Comfort and Airplane Rides

This past week the kids and I went to see my family. We flew to my sister's house in Spokane, Washington. I had an idea what flying would be like as both Cope and I were life flighted from San Juan Regional Hospital to Albuquerque, but I'd never been through the ticket or security process.

It was a mostly fun experience. The kids liked the plane, especially the turbulance. They thought it was like "a ride at Disneyland!"  How unlike everyone else that was. Others were annoyed and some even slightly sickened by the plane movement.

The only real hiccup we had was coming back. We got to the Spokane airport and proceeded to go through the security line. Cope has a comfort toy that he likes to sleep with and occasionally carry around. It is a little Simba lion that is wrapped in a blanket and purrs. He got it while we were going to constraint therapy for two weeks and were away from Daddy. He clung to it then and hasn't let it go since. It has been so well loved that the back stitch came undone and I used thick thread to stitch it back up in hopes it wouldn't come undone again. So when I went to put it in the bin, he was a little upset that I had to take it away, but he just whined and let it go.

We went through the metal detector without an issue, and I started to put everything back in the bag and put our shoes back on. The lion came through last. I saw the person running the machine get a confused/curious/disgruntled look on her face. She reached around and took the lion out of the bin and looked it over. Finding the handstitched seam across the back she turned to the lady standing in the back and said, "can we hold a stuffed animal? Is that even in the protocol?"

The lady in the back was taking round paper looking circles and swiping them on random items that came through and then she'd put the circles in a different machine, wait for a minute, take the round paper out and throw it away and then get another paper and start again. She said, "we can hold anything, but what could possibly be wrong with a stuffed animal?"

At first that is what I wanted to know, what in the world could they possibly find wrong with my sons lion!  They turned away and started whispering though, so I couldn't hear the response. I said, "Please don't take his lion, it's his comfort toy!"

After standing there for a little while, I realized that the problem was probably that the machine showed the purring thing inside it, meaning she saw there was something inside the lion and then directly where there was something inside, there was a handstitched section. I could see how that looked really bad.

I tried to explain that to the ladies, but they just asked me to please go stand by the elevator. They would let me know what was going on once they had investigated further. We waited for a good ten minutes more at least. The lady who was in the back with the round circles finally brought me back Cope's lion. She said it came up clean, so we were free to go. I was so relieved they gave it back to us. Bed time would have been interesting had they chose not to.   

I thought how like everyday life this is. Sometimes we get the thing that gives us the most comfort taken from us. Sometimes we succeed in getting back and other times we have to find something new to give us the comfort we need. Sometimes we hit turbulance and sometimes it's a smooth ride. No matter how my life is I hope I can be like my kids and love the ride especially when turbulance hits; especially when things change and are no longer comfortable.

Disneyland

Since it has been over a week since we got home from two weeks of Constraint Induced Therapy, and a week of Disneyland, I thought I would start adding a few pictures from Disneyland. Here will just be a few of the family ones. If you wish to see child specific, please go to their page to find more.

One of the kids favorite rides was the Carrousel. (There are several rides I will call one of their favorites.) This is one of my favorite pictures that Todd took. Cope, Kailey and I are all in the picture.

We were all on the train and are all in this picture. Poor Kailey was still feeling sick so she is the pink laying on the bench next to me.

We loved the beach. The kids loved having the water "chase" them as the tides came in and out.

The first character we came in contact with.

We had a hard time getting Cope to look at the camera. He was fascinated with the cars.

We road on the boat. It was colder and the Kailey was still sick so we chose more mellow rides that day.

Cope's favorite part of Toontown was getting to "drive" the cars that were around.

I love these two pictures of my little family.

In the picture below we are riding the teacups. Todd was trying really hard to get us all in the picture. Cope kept moving his head so not much of him is in the picture.

The picture below is us in front of one of the kids favorite rides. It was "spaceships" that went in a circle, much like the dumbo ride, only shorter lines. I was tickling Cope in the picture.

This was the kids very favorite ride. Mickeys' Fun Wheel. It was a Ferris Wheel, but each cage was on a track as well so we would swing back and forth as the wheel turned. So much fun!

Cope loved being behind the glass!

We found Mickey with no line! Awesome!

This was our princess meal. Cinderella was the only princess who asked to take a picture with Cope as well.

Kailey was "mad" so she refused to smile for this one. I love how saying you'll be done riding rides for the day automatically makes a "mad" child a "happy" one.

This was on the little circus train.

This is a panoramic veiw of California Adventures at night. The big purple wheel with Mickey in the middle was Mickey's Fun Wheel, and the kids favorite ride.