I Should Have Told Her They Are Called Thunderwagons
One of these days I'll stop talking about our trip to Orlando, but today is not that day. Today is the day that I bring up that day a year ago in which it became amazingly clear that Alexis had a major hole in her vocabulary. She who started talking long before she walked, she with the colossal vocabulary, she of far too many words 24/7, she did not know the word "stroller."
Really.
We were standing in Disney Studios when it became clear. A then 4-year old Alexis kept saying, "I want one of those," and after much pointing and debate, we finally realized that she wanted one of those seats with wheels and she was all, "YEAH! I WANT ONE!"
And we were all, "Are you kidding us? SERIOUSLY?" It wasn't all that surprising that the kid didn't know the word "stroller" because she probably always thought of them as "Stupid" or "Evil" or "Things That Will Cause Me to Scream My Head Off So Don't Even Think About It." We had given up on trying to force the kid to sit in a stroller a few weeks after she learned to walk. It was either let her roam or be Those Parent, Those Parents whose kid doesn't stop screaming the entire time you're in Kohls and just trying to buy a lousy pair of shoes.
Not that anything like that happened.
OK, it did happen. Several times. Any time I put Alexis in a stroller, she would turn into a boiling tea kettle, screeching at the top of her lungs and with steam coming out of her ears. There are no words that can adequately describe how much she hated to sit in a stroller other than to say you know how much you hate to be wrong? And how much you hate when people block the grid and cause traffic jams? And how much you hate when stink bugs land in the skillet when you're trying to cook eggs? Add those all together and multiply that hate by infinity and you might start to get close to how much Alexis hated to be in a stroller.
So you can imagine how hard we laughed when Alexis asked us to rent a stroller for her to use at Disney Studios. Heck, I chuckle just thinking about it. It's probably the funniest joke she's ever told.
And, yet, when it came time to travel to Orlando again this year, I looked at Mr. Husband and uttered the words I never thought would ever come out of my mouth. "We should probably take a stroller," I said. He looked at me with a stunned expression, but then nodded and went to hunt for one. It took him HOURS to figure out where we had hidden the stroller in the garage because, you know, we haven't used it since long before we moved here. Still, he found it.
I fully expected to get absolutely no use out of the stroller, other than the planned use as a mode of transportation for our cooler. You see, we try very hard not to buy snacks and drinks when we're at Disney World. Instead, we fill a little cooler with bottles of water and a few packaged snacks. I figured we'd loop that cooler on the back of the stroller, park the whole thing, and just go back when we needed drinks or whatever. We'd be saving money AND sparing our backs from the major torture of hauling around ten pounds worth of water.
That part of the plan mostly worked. The only thing was that we never parked the stroller, except to ride rides.
Hold on a second, I need to compose myself.
We never parked the stroller.
*WOOOWSERS.*
Anyway.
My kid. MY KID. She sat in a stroller pretty much the entire time we were at Disney World. In that one week, she probably spent more time in a stroller than she did the past four years combined.
It was all very confusing.
Especially when She Who Doesn't Sleep decided to take a nap in that stroller.
The apocalypse. It's coming.
Tuesday, March 29, 2011
Reader Comments (15)
HAH! Love the contradiction that is our kids!
If I could get Sabrina to push my butt around Orlando in a stroller, I would sit in one. Dude, it's hot and it's far.
Disney does STRANGE things to kids. ;)
Love the pic! :)
Hey, she is one smart cookie. Wouldn't you want someone to push you around, and be able to take a nap without stopping, and not having to walk and lick ice cream at the same time, risking to let your precious food cargo fall on the hot park floor? I know I probably woulnd't mind.
Strange and amazing. Kids! She gave you some great photo ops, too!
Elisa is right: it would be great to be able to ride around that huge park to save all your energy for when it REALLY mattered. Alexis is one smart cookie.
'They' so say Disney is the most magical place in the world, or is that happiest... either one works.
Husband totally asked me if we wanted to take a stroller to Disney...um, I sold ours 2 years ago. Can you imagine the thundertwins in a stroller? Like the giant from Jack and the Beanstalk falling out of the sky.
I've always thought that stinkbug adds that extra little something that makes an omelet kick.
It IS the Magic Kingdom, after all. You're making me even more excited for our upcoming trip this Fall. It will be Bear's 4th time and Monkey's 2nd, but really the 1st time he'll be old enough (2 years by then) to enjoy it. Hoping he will stroller-nap as well!
Emily is the opposite - she loved her stroller. And I am sad that our next trip to WDW will be stroller-free, because I love having one to hang my bags on and put my drinks in, etc.
it makes me happy that someone keeps you on your toes
Well, yea, when it is moving strollers make kids happy. It's when they stop that they have an issue that involves ear piercing screams.
The stink bug comment? Yeah, made me gag. At my desk. At work. Congrats.
Gosh, I remember the stroller screaming. I sounded like a siren nearly running through Toys R Us once. I don't miss that stage at all.
So you discovered that other magical side of Disney, too. Micah could be Alexis for his screaming protests of the stroller, and yet pretty much insisted that we drove his royal hiney all over the Mouse's Kingdom for 3 days. Magic.