Michy and I are now official aunts. Mich's sister was scheduled for an induction 10 days prior to her due date because her blood pressure was high and she was having swelling. The only person Alicia wanted anywhere near the delivery room besides her husband was Michelle. So, of course Mich had to go to Albany for the birth no matter when it was going to happen. It would have been smart of us to think about this prior to scheduling a trip to Florida but I guess we weren't thinking, she didn't express the desire for Mich to be there that early and well I guess we thought she'd be late. So we have this trip to go to Orlando to stay with Aunt Marsha and Aunt Bert, they rent a house there so we had a free place to stay. I got the whole family tickets for $411, it was a no brainer. Until Alica got scheduled to go into the hospital the evening of the 25th and our tickets were for the afternoon of the 26th.
Okay, so the baby will never be here by 3:00 p.m. on Thursday they has just started the pitocin at 10 that morning. I am going to take the boys alone. I can do this. I go all sorts of places with them so why would this be that much worse? We had already arranged for Sue to take us to the airport, Mich was going to come from work anyway. So just as planned we left for the airport. I curb side checked the big bag and one car seat. So now I have the double stroller, one car seat, a carry on bag and the boys. I get Sue to help me load Zack into the ergo, I pile the car seat onto one side of the stroller, plop the bag into other seat and strap Sam into the carseat that is on the stroller. I should have taken a picture. Off we go. All is well, we get to security, I send the bag, car seat, stroller, all of our shoes and coat through the x-ray machine. They insist that I take Zack off my back and have him walk through alone. OY! I say, can't you wand us a whole bunch and look in between us. Nope. So, then I say will someone help me get him back on, yes at the other end. You know where this is going right. Well, we got to the other end and miraculously both boys stayed right by my side until I alone collected all our stuff and got us back on our way. We got near the gate with plenty of time so we went to McDonalds for a bite. We assumed since I had the isle and Sam had the window and we had only canceled Mich's seat about 10 hours prior that we'd luck out and get that seat for Zack, we were wrong. The plane was fully booked so we gate checked both the stroller and the carseat. We got to our seats with little fuss, I took the middle and Sam took the window. We had a nice 20 something boy sitting next to us that tried to seem enthused about the Buzz Lightyear Sam was showing him. I apologized in advance. It took a while for everyone to get seated since the plane was filled to capacity. Once we started taxi-ing Sam fell asleep and during take off Zack fell asleep too. I watched the inflight entertainment, who would have though I would need something to read? They played Will and Grace, Everybody Loves Raymond and Joey. My only problem was my arms and legs kept falling asleep from holding Zack. Zack woke up just prior to landing and Sam woke up during taxi-ing. Whew! We got out on the plane and loaded back up and headed to baggage claim. Once we got our stuff, I piled the big bag into one side of the stroller with one car seat on top of it and in the other side was Zack strapped into the other car seat with Sam helping me push. We made our way, finally, to the car rental desk which had a considerable line. About half way though the line Sam said he had to pee, I had just asked him when we were in the bathroom and he said no. I talked him into waiting. We finally got to the front of the line and got the car. Still no crying so I'm feeling very successful. Sam doesn't want to go to the bathroom anymore he wants to wait until we get to Aunt Marsha and Aunt Bert's house. Fine. We are now wandering around the parking lot looking for the section that has the SUV's but there are none to be found. (I only rented the stupid SUV cause I had a coupon, it was so cheap $90 for 4 days.) Sam is starting to be very tired of walking. We find the man that offered to help us when we first got out to the lot and I said there are none of the class that I'm supposed to take. He says something like are you sure that there aren't any way down there. I reply that I have just come from down there and he directs me to a manager. She tells me that they have 10 of them on their way. So, as calmly as I can, I say I reserved in advance, I confirmed like your website told me to, I waiting in your big long line, and now I've walked around this giant lot. My kids and I just need to go. I don't car what like of car you give me. So she says, oh, well then take one of those minivans over there, that one has a dvd player. Woohoo! We get to the car. I install the car seats, turn on the car, start Toy Story 2 and then get the rest of the stuff in the car. As I drive I look back at my little tv drones and smile. I made it! I call Mich, still no baby yet, she is dilated to 5 cms. We get to the house and it was great to have someone give us all a beverage. I was happy to sit and the boys were happy to run around. Aunt Marsha had made a great dinner and it was so nice to sit and eat a real meal. Kate and Regina are Aunts M&B friends and they were renting the house with them. They were super nice to me and the boys. Soon after that we were in bed. I made a final call to check on Alicia. No baby yet. Our room was great. A king bed with a full sized crib in the room plus our very own bath. The boys adjusted quite well and we all fell asleep. I woke in the middle of the night to hear my cell phone beeping. I had a text message that said Padraig James arrived at 3:32 a.m. via c-section weighing in at 10 pounds mom and baby are both good. So, of course I called Michy to ask her all about the baby and Alicia. He never fully engaged and she never dilated past 7 cm. Greg turned white when they said surgery so Mich went in to the operate
ng room to support her sister. She said it was amazing. Padraig, they will call him Patty, is beautiful and giant. He sent to the NICU because he had shallow breathing. After he was born Greg went to get some sleep to be ready for the doctors that morning, Mich stayed with her sister until Greg got back and she went to get some sleep. I got back in bed and woke up with Zack the next morning. I got to have some of the best cuddle time that I've had in a long time. I didn't want him to wake up Sam so we went into the living room and he was so content for the longest time to just lay on top up my with his head in the crook of my neck. A delicious moment for sure. Sam woke up soon after and we went with Aunts M & B to Sea World. It's really cool there. I guess I didn't remember. We saw a dog and cat show where the animals perform alone. Totally amazing. We fed dolphins as you can see from the photo on the right. We fed Mr Ray. We saw sharks, penguins and many other fish. No, we didn't see Shamu. I statue of Shamu but not the real deal. Who can wait in line that long and then sit in the stadium for
the show to begin? Not Zack. Feeding the dolphin was amazing, they would come right to your hand. You could pet them and give them belly rubs. Both the boys loved it. Although Sam said his favorite was seeing the sharks. Meanwhile, Mich had napped and was back at the hospital with her sister. I found out for her that she probably wouldn't make it back home and then to the airport that night so she arranged to be on the first flight on Saturday morning at 6:45 a.m. There was a change fee of $30 plus the difference in the ticket price of $180. How crazy is that! The ticket in the first place was only $138! Mich started back to NJ while Zack napped. Sam refused to even rest but we all knew he was tired. Aunt Marsha was preparing to cook again and I said isn't there somewhere easy we can go? They came up with Cee Cee's, it's buffet salad, pasta and pizza place for the low low price of $3.99 a person and both the boys were free. Well Sam had fallen asleep on the way there and continued to sleep through the whole meal. Zack however made up for it by eating he weight in pasta and pizza. Both Aunt Marsha and Bert were astonished with the amount that he consumed. Sam woke up as I carried him out to the car. We then headed to downtown Disney to look for a new Buzz Lightyear toy that I had promised Sam since he was a super good boy so far. We get to the parking lot and there are about 6 or 8 of those flood lights circling around in the sky and both boys were mesmorized. We blew through the Lego store, which I thought was so very cool, in favor or finding the Buzz Lightyear store. We got to the Disney World of Toys store and wow was it amazing. All sorts of cool toys that you can't find anywhere else. Sam thankfully picked an action figure of Buzz that's wings pops out for only $6 and I picked out a Buzz cell phone toy for Zack so that he wouldn't be jealous and we were off. Sam got Italian ice and he was a happy boy. We got back to the house and went straight to bed. The next morning we were off to the Magic Kingdom, somehow I managed to get all of us up and fed to make it inside the park. Where did we head, straight to the tea cups of course. I did sneak and get fast passes for Pooh's Honey Pot ride before our first whirl. This was taken on our fourth time in the cups once Mich has arrived.
Sam loves the cups!
Share Video at DropShots.comAfter the teacups we headed for It's a Small World. Sam is apprehensive about going on rides but once we're on he loves them. So there was a lot of explaining that the boat stayed flat and didn't go down and big hills. Both of the boys but especially Zack loves It's a Small World. SO much that we went another time. We got out of there and it was time to use our fast passes. I got new fast passes for Peter Pan's Magic Flight on the way. We went on the Honey Pot ride, again explaining that nothing bad was going to happen. We all loved it, until they do that evil thing and sphew you out into a gift shop which I didn't love so much. We got away without a purchase. After that we went to this really cool new playground. Both boys had a ball. It was while I was there that Nadav called to find out about my J&J order. Yes, I was one of those people trying to keep track of their two kids in a playground while on my cell phone. After that I decided that I better feed my kids. I forget their need to eat much more often then I do. So got a mac and cheese kid's meal that came with yogurt, grapes and a drink. Really the perfect sharable snack for my guys. As they were devouring that I got a call from Cynthia asking if Sam wanted to come over and play, guess we didn't tell them we were going away, and a call from Mich that the pick up at the airport went well and that Aunt Marsha was dropping her and Aunt Bert off at the front gate to the the Magic Kingdom. I told her where we were sitting in the restaurant. Po
or Mich looked so tired but we were all happy to see her! Mich and Sam used the fast passes for Peter Pan. We saw more stuff and went on rides until our lunch reservations at the Crystal Palace with lunch with the Pooh character. It was so amazing to see the magic in the boys eyes as the characters approached. As so as we took Zack out of his highchair he would run and hug them so tight and not want to let go. The do a little parade where all the kids march around the restaurant with the characters and Sam had a great time doing that. The food was actually really good, like I have wanted to go there without the characters. It was also nice to just sit and have your drink refilled and rest! After that it was more rides and fun until we found a spot for the evening parade. Which we actually never ended up seeing. We were nearing meltdown with both boys and Mich was nearly falling asleep. We went to bed. When we woke up in was off to Sea World for another fun day. We did basically the same things as the other day only this time Mich was there. We did see the seals this time. You feed them too. We didn't do that but we watched many other people. You had to have good aim because the cranes would swoop in and get any fish that didn't land right near the seal. After we left there everyone but me took a nap while I started to prepare for our 7:00 a.m. the next morning flight. Who thought that was a good idea?!?!?! So I packed a bit and rested I bit then it was time for us to go to dinner at Boma, our favorite Disney dinner. African food, yum! Every time we go there I wish we could have one near home. After dinner we went outside to see the animals, we saw zeezah as Zack says for zebras and some sort of big cattle. We got back to the house spend a little time with Aunt Marsha and Aunt Bert and crashed after setting the alarm for 4:15 a.m. We got up and managed to be loaded in the car by 5:15 p.m. We got the car returned and checked in the bags and headed to security and found the longest line in the universe. I mean hundreds, thousands of people waiting. I found someone to show our boarding passes to that let us into a expedited line and we made it to the plane. We found out that this plane was also fully booked so once again Zack was on our laps. Both boys fell asleep during take off, Sam slept the whole way and Zack woke up bouncing around about an hour in. It was very difficult to amuse him but we made it. Mich went off to work straight from the airport and Sue picked us up. We went directly to Sam's school and dropped him off and I was at work by 11:00 a.m.
