The Happiest Place on Earth...

O is pretty excited... in two weeks she is leaving for Disney in Florida, and it is the only thing she is talking about..."mama, I'm going to have breakfast with the Princesses...the REAL princesses!!!".  The prospect of seeing all of her favorites up close and for real IS pretty exciting...and it is fun for me to see her so excited.  Just one little note... she will be doing all of this with her dad, and I will not actually be a part of any of it.

I am trying to only be excited for her and to put away all of my "worry thoughts" about her dad being in charge of getting through the airport, putting sunscreen on, not losing her at Disney, etc...  To make matters worse, O's Dad asked me to go shopping to buy her "vacation" clothes.  He is not typically inept when it comes to these things...I mean, how hard is it to buy a girl shorts, t-shirts and sundresses???  So, the situation begs the question... Is he asking me to do this in order to make the point (just one more time) that my decisions are to blame for my missing out on O's first Disney experience?  Regardless, I am doing the shopping...I am not about to send the girl on vacation without the things that she will need.  We are just talking about clothes anyway...

Needless to say, when O was born I did not contemplate what it might be like to raise her in a two-household situation... It did not even really occur to me until the custody arrangement was being worked out that at some point she would be going on vacations that would not include me.  I know that all that really matters is that she gets a chance to have the experience... But, I would be lying if I didn't admit that it feels wrong for her to be at a place like Disney without me.  I am having a hard time knowing that I will miss that look of wonder on her face when she sees the castle and realizes she is REALLY in front of it...that it IS real.  This will be the first of her "firsts" that I will miss...and once upon a time (ironically) I promised I would do anything to make sure I would never miss any of them.

The challenge for me is to accept that this is just one of many things she will do without me.  Her trip is getting close now and I have to just focus on getting her ready... and making plans for myself while she is gone, to distract myself if nothing else.  So...anyone need a dinner date the first week of June?