I've been giving a lot of thought lately as to whether a trip to Walt Disney World is even a possibility with Levi. This is something that I would so like to experience with him! I think of ways that it could be so rewarding... and I think of ways that it could be absolutely disastrous.
I am very aware that a trip to WDW with Levi would look a lot different than the one I took with the girls. Gone would be so many of the things we enjoyed, but in their place would be a laid back vacation based solely on Levi's wants and needs. I think that sounds like a wonderful way to spend time there.
Gone would be the shows and faster rides. I'm not thinking we'll stand in many lines for character pictures either. But we can take in everything that is to be seen. There are so many things to experience with all of your senses at Disney! I know he will love riding the bus, walking, seeing everything, and eating the delicious foods. He would love all of the routines like going through the bag search, paying for our food (handing the card and getting it back with a receipt), and boarding the transportation. What I'm not so sure about is the rides.
I think he would like the train and the people mover, but I'm not so sure about anything else. I decided to test his readiness with a trip to our local mall with one goal in mind: attempt a ride on the merry-go-round. Levi was all for putting our money in the machine and watching it spit a token out in exchange. He eagerly picked his token up and gave it to the ride operator. He followed his sisters onto the ride with me close behind. He selected a horse between the two of them and excitedly attempted to climb up. I helped him onto his horse and explained that it was going to go up and down. Well that's all he needed to hear! His willingness to ride all but evaporated as he told me, "No!" The ride began, he stiffened up, screamed, and tried to climb down. I had anticipated this possibility and had asked the operator beforehand what she would do if he screamed very loudly and did not want to continue. She assured me that she would stop the ride to let him off and told me that we could always ride on the bench rather than the horse.
I helped my frightened little boy down from his horse while spinning dizzyingly on the carousel. We staggered in a zig zag path over to the bench and plopped down to enjoy the rest of the ride. Levi watched his sisters go up and down. He looked all around taking it all in. He peered over the back of our seat and delighted in the panda bear that kept dropping below our eye level and then popping back up as if it were playing peek-a-boo with us. Finally as the ride began to slow, Levi jumped up and ran over to a horse. I asked if he wanted to climb up and he said, "No." I didn't push it. I strategically placed us in a safe position to stand with our hands on two horses to balance ourselves momentarily. As I prepared to finish out the last time or two around standing in this position, Levi decided that he did, in fact, want to ride the horse. I helped push his body up onto the now barely moving horse. He went up and halfway down before the horse came to a rest. He had done it! Even though it had been brief, he had done it when he was ready.
Even better, the operator, having taken the whole scene in, decided to give us another whirl around. I told Levi that we were getting ready to start up again, to which he stiffened up and became anxious. He did try to climb down, but I encouraged him and helped him feel secure. He quickly adjusted to the up and down rhythm and settled in for a ride! It was a great victory for us. As it turned out, the operator "happens" to work with children with autism. We talked with her about our Disney hopes and she asked if we would fly or drive. Well... that's another big thing that we've been thinking about! But I musn't get too far ahead of myself. As far as today goes, we rode the merry-go-round, which means that we can most likely add Prince Charming's Carousel to our list of rides that we could feasibly ride at WDW. That's a start.
And, by the way, upon exiting the mall, Levi tried to hop another ride on the merry-go-round! And we're off....
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