the wiener mom and her traveling wieners

I'm back. School has begun. Daddy wiener and Big wiener are over their bout with the H1N1 (what? you ask! More next time) and the babysitter is back in town. As previously reported, our summer was tough. Well, it was tough for me; maybe not so much for the wieners. The difficult summer was punctuated by a trip to Seaworld in Orlando; which was itself a mixed bag.

Big wiener is an ocean life fanatic with a special focus on dolphins, whales and sharks (in that order). Back in June Daddy wiener and I looked into taking a trip to Seaworld to feed his passion and also just get away from wiener world. It was a teensy bit of a bribe, just a teensy bit. Big wiener was supposed to be in summer school and this trip would mark the end of all his hard work. He didn't end up taking summer school; his amazing, perfect, did I say amazing teacher tutored him all summer for free. I know; amazing. Still, he worked his little hindy off and gained all the reading levels that he needed to and a few more. So, we had frequent flier miles to pay for airfare. We found a great deal on a hotel, including tickets. We would go for 3 days and then to the ocean for 1 day. Little wiener would stay with my parents; too little to appreciate ocean life.

When we planned this trip it never occurred to us that middle wiener might not love ocean life with the same passion that big wiener does. It's hard to tell what his passions are, he usually just goes along with his brother; happily really. How were we to know that he really doesn't give a rat's ass about whales, dolphins, sharks or anything else that lives at Seaworld. His passion it seems is rides. Little roller coasters topping the list. So how did we come to find out where his passions lie? Did he nicely tug on my sleeve, look up at me with those blue eyes and say, "Excuse me mum, but I'd much prefer to go on the roller coaster again, please." No. Of course not.

There were temper tantrums, humiliating public tantrums. There was pushing, shoving, screaming and crying. He pretty much wanted nothing to do with me (daddy only), so there was also the public shunning. It was miserable. Basically if he wasn't riding a ride, or swimming in the hotel pool, or eating candy (don't forget the candy) he was screaming, crying or otherwise melting down into a puddle of wiener.

In some ways I don't really blame him. What I learned on this trip is that I don't really like crowds either. I don't like hot, hot humidity and I don't like being surrounded by people yelling at their kids all day. For being the (2nd) happiest place on earth there were sure a lot of unhappy people there, representing a plethora of unhappy cultures. As soon as we left Seaworld for the day, my sweet little wiener returned.

So, did we have a good time or what? Sometimes. Seeing big wiener take in the Shamu show that he wished and hoped to someday see was pretty amazing. Watching him up close training dolphins was pretty amazing. Daddy wiener tells me that middle wiener was lots of fun on the rides. The pool was great! The ocean was great (until Daddy wiener took middle wiener out too far and he got a giant, salty wave in the face-I told him it would happen). All in all we have decided that we will not be traveling much in the future, at least not to any "happiest places on earth". As challenging as life sometimes is in wiener world, sometimes it's the happiest place on earth too. And you don't have to worry about anyone falling in the sting ray tank. Or grabbing the tail of a small shark. Oh yeah, and hot dogs don't cost $5 a piece.