The Trip - Part II

We didn't start out bad Monday morning considering it was our first crack at getting everyone up, dressed, fed and ready to tackle the Magic Kingdom.  Armed with our strollers, diaper bags, sunblock, and bottles of water, we arrived at the park before nine.  With a few rides under our belts, and a few hours in the obnoxious heat, I quickly realized the whole experience wasn't going to be exactly as I imagined in the months beforehand.

Cheese!

My nephew, who I thought would enjoy it the most, was scared to the point of tears on every ride.  My fearless child was no problem on the rides, but she seemed to be stuck in tantrum/whine mode all morning.  The adults were already bitching about the heat, and the lines, and being hungry, and rides breaking down.  My mom, sister, and her boyfriend got stuck on Splash Mountain for what seemed like forever.  In the meantime, we kept the kids content in a play area.  My nephew and Punky got to run around and work off some energy, and my one-year-old niece remained pleasant with a steady stream of goldfish crackers and a bottle of juice.  It also gave us the perfect opportunity to meet our first character.  Goofy!  He was signing autographs right next to where we were waiting.

Squeeze!

As long as I live, I will never forget the look on Punky's face when she saw him standing there.  She squealed, and giggled, and jumped up and down for fifteen minutes while we waited in line.  "It's Goofy, Mommy! Look!  He's here! Can I talk to him? I can't wait!"  I was so excited for her.  My eyes kept filling with tears.  When our turn came, she ran right to him and wrapped her tiny arms around him.  She must've hugged him ten times and, when the opportunity presented itself, she squeezed his nose.  All the other characters she met  faced the same fate as Goofy.  Something about their noses tugged at her curiosity and she just couldn't help herself.

Later that day, we had dinner with Winnie the Pooh, Tigger, Eyore, and Piglet.  Punky greeted each one with the same level of excitement as Goofy.  But aside from a short glimpse in an afternoon parade, the big guy managed to elude her all day.  The mouse was nowhere to be found.  And she was so disappointed, probably because we told her for months that she was going to meet Mickey Mouse.  It was definitely the top priority on her vacation to-do list.

By nightfall, we were all simply beat.  I think we managed to accomplish about half of what we anticipated that day.  Disney with young children is an entirely different animal.  Everything took so much longer.  

Walking with strollers through the crowds was a lot more difficult than zipping through them in my pre-mommy days.  Grabbing a quick bite on the run wasn't an option.  Getting the kids to calm down and focus on swallowing a few nibbles took forever.  I know they were too excited to eat, but I also know that hungry kids are cranky kids and they were finding plenty of other things to whine about without adding hunger to the pile.  Before waiting in line for any ride, we had to check diaper status and change if necessary, find a spot to park the strollers, and grab any and all items we could possibly need for the kids while waiting in line a half hour.  And then after the ride, we got to play "find the stroller" because Disney employees apparently get a rise out of moving them to a different spot than where you left them, even though they were already parked in a section clearly marked "Stroller Parking."  

It's a small world, after all!

Punky's favorite in the Magic Kingdom seemed to be "It's a Small World" and the song is stuck in her head.  She also liked the Carousel of Progress and must've told me "Mommy, this is fun!" about sixteen times during the show.  The Jungle Cruise, Flying Magic Carpets, and the spinning, giant teacups were all hits as well.  I was proud of her though, she seemed a bit scared but didn't panic or cry on the Haunted Mansion.  She was a real trooper.

At the end of the night, I bought her a stuffed Goofy to commemorate their magical meeting and she slept with him tucked under her arm all week.  It was a very long day.  A long, hot, sweaty, challenging, at times frustrating, exhausting day.  As I crawled into bed, I said to myself, "One down, four to go.  I hope we all make it."  

To be continued...

The Trip - Part I

The thing about vacation is you plan for months and it's over in the blink of an eye.  In this case, it was too short in some ways but too long in others.  Here's the recap...

We left right on schedule and began the long ride to Florida.  The drive down went extremely well.  As planned, we slept all day and had no trouble at all driving through the night.  Punky woke up every time we stopped for gas, coffee, or to pee (thanks to the coffee), but she fell right back to sleep once the truck was in motion.  We got stuck in construction in D.C. around midnight and lost a good hour of driving time, but we still managed to have breakfast at a Waffle House in some rural part of South Carolina around seven.  By noon, we were in St. Augustine, Florida.  And damn, it was hot.

In reality, we were only about two and a half hours away from our booked hotel in Orlando.  We thought about just trying to check in there a day early, but we were awake almost twenty hours at this point so we decided to get a room and call it a day.  We had a good meal at a diner across the street, a quick dip in the hotel pool, a short walk so Punky could expend some more energy, and a good night's sleep.  

We finished the drive in the morning and arrived at the Disney hotel about two hours before the rest of my family who took the easier travel route in the sky.  After a minor mix-up with our rooms (ours only had one bed), we were finally settled and ready for some fun.  We had already passed the enormous pool a few times and Punky was chomping at the bit to get her tiny hiney wet.  

See Punky in this pic?

We spent most of the afternoon swimming and settled for pizza delivery for supper.  In the evening we checked out the rest of the hotel complex.  Each building was themed after a Disney movie, complete with gigantic props and room decor to match.  Our building was Herbie the Love Bug.  It was cute for the kids, but honestly I wasn't that impressed with the rest of it.  

I love this picture

The rooms were small and dark, the furniture was cheap, we only had double beds instead of queens like most hotels these days, and the complex was simply too big.  And too crowded.  Of course, our building was at the very rear which meant a long hike back to our room after exhausting days at the parks.  The only place to eat was basically a food court with extremely long lines full of rambunctious children dying to get through breakfast so they could board a bus to the park (my child included), irritable parents exhausted from days of such a routine, and not enough staff on hand to keep the place functioning efficiently or the tables cleaned properly.  And the food wasn't even that great.  

I'll drive us to the playground!

There was no shade where we waited in long lines to board the shuttles.  Did I mention that the state was experiencing near record high temperatures the entire week we were there?  The heat index was around 105 most days, and the humidity had to be at least 90%.  It was ridiculous.  I think I peed three times all week.  The rest of my liquid intake seeped out in streams of sweat from everywhere, including places I never knew had sweat glands.  Talk about gross.  

So, you see, standing in the sun while waiting for a bus was a big deal.  By the time we boarded, it looked like none of us showered that morning.  Between the sweat and the sunblock, we were some slimy-looking creatures.  Take a minute to consider how sweet the bus smelled on the return trip at night when it was full of people who spent the entire day sweating from every crack and crevice.  Once all the seats were full, the drivers packed others in like sardines to stand in the aisle and hang on for dear life.  On one hand you were lucky to be up far enough in line to get a seat, but on the other hand that guaranteed you would have someone's butt in your face swaying way too close for comfort every time the bus took a corner.  Okay, I'll get off the bus rant.  I hate buses.  There, I'm done.

Now where was I?  Oh yeah, the hotel.  Suffice it to say that it was way under my level of expectation for a Disney property.  Granted it was one of their low-end resorts, but I still expected more bang for the buck.  The very expensive buck, I might add.  We didn't even have free internet in the rooms for all that cash.  They wanted ten dollars a day to connect, and it wasn't even a wireless connection.  Unreal.  Even Holiday Inn's have free wi-fi in every room these days.

To be fair and not sound like a total whine-ass, I have to say the beds, while small, were super comfy and the pool was awesome.  Oh, and they had good coffee.

Monday morning we were ready to face our first day in a park.  Where would you start with three kids age five and under?  The Magic Kingdom, of course.

To be continued...

Two and a Half

I'm not sure how the hell that happened so quickly.  But here we are, smack-dab in the middle of the terrible twos, and truth be told...they haven't been so terrible.  Yet.  We are back from vacation (more to come on that later) and although Punky had some moments on our trip, she was really well-behaved most of the time.  And she had the time of her life.

There's no denying it now: she's a little girl.  All of her baby features have disappeared, physically and otherwise.  Now that I've come to that realization, I can't help but feel a bit sad.  I get teary when I look at old pictures of the tiny baby I held for hours at a clip.  I truly love this stage, and I'm so proud of her for all she's become, but I also miss the snuggly baby days.  Not enough to have another one, mind you, but enough to make me pout when I see little babies.

In some ways it's hard to believe Punky's only two and a half.  She's so smart, and independent, and tough.  And she talks like a teenager.  From her choice of words and complex phrases to her animation and dramatic tone, she sounds like a child much older.  She also stumbled into the world of bad words this month.  I knew it was only a matter of time until she repeated something we tend to let slip around here.  Just a few minor offenses, no eff bombs or anything, but still things she shouldn't be saying.  We're trying to nip it in the bud before it gets worse...which means her dad and I really need to work harder on our own word choices.

For Punky's future knowledge, here's the facts at two and a half:

Favorite meal - chicken fingers and mashed potatoes.  Throw in some apple juice and string cheese and she's in heaven.  Cinnamon Toast Crunch cereal still tops her list for breakfast, and it's usually the first thing out of her mouth when she wakes up in the morning.  She has probably eaten it five out of seven mornings for the last year now and she never tires of it.

Favorite snack - orange cheesies.  I got away with buying her the nutritious, whole grain, slightly tasty, toddler cheese puff snacks for a long time.  Then her dad introduced her real junk food.  Now she specifically asks for the big, orange ones and flat out refuses to eat the smaller, yellow, healthier ones.  Way to go, Daddy.

Favorite things - her blankie is still number one, and her glow-in-the-dark drumsticks are a close second with books and baths remaining near the top of the list.  She plays a lot with her Disney character toys, her kitchen set, and all her musical instruments.  She still likes to color, and paint, and make a mess with play-doh.  Now that we've finally had some warm weather, we filled her baby pool a few times.  What a difference from last year; she's really too big for it now.  Unfortunately we're not allowed to have anything bigger where we live so it needs to serve the purpose yet this year.  Next year it will become a sand box, I suppose.

Favorite phase - "Absolutely super dee-dooper!"  It's her response to almost everything these days.  Her day at school, her macaroni and cheese dinner, the flavor of her new toothpaste, the color of Minnie Mouse's dress, my suggestion to go for a walk...apparently they are all absolutely super dee-dooper!  I have no idea where she learned it.

New skills  - catching almost any size ball thrown to her, counting by twos, and removing the child safety locks from the kitchen cabinets.  She seems to suddenly have a better understanding of numbers and how they relate to one another.  If I ask her a basic math question, like two coins plus one coin for example, she answers correctly.  I think that's pretty impressive for two-and-a-half.  I've been trying to get her to sound out basic words since she knows the letters and the sounds they make, but it isn't quite clicking yet.  She can, however, tell me what letter a word starts with by the sound of the letter so I don't think it will be long until it all falls into place.  I still think she will do some basic reading at age three.

Her sweetest moments - "Did you have a good time at work today, Mommy?"  She asks me this almost every day when I get home.  It's too cute.  She went through a bit of a no hugs and kisses phase but now she's over it.  Hugs are plentiful these days, and when she throws in a squeeze and an "I love you so much!" my heart simply melts.  And when something delights her fancy, she lets out an excited "Holy moley guacamole!"

Two and a half

Potty training - no way, no how.  And I still don't get it.  She's caught on so fast to everything else.  I have no idea why this is proving to be so difficult.  We didn't push it in the months before vacation.  She obviously wasn't ready and we figured it would be easier if she weren't trained given the nineteen hour drive and waiting in line at the parks.  Now that we're back, it's time to get serious.  She's only had a potty seat thus far; now I'm buying her an actual stand-alone potty.  The next few months ought to be interesting.  I wish I knew where to start.  

Her well-child visit isn't for a few more weeks yet so I don't know exactly how much she's grown but it seems like she had a spurt recently.  Her legs look so long now and she's definitely gotten heavier.  Or maybe it just seemed that way when I had to carry a sleeping child through Disney World in one hundred degree heat.

Sunrise

Dawn is breaking.  The birds are chirping.  My eyes are closing.  It's 5:00 a.m.

We made it.  

In one hour, we can wake Punky.  Change her diaper.  Feed her.  Dress her.  Brush her teeth.  Wash her face.  And ship her off to daycare.

Then we can sleep.  

We've packed about as much as we can.  The video camera is charged.  The bills are paid.  The laundry is done.  The dishwasher is empty.  I am exhausted.

Once we wake up, the adventure begins.  Wish us luck.  I know we'll have a great time.

Tomorrow is two years since I started this blog.  I wish I had enough energy left to mark that milestone with a special post but I'm simply out of gas. 

See you in a few weeks.

Goodnight. 

Problem Solved

I'd like to tell you that I was able to make a firm, confident decision on the field trip issue, but the truth is I didn't have to make one. 

I discussed the situation with my mom, of course, to get her opinion on the choice I should make.  She called me back the next day and offered to come up and take Punky on the field trip.  Now why didn't I think of that?

So, today was the big day.  Everything went off without a hitch and Punky had a great time.  She loved the train and carousel rides which makes me feel better about our planned trip to four amusement parks...especially since we leave tomorrow!  Even with Grammy's close supervision, she managed to fall off a sliding board ladder, luckily without injury.  I'm so happy she was able to go, but I still feel a pang of guilt for not going with her.  Damn job. 

Tonight will be a no-sleep marathon.  Thankfully I have more than enough to do to keep me busy all night.  Our plan is to stay awake and pack until we take Punky to daycare in the morning, then crash until it's time to pick her up around four.  We'll eat dinner, load the truck, and leave around seven.  That way we will be in great shape to get most of the driving done overnight while Punky is (hopefully) sound asleep.  At least that's the plan; we'll see how it goes...

And, for anyone curious, if I did have to decide about the field trip I would not have let her go.  I'm so glad we had another option.  Thanks, Grammy.

Grease is the Word

About two months ago on one of our long trips home, Punky managed to stay awake and grew increasingly fussy with each passing moment about an hour into the ride.  Knowing she loves music, and drums, and horns, I hit the play button on the CD player in the hope of distracting and amusing her if only for a few minutes. 

Because I'm such a young, hip, cool mom, the loaded CD was the soundtrack to the movie Grease.  I quickly found the theme song and pointed out the sound of the horns blaring, the rhythm of the drum beat, and sang a few of the lyrics to her.  She stopped fussing and listened intently to the music.  When the song ended, she asked to hear it again.

I was more than happy to play it again if it meant keeping her quiet and calm for a bit.  Besides, I love the movie and soundtrack.  It was a quick, easy, enjoyable fix for her fussing.  Score one for Mommy!

By about the seventh or eighth time, I had about enough of that song so I suggested we listen to other songs on the CD.  Whenever I started to play something different, she'd cry and whine until I played the theme song again.  By the time we reached our destination, we listened to it about thirteen times and I had my fill of Grease for awhile. 

The weekend passed and all was well until we embarked on our journey back home.  About ten minutes into the two and a half hour trip, she asked to hear "the horn song with the horns."  At first I had absolutely no clue what the hell she was talking about, but after a few minutes I realized what she meant.  "Only one time," I told her as I hit the play button. 

One turned into two, then three and four and five.  I managed to distract her for a few minutes here and there, but eventually she'd ask to hear it again.  I lost count on the number of times I played it that trip, but she was able to sing most of the words by the time we got home. 

No big deal.  She'll eventually tire of it, I thought.  Or she'll simply forget about it.  I'll  find other songs to amuse her in the car.  But it hasn't worked out that way.

Any time we're in the car, or walking toward the car, or planning to go in the car later that day, she asks to hear the horn song with the horns.  I took the CD out of the car for a few days at one point, but eventually caved and returned it after her relentless requests to hear it.  Guess which CD will not be accompanying us on our trip to Florida? 

Speaking of grease...

Last weekend I woke up early...a whole two hours before Punky...so I occupied myself with some much needed housework.  Laundry always tops the list come Saturday.  I washed one load, put it in the dryer, and washed a second load.  When the dryer stopped an hour later, I started folding load number one only to discover lovely black greasy streaks over all the clothes.  I hadn't transfered load number two to the dryer at that point so I ran to the washer to check it.  Ditto on the streaks.  Dammit.

Actually, dammit plus a string of other colorful four letter words.  The first load was mostly Punky's clothes...many of which were brand new outfits for our vacation.  The second load was all the new shorts and shirts I bought for vacation.  I wanted to cry.  Not only did I ruin two loads of clothes, we also had to spend money on a new washer just two weeks before our trip.  

Grease is the word I don't care to hear for quite a while.

Daycare Dilemma

Punky's daycare has announced its first "real" field trip since she's been enrolled.  They take the kids on walking trips often: to the park, to the library, and even to the bank and post office.  These jaunts make me a tad bit nervous.  After all, my kid's easy to lose.  She's a runner, she's damn fast, and she's tiny to boot.  It's not hard for her to disappear (hence the purchase of the kiddie leash disguised as an adorable monkey backpack for our upcoming trip to meet the mouse).

Anyway, this field trip is to a campground about fifteen miles away.  We actually camped there when Punky was six months old.  It's really a great place to camp with small children.  They have a train ride through the woods around the campground, a beautifully restored carousel, a pool, an enormous sand pit full of toys, a playground with all the usual equipment plus extras like a pirate ship, a ball pit, huge boat swings, carnival type games that are free to play, and more.  It sounds like it will be a fun day for the kids.  But...

(Of course there's one, or the title wouldn't contain the word dilemma...)

The school is asking parents to help provide transportation and chaperon duty, and the timing couldn't be worse.  The field trip is scheduled for the day before we leave for vacation.  Punky's dad and I both have the following ten days off, and there is no way for either of us to extend our approved vacation time by another day.  Neither of us is able to go.  Period.  

Given that fact, we are left with two choices and they are equally shitty in my book.

The field trip is only for kids over two years old, so the daycare will still be open that day for the babies.  The director told me that Punky will be able to stay at the school if we'd rather she not participate, but I can't seem to make a decision.

Punky is only two, but she's sharp.  She will definitely hear the kids and teachers talking about it the day before the trip.  She will definitely notice all the excitement that morning as they get ready to go.  She will definitely be upset when the rest of her class leaves and she's not allowed to go along.  She'll be bored all day at school while confined to the baby room without the classes, toys, teachers, and friends that are normally part of her day.  And, come the following morning, she will definitely feel like she missed out on something fun as the kids yap about the great time they had on the field trip. 

The flip side?  We let her go. 

In a stranger's car.  With a parent we don't know.  On a 65 mph highway without knowing the condition of the vehicle or the safety-consciousness of the driver.  And once at the campground, there's the chaperon thing.  Who will be watching my child?  A parent who knows nothing about her aside from her name?  Will they hold her tightly on the carousel, and sit beside her on the train, and monitor how high she climbs at the playground?  Given the chance, Punky would jump off the moving train to chase a squirrel she spots in the woods, try to stand up on the back of the carousel horse, and be all the way on top of the monkey bars in an instant.  I know my child.

And to be quite honest, if I were in charge of watching a group of three or four kids on a field trip, I know I would pay closer attention to the care, wants, and needs of my own.  I don't think that makes me a bad person; I think it makes me a mom.

So, do I deny her the opportunity and feel like the worst mother on the planet?  Or do I suck it up and trust a stranger with my precious little girl, and spend the day in a constant state of worry, and then feel like the worst mother on the planet if something bad happens?  Either way, I lose.  

Until now, I felt confident with all the decisions I've made for Punky.  I knew where I stood, listened to my gut, and I have no regrets.  I am firmly stuck on the fence with this one.  Am I being way over-protective and paranoid?  Do I need to lighten up a bit?  Or should I follow my gut and choose her safety over her pleasure?  She'd get over it, right?  Probably quickly with us heading to Disney the very next night.

I welcome your opinions but I don't expect them.  I've come to terms with having the quietest group of readers in the blogosphere.  I can see you, you know.  I'll let you know which way the cookie crumbles, but with my blogging habits as of late, Punky may be seven till you know the outcome.