Before I say anything else, this post made me cry and think deeper than I normally do. And it involves "American Idol" which I don't even watch. That Emily, she's a skilled writer to accomplish all of that.
OK, so back to the Disney trip. It's Monday, the day after we arrived at Walt Disney World and it's Madeline's birthday. My expectations for this day were no longer a part of planet Earth. They were a little high.
Our birthday gift to Madeline was breakfast in Cinderella's Castle with the princesses. The night before, Joe and I talked seriously about not going. Madeline still have her fever and congestion and needed all the sleep and rest she could get.
But. We were in Disney World. And it's breakfast with the princesses. Would she ever forgive us (or we forgive ourselves) if we didn't show up?
So we decided to do it, wake her up at 7 a.m. to catch the monorail to Magic Kingdom. I am so incredibly glad we did. It was an amazing morning.
Since our breakfast reservation was before the park opened, we walked in feeling like the only people in the place. My one unsolicited piece of advice is to do this breakfast before 9 a.m. I loved being in the park with no one else.
And watching Madeline climb the twirly stairs and anticipate each princess's arrival was something I'll never forget.
The breakfast cost WAY more than we would ever spend on a regular birthday gift but after this hug from Princess Aurora? I knew it was totally, completely worth it. And HR at Disney? This Sleeping Beauty was the BEST.
When we finished eating, we headed out of the castle and in two minutes, the park opened and people, there were no lines. NONE. We rode Peter Pan twice, It's a Small World, Winnie the Pooh, Snow White, the carousel, the teacups and Dumbo, all before 10 a.m.
It was ridonkulous in the best way.
Madeline was pretty tired so we slowly left the park early, stopping for autographs from so many characters on the way out.
We got back to our hotel room for lunch but Madeline didn't want to eat. She took a long nap (which was good) and then woke up with a raging fever (which was utter sadness). I called her pediatrician, trying to find out why the antibiotic wasn't taking care of the fever. He called back and said he was comfortable with us waiting one more night before taking her to another urgent care clinic.
And then her skin became mottled. And I called her doctor back. And he wanted her checked out right away.
There are way too many details which would probably bore you to read and sadden me to remember but the recommended clinic had an enormous wait and couldn't see her until 3 a.m. Craziness. So we decided a good night's sleep was more important than being miserable in a waiting room and we would see the doctor first thing in the morning.
Well, Madeline slept pretty well but I was up every hour, checking her temperature, worried that something awful would happen or the fever would reach crazy heights.
It didn't, thankfully.
But I may or may not have shed a few tears over her sickness and the fact that we didn't go back to the park that day. Or that we didn't have the planned cupcakes and candles with my family. It was Madeline's birthday and she spent more hours sick than happy. Ugh, I hate thinking about that even now.
However, I must say, Madeline wasn't entirely miserable. We don't have cable at home so she was over the moon about watching Disney Jr. at the hotel. Since she was sick, we let her watch Disney Jr. to her heart's content. Who knew her heart's content meant about six hours straight? (Kinda, sorta, maybe not exaggerating.)
Lesson learned: deprive your child of cable and even a ruined Disney vacation can be saved by its mere presence.
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