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Holy cow dudes Mikey has gone to Disney 4x already! Haha I wanna say he’s already gone more time than I did as a kid. Shoot I KNOW he has gone more times than I did by his age.

Our trip to Disney was GREAT despite the pouring rain. It got off to a bad start because the first night we wanted to go out to eat dinner at Downtown Disney (since our hotel had a boat to take us there) but we got rained in. So I ended up having to brave the stormy weather to fetch us some food. But overall it was a great trip and we had lots of fun in make-believe land.

Mikey had a lot of firsts on this trip. He drove with daddy on the Speedway (he’s just now tall enough), he also went on the Teacups for the first time with me. It was sooooo much fun. He also went on the Jungle Cruise for the first time. I haven’t been on that one in AGES so it was like my first time too. We had a great time and can’t wait to go back.

We were able to take advantage of a bouncback offer in our hotel room that had the dates for Mikey’s 2nd birthday on it so we booked us a room for his birthday at the Wilderness Lodge. I cannot wait. Since his birthday this year is on a Saturday it makes for the perfect weekend getaway. So no birthday party this year, this year his birthday party will be with all of the Disney characters. I cannot wait!!!

At least our life is a lot like a rollercoaster, totally not like a yummy box of chocolates like Forrest Gump would have you believe ;o)

So we got back from our first family trip to DC a week ago. I know I should have written an update sooner but I came down with the flu of all things! Our trip went well. Mikey did really well on the plane rides. He is actually now obsessed with planes so much that as soon as he hears one he stops what he’s doing, looks up to the sky to find it, once he finds it he begins to wave and saye Nye Nye Mane. It’s the cutest thing ever! We even took him to the Air and Space Museum so he could get his fill of planes and as soon as we walked in up that arm went!

As for the real reason we were in DC, the trip to NIH was amazing. It’s like a college campus and is HUGE!!!!! But its beautiful and filled with so many smart individuals. They were on the ball over there. Every test that Gary was due he arrived to the location we were told to go to and they knew of him. Totally unlike any hospital we’ve ever gone to for tests. They managed to get 34 vials of blood from him, and did a bone marrow biopsy and CT scan. We finally heard back the results of his tests last night and its actually not the good news we were hoping for. Let me preface this with, when we met with the team last week the doc told us that he was pretty sure that whatever this is, it’ll blow over. So back to the results, he called last night and told Gary that he has a very rare condition called Peripheral T-Cell Lymphoma. What’s weird is his oncologist at home actually originally diagnosed him with that condition BUT by the time we had driven home from that appointment he called us to tell us that he talked to a collegue and they agreed that this couldn’t be it because he has NO symptoms. Well the folks at NIH had 3 different experts, the best in the nation, look at Gary’s bone marrow and all three came up with the same diagnosis. The good thing is the prognosis is good. They caught it super early, before he showed any symptoms. Usually people start showing symptoms within a year but he’s gone 2+ years. And because of that the doctor doesn’t want to wait any longer to start treatment. He wants to start chemo ASAP. So just as we are ending the rollercoaster ride that was torticollis we now hop on a new ride. It won’t be easy but we are gonna kick this lymphoma in th a$$!!!!!

We are in the middle of packing because we are taking our first REAL family trip involving an airplane tomorrow morning. We are heading to the nation’s capitol for some medical tests for Gary up at the NIH. His tests aren’t until Monday and Tuesday morning but we figured we’d head up a few days early so that we could do some sightseeing since neither of us have ever been to DC. I have NO idea how Mikey is going to do tomorrow on his first plane ride but I can only hope that it will go super smoothly and that instead of crying he’ll be in awe of what’s going on around him. We’ll definitely take lots of pics and will report back once we arrive home next Wednesday.

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.

So mommy has been wanting to get my passport taken care of so that we can eventually go on a cruise this year. Well today we decided to go shopping at Costco and since they have a little photo department we asked if they could take a picture of a 4 month old. Sure they could….only if whomever holds him can hold him so that their hands don’t show up in the picture. So Mikey sat on daddy’s head so that he was high enough and so that daddy’s hands didn’t show up in the picture. So after two shots here is the pic that will be in my passport, I think they came out GREAT: