![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
Some quick housekeeping first: just after I wrote my last entry, I opened the Valentine's Day card Kris sent along with my. I figured it was after midnight so it was technically the 14th, and I really needed to smile. And I did smile. A lot.
It absolutely killed me the night before I left on vacation, when Kris came over and as she was leaving she gave me the card. I couldn't say a word; it looked like I was a total loser, completely forgetting to have a card for her as well. What she didn't know was that two weeks earlier I had gone to the florist up the street from her office to order flowers to be delivered. I went locally so that I could fill out a card in my own handwriting. So *I* knew I had V-Day covered, but she didn't know. Ah well, such is the pain of a devious mind.
So anyway, opening the card from Kris really made my day.
The next morning we got up and all headed off to The Magic Kingdom for a third day. Ben was overjoyed. It was beautiful, warm, and sunny. He went skipping onto Main Street and wanted to go right to Fantasyland. There's a shock. Snow White. FastPass for Pooh. Peter Pan was closed due to mechanical problems. Haunted House. Then lunch at Cinderella's castle. It was during lunch we discovered that Ben was starting to get frustrated because his headphones were shorting out. He wore the headphones as a way to calm himself, particularly on the water rides, and now they were not working. I went off in search of either replacement headphones or else some wire strippers and electrical tape to repair the existing ones.
The folks at Town Hall (where guest relations is located) were spectacular. I explained the situation, and they sent for an engineer right away. He came up, we tried to repair the headphones, but it turned out the wires were too fine and we just weren't going to be able to fix it without solder. Since repair was out and there is nowhere in the park that sells headphones, I hopped a monorail to the Contemporary Hotel and took a bus from there to Downtown Disney. I picked up some new headphones at Virgin, and then bussed back to the park. I caught up with Sara and Ben in Adventureland as they were coming off of Pirates (he teared up again, but not as badly). We went on the Jungle Cruise, and as we stood in line Ben put on his new headphones. Sara said he was noticably calmer now that he had them on.
The rest of the day was good. I think Ben went on Snow White four or five times that last day, plus at least twice on Peter Pan once it opened. One of the things about the Magic Kingdom is that even on busy days the rides really clear out in the last hour or so as people move back over towards Main Street to watch the fireworks at closing. That means you are able to pretty much walk on most of the rides, and Ben took great advantage of that fact. Seeing him communicate where he wanted to go in that last hour, combined with his identifying of the pictures by name the day before, cemented in my mind that moving there is the right thing to do. This is a massive lever that can move his world and teach him social interaction on a grand scale.
That night in the hotel room Ben saw everyone packing and was not happy with the idea. He kept taking Sara into the bathroom and trying to get her to sit down there so he could run into the other room and unpack. What a kid.
In the morning we did our final packing and left the hotel. We had enough time, so we decided to drive through Celebration before heading to the airport. It was a beautiful town, and I hope to live there someday.
The flight home was blessedly uneventful. We cleared security without a problem and were not singled out for any additional screening. Ben was very patient the whole day, and never got upset at all. He sat on the plane listening to music or watching movies, and was was very happy the whole time. We finally arrived in Seattle, and Riff was right there waiting for us with my car.
Overall it was a good week. I didn't really get to do the rides I would have liked to, but at some point I will go back to the parks just for me without having Ben to worry about. Now I am home, and have a pile of laundry to do and a stack of mail to read. Oh joy.
It absolutely killed me the night before I left on vacation, when Kris came over and as she was leaving she gave me the card. I couldn't say a word; it looked like I was a total loser, completely forgetting to have a card for her as well. What she didn't know was that two weeks earlier I had gone to the florist up the street from her office to order flowers to be delivered. I went locally so that I could fill out a card in my own handwriting. So *I* knew I had V-Day covered, but she didn't know. Ah well, such is the pain of a devious mind.
So anyway, opening the card from Kris really made my day.
The next morning we got up and all headed off to The Magic Kingdom for a third day. Ben was overjoyed. It was beautiful, warm, and sunny. He went skipping onto Main Street and wanted to go right to Fantasyland. There's a shock. Snow White. FastPass for Pooh. Peter Pan was closed due to mechanical problems. Haunted House. Then lunch at Cinderella's castle. It was during lunch we discovered that Ben was starting to get frustrated because his headphones were shorting out. He wore the headphones as a way to calm himself, particularly on the water rides, and now they were not working. I went off in search of either replacement headphones or else some wire strippers and electrical tape to repair the existing ones.
The folks at Town Hall (where guest relations is located) were spectacular. I explained the situation, and they sent for an engineer right away. He came up, we tried to repair the headphones, but it turned out the wires were too fine and we just weren't going to be able to fix it without solder. Since repair was out and there is nowhere in the park that sells headphones, I hopped a monorail to the Contemporary Hotel and took a bus from there to Downtown Disney. I picked up some new headphones at Virgin, and then bussed back to the park. I caught up with Sara and Ben in Adventureland as they were coming off of Pirates (he teared up again, but not as badly). We went on the Jungle Cruise, and as we stood in line Ben put on his new headphones. Sara said he was noticably calmer now that he had them on.
The rest of the day was good. I think Ben went on Snow White four or five times that last day, plus at least twice on Peter Pan once it opened. One of the things about the Magic Kingdom is that even on busy days the rides really clear out in the last hour or so as people move back over towards Main Street to watch the fireworks at closing. That means you are able to pretty much walk on most of the rides, and Ben took great advantage of that fact. Seeing him communicate where he wanted to go in that last hour, combined with his identifying of the pictures by name the day before, cemented in my mind that moving there is the right thing to do. This is a massive lever that can move his world and teach him social interaction on a grand scale.
That night in the hotel room Ben saw everyone packing and was not happy with the idea. He kept taking Sara into the bathroom and trying to get her to sit down there so he could run into the other room and unpack. What a kid.
In the morning we did our final packing and left the hotel. We had enough time, so we decided to drive through Celebration before heading to the airport. It was a beautiful town, and I hope to live there someday.
The flight home was blessedly uneventful. We cleared security without a problem and were not singled out for any additional screening. Ben was very patient the whole day, and never got upset at all. He sat on the plane listening to music or watching movies, and was was very happy the whole time. We finally arrived in Seattle, and Riff was right there waiting for us with my car.
Overall it was a good week. I didn't really get to do the rides I would have liked to, but at some point I will go back to the parks just for me without having Ben to worry about. Now I am home, and have a pile of laundry to do and a stack of mail to read. Oh joy.