moinab

Great trip report, and the kids are adorable! "Nom nom nom" had me

Congratulations! I love the picture of your marriage license. Makes me proud to be from MA!

Awwww! The KT cutaway is to cute for words!

I have to chime in and say that photo of Elissa and Kristen is beautiful!!!!! I'm having cruise withdrawal - it's been a year since our DCL cruise. No idea how long it will be until our next one, since we are now a family of 5. Looking forward to the rest of the report!

Me too!!!!!!

^^

We sat through the 1940s 3 times, last fall. I don't think I've ever seen that many people in there!

Mmmmm. Egg nog. I guess I'm one of the few people who actually like Animal Kingdom. I do agree that the holiday decor was sparse, although the big tree out front is my favorite, out of all of the park big trees. (I hate the one at Magic Kingdom!)

Really, the videos keep getting better and better, which hardly seems possible. Count me among those who didn't realize you hadn't been making any! "Miss you already!"

OMG ... can't breathe... Surprisingly enough, there are 7 male RNs on my unit, and none of them is even remotely gay!

I discovered today that 8 week old Charlotte is fascinated by TPR DVDs! She started out watching Harmonyland, and then ended up watching for over a half hour! (I skipped over the Japanese dog humping races, though - don't want to scar her for life, just yet!) The tv is on far too much in our household, as my two older children are always watching PBS Kids and Disney videos, but this is the first thing the baby has shown an interest in. I think Robb and Elissa have a whole new market to tap into!

LOVING this report! More, please!!!

^Ummm, did you actually read any of my posts? Did you just miss the part about Asperger syndrome, and how he has social deficits and can't just "learn defense mechanisms and outsmart them or just ignore them" on his own? But maybe you're right - I won't always be there with him, and after all, he is 7 years old, already. Time to kick him to the curb. Are we ever, as a society, going to eliminate teasing and bullying? Of course not, but I would prefer to encourage kids to develop tolerance and acceptance, rather than just blowing off hateful behavior as "that's just the way it is. Talk to me again, someday, when you're the parent of an autistic child.

So much amusement from one trip report, but my favorite has to be "6/11/1993 NEVER FORGET!"

Ok, I see what you're saying now. Thanks.

^^^Seriously? People write letters to the editor over the color of lights? Maybe all the blue lights are for Hanukkah.

I guess I shouldn't have used the term "bully." Now that I see the responses and think about it, it's not appropriate in this situation. My husband and I are both very active in my son's class, and see first hand a lot of what is going on. Some of the other kids are definitely taunting him and singling him out, related to his occasionally odd behavior. We work closely with his teacher, but there's only so much you can do. As some of you have said, kids will be kids, and school kids will be mean, especially to a child who stands out, due to odd behavior. We did wonder if he was talking too much to the other kids about going to WDW, but his teacher insists that he doesn't. She said that he writes and tells stories about Mickey and Chip and Dale a lot, within his classwork. He has expressive language delays, so he experiences anxiety with storytelling. Thus, he tends to stick to topics he is comfortable with. By the way, this wasn't a tattling situation. He was upset for days, but wouldn't say anything. I had to drag it out of him, and he wouldn't identify who said it. He was just very sad. Wes, perhaps I am over-analyzing the situation, but the Asperger's is what makes us, as parents, a bit more sensitive. These kids do tend to get teased and bullied throughout their school years, a lot more than the average child, because they stick out like sore thumbs, socially, with their quirks. Also, because of their social deficits, they tend to be less able to respond appropriately, which exacerbates the problem. Since he has so much difficulty with social cues, we have to try to figure out where the problems are, so we can try to teach him how to act appropriately. I just find it sad that, even at this young age, children will isolate and cut down others who don't fit in. That was the whole thing that surprised me. I was expecting to have to deal with this in a year or two, but not in first grade.

Asperger syndrome is a neurological disorder that is generally regarded as a high-functioning form of autism. People with AS tend to be of above-average intelligence, but deficient in social and communication skills. They are often described as "quirky."

I really do think they are envious. Because of the Asperger's, he's in a full inclusion classroom, which means there are a lot of kids with learning disabilities, which also seems to translate into a lot of low-income kids. We're certainly not wealthy, but we're pretty comfortable, compared to a lot of the other families. We think the reason he's the only one who brings his own lunch is because most of the other kids get free lunch. That's how my husband explained it to him. Even though we live in FL, there are still lots of kids who never get to go to WDW or even Orlando. I'd be willing to bet that the kids who said those things to him would love to go to Disney, if they had the chance. It really is just very sad, that, even at this young age, they feel the need to knock down somebody else, to make themselves feel better. I'm just glad that he's happy about going, again, after we talked to him about it. We'll be meeting friends there, so he'll be with friends his age who love Disney and Mickey as much as he does.

We're going to WDW this weekend. We've been planning this trip for several months, and my kids have really been looking forward to it. This week, my son said he doesn't want to go. I finally got it out of him, that other boys in his first grade class have been telling him that Mickey is "stupid" and not real, and that WDW isn't "cool." They also told him he's not "cool" because he brings his own lunch to school. (He's a picky eater - there's no way he would cafeteria food.) After we talked to him and his teacher talked to him, we convinced him that the other kids are just envious. I know this is just the tip of the iceberg, though. He has mild Asperger's syndrome, so he's going to be singled out for this kind of thing (and worse) as he gets older. Why do people - even little kids - have to be so hateful? *sigh*

As usual, I'm sure there's a lot more to the story than is being reported. I doubt Disney would toss all those people over some stupid little scuffle.

OMG! She is sooooo freaking CUTE!!!!!!!!!! I'm really going to try to put together a photo TR of Charlotte's first trip to WDW in 2 weeks. She is the third child, though, so we seem to be having a great deal of difficulty taking photos.

Thanks for sharing your photos of Rio. I especially love the photo of you in front of the Christ statue! Between taking care of a newborn and driving up to Massachusetts for an impromptu visit, I haven't been around here much, so I'm sorry I'm late on congratulating you! When did you get engaged?

Oh wow - I haven't really observed Advent since I was growing up. I really should introduce it to my kids. I spent the day reading the Sunday paper and watching football. Hope you are having a wonderful time in Brazil! My nephew's wife is from Brazil (he met her while he was doing the college program at WDW!) and she's spending Christmas there this year, for the first time since they got married 3 years ago.

We ended up driving to MA for 10 days, so I haven't been keeping up, here. I'm very happy to see you're on track! Great job! My baby weight is coming off slowly, but I'm depressed about going back to work in two weeks, so I'm not eating as well as I could be.