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A Note From Our Author It’s time for that annual tradition – the spring vacation. Usually this entails either a long car ride or a plane trip, both of which are enough to send any well-organized mom into overdrive. This Saturday we leave for Disney World. I’m bringing my mother along for reinforcement. I figure with three kids we need at least three adults to even the score. But even then, I have a sneaking suspicion that our “inmates” will be running the asylum. As I tell everyone, it’s not the baby that takes up so much room, it’s the amount of stuff that goes along with her. I’ve decided that I can get away with five shirts for seven days myself. After all, it’s Disney World – who’s going to care if I’m walking around with baby spit-up on my clothes by Day 6? But my darling Hannah is quite another matter. You never know just how big her messes are going to be. She needs at least two changes of clothes per day plus warm and cool clothes (because you never know) hats, diapers and blankets. So after I finish packing for myself, my husband and the three kids, I’ve got four large suitcases, three backpacks, a car seat, two strollers and enough snack bags for a trip around the world. I knew the CEO of Jet Blue had to have kids when he created airplanes with TV’s in each seat back. I say a little thank you to him every time I fly with my kids. I know that will keep at least my son happy for the entire trip. Kelsey, however, is another story. TV doesn’t interest her. She’d much rather talk – the entire time – from the minute we leave the house until we check-in at the hotel. I know this since she managed to chatter non-stop for a 9-hour car trip to Williamsburg this past summer. While I’ve learned to turn a deaf ear when I need to, I pity the business travelers who will be on the 6 a.m. flight with us. I used to be one of them and I liked nothing better than to read my newspaper and drink my coffee in relative peace. The thought of a chatty 3-year old breaking this silence would be enough to send me screaming into the cockpit. My only hope is the various princess activities I have brought along – coloring books, reading books, magnetic boards – will keep her occupied for at least some of the time. No matter what I do, the inevitable question is bound to come up half way through the flight, “Mommy, are we there yet?” This always seemed like such a cliché but now I am living it. As a rational adult, you’d think she would understand by looking out the plane window at the clouds and realize that no, we are not in fact there yet. But this just doesn’t seem to register in the mind of a 3-year old. So, now I’ve started a little game called “How many creative answers can I come up with?”
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