Doing Disney with Toddlers

Hey guys! Happy November! Hope you guys all had a great halloween!  The dust has finally settled after our trip and I thought I'd write a little post on hitting up Disney with two little ones. 

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Staying at Disney hotels vs off site: 

Whenever we travel now with the boys it is a must to find a hotel with a kitchen and ideally separate bedroom from ours. Seb still wakes up most nights so we don't want him disturbing his older brother so we usually put Max in with us and Seb in a room on his own. I think by next year the boys can be in their own room on their own. We like to have some space to ourselves and not feel forced to go to bed at 8 pm :) 

Last year we stayed at Disney's Old Key West which had two bedroom and a kitchen when my mother in law came with us. I loved it. We ended up getting it around $350 per night which is actually a great deal for the hotel. I've stayed on disney properties before so I wasn't surprised by how nice it was and this time was no different. There are several positives to staying at Disney: Transportation to/from the parks, luggage transportation from the airport, ability to buy tickets and book park events at concierge, and the all around "ambience" of Mickey mouse :)

So naturally, when we first booked the trip to Florida, Disney hotels was my first stop to look for hotel prices.. but it was OUTRAGEOUS. It was over $600 a night. So, I started looking around and found a really nice Marriott 2 bedroom/full kitchen about 15 mins from Disney for $175/night. Yes, $175 a night. 1/3 of the price of the Disney Old Key West or any other of their villa hotels. so, needless to say we booked! 

All in all, we had a great experience at Marriott Harbour Lake. They had numerous pools (with tons of slides, kiddie pool, and numerous spas), a craft room for the kids,  a playground, a soccer field, basketball courts, and a very good gym. Rooms were really spacious and service was awesome. We were a short 12-15 mins from Disney parks. It was also 1 mile from Sea World. 

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Would I stay at Disney again? After this experience I'm not sure I would until the boys are older. Yes, the atmosphere is second to none and service is fantastic. I think if you have older kids and don't mind sleeping all in one room and eat out (we prefer to cook a majority of the time for the kids with how old they are-eating out is a mission at the moment.) it could work. Also, with older kids 8 or 9 years and up, the buses make more sense (and you don't have a bunch of stuff (stroller, etc.) that you're lugging on the bus with 439820 other people). Keep in mind IMO the transportation from the Disney park took about the SAME amount of time as it did from our off site hotel just due to waiting for the buses and all of the stops the shuttle/bus had to make. So jury is out how beneficial the transport from disney hotels to parks really is...

Disney has decent priced 1 room hotel rooms to stay in but if you're going the route where you want a kitchen, etc. and you have babies/pre schoolers finding off site is the way to go! 

Stay all day or go back to your hotel for a siesta? 

We've done both. We've powered through the day and skipped naps, and we've also gone home for a nap and come back. I would 100% recommend getting up early, hitting the park for a few hours and then coming back for a nap. Disney allows you to leave and come back so that is a non issue, and your parking rate is for the day.

 I think the kids are always super fresh in the morning making it easy for everyone to enjoy themselves. Also, the heat of the day is between 1-4 pm which you miss if you head back for a nap. The nap allows everyone time to recharge, regroup (including mom and dad) and gives you another 3-4 hours (or more) at the park at night. It is completely worth the 45 min treck (by the time you leave the park, take the ferry, etc. get to the parking lot and get home) to get back both ways. 

Disclaimer: If you have angel children that sleep in their strollers with no issues...I say power through!!

                    Awesome aquarium when you get off of the "Nemo" ride at Epcot

                    Awesome aquarium when you get off of the "Nemo" ride at Epcot

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Park Hopper vs Single Park? 

I feel like I come from the days where there wasn't as much of a difference between the single park and the park hopper pass in terms of price so I actually love this feature and remember hopping on the monorail from MK to Epcot when I was a kid..

While its super nice to be able to hop from park to park, I woulden't recommend spending the extra $50 pp unless you are going with adults or older kids who can really utilize both parks. 

 

Other Tips on surviving Disney with Toddlers: 

1. Lower Your standards. Did you lower them? Now lower them again. lol. Have one thing on your list, and accomplish it. Anything above and beyond that is #winning. Examples: meeting mickey/any other character, or another big ride that they enjoy. The smaller your kids are, the less ground you're going to be able to cover. Thats just the reality of it! 

2.. Download the App: The My Disney Experience App allows you to view information about the parks, see wait times for rides, make reservations for meals, or order food ahead of time. You can also update and select your fast passes on the app (see #3 for fast pass.).
 

3. Fast pass that shit: Log on and fast pass the important things you want to do. Fast pass means you basically don't have to wait in line, and now that Disney seems to be busy all year long (read: 45 min waits *everywhere* ) it is the way to go.

Some popular ones for Pre-K would be Meeting Mickey, Its small world, the old fashioned cars, Dumbo, Nemo (at epcot), to name a few. I'm sure girls love the princess meet and greet so if you have girls I would fast pass that also. You can only do three for each person so choose wisely. Once you use them up you can select different ones (this is another reason why coming back at night is better, a lot of times the fast pass windows will be between 5-8 pm which I am not sure you would make unless you have a nap).

If you know what day you're hitting each park, try and fast pass it in advance. Also: sometimes it will say one of the rides is "no longer available for fast pass". KEEP REFRESHING!!!! This happened to me twice now with Meet Mickey and I refreshed about 8 times and then it popped up. 

4. Snacks, Snacks, and more snacks: Snacks are like the holy grail of surviving Disney. Pack enough snacks for a 3 day trip. Trust me. Bars, crackers, fruit, raisins, PB & J, and tons of water. Disney lets you bring in everything so use that to your advantage! 

5. Get there early: Beat the heat and the crowds by getting there when the park opens or shortly after, It'll be worth it. Everyone is fresh in the morning and do your "prep" work the night before (packing snacks, laying clothes out, etc.) to make your morning less chaotic. 

Enjoy! 

 xo
Alex
 

10/11 Month Sebby

Hope you guys all had an awesome weekend! We had a great weekend with some fall festivities and definitely enjoyed the warm weather! I missed sending out Seb's 10 month update so I'm going to combine it with his 11 month and call it a day :) 

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So the big news would have to be we have a walker! Little man officially took his first steps just after he turned 10 months and he's fluently walking now.  It's definitely a bitter sweet moment! Hard to believe that I'm planning for his first birthday...

I definitely feel like this stage is where you start to see the light at the end of the tunnel. I can actually read to him and he's interested, he can play independently, I somewhat sleep, he's starting to walk, and he's still nursing but he's eating real foods so not as much is on me! Bingo! 

SLEEP

Is so much better. He is up usually once a night to nurse and then goes right back to sleep. He sleeps about 7:15/7:30- 6:15/6:30 am. Some days (rarely, but it happened last night) I am lucky and he sleeps through the night. Its funny because no matter how much sleep I get I still feel exhausted when I wake up! Which is totally crazy because I am getting so much more rest than I was like 4 months ago. Anyway I think its probably because the 4 am wake up is a total buzz kill and its hard to fall back asleep after being woke up that early. 

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BREASTFEEDING/FOOD

Nursing wise he is still feeding about 4-5 times a day. His nursing is becoming more and more ninja like. I swear his legs are kicking everywhere and he grabs my mouth and face lol, We dropped his late afternoon feed and replaced it with some yogurt and moved his dinner up now that he is eating real dinner with us. Last week I had the worst week. I was totally sick from nursing-I had a clogged duct and it was so painful. I was achy, had the chills. Brutal. I feel like I've had a milk blister now too after the clogged duct. I know its from Seb eating less and less milk :( ughhhhh. Its so hard to get rid of the blisters and ducts when they are only nursing a few times a day. I know the end is near and I'm curious to see when he naturally drops his feeds. If I remember correctly it was just after Max's 1st birthday that he dropped his before nap feeds. 

His chewing has gotten so much better but I swear mealtime is like the longest. thing. ever. He clocks in at about 55 minutes to finish his dinner! He's pretty good with most foods except he doesn't really like eggs? Everything else we have given him he likes but of course his favorites are the standard kid foods like mac and cheese, grilled cheese, fajita, PB & J, pizza...He does eat what we eat though and has been doing pretty good with salmon, chicken and veggies. 

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BROTHER

I still can't leave the boys in a room together but they do play side by side a bit better now! I'm trying to teach Max that if Seb takes one of his toys, to give him a different one rather than grabbing it back which almost always results in tears from his little brother. He's always trying to show his little brother things which is super cute and I'm excited for when Seb can walk and run to play with Max.

PLAY

Seb pretty much loves any toy that is in our playroom thats Max's. He loves anything that he can push (mower, walkers, etc.).I would have to say his most favorite thing for sure though would have to be balls. He throws them and chases after them. Its so funny.. now when I tell him to kick he kicks the ball :) 

Likes
-Balls-chases them all over the house! 
-grilled cheese, fruit, yogurt, O's
-the walker
-sleeping with his lovey
-swimming
-bath time
-any toy that he can’t have
-talking
-reading

Dislikes
-being changed-he moves everywhere
-face being wiped
-being confined
-eggs

 

Until next month...when my baby is 1 (((omg)))

xo 

Alex

Our New Normal: 4 Months

Family of four. 4.5 Months. 19 weeks. 

Our New Normal.

Now that we've become a family of four, its almost like its always been this way. Those initial first {{really}} tough days are in the past and we've settled into somewhat of a routine. And yeah. Its gotten easier. Definitely not EASY. But easier. Some days I totally feel like I've got it all together. And then I have days like today where I'm trying to nurse the baby to sleep upstairs and my toddler is screaming {{literally hyperventilating}} in his playroom downstairs to let him out. 

I swear that I don't even blink an eye now thinking about packing both kids up to go somewhere, and I'm slowly coming to terms with the fact that there is no down time with 2. When one is napping, the other one is ready to party! But I woulden't change it for anything. 

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                                                                                                At Sebastian's Christening last month

Now that I'm a real veteran with multiple kids (haha JOKE) here's 7 things I've learned {fast} as a mommy of 2: 

1. Multi tasking: As women, we are conditioned to multi task. We do it at work, at home, and I swear even in our sleep! I always considered myself pretty good in that department. Then, baby 2 came along. I learned pretty quickly that I had to step up my game or I literally would not survive! Things like Breastfeeding while cutting up my toddlers lunch and doing squats while the baby is in the carrier have become the new normal. 

2. Divide and Conquer: I can't stress this enough. I think back to having just one baby and how if one of us had Max, the other was free. To do ...whatever. the. hell. they. wanted! Wow..those were the days. Now we're man to man. And having one seems SO EASY you guys. Life is so much easier when you're only dealing with one little persons needs. Your statistics for a meltdown are cut in half so your outing is already going to be more successful! Even at home, knowing that my husband is playing with Max while I'm putting the baby down for a nap makes so much of a difference. So. Divide and conquer my friends (when you can). 

3. Lower your expectations: This honestly goes for everything in your life. I know for a FACT I have become less productive due to the sheer fact that I never sleep. On top of that I have two little peoples needs that I am constantly juggling. Lower your expectations. Shit like dishes, laundry etc. can wait. I know its hard, but when you're on your own sometimes it just needs to wait until one of them is down for the count catching some ZZ's. Life will get easier ....soon. 

4. Get out: I know how much energy it is to plan to get out with multiple kids. You're juggling eating and napping schedules and spit up and poop and potty training and everything else that kids do and are. Without either one having a complete meltdown or the older one seriously injuring the other when  my back is turned..but just GET OUT. I always find when I make the trip out its just better. Yeah, the baby is a handful sometimes and do I love nursing in public? NO. BUT THE KIDS GOTTA EAT, people. Max is so much happier when stimulated so if I can even take them for a run around the {{smaller}} mall, or even Barnes and Noble for an hour I do. A happy toddler = a happy mom. And lets be honest as long as there's milk and my arms, the baby is pretty happy. 

5. Just say NO: I know this may sound like a contradiction (see #4), but sometimes you just have to say NO. I went through a period {{a very dark period lol}} where both of my kids were sick {{read: no one was sleeping, least of all me between the two of them}} and I had to bail on two social events with BFFs within a 3 day time period. Yeah, that was a drag. I was working on about 3-4 hours of broken sleep, a full working schedule, 2 sick kids, and being sick myself. The guilt train was in full effect. I miss my friends. And sometimes IT ISNT FAIR but thats life with kids and it won't always be this way. Sometimes, you have to say no and look after yourself. A majority of the time they will totally get it. They've been there. And if they don't get it, why are you friends?!!! Cut yourself a break and just go to bed. There will be time to catch up with friends. Just not when you're sick. And your kids are sick. 4 months after giving birth. 

6. Bribery: Sometimes you gotta do what you gotta do. When I'm on my own 2-3 times a week for bedtime and I don't want to hear my toddler screaming for me in our playroom when I'm nursing/putting the baby to bed, he gets to use my computer. Or gets to use the washable bath crayons in the tub IF HE's GOOD and waits patiently. Yeah, it sucks when I have to clean the washable crayon when he's in bed and in essence its making more work for me, but I get 10 mins of {{sweet, sweet }} silence putting my baby to sleep and we are all happier for it. 

7. Crying is ok sometimes: At the end of the day, I'm only one person and I can only do so much multi-tasking. And I'm doing my best. As long as they are both healthy, safe, warm, and fed, its ok that I can't get to them right. this. second. They'll survive. And not only will they survive, they'll also slowly over time learn the important lesson that the world doesn't revolve around them. 

4 months down,  a lifetime of learning to go. 

xo

Alex