Encouraging Words

Kaitlyn just finished her second appointment with the developmental pediatrician. The first was more of a Q&A for me followed by an actual physical exam of Kaitlyn last week. I guess she needs to rule out that there's anything physically wrong with Kaitlyn that could be causing her speech delay. So, for the first visit, she examed Kaitlyn, but her behavior wasn't the focus.

Today's appointment was all about behavior. She had 2 questionnaires that she was kind of going along with and filling them out as Kaitlyn did or did not do things (not much of the latter though which was great). She had Kaitlyn try to stack as many 1x1 inch blocks as she could. She got out a spoon and a small cup along with a doll to see if Kaitlyn would "feed" the baby. She had a shape sorter to see if Kaitlyn could put the shapes in the holes. She wasn't expecting at this age that Kaitlyn would know which hole but if we told her which hole, she wanted to see if Kaitlyn could push them through. She had a three piece puzzle (a square, triangle and circle) to see if Kaitlyn could do the puzzle. She had Kaitlyn color. You get the idea....lots of different things to see what she would do and how she would respond.

I was so proud of Kaitlyn. She did everything the doctor wanted so well. Obviously she got tripped up here and there and needed more than one try, but there wasn't one single task that she just out right refused to do. She didn't get fussy sitting in the chair for an hour either. And she impressed me....we don't have 1x1 blocks. We knew that she could stack larger blocks, but since we don't own smaller ones, we never had tried. She got 4 blocks stacked. It took her a time or two to get all the way up to 4 because her tower would get shaky since she wasn't putting them right on top of each other. But she kept trying. She didn't show frustration. That was something the doctor said she was watching too...did Kaitlyn give up on things or did she keep trying. She's my Little Engine That Could. Every task (shape sorter, puzzle, etc), she kept trying.

Oh, and I've got to toot my Little Engine's horn here for one minute. I think the second task was one where she flipped pages in a picture book and pointed at something and said, "What's this?" Kaitlyn didn't miss a single one!!!! She got them all!!!! This doctor had no idea which words we've worked on and which ones we haven't, but as luck would have it, she picked words that Kaitlyn knew, and Kaitlyn performed to the task. There was one page with foods on it. I was happy the doctor picked banana. She doesn't know broccoli (which was on there), and apple was on there. Nicole knows apple, but I'm not sure Kaitlyn does. But anyway...Kaitlyn said every word that was asked of her!!!!

Great going Kaitlyn!

So, anyway, because of all the mess with my insurance company, I had to trade spots with another mom who wanted to get in sooner. The doctor's office was super accommodating and found this other mom who wanted to be seen sooner and she took my series of three appts and I took hers. Well, my original appts were back to back to back. One each week. This lady's appts that I took didn't have her findings appt until all the way on APRIL 10th!!! Kill me now! That's 17 days I have to wait for results. I kind of mentioned to the doctor that my next appt was 2 1/2 weeks away. She was shocked. So, I said, "Are you really going to make me wait all that time to find out if there's something there?" She said....are you ready for it.....

"I will say, she really doesn't strike me as an autistic kid. I got a lot of positive interaction from her today. We still need to see how she scores though."

Those are my encouraging words for the next 2 1/2 weeks!!!! So, her first clinical impressions are that there might be something going on with Kaitlyn (as we wouldn't have been there in the first place if everything were perfect and hunky dory) but it's probably not autism. Like I said, she was filling out questionnaires that will try to place a more definitive answer on everything, so we'll wait for that, but I can't imagine the questionnaires going against her impressions since she's done this for so long.

What wonderful encouraging words. Either way the diagnosis goes, it's still good to know. Not wondering about this will be a huge relief either way as well, but obviously I'm pleased that it might be something other than autism.

Third and Final Day - Magic Kingdom

OK, so our last day, we got there right as the park opens. For those who haven't been in a long time, the characters do NOT just walk around the park. Can you imagine the mob scene? They are in a specific area of the park (indoors) and you wait in line to see the characters and you go into a viewing room and there they are. HOWEVER, when the park opens in the morning (apparently), a few of the characters hang around until they take their place in the viewing areas. So, we saw Pluto and waited in line to go see him. The "handler" if you will (who protects Pluto...from what a 25lb kid??? HA!) warned us as we got in line that Pluto was only staying 10 more minutes. So, there's a definite end time to these morning meet and greets. If you wait in line and don't see him, then oh well. Pluto has to go. We lucked out and got our photos with Pluto.

We opted not to do any more standing in line for characters at the viewing are. Possibly a regret, but since we did the character breakfast and got this opportunity with Pluto the last morning, we were content.

Love our adorable and cute red Polo dresses courtesy of Grandma. Thanks Grandma. We love them.

Kaitlyn and Nicole with, count them...one, two, three grandparents! How lucky!

L to R: Nicole, Grandma, PaPa, MeeMaw, and Kaitlyn.

Kaitlyn on the jungle safari ride.

Nicole on the jungle safari ride.

Back for the block party again at the Magic Kingdom. We really liked this the first day. Here comes the float with Mickey on it! Woo Hoo! No one can blame Kaitlyn for looking at Mickey than the camera, huh?

Both girls pushing the stroller along. Such a help. Watch out though...we don't know how to steer!

Mike and his mom with Cinderella's Castle in the background.

Back from nap with a fresh outfit and ready for the evening festivites. I truly thought that perhaps I had overpacked. Can you imagine a woman overpacking? Anyway, it actually worked out ok because it seems like we always had some kind of spill or food mishap each day. So, we would always come back from nap in new clothes. Above: MeeMaw and Nicole on the Merry Go Round.

Grandma (can you see her...she's hiding) and Kaitlyn on the Merry Go Round.

Coming out of the Peter Pan ride.

Going into Small World.

Small World again. And I think grandparents were getting tired of pictures at this point.

On Friday, Saturday and Sunday nights, they do a Spectro Magic Parade. We stayed for that since we didn't get an opportunity to see it before. Wonderful!!!! All the floats and characters' costumes light up. Really cool. Here comes Mickey to open the parade.

And here's Minnie....

And that was our first Disney vacation.

2nd Day - Animal Kingdom

Animal Kingdom was our second park of the trip. Not my favorite truthfully. The second half of the day after nap was better than the morning I must say. But also because the parks that showcase live animals (Ga aquarium included), it closes much earlier than just an amusement park. It closed at 5pm, so I felt pressured all day to go-go-go since we didn't have much time. The good news about it closing at 5pm was that it was finally an opportunity for the girls to go to bed in the evening on time. So, that was great, and probably worked out really well that it was between the 2 days of the Magic Kingdom so they weren't up late more than one night in a row.

OK, here are the photos:

Nicole was pretty fussy in the morning too. If she wasn't pushing the stroller just like she is in the above shot, she was a disaster. We went on a walking trail first to see several species of animals, and she had to push that stroller the whole way or she would be screaming. At one point, Nicole and I got ahead of my mom, Mike and Kaitlyn. Mike said when he caught up to us that he could hear Nicole all the way back where they were. Not a pleasant morning.

Look at that, she's finally not fussing. Next, we went to the petting zoo. She cheered up here. I think they both really enjoyed the animals.

Nicole lays on Phoebe like this too (my parent's dog). I think she thinks large fuzzy animals are much like her pillow. I couldn't pass up this shot.

So next, I wanted a cute photo of Kaitlyn with the animals. Kaitlyn knows how to give a kiss, so I asked her to kiss it, and she did. Too cute!!!!

OK, so we're back from nap and we're gearing up for the Animal Kingdom's afternoon parade. We found a nice shady spot to wait for it with ducks in the pond behind us. The girls like ducks, so this worked out well.

And here comes the parade, so we got into our prime viewing mode (i.e. girls on shoulders so they can see).

Kaitlyn thought she'd try on mommy's sunglasses. :-)

The Animal Kingdom also has a playground, so we stopped by there for the girls to enjoy themselves for a bit. We quickly found that it's easier for them to slide in pants or capris. :-)

And that's that for the Animal Kingdom.

1st Day at the Magic Kingdom

So, after the breakfast, we ventured over to the Magic Kingdom for our first day of Disney. Woo Hoo. As we walked in, we heard music coming from down by Cinderella's Castle. So, after posing for a few first photos, we proceeded down there to see what was going on.

(We'll have to work on my mom's picture taking skills...a bit off center. Thank goodness for cropping.)


OK, so what was going on was a huge block party. The presentation lasted about 20-25 minutes (and apparently they do it three times per day...we caught it again our last day at Disney). It was FANTASTIC!!!! Awesome!!! They had about 5 or 6 floats, each with 2-4 characters on them, and at times, the characters would get off the floats and dance around...see below. Then, in between each float, there were stilt walkers and dancers dressed in bright clothes. They would use pom poms and ribbons. One of the songs was the conga, so they encourage everyone to get out and conga with them. There was also a Ricky Martin song, that song "Shake It," etc....all high energy songs that really pump you up. Hey, I think I enjoyed the street party more than the girls.

At the end of the party, they shoot streamers into the crowd. We gave both of the girls a streamer to hold on to for a while.

Now on to our first rides. We did the Merry Go Round first (and second and third and maybe fourth!!!!!) Nicole would cry when the ride ended and you had to take her off the horse, so I'd say they enjoyed it.

OK, so we're done with the Merry Go Round and moving on to more rides, so we put the girls in the stroller. Well, earlier that morning at the character breakfast (previous post), they were serving passion fruit something or other juice. We got the girls' juice "to go" in cups with lids. The straws were not in the drinks though, so unfortunately, Kaitlyn couldn't get to her juice in the stroller. She kept trying though...tipping it up toward her mouth. Well, I had the sun shades pulled on the stroller, so I'm pushing them to the next ride unaware of all of this. I go to get them out in front of Peter Pan and.....

Whoops. Yellow juice all down the front of her BRAND NEW - TOOK THE TAGS OFF THIS MORNING shirt. And she was still trying to get the juice out all the while. :-) Silly Kaitlyn. The only bright spot in all of this was that we had already planned to do a nap in the middle of the day (the house we rented was close enough to do this) and it was almost nap time. So, she rode Peter Pan and maybe one other ride in a wet yellow mess and then we headed out for the morning. A good thing too because as you can see from the next picture, Nicole was beginning to melt down on the boat ride back to the parking lot.

Whew...ok, we're back from nap and energized for the afternoon (and in new clothes). Oh, and by the way, after soaking overnight and two washes in the machine, it didn't come out. Oh well.

And when we went to Toon Land, DaDa saw these wonderful pink Mouse Ear hats. We bought two, and there's a place across the way that you can get their names embroidered on the back of the hat for only a few dollars more. We, of course, did that too.

Kaitlyn wasn't as big of a fan of a hat on her head as Nicole was. And even Nicole's hat only stayed on for a few minutes. Kaitlyn would much prefer to see DaDa wearing the Goofy hat. :-) (which we did not purchase)

While we waited on the embroidery, Toon Land has a playground which the girls really enjoyed. We went back and visited the playground on Friday's trip to the Magic Kingdom. The best part of the playground was that it was a self-sufficient playground. The steps up to the slide were easy going and the girls could do it by themselves. Sweet!

Or Kaitlyn says, "Who needs steps? I'll just go up the slide backwards." And you know what...I never thought she'd make it all the way to the top, but SHE DID! Crazy, huh?

OK, so Day 1 of Disney done. :-) Animal Kingdom and another day of the Magic Kingdom to follow.

Character Breakfast

Our first day at Disney, we booked a character breakfast at the Polynesian Hotel. It was with Mickey, Pluto, Lilo and Stitch. They don't know who Lilo and Stitch are, but they certainly know Mickey and Pluto. In fact, while we were waiting to be seated, Nicole spotted Pluto across the room and she was off!!! We had to go snag her up before she got there (as another family was enjoying their time with Pluto).

Kaitlyn wouldn't keep her lai on...oh well. So, daddy got to wear it!

Mickey was the first character to visit our table. The girls were REALLY excited! We have video of this too. Super cute! And Mickey just sat on the floor to get down to their level...it was wonderful.

HUGE smiles on Kaitlyn's face. (I think this definitely tops Deepo at the aquarium.)

Lilo came to visit after Mickey, and after that, Pluto came over to visit. Nicole gave him a big hug.

At the character breakfasts, they give you Mickey Mouse shaped waffles. Nicole didn't really eat the face...she would only eat the ears off. Whoops!!! So, she had 2 waffles (or should I say 4 ears). She didn't put the waffle down when she had eaten the ears off though, so when I post the actual pictures at the park, you may notice Nicole still holding her waffle. She carried it around for at least an hour before we decided to pry it from her and throw it away. :-)

Lastly, Stitch visited our table. The girls still liked him even though they don't know him. Nicole kept pointing at him and saying, "mouse." I suppose he looks like a mouse to a 1 1/2 year old. And Kaitlyn appears to have been enjoying 2 Mickey waffles as he approached. (She only ate the ears off too, but she didn't feel the need to carry it around the park with her.)

And for any of you with kids (or anyone who actually even reads this blog...sniff, sniff), if you were wondering if they're too young for Disney. NO WAY!!! Sure, they're not going to remember a lick of it, but that's what a camera is for. In the way of things for them to do, there's a TON. We couldn't even fit in the entire Magic Kindgom in one day. Granted, we rode some things more than once which slowed us down (no lines...a great time of year to visit). Disney is so child friendly, for any age really. There were street parties and parades too. Always something visually stimulating for them.

It was great...a wonderful trip.