The Darbys: Ahhh, Vitamin D

I could find it in milk, but it's much nicer getting my Vitamin D from the sun . . . but it's kinda hard to do that in Chicago right now. Seriously, the highs this week are in the mid-30's, and I'm so over it. Everyone told me to be afraid of the winter, but my advice to newbies is be afraid of the Spring -- because it is NEVER coming. Yes, I'm exaggerating. We have had a couple of sunny days in the 50's, and you better believe I squeezed every second out of the daylight hours at the park on those days. But now I am seeing beautiful photos on Facebook of Southern friends with their little ones outdoors in short-sleeved shirts (okay, those are actually short-sleeved smocked dresses and John-Johns, which I will not be seeing in Chicago anytime soon!), and I have to admit it -- I'm jealous. I want to see buttercups and cherry trees and those crazy bright yellow bushes in bloom, like, right now. I have spotted a couple of hyacinth-looking green things sprouting from the ground . . . but then they got a nice sprinkling of snow a couple of mornings ago that may have put an end to them.

We were warned this could happen -- the winter crazies -- so we made a trip to sunny Orlando to get our Vitamin D fix. As excited as I was about this wonderfully warm break, I was nervous as H-E-double hockey sticks about the actual travel. We have never flown with one child much less two children. Let me remind you that I do not have well-behaved seven-year-olds who can walk calmly next to me and go to the restroom on their own. I have a teething, squealing, still nursing six-month-old (well, seven months now my post is so far behind), and a sassy 2 1/2 year old freshly potty-trained monkey child who BOTH had some serious snotty sinuses, which never goes well with travel. Since I've had children, I have paid close attention in the airport to the parents who were sane with calm angels and the frazzled ones who had to deal with the screaming little demons. How could I learn from them and be prepared? The ones with calm children were calm themselves. Check -- I can appear to be calm. They had a bag full of new toys, crayons, and movies loaded on some sort of IPOD or laptop. Check -- Mimi loves to watch cartoons on my IPhone, and I made a pit stop at the toy section in Target right before we left. The frazzled ones seemed upset that their children wouldn't sit still and be quiet, and they were yelling and threatening and basically making everyone in the area uncomfortable. But then I had noticed parents who appeared to be sweet and calm and prepared, but their children were still going nutso in the security line. Yikes. This was going to be me.

But it wasn't. I'm still smiling ear to ear thinking about how pleased I am with how well the travel went. First of all, I was the most efficient packer ever for this trip. I fit all of Mimi's, Mack's, and my things into one large suitcase. I only took one extra pair of shoes for myself, which still surprises me. Clint left Mack, who was strapped to me in the Baby Bjorn, and me at the terminal along with the luggage, and we checked in curbside. He parked and brought Mimi in the little umbrella stroller, and the security line was luckily not very long. There were no meltdowns going through security, and then we only had about 20 minutes to spare at the terminal. This time flew after taking Mimi to the potty several times and letting her pick out the best pack of M&M's and a coloring book in a store. And the flight alone for Mimi could have been her vacation, and she would have been pleased. She was SO excited about the take-off and landing that it made everyone around us excited about being on a plane. She was perfectly happy with her new Strawberry Shortcake and Littlest Pet Shop toys that I don't even think she asked to watch cartoons, which is just not normal for her. Mack made friends with everyone who passed us in the airport and on the plane. Fat little cutie.

Anywho, I'll stop bragging about how fantastic they were on the plane. We chose Orlando because our sweet friends Shea and Matt and their daughter Kendal live there, and we were desperately in need of a visit. Shea and I have been great friends since we were skinny junior high cheerleaders with braces and tight-rolled jeans, and she has been my saving grace since we moved to Chicago. She and Matt moved to Orlando from Missouri when she was well into her pregnancy with Kendal, so she knew what it felt like to be in a new place trying to make friends when it's difficult to even get out of the house. She has had a job for as long as I can remember and dealt with the same changes of suddenly becoming a stay-at-home mom. And what did we do on this trip?

This:

And this:

And this, too:

And a little of this:

Oh, yes. Even a little of this:

Aaagh. Disney World. I'm not a fan. I probably shouldn't admit that since I have lots of Disney-loving-border-line-obsessed friends, but the thought of going to Disney World makes me break out in hives. The lines. The overpriced food. The confusing Fast Passes. The guy who stands way too close to me in line and is from a country that hasn't introduced deodorant yet. I'm not hating on Mickey Mouse because I was obsessed with the Disney Channel when I was little, and there's very little I love more than watching Mimi sing the Mickey Mouse Clubhouse Hot Dog song and shake her little booty. BUT Matt is an art director for Disney, so we were able to check it out for free -- why not? I knew Mimi would either love it or hate it, and we had nothing to lose. In a nutshell, we had lunch and rode It's a Small World, and I think we'd all had enough. We'll try again in a few years. We took that one photo on our way out of the Magic Kingdom just to prove we tried.

So we went back to Shea's to do a little more of this:

He he he. Mack and Kendal heart each other. Shea was a little concerned about how Kendal would act around a little one, but she was oh so sweet. She shared toys with him and gently petted his bald head, and he loved watching her. Clint thought it might be a good idea for them to practice some stunts. Geez.

But Mimi acted a little differently. She hasn't really been around other children on a regular basis since we moved to Chicago, so we have a lot to work on. And she's a normal two-year-old, so I'm definitely not beating myself up about this, but girlfriend was a little snobby. There were some moments where she and Kendal would laugh at each other and hold hands running through the house, but most of the time Mimi was practicing phrases such as, "No. Get away. Do NOT take my teddy bear. Do NOT eat my poods (food). DON'T touch me. STOP IT!" Sigh. We also found out while we were there that she had double ear infections, which definitely didn't help with Prissy's mood. So she chose to play by herself most of the time while Mack and Kendal giggled at each other.

The morning after we returned home Mimi asked me, "Mommy, can I fly on the airplane to Matt and Shea's and play with Kendal and tell her to not take my teddy bear and you tell me that's not nice? Please, Mommy? I wanna see Kendal." Of course she did.

But this was Mack's mood the entire trip. No matter where we were. No matter what we did.

There was yet another added bonus to this trip. My other skinny junior high cheerleader BF Jessica, who lives in El Paso, just happened to be working in Orlando the week we were there! Jes and Shea lived together their first year of college, and then Jessica and I lived together the next so we were a tightly-knit threesome for a while. We've tried to stay in touch the best we could but living hundreds of miles apart just stinks. After a few minutes together the Mississippi accents (and gossip!) began to come out while we all talked at the same time but heard and understood everything the other person said. The three of us haven't been together at the same time in years, but it didn't feel that way. After moving on to finish at different colleges and then moving far from home and marriage and children and jobs and all the other things that have gone along with our growing up, I don't think we've really grown apart much. We're still just as silly as we once were. And I'm so happy about that.