Disney bound...here we go again..

Not sure what I was thinking or not thinking for that matter.

A big group of our friends are driving up to Orlando to celebrate one of the girl's birthdays. 27 of us to be exact. 14 adults, 13 kids.We waited until the last minute to make the decision. We figured we would "Try". Worse case scenario we can hide in our rooms and give the kids free range of the I-series: Ipad, Iphones, Ipod and I-DONTCARE!

I rearranged our schedules today so that my husband would pick up Kai and so that Quinn's therapies would be dwindled from 3 to just 1.

Of course I should not be blogging. I should be packing. Procrastinating the inevitable I guess. Just the thought of the amount of packing we have to do, makes me nauseous. Traveling with an almost 9 year old on the spectrum, a 2 year old with developmental delays, a Disney hating husband and an suv packed with every single thing you can imagine is just NOT easy.

For starters, both kids are on a mostly organic,  gluten, soy, peanut and casein FREE diet. This means we take everything AND the kitchen sink. Ok, not really but almost. Yes, there are things you can now get at most resorts for them to eat but you still need most of the stuff because of the "what if" factor. What if they don't have it or you can't dine at the time they have? the kids can't wait or starve because we all know that equals : tantrums! Shoot, I have a tantrum too if I can't eat. Of course, I am a mom. I am entitled to one too right? and mostly because it's my job to pack all of this stuff. But I digress....Luckily, the hotel we are staying at has a full kitchen. Phew! I hate having to take the toaster oven each time in the past. What a pain. This means that this time I can leave the pots, plates, etc behind! I still need to take the gfcf loaf of bread, their hummus spread, pasta noodles, tomato sauce, goat milk, bananas, cereals, chicken nuggets, waffles, crackers, tater tots, pizzas, apple sauce, baby food, baby bottle, ice packs, cooler, lunchboxes etc and that's from the top of my head. It also means I have to not only prepare breakfast int he morning but precook and pack what the kids will be having for lunch each day and take it with me in the morning. Nothing spontaneous here like a hot dog or cotton candy! oh no! not us.

Traveling with the baby who is only crawling right now means taking a bag of toys to spread out through the room so that while there he can have something to play with. The hotel says the crib "is not guaranteed" and "we can only request one upon checking in". This means we have no choice but to take the portable crib with the corresponding mattress, sheets and the baby's mobile. Phew. Then there is the topic of CLOTHES. I will spare you my story on how much I like to take on trips because I like to have choice. Really. It's better not to tell you about it. Let's just focus on the baby wearing 4 outfits a day. Oh yes, at least 4. There is the morning outfit, the nap pajamas, then the afternoon outfit and the night pajamas (thicker). It's only 4 if he didn't poop, pee, drool or dirty one of them during one of those meals I so lovingly prepare at 7:30am in which case, backup outfit # 5 appears. Yes, I do not like toting around a dirty toddler. Which leads me to BIBS! When traveling with a teething baby you are guaranteed soaked bibs or shirts. We established I don't do dirty babies so I have to carry at least 5-6 per day and a bunch of the disposable ones for meals.

Then let's talk about my monkey. We have to make sure the I-chargers are packed, the nintendo and charger, the leapster and charger and the dvds for the car. It's that or "charge it!" said by him at least 30 times in a minute until it's charged. Good times.

Last fall we did a similar trip with the same group of friends and we vowed never to do it again. They all sat around, drank piña coladas and beer, read books as they watched their kids splash in the water and called out orders and scoldings from their chairs.. My husband and I had one kid each. My husband shadowed the autistic one and I watched the then 15 month old who refused to peacefully nap under the umbrella and sheet we had prepared for him. How do normal people do it? Wow. I cannot imagine not having to worry about meals because you can just walk into a restaurant and eat or wait for a table to be ready to do so. Only having to pack your clothes. Nice. Walking around without having to be physically prompting the kids and actually having your own personal space at all times. Speechless. Heaven.

Personal space? what's that?

So why do it? Why put ourselves through the misery? I don't really know. I know I space out vacations enough to forget about the bad experience and just reminisce looking at the old photos of the nice things. Perhaps that shimmer of hope that perhaps this time, it will be different. This time it will be worth it.

I know the last couple of times Kai has done amazing at the park (Magic Kingdom). We have been able to diminish the negative autism behaviors down to the bare minimum. It will be the baby's first real trip since he slept through the last one at 8 months. We will also try to visit Universal. Our hotel, the Nickelodeon Suites, has an extensive pool and water slide area that will be our refuge the next 4 days.

For old times sake, these are the links to my last 2 blog posts on Disney trips:

http://asdqueenbee.blogspot.com/2008/07/big-disney-news-and-more-updates-on-us.html

http://asdqueenbee.blogspot.com/2008/02/not-so-magical-disney-trip.html

Not sure what's in store for us but, I really need to end this post so that I can go pack.

Will check back once we return.

May the Disney pixie dust be with us!

Tootles!