Whose Life Am I Living?

Have you ever felt like someone is following you everywhere you go? Or maybe that you keep running into the same person over and over again, completely unintentionally? Welcome to my life this week.



Last Friday night, I made an offhand comment on Because I Said So wishing Dawn a good vacation at Disney and mentioning that we would be going there for one day but that we were staying at a non-Disney hotel. She emailed me asking which hotel, and it turns out that ... we're staying at the same hotel. At the same time. Hmmm....



She flew United from Chicago to Orlando, and (ok, so this part isn't a surprise) so did we. Same flight. Phew, we were one day later... and our gate was one gate off.

When we arrived, we both ended up paying $200 more for our rental cars than expected. Granted, mine was because my dad insisted that a 7 passenger minivan for five people (ok, six for the three days this weekend my husband is with us) isn't big enough and that we need an 8 passenger minivan.

We got to the hotel and had to change rooms. We meaning both our families. Our room smelled weird, and it wasn't near a pool that had somewhere for kids to play. We both switched to a room that was a bit more amenable to our needs. Fortunately, we aren't in the same building. That would have been a bit much for me (and I think for her, too!).

Although Dawn went to Disney much more than we did, we did end up going on the same day to the Magic Kingdom. Although we criss-crossed paths much of the day, we did end up in Tommorrowland at the same time near the end of her day there (and what we thought was near the end of ours). Weird how far you have to go to see someone who's so close (we're both in suburbs of Chicago). She's a very sweet and nice lady, I must say. And her family is so cute and sweet, too.

After Disney that day, we both came back to the hotel to eat spaghetti and meatballs. That wasn't planned. The spaghetti for both of us was from the local Publixx -- the grocery store down here we both got our essentials from.

See? If only I had four more wee ones and wrote a really funny popular blog and had a book deal, I'd think we were living the same life. Oh, and the clincher? Both of us are now sick. I had almost no voice this morning and could really go for a nice cup of tea wrapped up in bed. Sounds eerily similar, doesn't it?

The good news is that we all enjoyed Disney. Some high and lowlights of the day at the Magic Kingdom for me:

Mister Man was a great sport. The couple rides that he didn't like so much afterwards, he was really good during the ride. The Haunted Mansion, which he insisted on going in, he decided would be better when he's six or seven. He also wasn't a fan of Goofy's Wiseacre Barnstormer (or whatever) roller coaster. It was the first roller coaster he'd ever been on, and he decided he'd rather wait until he's six or seven -- sensing a theme here? -- to go on Big Thunder Mountain Railroad. I was mildly bummed because that meant I had no one to ride my two favorite rides with and thus couldn't go on them.

Little Miss was a scaredy-cat, and I blame my mom for that one. She freaked out on the Dumbo ride, so we were stuck at the bottom until the end when they make every elephant go up to the top, at which she panic-mumbled "I don't wanna, I don't wanna" over and over. She also hid during the Snow White Ride, Buzz Lightyear, Peter Pan (or at least when Captain Hook was visible), and Pirates of the Carribbean.

They loved the Mad Teacup Party. The first time we went on it, my dad came with the wee ones and I. My dad doesn't like to spin and stopped us every time I got more than a mild spin going. We went on again for our last ride of the day without my dad, and we spun so fast I could hardly stand up at the end. They loved it! And Mister Man and I had to do a repeat on Buzz Lightyear because we loved that one so much.

Driving the Indy Cars was a challenge. Little Miss came with me and started out upset that she couldn't reach the steering wheel when I had us buckled in tightly. Then she was upset when she couldn't steer perfectly without bumping the track guide. I ended up steering from the passenger seat, which wasn't too effective but got us through.

We saw Winnie the Pooh, Tigger, Eyore, Captain Hook, Mister Smee, Alice in Wonderland, and the Mad Hatter at various places throughout the park -- oh, and the monkey from the Jungle Book but I don't remember his name. The wee ones thought that was so cool. It wasn't how I remembered though where the characters wandered the park and shook people's hands and paused for brief pictures. Now, they had a designated space where people lined up with their autograph books and waited in line for a half hour to spend a couple minutes with the character. Call me mean, but we just saw the characters from afar, waved at them and moved on.

We also found some rides that were real favorites that the wee ones truly enjoyed. I think Little Miss would go on the Winnie the Pooh and the Peter Pan ride (hiding during Captain Hook, admittedly) over and over again. Seeing their faces as they experienced the rides was worth every penny.

It was a gorgeous day! It was sunny but not too bright. We had just a little breeze, and it was just warm enough without being too hot or at all chilly. My mom's jacket went unused. And the crowds weren't bad. Most rides for most of the day were either five or ten minutes long. Some were twenty to twenty-five, but we were able to fast track the majority of those, so we went on tons of rides without having to deal with too many yucky people.

I accidentally grabbed the wrong princess dress for Little Miss. You'll see that she's wearing a "normal" yellow dress with two princesses pictured in hearts on the chest part. I had brought down a pink Sleeping Beauty princess dress for her from our collection of dress up clothes in the basement. However, since I'd packed at 11:30 the night before we left, I didn't check too closely. The dress is a 6X, I think. No matter what size it was, it was so big that it fell off Little Miss constantly and was pretty indecent. She was not happy that I wouldn't let her wear the way too big dress to Disney. Bad mom!

We took no naps when we went, and the wee ones were great. No meltdowns all day. For all the walking we did and all the stuff we saw, we had remarkably few disagreements the entire day. If only every day were like that.

No one cooperated for pictures. I couldn't get anyone to sit still and look at me the entire day. I tried for awhile to get some cute pictures but then gave up and just focused on having fun with the wee ones. In the end, I think that's the right theory.

My mom insisted on shoving food in their faces every time they got off a ride. Granted, these were snacks she'd brought along, but let the wee ones eat when they're hungry so they learn the signals their bodies are sending them. They don't need to eat constantly. It wasn't my worry that the food she was giving them was unhealthy but that the message she was sending them (and she does this regularly -- including this morning shoving (literally) strawberries into their mouths) isn't a good one. When we stopped for lunch, Mister Man didn't want anything to eat bceause he wasn't hungry. Grrr!

All in all, I could do more Disney. My mom's not a theme park or ride person though, so she doesn't get why you'd want to go back. I'm glad we aren't there today because it's chilly -- relatively -- and rainy, but I could definitely do this a few more days. But learning from Dawn, I'd definitely intersperse some pool days in between!