Let it snow, let it snow

Yay! No school! I'm just as excited as Liam about this. It started sleeting while I was in the pick-up line this afternoon but I didn't expect all this. After having to drag Lane in & out and negotiate an unexpectedly slippery deck I'm glad for the day off tomorrow. Liam and I went out to look at our Christmas lights while it was snowing and then he & Will had a small skirmish that involved some snowballs, not really sure who won that one. I do know that the snow and the Christmas lights were beautiful. Now if it'll just do this on Christmas Eve...

We had to take Lane to see Dr. Fenichel this morning. He had 4 seizures Monday and 2 Tuesday. I assumed he was either getting sick or his weight had caught up with his Keppra dose. I called assuming they'd simply increase his dose over the phone as usual but they wanted to see him. I took him to Dr. Myers yesterday to rule out any infection because this can lower your Keppra threshhold and cause breakthrough seizures. Nothing found. So we went to Vandy still thinking it was a weight thing and they'd bump up the Keppra a little, I was wrong. Dr. Fenichel put him on Phenobarbitol. He was on this in the NICU briefly. It can cause irritability which is the LAST thing I need. It can also have a sedative effect. I don't want this either. Dr. Fenichel did say that if it causes him to be the least bit irritable to chunk it. If it helps, great, if not we'll just stick with what we've got. I wasn't thrilled with adding another med, this makes 5 he takes, but it could be worse. I don't want him to keep seizing, each one has the potential to cause more damage. I'm going to ask Dr. Sharpe his opinion on Monday. Phenobarb has been around forever. It may be effective, but I absolutley cannot have an unhappy Lane, seen too much of that in the past and I won't go back to those days.

Tomorrow I'll give him his 1st dose and see how he does, enjoy the 1st snow day of the year, and hope that enough of this ice is gone by this evening for us to go shopping. It's 14 days & counting till Christmas and I have 2 little boys and o little presents. Not a good combination. For now, I'm going to watch it snow and settle down for a long winter's nap.

Hollywood here I come

Ok, so maybe it was Disney's Hollywood Studios but we still had fun. The day began with Lights, Motors, Action! A show that lets you see how vehicle stunts are done for movies. It was pretty cool. A guy catches on fire at the end. You can imagine Will liked that. We saw the Power Rangers on our way out. Liam isn't into them but my 1st Lane was and I thought of him. Liam couldn't wait to ride Star Tours. This is a Star Wars flight simulator. The seats don't move but you could've fooled me. It was fun in a sickening way. Will told me to look at something still if it was too much. It worked. Liam was ready to go again as soon as it was over. I think he thinks he's a Jedi in training. Will had to see the Muppet Vision 3-D movie. It was cute. We did the Studio Backlot Tour. It was kind of boring I thought. Except for the part where water comes crashing down on the train you're riding in. That'll get your attention. Liam loved Playhouse Disney--Live on Stage! I did too. We saw Little Einsteins, the Mickey Mouse Clubhouse characters, Handy Manny and My Friends Tigger & Pooh. Liam's face was priceless each time a new set of characters came out. We waited safely on the ground while Will dropped 13 stories on the aptly named Tower of Terror. He assured me the life insurance policy was good. I called to check. They went on The Great Movie Ride while I stayed outside and people watched and listened to Christmas music. We left to go eat at The Coral Reef which is in Epcot. It wasn't all that. Bonefish Grill is much better. Our waiter was thrilled we were there (insert sarcasm here). We did walk right on to Nemo though. We rode in a giant clamshell. We saw real dolphins, jellyfish and stingrays in the aquarium. I loved this part. The night ended with another fireworks and laser show called Illuminations. Thursday of course was Thanksgiving. We started the day by going back to Hollywood Studios for the sole reason of riding Toy Story Midway Mania. It was the best ride down there. We were lucky enough to ride twice. My score was less than desirable, even Liam beat me, but hey I had an awesome time. Just the walk into the ride is cool, larger than life toys everywhere, complete with a huge talking Mr. Potato Head. The ride or rather the carnival games you play are in 3-D. When you pop the 'balloons' with the 'darts' you can feel the air. On the way in a lady's sweater got stuck on the zipper of Will's backpack. He was oblivious to this and kept walking with both me and her telling him to stop. Luckily she was able to free herself and we went our separate ways. This other lady with her said "I told her not to wear that." It was funny. We wound up taking their picture for them in front of Mr. Potato Head. After two attempts to let Will ride Aerosmith's Rock 'n' Roller Coaster we gave up. Even with the coveted fastpasses it was still almost a 2 hour wait, that's just too long to stand around even if you are being serenaded by Steven Tyler. I was a huge Aerosmith fan back in the day and was looking forward to people watching and listening to them while Will lived dangerously. It goes upside down in the dark. In the words of Will, "I'm out!" Liam wasn't having any part of that one either. Maybe next time. We weren't at home but we didn't let that stop us from celebrating Thanksgiving. We had lunch at the Wilderness Lodge with 2 other Franklin Firefighters and their families, turkey, dressing and all. It was so much fun that 2 hours had passed before anyone realized what time it was. I missed Lane but otherwise it was one of the best Thanksgivings I've had. It was off to Epcot's World Showcase next. We wandered thru France, Morocco, Japan, the U.S., and Italy. This was as far as we got because I got distracted by Italian jewelry and perfume. We didn't have enough time to ride Soarin' or Test Track both of which I was sort of willing to do. It was all too soon time to head back to Hollywood for Fantasmic! This may have even beat the fireworks over Cinderella's castle. It was very cool. As the night drew to a close we tried not to think about leaving the next day.

Well it was inevitable. Friday came and we only had a few hours left in this magical place. The only consolation was that I knew my precious Lane Carter would soon be back in my arms. Liam was determined to conquer his fear of DINOSAUR, so back to Animal Kingdom we went. We were there early enough to see Minnie, Goofy & Mickey open the park. They headed of to Dinoland while I tried to find Lane a shirt. Will said Liam got right up to the car and said he couldn't do it. They found me in front of Primeval Whirl which is an outdoor roller coaster and Liam decided he could handle that since none of it was in the dark. I'm suprised, most everything else there is. It rated 'awesome' on the aforementioned Liam fun-0-meter. I must warn anyone that might go to Disney in the future and want to ride this that it can cause your child to shrink. Yes, shrink. Liam rode, loved it, went to ride again and was told he wasn't tall enough. Apparently you come off shorter than you go on. Just a friendly warning. I was so mad. We let it go and went on our way. By this time the kid had changed his mind again and was ready for his Jurassic journey. He rode this time, got off and said he "took a nap". In other words, he hid his face on Will's lap but he was ready to go again. This time he said he looked until the end which is where the T-Rex is. Well in the end my brave boy rode that horrible thing 4 times. The final verdict: "It was AWESOME!" He was so proud of himself and so was I. To be 6 and keep doing something you're afraid of when you don't have to, just to prove to yourself you can is pretty cool. Of course this is a pretty cool kid we're talking about. Will got to visit the Yeti on Expedition Everest again. We watched as he rode. I am very proud to be married to someone so brave. I hope he's proud to be married to the world's biggest wimp when it comes to rides. Fast cars and a straight stretch of road... now that's a different story. Up until now Liam refused to ride, not because of the drops and sharp banks but because of he was afraid of the Yeti jumping out. First of all, the Yeti does not jump out at you and 2nd of all he'd just got off the dino ride from hell. Will rode twice and by then Liam wanted to. I said we'd pass up eating, forget the souvenirs, whatever it took to get my daredevil in training to ride. This is a big coaster and I really wanted him to try it. I wasn't about to but I want him to have his daddy's sense of adventure and fearlessness. Well it turns out the wait was 45 minutes and that was cutting it too close to make it back to the hotel to leave for the airport. I was SO disappointed. There's always next time. We ate at The Restauranta-saurus and then sadly made our way back to the hotel. We caught the bus to the airport and the next thing you know where waiting to board the plane. All too soon the pilot announced "Welcome to Nashville". How depressing. It was 70 degrees and sunny when we left Orlando. It was cold and dark by the time we landed. Oh well, I'd soon see my beautiful baby. Pops & LeLe kept Lane while were gone and they picked us up at the airport. I was so happy to see him. As soon as we got home Liam trashed the house and Lane screamed through his bath. The only thing missing was the dogs. They were gone for one more night. Back to reality. It was a truly magical experience. Thank you Will for giving us the chance to put all the attention back on Liam. He so deserved it. I know he will never forget one moment of it. So long for now Disney, you can bet we'll be back one day.

When you wish upon a star...

Can I say Disney is AWESOME? We had a great time and can't wait to go back one day. We left Nashville Monday morning at 6:45 and a little over 2 hours later we were in Orlando. It was Liam's 1st time to fly and he loved it! We gave him the window seat and just watched as he took it all in. Like me, he loved the take-off. I told him it was the ultimate form of drag racing and though he may not know what that is yet, you can bet one day he will, if there's any of his Pa and me in him. We went to Animal Kingdom and he headed straight for DINOSAUR. This is the one ride he's had his heart set on since he found out it existed. He couldn't wait to get on. When he got off his attitude had changed a little. "That's NOT what I expected!" he said. He hid his face through most of it but didn't cry. I wouldn't dare ride that (or much of anything else). I was proud of him for getting on. It's more than I did. Will rode Expedition Everest while we took a nice calm ride on TriceraTop Spin. I can handle rides like these. Next was my turn. We went on Kilimanjaro Safaris. This is where you ride through an African savanna and see real animals. I got to see my giraffe and elephant. Then it was off to the jungle. The Maharajah Jungle Trek took us through the ruins of an ancient palace where we saw a beautiful tiger, birds, & giant bats. Mercifully I was spared seeing the Komodo Dragon. Of course Liam runs up, looks at it and declares "that's not scary." Maybe not for you brother, but Ellen doesn't do lizards and that's a BIG lizard. Of course our future paleontologist had to stop at The Boneyard for a little exploring. He couldn't pass up the chance to dig up some Mammoth bones. It was off to Tusker House Restaurant for supper with an African touch. It was different but pretty good. I wanted to see the Lion King show but it was too late, the last performance had already started. I was aggravated about this but then I spotted Mickey! Finally! Liam got to hug him and we had our picture taken with him.

It was cute. I will admit that up until this point I was starting to wonder why we came. It seemed like Animal Kingdom was nothing more than the Nashville Zoo meets Opryland. Where was the Disney? Where was the magic? I was about to find out...

Tuesday we went to Magic Kingdom. There IS something magical about walking down Main Street, U.S.A. and standing in front of Cinderella's castle. I stood in awe of it till Will drug me off to eat. This wasn't too difficult considering we were going to be seeing Pooh & friends. I, uh I mean Liam, got to hug all of them and have pictures taken. This was a great start to an awesome day. We flew over Agrabah on a magic carpet with Aladdin, one of Will's favorite Disney movies. Sailed with Captain Jack on Pirates of the Caribbean, this was fun even if you do go down a hill in the dark. We escaped the pirates and went on a jungle cruise. It was a fun safari boat ride until we went thru the temple with the Cobras. I know they're not real but they want you to think they are. Of course it was dark in there. To be the most magical place on Earth it sure has a lot of very dark rides. That took some getting used to for me & Liam. We found ourselves in Frontierland next. Liam & Will rode Splash Mountain. I watched. Liam loved it and wanted to go again. The thought of plunging 5 stories into Brer Rabbit's Laughin' Place didn't seem that funny to me, but I wanted to leave Disney (alive) and be able to say I rode something slightly daring. That was 'awesome' on the Liam fun-ometer, so I gave in. I felt sick in the line and searched for a way out but there wasn't one. I rode and survived and you know what, I might even do it again one day. Liam braved Big Thunder Mountain Railroad and loved it except for the dark cave with the bats. He loves the rides but hates the dark and whatever might be lurking in it. I have a problem with both. We floated on a raft over to Tom Sawyer Island. This was cool until we were forced to go thru a cave, again in the dark, and then somehow got separated. I was ready to get off that island. We took our chances in The Haunted Mansion. Will & I liked it but Liam was scared. It's funny what is scary to one is fun to the other. I couldn't wait to ride this but I was not about to ride any roller coaster. Liam was afraid in the line but was ready for the next "wild ride". Fantasyland was definitely more for me. We all rode most everything there. Peter Pan's Flight was fun. We rode that twice. It's cool to see the cars moving when you're flying over London. I was kissed on Cinderella's Carrousel by my little Prince Charming. Of course we had to do the classic Disney rides: "it's a small world", Dumbo and my favorite, the tea cups. Liam and I thought they rocked. None of us had ever seen a 3-D movie so it was off to Mickey's PhilharMagic. It was a very sensory experience You could smell the pie & feel the wind and the water. It was alot of fun. We took our chances with the witch in Snow White's Scary Adventures and made a trip to the Hundred-Acre wood for Pooh. What's not to love about riding in a giant honey pot to see a bear of very little brain. I love Pooh. The day was far from over as we made our way to Mickey's Toontown Fair. We went in Minnie's house, Mickey's house and Donald's boat. These were adorable! We rode the train around the park for a break. Liam enjoyed this. I'm happy to know that despite all this Transformer mess, he still loves trains. After a little more down time we were ready for an adventure on Buzz Lightyear's Space Ranger Spin. The night ended with a fireworks show, a visit from TinkerBell and a stroll through the castle. I'd waited 34 years to do that. Thank you Will. Dreams do come true...