Laughter is timeless, imagination has no age, and dreams are forever.  

Walt Disney

After working hard on a brief from December through early January, the time came for a much-needed break. Fortunately, this aligned with availability at our friends’ condo in Sarasota and while Glenda’s mom was in Wildwood, Florida.

Sandwiched between these two locations is Disney World. We are “wish-eligible” at Make-a-Wish and similar wish-granting organizations and have wondered whether Disney would be a good place to use our one wish for Katherine. With her sensory processing issues, we did not know if she would enjoy the experience. So, we decided to splurge for two park days to see in between Sarasota and Wildwood. I’m glad we did. Katherine really enjoyed the trip.

Glenda and I have decided to give you our top 10 moments on our Sarasota-Disney-Wildwood trip. We are not looking at one another’s list, so these may overlap. They may not. Here are mine, in chronological order:

1. Walking from Sarasota to St. Armand’s key on our first day, in the beautiful 70-degree weather (leaving behind frost at home), eating lunch and gelato outside, and then walking back;
2. Building Katherine a “bouncy castle” out of blow-up mattresses at the condo in Sarasota, and her laughter playing inside of it;
3. Putting on a “puppet show” with Katherine’s stuffed animals from outside the “bouncy castle”;
4. After learning of Katherine’s diagnosis, the concierge at the Disney resort booking reservation times for us at the rides we wanted to do, and then bringing her a stuffed Minnie Mouse doll. Well-played Disney, well-played;
5. After running out to get something from the gift shop, returning to the room our first night at Disney to hear Katherine exclaim “Look Daddy, I can walk!” Followed by her letting go of the sides of her pack-and-play and taking a very good step by herself. She then showed mommy another step. While she cannot walk on her own, these steps are the best I’ve ever seen her take and her excitement at “being able to walk” was priceless. Magic Kingdom, indeed;
6. Taking her on Dumbo as her first ride, then tentatively waiting to hear whether she liked it. Her exclamation, “play another game,” meant “yes”;
7. Watching her slowly come to love the characters. She met Cinderella, Rapunzel, Belle, Ariel, Donald Duck, Goofy, Mickey, Daisy, Minnie (from a distance), Chip and Dale and some monkey-thing from the Lion King. Goofy and the monkey-thing frightened her – though she has a Goofy obsession. After being tentative, she grew to like them. She still held Glenda’s hand while meeting the animal characters, a separate favorite thing for me;
8. Dancing with her in her princess dress while waiting for a table at a restaurant, while she made her dress puff out while jumping and twirling (with my assistance) only to realize that the entire restaurant was set up to look out the large windows over the lake behind us. We were the floor show;
9. Looking at all the sleeping children and zombie-fied adults waiting for the bus back to the hotel after the fireworks, with the only spark of life in the entire line being our little KB, after 12 hours in two parks and no nap, still jumping up and down, screaming “Jump! Jump! Fireworks! Jump!” Boy were my arms tired; 
10. Listening to Katherine sing along with her Mickey’s Clubhouse DVDs on the ride home.
    

    (Ok, I have to give a couple more, sorry Glenda):

11. Watching Katherine crawl-chase Glenda’s mom’s dog, Joey, to pet, kiss and play with him. Only last year, she was still physically shaking in fear at the sight of a dog;
12. During a silly spat with Glenda on our last night in Wildwood, having Katherine say, in her best Glenda voice, “Calm down, Dave. Just calm down” – I honestly wasn’t “not calm” just a little animated – after laughing and sitting down and re-assuring her that I was ok and it was silly, and reminding her to always call me daddy (she only calls me “Dave” when she is imitating mommy), having her hug and kiss me and ask “does that make you not mad, daddy?” After answering “yes,” having her sit thinking for a minute, grin and then ram her toy rabbit, Bibi, in my face, then ask “Does that make you mad again?”;
13. Watching KB bounce around singing “hot dog, hot dog, hot diggety dog”;
14. After leaving our meeting with mermaid Ariel, hearing her remark that she was wearing the mermaid’s dress; and
15. Being covered in glitter from carrying my little princess all over the park. Who knew I look fantastic in green glitter?
    

    Glenda’s top 10 moments, in no particular order:

1. Our friends’ condo in Sarasota is a pink Spanish style built in the 1920s.  When we arrived, Katherine excitedly pointed to the condo, exclaiming, “We’re staying in a pink hotel!”  She talked about the ‘pink hotel’ the entire time;
2. Katherine watching Mickey Mouse Clubhouse DVDs on the trip and knowing all the songs by the time we got home.  This was really a first for her in terms of trying to sing along. Hearing her sing, “hot dog, hot dog, hot diggity dog” is priceless;
3. Riding “It’s a Small World” at Disney. It took me back to my own first Disney experience as a child.  I loved watching her eyes light up with delight.  When it ended she exclaimed,  “ride again!”  We did.  She loved it;
4. Shortly after arriving at our Disney hotel, Dave asked the concierge about getting a handicap pass for our stroller.  Not only did he proceed to book everything we wanted to do in advance and give us guidance on everything we needed, but he showed up at our door 30 minutes later with a Minnie Mouse doll for KB.  As he handed it to me he said, “we hope your daughter has a magical stay at Disney”; 
5. I knew that I wanted her visit with Ariel to be extra-special.  We decided to take her to a shop to pick out a new dress and have glitter sprinkled in her hair.  Ariel was so excited to see that KB was dressed like her and made the visit memorable for all of us.  As I was taking photographs I saw the look of pure joy on KB’s face .  That moment brought tears to my eyes and a smile to my face.  Yes, this was where we needed to be at this moment.  As we pushed her away in her stroller, she looked at her dress and said, “This dress is really cute. I am a mermaid”;  
6. Bibi was with us everywhere we went and got to enjoy all the sights and sounds, even getting a little glitter on her head;
7. Seeing Dave covered in glitter from head to toe from carrying and dancing with his princess;
8. Seeing Dave and KB dancing together in her beautiful princess gowns;
9. We took her to a character breakfast even though we knew she might be afraid of life-size characters.  She was scared but we told them she just wanted to wave so they didn’t get too close.  By the time Daisy Duck came by she was less afraid and would reach out to hold my hand for reassurance.  It was very sweet how she held my hand and also very brave for someone who was completely over-stimulated; and
10. Seeing Disney through the eyes of my daughter. Sometimes it’s best to jump in the car and drive to Florida, in the direction of Disney, with no particular plans but to feel sunshine on your face, eat ice cream, and laugh. As Disney himself said, “Adults are only kids grown up, anyway.”  After a very tough year of being more grown-up than I’ve ever imagined, it was fun to feel like a child again, if only for a few days.