Lessons learned on this trip

Photo that Wendy took in Florida. You can't tell that Nadia had pink eye at the time. Thanks so much, Wendy!!!

1. When you reserve a crib, ask if there is any charge. Over the past 3 years that we've been traveling with a little one, this is the first hotel or resort that charged for a pack and play. I think $30/week is a bit steep considering how much it costs to buy one. We could have brought one. We skipped the highchair as it costs $20/week to use one of those.

2. We brought my mom's Magic Bullet (for Ian) only to discover they had blenders in the units. We could have left that at home.

3. Don't attempt to make pour hot water into a sippy cup in a moving vehicle. I have a few blisters to show why that's not a wise thing to do. McD's gave us steaming, HOT water (we asked for warm), and none of the said water made it into the sippy cup. OUCH! My hands, legs, and feet were not happy with me (particularly the toes on my right foot and the fingers on my right hand). I was trying to make EleCare for Ian. I need to get that boy adjusted to drinking it cold or at least lukewarm.

Susie (age 7)

4. The flight time from Baltimore to Orlando (about 2 hours) is less than what it takes to get one's baggage, get the rental car, drive to the resort (which truly wasn't that far from the airport), and check-in at the resort. Whew. We left my parent's house at 6am, arrived in Orlando before 10am, and walked into my parent's unit (ours wasn't ready yet) around 1pm.

5. Don't let young children go down the waterslide without an inner tube. We had a very frightening moment with Adam and Rachel. My heart was racing that is for sure!

6. Nadia doesn't like Life cereal. We went grocery shopping on Saturday evening, and I picked up Life cereal for our unit. It's one of my favorites, but I never buy it because I can't get a good deal on it. Nadia likes most cereals, so I thought she'd like it. Nope. I should have stuck with one I know she likes (such as Raisin Bran, Frosted Flakes, Honey Nut Cheerios, Frosted Mini-Wheats, etc.). I did learn later in the week that she likes Corn Bran though! That's another one of my favorites that I go years without eating.

7. I should have had Paul teach me how to install a car seat. Yes, I've been a mom for over 3 years and never done that before. I assumed my mom or dad knew how to do it. Ian rode from the aiport to the resort in a carseat that wasn't really attached to the seat of the car. Drayton came to the rescue on Sunday morning before we rode to church. I'll have Paul teach me in the near future so this won't happen again!

Susie enjoying one of the 5 water slides at our resort.

8. Nadia loves water slides, and Ian can't stand them. Neither child had ever been on one before. They both enjoys slides at the playground. We only had Ian go down one slide, and he wanted no part of it. Nadia gladly went on all the slides, and one was very high up! The best part of this was she was submerged under water at the end of the big one, and usually she doesn't like her head to go under water. I'm hoping this experience will help with her future swimming skills.

Adam (age 4) enjoying the kiddie pool at our resort

9. Baby monitors don't work across a few units. My parents and sister's family's units were connecting. They could open a door in between their units and go back and forth without going in the hallway. I was four doors down from Wendy's unit, and that was too far for the baby monitor I brought to work. This meant that I was alone every evening from 7:45pm onward (after putting my kids to bed). I had been hoping to do things like play Boggle or other games with the other adults after the kids went to bed, but that wasn't possible given I had no way of monitoring the children without staying in the unit with them. I should add that my mom offered to come over on Thursday night, but since I had gotten VERY little sleep on Wednesday night due to Nadia's illness, I opted to go to bed early that night. Thankfully we were able to play a little Boggle during their naps on Friday. I love playing games, and sometimes go years without playing one (I'm not counting ones like Candyland, lol).

10. Ian CAN sleep on a vacation! WOOHOO! This was a HUGE answer to prayer! During our first vacation with Ian (May 2010) his sleep didn't regress, but he wasn't sleeping through the night at that point. We brought the Nap Nanny to Florida that time. In January 2011 (cruise) he took many steps backward and only slept in our bed or in my arms. That meant I got very, very little sleep that whole week. It was so awful that I was thinking I'd wait a few years before I'd attempt another vacation with Ian. I have to admit I was a bit stressed out about what would happen with his sleeping habits this time around. Karen (OT) kept reminding me how well he did in May in Maryland. I was hoping one of the bathrooms would be large enough for the pack and play, and my prayers were answered! The unit the kids and I stayed in had a kitchen, living room, two bathrooms, and two bedrooms. I slept in the master bedroom, and we used the master bathroom as our bathroom as the other bathroom became Ian's bedroom. I put him in there because it was the darkest room in the unit. The first two nights he did really well. He woke up between 7:00-7:15 the first two mornings. The third morning he woke up at 5:30, and I got him at 6:15. The fourth morning we woke up at 5:55, and I let him cry for a few minutes and then he slept until about 7:05. I was very grateful I made the decision to let him cry a little.

Downtown Disney Splash Pad

11. Ian can nap in a crib!! Wednesday was the first day I put him down in the pack and play for a nap. The other days he either was sleeping in a stroller, car seat, or someone's arms. He slept 55 minutes on Wednesday. During that time he woke up a couple of times a fussed for a few seconds, but that was it. I was very impressed. I was even more impressed on Thursday when he slept (drum roll please!) for NINETY minutes straight in the pack and play! I couldn't believe it! On Friday he cried for 15 minutes (Thursday he didn't cry At All) and then slept for 45 minutes. I am praying this continues back at home in his own bed. Karen (OT) will be amazed!!! It's been many months since he took a 90 minute nap in his crib, and it's only happened a handful of times his whole life. It will be so much easier to clean the house and cook and such if Ian takes a decent nap in his crib at the same time that Nadia is napping!!

12. It's wise to bring band-aids and children's Tylenol on vacation. I usually do remember to bring these, but I forgot this time. A part of my skin was rubbed off on my foot while we were at Sea World (because my foot got wet with my sandal on while helping Ian in the splash pad), and it was really painful to wear the sandal without a band-aid (and it was the only pair of shoes I had with me in Florida). Thankfully it's easy to go buy some when you're on vacation in the USA. Wendy had some Tylenol that Nadia could use when she developed a fever (and was throwing up) on Wednesday night. On Thursday I realized that she had a double eye infection. Poor girl.

13. Nadia is capable of sleeping in until 9am. Due to getting very little sleep on Wednesday night, she slept for over 12 hours on Thursday night. She didn't wake up until 9:00am on Friday! She'd never even slept until 8am during the previous 38 months, so that was a new record for Nadia to sleep that late.

14. If Paul is in charge of mowing the lawn, it doesn't get mowed as often. Unless we're having a drought (in which case I might go a few weeks without mowing), I usually mow every 5 days. When we left for vacation it had been 5 days since I had mowed, and had I not gone on vacation, I would have mowed that day. Well Paul waited 8 more days to mow the grass, and in fact some of it hadn't been mowed for over 2 weeks by the time I got around to it today. I couldn't mow yesterday due to Irene. Boy was it tall!

15. I am not the only one who feels the need to totally unpack (and put away the suitcases) as soon as I get home. I learned that my dad is the same way. In fact he stayed up past 1am to do this on Saturday morning. I have to say I'm not quite that much of a die hard although I did our unpacking as soon as we got home on Saturday afternoon. I didn't know until this trip that I took after my dad in this regard.

16. Ian learned that Uncle Drayton's shoes are too big. Drayton is 6' 4" tall. Ian loves walking around in everyone's shoes, but he discovered he could only wear one of Drayton's, as they were too heavy for him! :-)

17. Nadia learned that if you have pink eye, your eyelids might be sealed shut in the morning. This was naturally quite frightening for her. She was screaming, "I can't see. I can't see!" Poor girl! I called the pediatrician on Sunday, and he said as long as her eyes were improving (they have been), we didn't need to bring her in today.

18. If your flight shows as being delayed, you should still arrive at the airport at the originally scheduled time. We got to the gate just in the nick of time because the flight switched from being delayed to being "on time." We were grateful that Hurricane Irene didn't delay our flight because as it was it was almost midnight by the time we got the kids in bed at my mom's house.