Friendship, Fall and Fun!

This weekend was pretty much all about Tate.  Ok, so most of my weekends are all about Tate, but the upcoming one is all about me mostly as will be the next one.  So I was hoping to make this a fun fall weekend for him.  Finally the weather was cooperating...almost completely...in the mid 80s, no humidity and cool mid 60s in the early mornings!

Friday morning I opted to keep Tate home and not go to swim lessons as he was still coughing and congested.  I know he probably would have been fine, but I thought it would be best.  So we hung out at home and just enjoyed the quiet together!  We had plans to meet our Disney friends at 11 for the Zoo Boo at the Houston Zoo.  It was a Friday late morning, school is in session, it should be easy breezy to park and get in to enjoy the festivities.

Hmph!  I could not have been more wrong.  Traffic was hellatious.  I arrived at the zoo parking lot at 11:05am.  We did not enter the zoo premises until 11:46am.  Thank goodness the weather was gorgeous and cool (ie I didn't start to sweat) and that Tate still loves his stroller, so when I parked a half mile away (I know I know not that far) I didn't have to deal with a 4 year old who wanted to stop and smell the roses or complain or re-tie his shoe and I didn't have to carry our stuff;  I could just put it in the stroller basket.

We finally arrived and found H and N near the seals.  Squeals abounded between the kiddos and we decided to eat some lunch.  I had brought Tate's with me, but H, N and I needed some food from the zoo offerings.  I got in line while N entertained the kids at the outside table.  34 minutes later I had our food.  Yes 34 minutes.  There was a group of special needs adults there with their school/care group and I don't know what the problem was with their staff, but the ordering of their food and paying (seemingly per person) took absolutely forever.  I thought I was going to explode.  But I didn't and gathered our goodies and went outside to eat.

We hurried the kids through their meal because unfortunately the Zoo Boo activities ended at 1!!!  It was 12:43!!  Faces were wiped, tables cleared and stuff loaded back up and we were off to get Tate his Zoo Boo tattoo.  H and N had come around 10:30, so had done most of the Zoo Boo stuff already.  Then we headed off to the Pumpkin Patch..

By this time G and A had arrived with their nanny!!  We visited with several animals and enjoyed the afternoon together!

Of course for Tate, no visit to the Houston Zoo or near vicinity can happen without riding the train...

We then all made our way home (in tons of traffic...what normally is a 15 minute drive took us almost an hour!  Oh and when we got to the train to get on we had to wait for the same group of special needs adults to get on...all 50 or so of them...so we had to wait for the train to return.  We were not having luck this day at all.  But our kids did amazingly well.  Not a single meltdown or complaint from any of them.  They were well behaved and didn't mess with one another  (well mostly not.  Tate and H had some run-ins, but I'm more the type of parent to try to let kids work things out themselves.  At one point H felt like Tate had pushed her.  Neither of us really saw it;  they were chasing one another in circles and I know Tate had his hands out...did he push her or run into her when she stopped?  He wouldn't apologize and I didn't make him because I know Tate.  When he does something he knows is wrong, he'll say sorry and look like he feels bad.  He looked a bit bewildered here, so I didn't push it.  They finally got over it).  

We got home, had a few minutes to unwind and potty then we were off to Jemma's 4th birthday party!  WooHoo!  Tate's BFF, Christian, as there and he was ecstatic.  Like last weekend they were inseparable and whirl of fun and activity!

I usually bring a cupcake for Tate that is vegan which I get from Crave (oh my goodness these cupcakes are divine!).  But Cindy wanted to provide Tate with his cupcake and she special ordered them to be nut-free, egg-free and citrus-free from another cupcake company here in town who had assured her they could make the cupcakes for her.  They arrived at the party just in time for the happy birthday song.  She handed me the box with a smile(and sweet as she is, had bought 4 for Tate).

Two of the cupcakes had nuts on top of them.  We couldn't believe it.  There was some sort of topping on the other two as well, but we couldn't tell what it was.  I was not about to give my child anything I wasn't sure about, so Cindy called the bakery owner right then and there.  I could tell she was giving Cindy a hard time, so I told Cindy "Do you want me to talk to her and go all doctor on her?".  She said yes, and I took the phone.  I got on the phone, furious and said I was DOCTOR C and the mother of the child with the food allergy.  I asked why there were nuts on two of the cupcakes and what was on top of the other two?  She was annoyed (God knows why) and said she didn't know what had happened (REALLY?) and the two with blue paper should have ginger on top, so they should be ok.  I said I couldn't tell which was purple or blue at this point...they looked the same to me.  She went on and on about how one was sweet potato and the other something else, but they were vegan and the icing was made from cream cheese.  

Cream cheese.

On a vegan cupcake.

Hmmmm, isn't cream cheese dairy based?

Not vegan.

But I didn't even bring that up with her.  Finally, I said "I want your assurances that if my child eats this cupcake tonight that he will not die."

She immediately got ten times more flustered and started stuttering and stammering.  She said "Well can you taste it and see if it's ok?"

Irate now I said that was a ridiculous question, as I'm not allergic to anything, so how would that help?

I said "My child will not be eating these, and I expect you will be giving Ms. G a full refund."

She asked us to bring the cupcakes back that night.  I told her that was ludicrous and that they would be returned the next day.

Poor Cindy was so upset, but not nearly as upset as Tate was when he realized he wasn't getting a cupcake.  Sigh.  Everyone tried to cheer him up and another mom brought him his goody bag, but we went ahead and left and I got him a Blue Bell individual vanilla ice cream on the way home.  He was all smiles.  

He was sound asleep 45 minutes later around 7:30.

Then he slept until 7:20 Saturday morning!!  Woohoo!!!

We got up, did some laundry and fun house stuff then headed out to Crave to get his cupcake for this day's par-tay!  He's also discovered the amazingly talented Alicia Keys!!  No kid music in this car!

Then we were off to soccer!!  It's so cute to watch them play or think they're playing.  They always have a scrimmage the last 10 minutes or so.  Tate got upset at the very end because the other team wouldn't let him have the ball to score a goal.  I couldn't convince him that was the point. :)

Team goof-off photo!

After a quick change at home we were off to Zoe's 5th birthday party!!  Tate had an absolute blast.  The food was delish (as always I brought Tate's lunch from home) and the kids had so much fun.  Zoe's mom had hired an ice cream truck to come for the kiddos and oh my goodness, what a huge hit!  After all the kids got to choose their ice cream and play in the truck, the ice cream lady brought out those huge bubble wands and those big balls to bounce on and the kids played and played outside while most of us parents sat inside and chatted away for almost an hour.  We meandered out every once in a great while to check on our kids, but mostly we could just sit facing the window while the kids had fun.  Absolutely best birthday party I've been to in a long time.  It was so nice not to have to watch my child as he bounced on some bouncy thing making sure he didn't get hit or poked in the eye.  Just fantastic.

Gotta be first in line for ice cream!

The bomb popsicle as we old folks know it.
A Captain America popsicle now.
No Tate has no idea who Captain America is.

Last few bites!

Playing in the truck!

What is the fascination with these
moustaches lately?

We went home and I had been promising Tate all weekend we would spray paint his Halloween costume all week on Saturday, so that's the first thing we did...

Then Tate watched his new Mickey Mouse Clubhouse Halloween DVD while I toddled around on the computer and the such.  

Sunday we woke to pouring down rain, washing out our plans to join Aunt Palmi and Alonzo at Dewberry Farm, so we're gonna have to go another time.  We decided to meet at the Children's Museum instead.  First though Tate and I did some grocery shopping.  As we walked into the store, Tate ran up to this stand of apples...

He crouched down and pointed to the word 'apples'.  He said "This word says apple, no wait it says appleS".

I have realized for the past month and a half that Tate really really really wants to read.  He is always asking me what letter a word starts with.  He consistently asks me to spell words out for him.  He has several sight words that he's taught himself and when we read at night he like to read the titles of the books.  Now I know most he has memorized, but used to be that he would drag his finger across all the words saying the title, but now he stops at each individual word and says what each word is.  It's like it's finally clicked that the words make the title.  He'll also point out words in the stories that he recognizes.  

His teacher is also very aware that he wants to read, but most of the other kids in the class aren't quite there yet, so she's trying to help him, but it's hard.  So now I'm trying to figure out how I can help him.  I have no idea how to help him learn to read.  I do have the BOB books;  I guess I need to pull them out and start there.  

I'm so very proud.

We met Palmi and Alonzo at the museum and had a great time.  Of course the first stop was the train.

Making molecules!

The two Chemistry minors hard at work!
Hey!  I made acetic acid!!
Goodness I look tired! 

Palmi asked Tate where he was driving them.
He said "I'm taking us to college!"
Good answer!  Good answer!

They put on a puppet show!

A couple hours later and we were all ready to go home.  Alonzo wanted to come over to our house, so we had them over.  Tate was given strict instructions on our ride home from the museum to share his trains with Alonzo, who is no longer allowed to play with his Thomas trains at his house.  I knew Alonzo was dying to play with Tate's trains.  All went fairly well;  of course Tate didn't want to share his favorite trains, but he was happy to find ones for Alonzo to play with with some firm instruction from me.  But after about 30 minutes Tate didn't like Alonzo 'crashing trains' with him and got whiny.  Alonzo was doing nothing wrong really...just being an 8 year old boy.  He's a bit more physical than Tate is understandably.  Tate said he didn't want to be Alonzo's friend anymore and I put him in a time out for saying not nice things. I asked him to apologize, but he didn't want to at first.  He finally did, and Alonzo said that it was ok.  But things deteriorated from there.  Tate said it again and hurt Alonzo's feelings.  I know it's typical 4 year old stuff mainly as Tate came home several weeks ago to say Leo told Tate that Tate wasn't his friend anymore, that Brayden was.  Tate was understandably upset and hurt and I talked him through.  Of course Brayden was the new weekend baseball friend for Leo, so everything was about Brayden for a couple of weeks.  All is of course fine now.

But with Alonzo it's different.  When we started having the boys play together in spite of the chronological age difference it was because with Alonzo's speech and auditory processing disorder that the boys could/would play so well together.  His cousins his age at the time didn't always treat him so well because of his 'different' behavior.  With Tate as his playmate, the friend playing field was level.

It's not so level anymore. :(

Tate was getting pouty and turning his shoulder to Alonzo in that pouty, immature way kids have.  We talked to Alonzo and assured him Tate still loved him, though Tate refused to say that or anything for that matter.  Palmi sadly said "This is what's so hard.  For once I want my son to be the dominant friend in the friendship.  He will do anything, ANYTHING, to have Tate be his friend."

I feel so bad for both Palmi and Alonzo.  Because it was obvious that no matter what Tate did or said Alonzo would have acquiesced just to have Tate 'be his friend.'  And I know Tate adores Alonzo.  I know that his feelings were borne of the moment and that the next time he sees Alonzo he'll be all over him.  (He has mentioned though at least 3 times today that he didn't like when Alonzo crashed his trains.  I don't acknowledge that comment except to say that he should tell him that next time, but didn't they have so much fun at the museum, with the train, with the molecules etc which he readily agrees with.)

Wanting your child to be the dominant one.  Isn't that what we want for all our kids?  To not be taken for granted.  To not be treated poorly.  To be equals in the relationship...dominant one moment, not dominant the next.  To love well and be loved well.

At dinner last night, Tate asked for a hug as he does often at the dinner table.  He climbed into my lap and hugged me for a long time.  I said "Tate you're my favorite person."  

No response.

I asked "Hey little man!  Who's your favorite person?"

No brainer, right?

Tate answered "Alonzo."

Disney Wonder Cruise - Day Eight - Port of Galveston

Pretty obvious we were back in Galveston...yuck beach of the century.

We docked sometime between 6 and 7am.   

Sometime, you say?

You don't know what time cause surely you were already awake when y'all docked.

Of course we weren't awake.  Tate slept until 7:15am.

On the one day we truly needed to be up and at 'em early.

7:15.

He climbed into bed with me around 5:45 and went promptly back to sleep.

Until quarter after 7 on a Saturday morning.

B -- L -- I -- S -- S!!

We finally got up and did our last minute packing and check of the room and its contents.  I ended up leaving one unopened bottle of wine, my small cooler and 4 waters.  I told Sam I'd like him to keep them for himself, but he said he would have to tell his boss as he couldn't accept wine.  I don't know about the water and cooler...I hope he at least kept the water.  This man works hard.  He was the person lugging ALL the luggage down the halls on Friday night that were left out in front of the staterooms.  You had to leave your packed luggage in front of your room between 6:30-10:30pm to be taken to wherever it is they take your luggage.  If you chose to keep your luggage you had to take it yourself in the morning.  Friday night around 10:50pm I heard a commotion outside my door.  Nosy that I am I peaked out and saw Sam struggling to push/pull my friends R and B's luggage down the hall while they were trying to frantically decide what they needed for the morning.

I was livid.  This man was supposed to be done with that by 10:30.  He was up working again at the crack of dawn turning the rooms over for the next passengers coming on Saturday afternoon.  Now I know why our rooms weren't quite ready the previous Saturday at 1:30 as promised.  I had Tate give him a bit more cash.  It's all I could do to express my appreciation.

In any event, we got dressed and decided to go have breakfast before disembarking.  It was pouring rain and I wasn't thrilled about possibly having to wait for my parents in the rain.  H and N joined us for a last leisurely breakfast, complete with ALL our carry-on stuff.  Only problem...no hot cocoa for Tate, but we made do.

Then it was time to leave.  The rain had let up.  My parents were in the vicinity as was H's husband.  We made our way off the ship, gathered our luggage and went onto U.S. soil.

Many hugs and kisses good-bye and hello and we were on our way back to Houston.

An hour later we walked into our clean house and Vincent's meowing.

My parents were kind enough to stay with Tate while I quickly ran up to the grocery store to get some basics and then Tate and I spent the rest of the day, the weekend really enjoying being home.

For we (especially him) had missed being home a bit.  In fact on Monday on the ship and Thursday when we were having some downtime in our room, Tate crawled into my lap sobbing "I miss my kitty cat."  "I miss my trains."  "I wanna go home."

Sweet boy.  

Here he is.  At one with his trains again.

We both cannot wait until Disneyworld next summer!!!  And I suspect we'll be on another Disney cruise as soon as we can swing it!  

Magical.

Disney Wonder Cruise - Day Seven - Last Day at Sea

Friday morning.  Our last day at sea.  I could not believe it.  We had waited for so long to go on this cruise and it was almost over.  I was intent on being fully present with Tate on this last day, enjoying and doing as much as we could.  And to my joy and happiness he slept until 6:15!!  And let me lounge around til about 7:30 while he played, watched his Chuggington DVD, gobbled requisite Cheerios and applesauce.  I packed a bit, showered, then we made our way downstairs for my breakfast.  This morning, Tate wanted no part of his pancakes or hot chocolate so I loaded him up with crayons and coloring pages while I savored my pancakes.  He also got to do his last trade...

We did some last minute running around the ship...gift shop, picture ordering, packing up our stuff and playing.  Then at 10:30 Tate and I went to get in line for the 11:30 Princess Gathering.  We stood in line for one hour and 30 minutes to see the princesses.  Tate did absolutely awesome!!  He didn't cry or whine or fuss.  I gave him his coloring book and crayons for a bit of the wait, otherwise we stood there together, no electronic, no trains, just the two of us and 50 of our other favorite cruise passengers :).  We did have a quick potty break, and the mom behind us held our spots.

His face and pure excitement and joy were more than worth the wait.  Each princess took time with him, to walk over to him arms outstretched, squat down with him, look him in the eye and talk to him.  I was so very happy for him.  It was absolutely magical.

Then he met Princess Tiana for the first time.  He was agog :).  He's most proud that he can spell her name!  

I wanted to meet her too!!!

And then the was Belle.  Sweet sweet Belle.  I think she knew how much he adored her.  She talked and talked with him.  I almost had tears in my eyes (ok so I did) he was so happy to spend some time with her.  When she walked him back to me, she even told me "He's just the sweetest little boy."  Melt my heart.

Showing Belle his Mickey train shirt! 

Happily we wandered off in search of H and N for some lunch and pool time.  We all got changed and headed up to Deck 9 for lunch and one long last hurrah at the Mickey Slide Pool!  I had stopped by one of the restaurants to order Tate's lunch, so I was able to take it up to the deck with us.  It had been suggested that I not get his food at one of the quick-service places on board as they couldn't be scrupulous about preventing cross-contamination like they could in the kitchen of the 3 main dining rooms, but this was an easy way to do it.  We all sat down and at our lunch (well Tate picked at his).  Then the kids played and played.  N and I hung out, chatted, enjoyed a couple of adult beverages and relaxed in the fun that is Disney.

Playing in one of Mickey's ears!

Friends forever and always! :) 

Up he goes for his last slide!

That tongue lolling about signifies a content and
happy little boy!

While they were splashing about Daisy Duck made an appearance!  Of course we had to stop by and say hello!

Sweet hugs!

A bit after 3, we decided to head back down to our staterooms...H had to prepare for her Princess Tea at 4, and I wanted Tate to take a nap so we could go to the Farewell Show after dinner.  He was snoozing away by 3:45, and I got some well deserved downtime and a chance to do last minute packing.  He was up a little over an hour later and I got him bathed and ready for his last dinner of the cruise.  We were off to Animator's Palate.  

We met H and N newly finished with their Princess Tea and had one last character meeting...

Isn't she so very sweet?

High five from Pluto!

Then it was dinner time!!  Everyone was on time tonight!  Yay!  They had a fantastic bon voyage celebration which we just loved.  So funny how you really get to connect with your servers etc.   Ours were just great.  I'm such a sentimental fluff with my heart on my sleeve that I still think about Duran and Jane, (Sam and Geffrey as well) wondering if their new guests are treating them with respect and kindness, wishing that I could know how the rest of their lives turn out.  I learned that Geffrey (our head server) had 4 kids, ages 16 and under in the Philippines and his youngest has a peanut allergy.  Sam has a family in the Philippines as well..a son and daughter.  He had been so happy to spend 6 weeks with them and was now away from them for 5 months.  Duran was from Jamaica and had been thrilled to get to visit with family and friends while we were docked there; he saw his dad, some friends and got to go to the barber :).  Jane, though I didn't learn that much about her (language was a bit of a barrier) was so very sweet and kind that I wanted to protect and hug her all the time.  Gosh I'm such a softie.  In any event, the send off was fantastic and I passed out our additional gratuities at dinner (standard gratuities are included in your cruise cost) and had given Sam his before dinner.  Their presentation was fabulous.

 That's Geffrey you see carrying the American flag.  Dinner was great and we thoroughly enjoyed ourselves.  I hustled Tate back upstairs to change his clothes, brush his teeth and get the room ready for bed before the show.

 I had dropped off a personalized pillowcase at Guest Services for each of the characters to sign and it was waiting for us that evening.

We then headed down to the 'Remember The Magic' show.  

It was magical.  As Tate sat there on my lap I hugged on him feeling so blessed.  And I loved when all of a sudden you'd 'hear' and 'see' Tinkerbell zip across the closed stage curtains.  The oohs and aahs of the kids in the audience was so sweet.  Tate would jump and point, so very excited.  

We loved it.  And I was so sad it was ending.

Back in our stateroom, he laid right down and was asleep within a couple of minutes, happy and full of joy and love.  Just like his mama.