Spring Break Fiasco

In November, we went to Orlando and had the best vacation. Gia was only 9 months old and Leo had to work for most of the time we were there and it was still one of the best vacations we have ever taken as a family. We bonded and seeing Disney through Gia's eyes was truly amazing. This trip was the complete opposite of that trip. I have never sweat so much in my life and I forgot to mention in the other post about Spring Break that all of the people on our flight from Chicago to Miami saw my boobs. Well...my bra but still just as embarrassing. See, when Gia is throwing a fit, she grabs the front of my shirt and pulls down. I'm not sure if her intention is to flash every person in sight but that is what she did. Literally. Twice. Once on the plane and again when we had to go on some time share tour which was ridiculously hard to do with a toddler.

See, some people (Leo) can't pass up a good deal so when someone dangles free things in front of him and says all he has to do is listen to someone try and sell him a time share for 2 hours, he is all in. I, on the other hand, feel like it is a colossal waste of time and asking you to do it with a one year old is insane. Gia screamed and flashed the sales guy and finally, he cut me loose to deal with her while he gave his speech to Leo. I had no money and nowhere to go with her since we were not at our hotel. We went with the friends we were staying at the hotel with and left the bigger kids to watch the littler kids while we were gone. Nico kept texting me, asking me to do things I wasn't 100% comfortable with. Yes, I am overprotective and my first instinct is to say no but it is largely due to the fact that my children can be less than smart in common sense situations. Again, I know that it is a vicious circle. I don't let them do anything so they never learn how to do anything. I get it. So while I was in Hell having to deal with a one year old who wanted to be anywhere but there, Nico got himself and the twins locked out of our hotel room. Do you know what the mother that wanted them to stay put while she was not able to get to them thinks? I don't want to put it in writing. How am I supposed to trust that he will be okay at a theme park alone when he does this the minute he has any responsibility? I instructed the kids to go to our friends' room and wait for us there and then texted Leo furiously that we had to get back.

Once we were at the pool, I was on the other side of Hell. It was Heaven to be sitting in a lounge chair in the zero depth part of the pool sipping a Pina Colada while Gia played next to me. The three drinks going down and the barrel of laughs that went with them were great...the hangover in the middle of the day while dealing with Gia was not.

We went to Universal because that's where everyone was going. It wasn't my first choice since we were just there in November but I was going with the flow. While going with the flow and worrying that the boys were going to dehydrate, I, myself, after having a drink in the middle of the day (damn Pina Coladas), dehydrated. I went on two rides, one of which jerked so much that my neck still hurts. Even though those two things happened, I am not sorry we went. I loved seeing my kids' faces at the theme parks...so excited and so happy to be there. For me, it made coughing up the expense worth it. Seeing Gia's face when she saw the Barney show was worth it.

For some reason, after that, the vacation went south quickly. The plan was for everyone to help pack up, go to Downtown Disney (my favorite part of Disney) and head back to Leo's mom's. The kids were awful from the beginning. They didn't help. They complained every step of the way. They kept needling at each other and fighting and every five minutes I would hear, "Mom, Nico keeps tasering me" or "Mom, Tommy keeps staring at me". We finally got in the car and in the short ride there, the fighting and noise kept escalating and Gia started crying because the DVD wouldn't get to the "Hot Dog" song fast enough. I warned them and said if they didn't stop, we weren't going to go even though I looked forward to it the whole trip. We got a great spot, got out of the car, took the stoller out, sunscreened Gia and they kept attacking each other. I looked at Leo and said, "I've had it! Get them back in the car. We aren't going. I am not dealing with this the whole time." So we got back in the car and headed back to the inlaws'. My lovely children had the nerve to say, when I thanked them for ruining the last part of the vacation, "You're the one that decided to leave so really, you ruined it." It's not politically correct to say but sometimes I wish it was still legal to smack your kids because right then I wanted to pop them all right in their mouths. Instead I said a lot of things that I am sure will cause them to be on some therapist's couch someday.

Having a memory like an elephant and the character flaw of holding grudges, I won't soon forget the disappointment of not getting to go. Seeing Gia's face when we walked around in November was priceless and because she is a little older, I couldn't wait to see it again but I had to stand my ground with the other kids. If I talk the talk, I have to walk the walk even if it means sacrificing my own happiness. I hate that part of parenting.

I'm going to stop there and do part 2 at the inlaws' later. I really need to be in a different frame of mind when I do that one. You never know who might be reading...