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I’ve heard a lot about how lots of boys explode with their speed around 20 months. For us it appears to have FINALLY happened but at 19 months. NOTHING is better than being able to understand your child. Really helps with some of the temper tantrums because I know what he’s trying to say. But of course there is still a LOT that I don’t know. This week he added his ever expanding vocab list. He now says Appp..L for apple, Tree, Hop, and Up. All in one week. My favorite word still is Nana though. The way he says it is SOOOOOOO cute. Last night he found one of his board books that he knows has pictures of bananas in it so he went found the book and immediately started saying Nana and looked for the page with the bananas. I hit Gary’s leg because I couldn’t believe that he remembered exactly which book he had to go to. It’s amazing how their little minds work.

Oh and we are heading back to the Happiest Place on Earth tomorrow.

Can’t wait to see Mikey with the characters and just have fun. Even if the weather is crappy we are gonna have a blast!

Last Thursday Mikey and I went to work/daycare like we normally do. When we got inside the building I could hear like he had a little chest congestion but nothing bad so I got him ready and took him to daycare. He was acting perfectly fine so I didn’t think anything of it. Around 2:30 his teacher calls me up to tell me that he’s sounding pretty bad. I go downstairs and low and behold he is sounding a lot worse. You could hear major wheezing while he was just sitting there doing nothing. I went back up to my desk and called the doc. They wanted me to bring him in during their after hours so I stayed and finished my work and we went straight to the doctors from there. On our ride he just got progressively worse. At the doctor’s office we got called back relatively quickly. The doc looked him over and wanted to do a breathing treatment so we did that. He came back afterwards and he was sounding a little better but wanted to give him Orapred (an oral steroid) and check him 15 minutes later. He was still wheezing so he wanted to do another breathing treatment which we did. Then some xrays to make sure nothing was lodged in his airway. Turns out he had croup. Apparently croup can come on REALLY fast out of nowhere. We had to take him back to the doc the next morning to make sure he was ok, which he was. We were told to continue with the breathing treatments and the oral steroid and come back in a week.

Well that same day we were to head to Disney so thankfully he was doing much better so our plans were still on. We took it a lot easier on this trip since after a few hours he’d get cranky, everytime he’d cough it would hurt him so he’d cry so instead of hanging out at a park for too long we’d head back to the hotel to relax. I atually liked it this way. This is the exact reason why we have annual passes so that we can come and go as we please. There is no need to do every ride every single time. We focused on seeing characters since that always brings all of us joy. His first character was his pal Pooh. We found Pooh in a little toy shop in the UK Pavilion in Epcot. He was there with Eeyore and Tigger and honestly Mikey could care less about them. What was cute was when Pooh saw Mikey walking towards him he sat down on the floor so that he could come right at him. Which he did of course. He gave him a HUGE Pooh hug and Mikey was eating it up. He had his thumb in his mouth as he snuggled with Pooh, just like he does at home with his Pooh bears. On the rest of the trip we noticed that if Mikey really liked a character and would hug on them he’d always put his thumb in his mouth, almost like its the Mikey Seal of Approval. We even got a pic of him with Goofy both of them sucking on their thumbs. )

Here are some of our pics:

Part 1

Part 2

We got back late Saturday night from Disney. We made a pit stop at Grandma’s house for a few hours before making the drive home. It was nice to see her since we don’t see her that often. Disney was soooooo much fun. The weather was great too because it was so much cooler than when we went in July. It was odd having to wear pants and sweatshirts to the parks. For us the highlight of the trip was the three times Mikey saw Pooh. I had thought that I was pushing Pooh on him but that is most certainly NOT the case. Every time he saw Pooh he would go up to him and just stand there and hug him with his head on Pooh’s belly. It was the CUTEST thing ever. He wouldn’t move at all because he was content where he was. He liked Tigger too but only if he was alone. At one point Pooh and Tigger were together and he completely ignored Tigger. And of the Fab 5 (Mickey, Minnie, Goofy, Pluto, and Donald) he liked Goofy the best. He’s got good taste too because Daddy used to be Goofy back in the day when he used to work at the Magic Kingdom.

We learned that now that he’s a toddler he has a real problem sharing. He does not like to wait in line to see characters. If he sees the characters while in line he wants it to be his turn NOW. Forget character meals because he stalks the characters from across the room and watches them as they go table to table and gets fussy because he wants them to be at his table NOW. But once they came he was in heaven. The Thanksgiving crowds were a little crazy at times but it was definitely manageable. I have a feeling this will be our new family tradition. )

Here’s two links to our pics:

Disney Album 1

Disney Album 2

…….Tomorrow! Woooooohoooooo. Can’t wait to see Mikey’s reaction now that is has been 4 months since our last trip. We come back on Saturday so hopefully I’ll have a few pics and videos to share asap. If not give us a few days ;o)

Since we’ll be celebrating Turkey day away from the computer we wanted to wish everyone a Happy Thanksgiving a few days early.

Hope you enjoy them as much as I enjoyed looking through them ;o)

Mikey’s 1st Trip to Disney Pics

1. Get a stroller fan before you go. We ended up buying an $18 misting fan from Disney which was great but I would have much rather had a fan just for Mikey. Onestepahead.com has a GREAT one:

2. Buy the Ray Shade for your stroller. It allows you to extend the canopy on your current stroller and you can adjust it as the angle of the sun moves. It is sooooooo easy to attach. It is especially great during naps because you can shelter the baby from all the distractions in the park. We bought ours at Babies ‘R Us.

3. Bring a changing pad for diaper changes in the parks. Most places in the park have these hard surfaces to change the baby on in the restrooms, its much nicer to have your own changing pad to put on top.

4. If you are going in the summer invest in a rain cover for your stroller. We thankfully never used the one we bought but they can be easily found in the stroller department at Babies ‘R Us. The last thing you need is a soaking wet stroller AND baby.

5. If it’s the 1st visit for anyone in your party make sure to stop at Guest Relations when you get to your first park and ask for a 1st visit pin. They are free and a great momento.

6. Get Park Hopper Tickets. It allows you to go to various parks during the day without needing to do one park all day long. Well worth the additional cost.

7. Stay on property. Nothing beats staying at a Disney hotel and taking their transportation to and from the parks and avoiding the hassle of parking your car and riding on their trams. The longest it took us to get from our hotel to a park was about 20 minutes and that was because we were going to Animal Kingdom and that was the furthest park from where we were staying. All other parks took around 10-15 minutes to get to.

8. If you are planning on a character breakfast I’d totally recommend going to the Crystal Palace at the Magic Kingdom. My tip is to go on a day when its not one of the Magic Kingdom’s Extra Morning Magic Hours. The reason…..you get the park all to yourself for GREAT photos in front of the castle without people behind you. We had reservations for 8:25 and the park didn’t open until 9. We were allowed in at 8 and spent about 15 minutes on Main Street taking pictures without anyone behind or in front of us. Also by being there that early once breakfast was over we headed for the rides in Fantasy Land where there was absolutely NO wait.

9. Sunscreen sunscreen sunscreen. Make sure to put sunscreen on your little one before leaving for the park for the day. We only applied in the morning because we always went back to our hotel mid-day. Don’t forget the tops of their hands because if your child is anything like Mikey they’ll be sitting up in their stroller most of the time holding onto the sides and the last thing you want is their little fingers to get burnt up.

10. My last tip is to keep the socks off if you have a non-walker. If your child is going to be stroller-bound the entire time keep the socks off. They’ll feel soooooo much better without them on.

Back from Mikey’s 1st trip to Disneyworld!

We were hoping to actually have Mikey’s first cruise but we didn’t get approved to get on a ship so we had to decide at the last minute on what to do instead. We decided to go to Disney but take a totally different approach. This time we got a hotel at Disney (Port Orleans French Quarter) and got a 4 day park hopper pass which we got a killer deal on from AAA. We will NEVER do Disney any other way from now on. That is the ONLY way to do Disney with kids in our opinion.

Monday ~ We got to our hotel around 1:30. Check-in is at 3 but I was hopeful that our room would already be ready. Well it wasn’t and they told me it probably wouldn’t be ready until around 4 because they were shampooing the carpets. So we killed some time by going to their cafeteria and having lunch. After lunch we walked around the resort to get a feel for it and kept calling housekeeping to check on the status of our room. We finally got into our room around 3:30. We were hoping to get Mikey to take a nap before we ventured out but he refused. So instead of fighting with him we decided to hit our first park, The Magic Kingdom! Took the bus from our resort and got there within 10 minutes. It was around 6 by the time we got through the gates. It was pretty crowded but it wasn’t too bad. We watched part of a castle show that they were doing and decided to move onward since Mikey wasn’t really interested in that. His first ride was the carousel. As a kid that was apparently my favorite ride so I took him on the carousel while daddy took pictures. He seemed to enjoy being on a horse. Then we ventured to It’s a Small World since the wait was really really short. While we waited he was amazed by all of the moving things outside of the ride. As soon as we got on the boat he passed out. We were able to get him off the boat and into his stroller without waking him and just walked around the park to let him sleep. He woke up as we were getting ready to eat dinner at one of the park’s restaurants. Since he was awake after he ate we decided to try and hit some more rides, and the one we headed on next was The Haunted Mansion! Who would have thought he’d like that ride, but he did. Afterwards the Spectromagic parade was already under way so we got stuck in the crowd. It was around 9 by then so we figured as soon as we could we’d head out of the park and back to the hotel.

Tuesday ~ Mikey was up wide awake at 7:30am. I got him ready for the day and we got ready and headed for breakfast at the hotel’s cafeteria. We then took the bus to The Animal Kingdom since we’ve never been to that park. Got there soon after the park opened and as we walked around we headed towards Camp Minnie and Mickey figuring there would be characters there, plus we didn’t see many people walking that way. To our surprise all of the main characters were there and the best thing, there was absolutely NO wait! We saw Goofy, Mickey, Minnie, and Donald Duck. Of the 4 Mikey seemed to love Mickey. Something about his nose that he really loved. It was cute hearing him shreik at the characters. Afterwards we ended up on some safari ride which was actually pretty cool. Walked around the park and on our way out we passed by this area that if you go down there were some character meet-n-greets. We were surprised to see that it was Pooh and his friends! So we got in line because we HAD to meet Pooh. Well no lie while in line Mikey fell asleep in his stroller because he was so tired. We let him sleep since the line was taking some time anyways. They were switching out characters too so that helped him get a power nap. Well the first character to meet was Pooh and when we got to him Mikey was still asleep. So much so that all of his pictures with Pooh are with him completely passed out. It was the funniest thing ever. He seemed to wake up at the end though. The next character was Piglet and Mikey was wide awake by then and he just LOVED Piglet. Probably the bright pink color had him excited who knows. Then we came to Eeyore. Mikey loved him too. But of the 4 Mikey was in love with Tigger. Tigger was so kind and fun with Mikey is was just the best to see the two of them interact. After our photo session we headed back to the hotel and took a little nap and then decided to hang out at the pool. Afterwards we headed to Epcot since they had Extra Magic Hours that night. Got to Epcot around 7 and started walking around. Ended up making reservations for dinner at Germany because Daddy really wanted to eat there. The food was really really good too. As we left Germany Mikey passed out in his stroller and we decided to just head back to the hotel since we had to be up early the next day.

Wednesday ~ We got up super early today to get to the bus stop by 7 so that we can be on the first bus to the Magic Kindgom because we had breakfast reservations at The Crystal Palace with Pooh and his pals. Our reservation was for 8:25 and what is great is the park doesn’t open until 9am so we were allowed in the park before other guests were there which makes it great taking pictures in front of the castle without anyone behind you. We got to The Crystal Palace and were seated at our table. Piglet was on his way around the room. Well I decided to go get my food first, since its a buffet and daddy stayed back with Mikey. While I was away Piglet got to our table and I was able to see Mikey and daddy and just the look on Mikey’s face was priceless he was in heaven meeting Piglet. I got back to the table and off daddy went and Tigger was starting his rounds but of course I had the camera ready just in case he got to our table before daddy got back. But he didn’t. When Tigger got there Mikey was screaming in pure excitement. He was giving hugs to Tigger and Tigger was playing peek-a-boo with him. Mikey LOVED Tigger and didn’t want to share him with any of the other kids. All of the guests around our table were watching him with Tigger because he was enjoying it so much. They were enjoying watching him as much as we were enjoying it ourselves. After Tigger came the character that we wanted to see BADLY….Pooh! We thought Mikey’s new favorite character was going to be Tigger because of how he reacted to him but he just totally went crazy over Pooh. He was hugging him and kept reaching out for him. Pooh spent extra time with Mikey because Mikey kept reaching for him. He absolutely LOVED Pooh. Just hearing him shreik in excitement melted my heart. Last but not least was Eeyore. Mikey loved picking at Eeyores nose for some reason. He liked Eeyore but definitely not as much as Pooh or Tigger. Since the park was still VERY empty after breakfast we hit some rides. We went on Peter Pan, It’s a Small World (again now that Mikey was awake), Snow White, and even the Winnie the Pooh ride. As we attempted to go to Toon Town Mikey passed out. So while he was napping we decided to hit Main Street for some shopping. We got all of our shopping done while he napped. We ended up back at the hotel in the early afternoon and the three of us passed out. That night we ventured to Downtown Disney for dinner at Fulton’s Seafood and dessert at Ghiradelli (YUM!). Headed back to the hotel and just relaxed back in our room for the rest of the night.

Thursday ~ We decided to hit Disney’s Hollywood Studios today. What a waste really. I’ve never liked that park except for Tower of Terror but since we can’t really go on that with Mikey just yet it was kind of a let down. The one great thing we did was go see Playhouse Disney Live. Mikey loved that show. When we got out of the show it was pouring out. Of course the day that I leave the rain protection for the stroller at the hotel it decides to pour. So we tried to wait it out and it was taking awhile so once it let up a bit we decided to walk around. We ended up calling it a day after being at the park for 2 hours and going back to the hotel. We had lunch at the hotel while Mikey napped and then we decided to hit the pool at the hotel. We decided to hit the Magic Kingdom to end our trip on a high note. This time armed with the video camera in hopes that we’d get to see Pooh again. Of course now that we had that Pooh wasn’t anywhere to be found. Mikey actually fell asleep soon after we arrived at the park so we had to kill some time walking around looking for Pooh. When he woke up we decided to hit Dumbo which was fun. We then went to eat dinner in Tomorrowland. After dinner the Spectromagic parade was going on so we happened by the Buzzlightyear ride in Tomorrowland and it didn’t have much of a wait. Mikey loved that ride because of all of the bright colors. We had a lot of fun too because its a game where both riders have to shoot at targets and you get points. So it was amusing for us too. Afterward we decided to just go back to the hotel since it was almost 10. We said goodbye to Disneyworld and promised to be back soon. Went to the room and packed up our stuff so that we could head home the next morning.