Walt Disney World - Day 2 - Animal Kingdom - Kilimanjaro Safaris Expedition

After eating our fill at breakfast we made our way to the safari as you are meant to get a better safari experience the earlier it is in the day as it isn't so hot for the animals. 

I think this is the fourth time I have now been on this safari and it was the best one I have ever been on. It was a lot cooler in Florida as Sandy was making her presence felt so that could have been the reason. 

It wasn't long before our jeep arrived to take us on our adventure and Ethan got a fantastic seat, I was worried that he would be stuck in the middle and then wouldn't even look at the animals as he would be too busy looking at the people around him but we had a row all to ourselves.

We saw lots of animals on our adventure.

Some of the animals were even interested to come and have a look at us. I have never seen them get this close to the jeeps before. 

There was even baby elephants to see. 

The highlight for me was seeing the lions, they are normally asleep on the rocks but there were up and moving about. 

There is even a new addition of zebras. 

I really enjoyed our safari and Ethan looked at all the animals and even tried to touch the zebras as we went past. It is so hard to get Ethan to notice things that aren't close, he never noticed any of the animals from our hotel room so it was great to know that he looked at everything. 

Unwell Ethan :0(

It has been a long week in our house and quite a worrying one. Ethan has been really ill and I would say we still aren't out of the woods yet but he is finally improving. 

When I called NHS Direct on Monday night they really weren't any help at all! The question I wanted answered was 'when you have tonsillitis can you also be physically sick' the lady on the line would not give me a yes or no and she wanted us to drag Ethan out in the pouring rain to get him looked over again, we had just got him to sleep and I didn't want to make him worse by dragging him out in the cold. 

On Tuesday we took Ethan back to the walk in centre and basically she told us what we were expecting they couldn't really do anything unless Ethan was dehydrated and he wasn't that bad yet. 

Ethan spent the remaining part of Tuesday and Wednesday on the sofa and not moving, this is not Ethan at all you normally can't pin him down. He also wouldn't take any food and the most worrying, water. 

But I'm pleased to say he has finally started to eat a little and let me give him water in a syringe. He still isn't 100% but I'm over the moon that he is finally picking up. 

Walt Disney World - Day 2 - Animal Kingdom - Tusker House Breakfast

We had another early start today but thankfully our body clocks were still out of sorts so we were up at 5am. We knew we didn't have to get the bus as early today as we were so close to Animal Kingdom but we were still one of the first at the bus stops and after a short bus journey we had arrived...

We didn't have to wait that long before they let us into the park, we were held for quite a long time at the Magic Kingdom. It really is nice being let into the parks early you really do get to see details that you don't normally notice but I'm ashamed to say we didn't get and good photos on our walk into Africa as it is quite a walk from the entrance of the park and we were also quite close to our ADR time. I do need to make sure I'm early for times even if its just five minutes, I'm a person that can never walk into a cinema after the adverts have started!

After checking in and parking the buggy (stroller) we waited to be called to see the main man, Donald Duck!

 
This really was so much more relaxed than our Cinderella experience the morning before. This time we were out in the open and the queue of people waiting for their photo was behind the PhotoPass man not alongside us. As we had the PhotoPass Plus card this photo was given to us in a frame at no extra cost. 

We were then seated at our table. Tusker House is a buffet restaurant so you help yourself to what ever you want. Both me and Ethan had Mickey Waffles this morning, Darren had a bit of everything which also included lots of pastries. They also served an amazing fruit juice here, but don't tell my mum I actually tried it!

The first person to visit us was Mickey Mouse, he gave Ethan back his dummy as it was near the autograph book. You can see from these photos that Ethan still wasn't sure of Characters coming to see him whilst he ate and would always lean on Darren for reassurance. 

Daisy was our second visitor of the day giving Ethan kisses as she went...

...followed by goofy. No I'm not talking about Darren in this photo!

At this restaurant the children and the characters get to do a little parade to music but if we take Ethan out of the highchair its a nightmare to get him back in so through all the meals we thought it was best to leave him in there to not cause any upset. If he was a little bit older I think I would have taken him to join in more but he had fun watching everything that went on. 

After paying the bill a $10 tip, Ethan being under three ate for free, we left to explore Africa!

Walt Disney World - Day 1 - Dinner at Sanna

When we got back to the hotel we grabbed a meal from the quick service restaurant and took it back to our room. We then got Ethan down for a nap. Whilst he was sleeping we took some photos of the animals that had come to say hello. 

  

It was amazing having this view but funny how used you get to it after your two week stay!

We had a early ADR booked at Sanaa so after Ethan had a two hour sleep and we had all freshened up we slowly walked over to the Kidani Village which is the DVC (Disney Vacation Club) section of the Animal Kingdom Lodge to check into Sanaa.  

I really enjoyed this restaurant and I'm so glad they have added this addition to Walt Disney World as we love Indian food. I love the decoration of all the different lamps but unfortunately didn't take any photos as I was keeping Ethan busy.

This was the first meal that Ethan really ate at so it was nice to know his body clock was starting to get used to the time difference. We ordered him burger and chips from the kids menu, a safe chice for him but he didn't really like the chips as they had a bit of a spicy coating. 

We had the Indian-style bread service to start, which Ethan also tucked into. I had the Tandoori Chicken and Darren had the Tandoori Shrimp. I can't remember what dessert Darren had but I know I got the chocolate cake and when Ethan saw it he wanted some right away. 

The food was really lovely here and being on the DDP (Disney Dining Plan) we only had to pay for the starter, Ethan's meal and the tip which came to $28.19. 

On the way back through the Kidani Village lobby I took some photos of the lights. I love all the theming in the Animal Kingdom Lodge hotels, sometimes you do feel it is quite dark in there but I did find this really does depend on the time of the day.

Tonsillitis Take Two!

We knew that this weekend was supposed to be eventful but we weren't expecting to be spending Saturday night in A&E with Ethan. 

We were meant to be attending our friends 40th birthday party but Nanny called us just as we turned up at the hotel as Ethan was in a bad way. 

Ethan hasn't been right for a few weeks, he has been very picky with his food and not great with drinking water. From the first episode of tonsillitis that he had just under a month ago we have worked out that Ethan has a sore throat if he doesn't want to drink from his beaker. He has also had a cough that just didn't want to go. 

So in the past week alone we have taken him to the NHS Walk-In Centre, the Doctors and A&E. 

I was worried that Ethan had tonsillitis again that I suggested this when I took him to the doctors on Thursday but Ethan doesn't like anything or anyone looking into his mouth, yes we have an issue brushing teeth at the moment! So he has to be held down so that a doctor can check his throat and it is a real fight, one that I'm no good with and I have to leave this job to Darren. So as it was just me at the doctors with him we wasn't able to check his throat. 

On Saturday night Ethan's temperate was so high that he looked very red and was also getting a heat rash from it. I have never seen him like that. We were put in our own section in the children's A&E department so that they could keep an eye on his temperature, which thankfully did go down after about three hours. It took two attempts for the doctor to see inside his mouth and the fight was terrible that I have to keep out of the way. Unfortunately it was the same doctor that we saw at A&E last time who had to fight with Ethan and Ethan remembered so he knew what was coming which made it ever harder. The look Ethan gives me when all this is going on I know he is thinking "Mummy why are you letting them do this to me!"    

Ethan is still very ill, I feel he is a lot worse than he was last time, as I write this blog I am waiting for NHS Direct to call us back as I still have concerns. This time you can see he doesn't feel right and he is being sick along with having an upset stomach so we are having lots of fun in our house. 

I do believe that Ethan does have quite a high pain threshold when it comes to illness and it makes me upset to know that Ethan gets to these extremes before we realise he is ill. This also adds to the frustrations of Ethan being non-verbal, see earlier blog Non-Verbal Frustration. 

Cup Cake Madness!

On our days when we have nothing planned I'm aiming to try to do a creative activity with Ethan, it has been quite busy since coming back from Florida and trying to get back in the swing of things but this week we were able to try cup cake making. 

Now don't get too excited it wasn't anything fancy and it was only cup cakes from a packet but its a start!

This is something I have wanted to try with Ethan for ages as I used to love making cakes with my mum and I vividly remember making a ginger bread man with my nan when I was younger and its one of my fond memories of time spent with her. I'm ashamed to say that I haven't baked any kind of cakes for years and its only since having Ethan that I have started to explore cooking again so this was going to be a challenge for both of us. 

I decided on Peppa Pig cup cakes, not because Ethan is fond of Peppa Pig but because they looked the easiest. 

Before calling Ethan into the kitchen I made sure I had set everything up ready to go.  

I tried to show him what we were making and how to mix everything together. 

I had lots of fun trying to hold Ethan's attention with this activity! It turned out that the kitchen was so much more fun than mixing cup cake mixture so I was left to make the mixture and put it into the cases whilst Ethan explored all of the doors in the kitchen. I also think he wasn't sure why his little table was in the kitchen as he ended up walking round it quite a few times. 

After the cakes had been baked and had cooled down it was time to attempt icing them! As mixing didn't go well the first time I prepared the icing before calling Ethan into the kitchen. 

At first Ethan thought we were going to eat the cakes so icing them wasn't off to a good start and as before I ended up doing it on my own. 

I added too much water into the icing but at least one of us had completed the task.

Finally it was time to taste them, Ethan wasn't overly impressed with the iced Peppa Pig character and it was quickly removed but he enjoyed eating the cakes!

So from this we have learnt that Ethan isn't overly impressed with cup cake making but in the words of William Edward Hickson

'Tis a lesson you should heed:

Try, try, try again.

If at first you don't succeed,

Try, try, try again.