whirl as she was too short at our last visit. I forced Steve on it, even though it is a coaster it spins like a tilt-a-whirl and would end my day quickly. It's similar the the Ragin Cajun at Six Flags and I was spinning for a long time after the ride stopped. It is time for Caroline & I to search for the Yeti so we walk to Everest Expedition. So very exciting when you see all the warnings listed on who should not ride this attraction. One that stuck out for me was motion sickness which I found odd because it's a roller coaster and doesn't spin. Well I should have paid more attention to the Disney infomercials that run 24/7 at the resort because I would have seen the ride shoots backwards up and down a hill in the dark. My stomach is dropping just thinking of it now. Fortunately the ride ended soon after that and Caroline excited with "that was awesome, can we do it again?" "Not today honey, oh look the rain is picking up." It held off for most of the day but it was pouring now. Seems like a good time for the Kali River Rapids and also a good time to remember we left Steve with all the rain gear and the plastic baggy for my phone. We didn't want to waste time finding them so we went on the ride anyway, we were already soaked and now know that folding your phone in the Animal Kingdom map will protect it from rain and rapids at the same time. Just a tip for you. Steve tried to get us to put on coats after the ride but it didn't make sense to me so I took Grace to meet Winnie the Pooh and Friends and we played some more at the Boneyard Excavation site.

We said good-bye to Animal Kingdom and drove to Epcot to hit a few favorites there and try some new ones. Battling fires at Innovations geared up the kids for a new Kim Possible Mission. We traveled to France to meet Marie and continued with beer in England, dinner in Japan supplemented with fries from United States were my cashier was from Moraine Valley Community College. Then we topped off our jaunt around the world with funnel cake.

The kids wanted to ride Nemo again and go up into "the ball" again so we ended our night in Future World. Steven finds it cool that the guy who invented our ipad, iphones and MacBook is now featured in Spaceship Earth and the Caroline like that the Cleopatra looking Egyptian is wearing a dress just like the one she got from Aunt Jeanna and Uncle Scott for her birthday from Caesar's Palace. I really hate leaving a park knowing we won't be back for a while, darn it.