Vacation Overload

The Life of Liberti Gang is on vacation this week visiting "The Happiest Place On Earth". I'd like to think that I'm not overreacting to everything, but so far it's been sorta miserable.

Tonester started feeling under the weather the day before we left so the bulk of our vacation preparations (cleaning, shopping, packing, etc) was suddenly dumped on my lap. What I thought was a long list of things I had to do before was suddenly doubled. He went to bed around 9:30 and I was up until almost midnight finishing everything. My alarm went off at 3:15AM and we left Sunday morning at 4:00AM (and for the record, the last time I saw 4am involved breastfeeding Rascal 4 years ago, and I wasn't happy about the hour then, either...) We made forced potty breaks before loading into the car with this crazy vision that that the kids would fall right back to sleep and we'd get about 3+ hours of the drive done in peace and quiet. Specifically 3 hours of the drive where I could nap.

All that was shot to hell immediately. They boys were far too excited for sleeping so we had the challenge of entertaining them while us grown ups were barely functioning enough to operate a moving vehicle. About an hour and a half into the drive I turned around to talk to Domino and he had a very strange look on his face. Prone to car sickness I expected him to starting covering the back seat of our car with vomit, but instead he had peed every where. While awake. We pulled over at the nearest bathroom hosed him and the car down. About another hour down the road Rascal spilled a 12 ounce jug of milk all over the back seat, himself and all of our hats - specifically my new sunhat which is now destroyed. Another hose down for all involved, a $94 fill up of gas (!) and we were on our way again.

We pulled into Anaheim around lunch time and had the worlds most expensive IHOP breakfast/lunch ($60 for a family of 4!??) and were forced to kill time before our hotel room was ready. For 6 hours. We are vacationing with another family so we were able to kill time in their room while we waited, but I wanted to crash on my own hotel bed for a good long snooze and the hotel just kept us waiting and waiting and waiting.

We hit the Disney parks on Monday and discovered we're visiting during southern California's "Heat wave of the year" (according to KCAL news last night). I "don't do hot" very well so this is really a challenge for me to not turn in to super b*tch mode. It's hot, it's crowded and my kids are - well - I don't want to sound like I'm too hot right now cuz I'm in my air conditioned room with a nice cup of morning coffee - but my kids are spoiled.

I see all these kids, all around the same age as mine, and they wait patiently in the heat in line for rides, they sit nicely at restaurants and eat whatever they are served... I feel like I am walking on egg shells and over accommodating them for everything. They are such picky eaters that I've packed a cooler full of food (also in an effort to save $) but trying to serve Domino a homemade peanut butter sandwich at the park, the same sandwich he requests day after day at home, is meet with tears and the vow "then I'll just starve to death!!". We have a full complimentary breakfast buffet at our hotel and they won't eat a damn thing. No pancakes. No eggs. No toast. No blueberry muffin. No Fruit Loops! I'm lucky that Rascal will eat a handful or two of bacon, but getting Domino to eat anything is next to impossible. Then at lunch he'll announce he wants to eat pizza, only pizza, and my sorry ass makes the long trek out from California Adventure to Downtown Disney to get the kid what he wants - what he SAYS he wants for lunch - the $8 pizza that he refuses to eat.

Monday was a long, hot and pretty miserable day. I got next to no sleep. Tonester being sick, downed a bunch of Nyquil before going to bed and was snoring like a train. Domino came to me in the middle of the night, complaining about the snoring and said "Mommy! It's annoying me! Can't you make him stop??" Sadly, only with a pillow held firmly over his face.... I ended up sleeping with the 2 boys on the pull out couch in the hotel room, with one butt cheek hanging over the edge. I can't remember the last time I had such a horrible night of sleep.

Tuesday, Tonester attempted to do the Disney parks, but the night before his earache was so bad that he had to head out into town to find ear drops. He ended up leaving me and the boys at the Disney park alone on Tuesday and spent the better portion of the day driving around Orange County looking for our insurance authorized urgent care center to have his ear examined (diagnosis "wow, that's a really inflamed and pissed off looking ear you've got there...") and then sent on a wild goose chase to find the insurance authorized prescription pick up location. The boys and I wandered around the park, arguing over who would get a turn in the stroller (me?!) and braving the heat in the long lines. We went on the Monsters Inc ride and Heimlich the caterpillar rides twice and hit the Bugs Life water play area for about 2 hours. Ever seen a tiger pace back and forth in an enclosure? That's how I felt pacing back and forth trying to keep my eyes on the 2 boys who insisted in running in opposite directions from each other in the water area. Would it kill them to stick together for my sanity??? "Domino, please keep your brother with you. That's your job as the big brother, especially when Daddy is not with us and I need your help." "No thanks" and off he went...

We met up with Tonester and his ear packed with cotton in time for dinner and the Finding Nemo submarine ride (we waited 45 minutes, but the line is about 3 hours during the day - totally not worth that in my opinion). Domino had fallen asleep in the stroller and we had to wake him up when we got closer to the front of the line and they took the strollers away. Coincidentally, that's about the EXACT same time that the firework show started. Directly in front of us. Sounds great, right? Not if you have a child with Sensory Integration Dysfunction. His little brain went into complete freak out processing mode and he was like a cat being thrown into a swimming pool, howling and yowling, screeching and clawing his way up our bodies, trying to get the hell out of there. I pretty much threw him into the Nemo submarine knowing that he wouldn't hear or see the fireworks from there, but I must have looked like "Mother of the Year" shoving a terrified kid onto the ride.

We hit Legoland on Thursday which is a totally great place by the way - bail on Disney if you're in southern CA and check that place out instead! It's clean, it's near the coast so the temperature is manageable, it's got lots of shade (not just natural shade, but well designed and thought out additional shade for the comfort of their guests), there's play areas within the lines for rides where kids and a parent can stay while the other parent makes their way through the line, and there's healthy food available everywhere you go. We bought big fruit cups filled with strawberries and grapes to snack on at the park and avoided all the usual junk.

Friday night we hit the Medieval Times dinner tournament. It was a great experience, but probably not something I would do again. We were assigned to cheer for the "Red & Yellow" knight, but he lost. Domino was very upset and started to cry. (SPOILER AHEAD) Turns out, no matter what knight you were assigned to cheer for - he would lose. The story goes that there is a white prince who wins the battle but no section of the crowd is assigned to cheer for him. For me, the best part of the night was watching Tonester trying to eat with his fingers. For those of you who know Tonester, you know how tough that was for him! Also loved that Tonester disappeared for about 30 minutes with Domino, pissing me and Rascal off completely. I then learned that when he saw the menu at Medieval had nothing that the kids would eat, he dashed down the street to the nearby McDonalds to pick the kids up happy meals (thank goodness kids were free at Medieval that night!) and got back in time for the dinner show. Tonester rocks!

It's now Saturday and we've muscled through the heat, the crankiness, the sleep deprivation and the financial meltdown to round out our Disney vacation. We ran out of clean clothes about 3 days ago and I'm washing my chonies in the bathroom sink. I've packed a cooler of nonperishable food that we haven't touched. We've walked miles and miles each day, my feet ache and I'm constantly sticky with sweat and sunscreen but I guess through it all, it's been fun?

Things I've learned on this vacation:

The Rainforest Cafe is no place to bring a child with Sensory Integration issues. "Thunder and lightening shows" every 30 minutes, robotic gorillas that beat their chests unexpectedly every 10 minutes or so and loud tribal drum beats is not a pleasant experience - for the child or the family involved.

It's pretty much impossible to vacation with another family without a set agenda. The "Where are you now?" "We're headed to..." and "We'll meet with you later" via cell phone never go as planned. (Bummer!!!!)

When it's been 100 degrees out and I've been wearing a hat all day, trudging around with the 2 boys in Disneyland all day while Tonester is driving around with an ear infection - when we meet up again later and I take my hat off and he says "What's up with your hair?" I probably should refrain from saying the first thing that comes out of my mouth.

I love my family. But I really need another vacation - preferably away from them!