T minus 14 days

In two weeks we will be off on an adventure: Disneyland.

OK, OK, wipe that look off your face.  I'm not crazy, I promise.

But I hear you saying, "Disneyland... with a one year old... an autistic three year old... while pregnant?  You must be a off your rocker!"

And did I mention that David isn't flying down until later in the week because of tax season?

And that I'm not forking over the money to pay for Ben to have his own seat on the plane?

Before you take out the straight jacket and make my reservation in the psych ward, let me explain...  We're going down for a Yorgesen family reunion with almost every single member of David's family.  There will be about fifty of us there.  So would I have chosen this particular time in our lives to go to DL?  Probably not, but who passes up an opportunity to go to the happiest place on Earth with a huge group of people we love?  Luckily it didn't take too much convincing to get my mother and grandmother to fly down with me and provide backup until David can join us.  And to provide more laps for Ben to bounce between on the flights.

The biggest thing that's going to make this trip successful however, will be following my new mantra of "lower your expectations."  Having been to DL three times as an adult, I don't feel the pressure that we have to see everything.  I was able to wrangle the group into booking a hotel directly across from the entrance so it will be easy to go back to the hotel midday, or more than once, for breaks.  We're borrowing a friend's double jogging stroller to combat fatigue (for the kids... I don't think I could convince David to push me around, even with the whole I'm-carrying-your-child argument).  And I've been buying snacks with each grocery store trip because the quickest thing to avoiding a meltdown is yummy treats.  Come to think of it, that works pretty good for me, too.

At school we've been working on standing in line and waiting.  The school has also made up two social stories for the plane and Disneyland that I can start reading to Josh this week to get him ready.  We've watched countless videos of rides, fireworks and shows on You Tube.  I've got the documentation needed for a Guest Assistance Pass that will hopefully allow us to bypass lines and meltdowns.  As one fellow parent said, there is a time and place to teach your ASD kid to wait in lines.  A crowded, loud amusement park is not one of those places.  We bought a portable battery charger for the itouch, because it's the second most important meltdown-avoiding tool that allows Josh to block everything out when he gets overstimulated.

I've read every account I can find about parents taking their autistic kids to DL and while examples with young children are hard to find (surprise, surprise) there are enough ideas that I'm actually really excited for Josh to experience being 'in' some of his favorite movies.  My biggest hope is that Josh will remain calm enough for us to be able to hang out with family a lot so I can see my nieces and nephews' responses to the rides and shows.  Many of them are at that perfect magical age where everything is cool, magical and exciting.

Or we might spend most of our time at the pool.  And that's OK too.