Judging A Book By It's Cover

We owed Mason a great birthday this year. The reason being is that last year we made a disastrous trip to Amarillo to visit my wife’s family. All started out well, we arrived mid morning and met Rashele’s family at Amarillo’s answer to outdoor family amusement “Wonderland” (think Disneyworld circa the 1800’s)

We were there no more than 2 hours when Mason, 2 months into having been fully potty trained told us he needed to go potty. Rashele took him to the ladies room as I didn’t trust the suspicious puddles in the men’s room.

Standing just outside I heard a stall door slam (the old fashioned heavy wooden door kind)..I said to myself…please don’t let that be followed by a scream.

It was.

Mason was wailing, and Rashele ran out of the bathroom cussing a blue streak and in tears holding Mason’s bloody hand. His index finger had gotten caught in the door and it was nearly severed.

Long story short, 7 stitches in his finger and all was intact. We cut the trip short and returned back to Dallas.

Fast forward to this year, as I’ve noted in a past blog we have a Disney addiction and we visit regularly (our employ in the travel industry affords us some perks on rare occasion so we use them when we can)

Mason was turning 5 and we wanted to make this a trip that would wipe out last year’s bad memory. We decided that Rashele, Mason, and myself would fly to Orlando and just enjoy the weekend ourselves. So we packed our bags and flew out of town last Friday.

We had a great time enjoying ourselves. Mason really opens up when he’s there and points excessively and talks about the rides and the characters. He even let Piglet hug him and let him get close enough to “assist” him in blowing out the candles on his birthday cake Saturday morning.

We let Mason call the shots most of the day asking what rides he wanted to go on next and so forth. It came time for his favorite, and the one he talks about most, The Dumbo Ride.

We had our disability pass that allows Mason to use the wheelchair entrance, thus alleviating the long line. As Mason waited, a woman whom had observed our entry bypassing the long line asked the following:

“What’s the trick to getting to skip ahead in line?”

I looked at her with utter disbelief.

Trick? I thought.....

My response to her was kind, but in my mind I thought she was a complete knucklehead and obviously her “internal filter” wasn’t applied before she spoke. (I’m glad my internal filter worked that day)

I know looking at Mason from the outside he looks like a typical 5 year old boy. But knowing him from the inside I know his mind and thoughts are often jumbled as are his ability to communicate, run, jump, interact.

Despite the knucklehead woman, it was a great time for the 3 of us to connect and for Rashele and I to focus 100% of our attention on him.

We all enjoyed it.