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February 2015 - Our Son's First Visit

I am starting to get nervous about our travel days. Really...just nervous about traveling with a toddler. We've always followed Henry's cues and let him set his own routine. He doesn't always do things at the same time but it's pretty much always the same order....

Wake up, breakfast, play, snack, play, lunch, nap, snack, play, dinner, play, bottle, play, sleep.

Lately he's been sleeping until around 9am, napping around 1pm, going to bed around 9:30pm.

I have no idea what the 2 hour time difference will do to his routine. I hope we can get him on track so we aren't eating lunch at 10am!

I also have no idea how he'll sleep in the hotel. He'll be in a pack n play which is much smaller than his full sized crib. Plus, it will be a weird room he's never been in. He's only ever slept in his bassinet/mini crib in our bedroom and his crib in his own bedroom. So this will be really weird for him and it makes me nervous. He's not the greatest sleeper anyway so this could be bad.

Now...the travel days....

On the 3rd, our flight leaves at 9:20am. We like to get to the airport early so we will probably try to get there by 7:30. That means we need to leave our house around 7am. I am hoping my husband and I can get up and get ready quietly while Henry continues to sleep. Then we'll just grab him and put him in the car. Once we get to the airport, my husband will drop me, Henry, and the bags at the door. Hopefully I can grab a luggage cart thingy. Then he'll go park the car while we wait inside. Then we'll get our luggage checked-in and head to our gate. At this time, we'll give Henry some breakfast....unless he wakes up earlier at home, then we'll feed him before we leave.

We will board around 8:50am or so. This is my first time on Southwest airlines. We will have to disinfect everything within Henry's reach and install the car seat onto the plane. Hopefully Henry will be entertained watching people on the plane during the boarding process...but who knows. We plan to bring an insane amount of activities and snacks for him. Though it could be rough since nothing holds his attention for more than 3 minutes these days. The first flight is just over 3 hours. We land in Vegas around 10:30am local time which would be like 12:30 to us. So we'll grab some lunch right away. And then maybe just let Henry run or if he's tired...hold him or roll him around in the stroller. I have no idea if he'll want to sleep at all. If there's a lot to look at, I don't see him sleeping.

We will board around 12:10pm. Thankfully this flight is shorter...just over an hour. I am guessing Henry will be getting really cranky by now. And I am worried about his ears, especially going into Santa Ana. (My husband and I have problems with our ears on the plane and a few years back, his eardrums ruptured during descent into SNA.) But there's not a whole lot we can do except give him snacks to swallow during descent. We land at 1:45pm. My husband will have to go get the rental car and install the car seat. So I bet we don't get out of the airport until 2:45 or later.

At this point, we'll have to play everything by ear depending on Henry's mood. I am thinking we may get checked in to the hotel and then grab some food at Denny's (since it's right by the hotel.) I hesitate to let Henry take a long nap or anything at this time because it could throw him way out of whack but I guess we'll just wait and see. We also need to go to Target to get diapers and a million other things for the week.

We'll probably end up in bed fairly early since we hope to go to the parks the next day. But if there does end up being time to kill, we may go to Downtown Disney.

Flying home on the 11th may be rough. Our flight doesn't leave until 4:10pm. We'll have to check out of the hotel by 11am (I think.) Then we'll grab lunch. And after that, I am hoping we can drive around a bit so Henry can snooze in the car before we head to the airport around 2:30. If he doesn't sleep...the traveling will be pretty crappy, I'm sure. The first flight is just an hour. Then we have an hour and a half in Vegas where we'll get some dinner, hopefully. After that, it's the long flight home (a bit under 3 hours.) We don't land until 11:15pm. Then we have to wait for our bags and drive 30 minutes home.

So yeah...really dreading the travel days. It's all going to be so much different than we're used to!
 
I think you've prepared both mentally and actually as much as you can. Try not to stress too much. It is what it is! (Ha ha- I'm a total stresser about my kids sleep so I get it). One thing we didn't know, which you might already, is the car seat has to be next to the window. Our first flight we were all strapped in and settled before we learned this. Info that would have been very useful 10 min earlier!
 
Yep...I remember reading that. It's so no one has to climb over it in an emergency, I think.
 
Is anyone getting Photopass+? We'll be getting it and I'm looking forward to not dragging my big camera around.
 


Nah, we've never done photopass. I just have a point and shoot so it's not a big deal to me. Plus, I like taking photos of just about everything in the parks...haha. We will probably have a few photopass people snaps some family pictures for us though.
 
We have the first few times we took the kids. We aren't getting it this time. Since we aren't doing a character meal with a photo opp and splash is closed. When I know I'm getting it, I'm an obsessive photo stalker. We will still stop for some pics and if we like a lot, we might get the CD otherwise we will just get a few prints. I have been happy every time I've bought it though.
 
We have the first few times we took the kids. We aren't getting it this time. Since we aren't doing a character meal with a photo opp and splash is closed. When I know I'm getting it, I'm an obsessive photo stalker. We will still stop for some pics and if we like a lot, we might get the CD otherwise we will just get a few prints. I have been happy every time I've bought it though.
That's good to know. Luckily iPhones are pretty good these days but I'm looking forward to being in the pictures with my family rather than behind the camera. I know they'll take one with your camera but it'll be nice travelling a bit lighter and utilising the Photopass service.
 


I'm looking forward to taking my daughter to the Disney Junior Show. She loves the music in Mickey Mouse Clubhouse :)
I personally am looking forward to the Aladdin show hehe. Any shows you want to see?
 
The Disney Jr show is so cute! Before kids I'd always think "so glad I'm not wasting time in that." After we saw it, I was like "why have I never seen that!" We didn't even know two of the shows really (handy manny and little eintsteins, know them now but now they switched them for Sofia and Doc I think). Don't sit too close to the front. You see better further back. Aladdin is awesome too. We want to see Mickey and the Magical Map.
 
We aren't really into show so I don't think we'll do any. I don't think Henry would sit through one anyway.

We may watch part of a parade. And the sad little 4-minute fireworks show if we're still in the parks at that time.

The Aladdin show is great though!
 
I am sad that "Remember...Dreams Come True" is gone. Best fireworks show ever. Seriously. If you haven't seen it, find it on youtube. It's so good.

Fantasy in the Sky is about 4 minutes long and very boring. No Tinkerbell or anything. No lights on the castle (that actually doesn't bother me, personally.) We definitely won't be going out of our way to watch it. Originally we thought we'd try to hang around to see it on Sunday but after seeing a video...probably not worth it if Henry is tired.
 
I think I figured out that 5th lunch idea (since I could only come up with 4 things before)....

River Belle Terrace. They serve breakfast food until 2pm. We LOVE breakfast.

Me = Cinnamon roll french toast drizzled with Cream Cheese Frosting and served with Scrambled Eggs and choice of Bacon or Sausage. Henry = He can have the sausage from my plate. Maybe the fruit plate. And I wonder if I can order things a la carte to get him some eggs.
 
Can he eat pancakes torn up? My kids both loved pancakes from like 8/9 months. We have this amazing pancake place like 1/2 mile from us. It was in Diners Drive Ins and Dives a couple years ago. Kicker is, we would always say "we should nominate this place" and never did. I think if you nominate, you get to be in the episode. Darn, lost our shot at fame! Anyway, from about 13-20 months my DH would walk my son up there for breakfast like 3 Saturdays a month. He was 17 months when DD was born, do it was in the super pregnant and exhausted through newborn and exhausted phases. He would devour the pancakes. We only go about every six weeks now.... But mmmmmm..... Pancakes....

Eta-just realized Henry is almost the age my son was when DD was born! Matthew was 17 months 9 days.
 
Nice!

Henry can definitely have cut up pancakes. He loves them. We put a little jam on them for him. Actually, he loves all carbs...just like me. Ha!

So.....Disneyland called me today. I had forgotten I emailed them about the tarp a while back. The lady was very nice. We chatted for maybe 10-15 minutes. First she said that yes, the castle will be covered by a tarp. I asked if Snow White's wishing well would be accessible. She said yes. Then she said "wait...let me go ask." She came back and said NOPE, it will not be accessible.

Then I just talked about how everything is going to be closed. I mentioned we were most sad about Winnie the Pooh since it's the only character our son knows. She offered to send him an autographed Pooh photo. Haha! I said no thanks. He's only 16 months and would just try to eat it. I asked if there would be anywhere to meet Pooh. She was like "yes, over in Critter county." I said "Critter Country will be closed." She was like "Hmm...let me see..." And she read off places in CC that will be closed. But she was like "Pooh will have a meet and greet over there." I told her I was pretty sure the entire land would be closed. She said there would be a meet and greet near the Haunted Mansion. But honestly...she didn't sound too sure about that.

I told her it just sucks that they don't offer a ticket discount to out-of-state people. I was very polite and whatnot but definitely voiced how annoying it all is. She did offer us "something" though it's not much of anything so whatever.

But at least I know about Snow White's grotto now. LAME.

On Twitter I made a comment to Disneyland about Garden Grill's menu and they were like "the old menu will be back after Taste Pilot's refurbishment." Gee...that's great. But I won't be there then! GRR. They act like everyone has the luxury to just pop over whenever. Sure, I USED to be able to do that. But then I moved to Nebraska because California is the worst. Haha!
 
Whoever works their Twitter must be the snarkiest person ever!

I got called yesterday about an email I sent about a free pin with $25 pin purchase the first Sunday of the month I read about on mouse savers. I was so excited to see the Anaheim area code- thinking I won the flip side contest, ha ha! Nope. He tells me "mouse savers isn't an official website." I was thinking "no kidding. That's why I emailed." He says he's never heard of such a thing and was sort of rude. I was polite and thanked him for calling. Honestly, we are getting the kids lanyards anyway, so I'm going to check while we are there. I don't have tons of faith in his answer. Not saying he's wrong, but he didn't seem confident.

I should email and ask if both castle walkways are closed. Pretty sure I know the answer, but maybe I'll get a consolation prize...

I haven't looked lately. Is the castle listed on the DL site yet?
 
I emailed Disneyland regarding the castle being covered before I phoned them a week ago and just got a reply today.

"Regretfully, the information you have requested has yet to be
determined. You are invited to contact us again in the near future."

I know it's luck of the draw with who you speak to on the phone, but I'm getting annoyed at selected people receiving some sort of 'we're sorry' gesture. I phoned from Australia and that wasn't even enough. I know it's probably some tiny offering but they need to be consistent.
 
Yeah, it's honestly nothing really.

I think it really depends on who you get on the phone. The lady that called me was really nice and chatty. She gave me her direct number and told me to call her if I had any questions or whatever. Though I don't think I'll be bugging her...haha. While she was nice, she really didn't seem all that informed. I swear, the unofficial blogger people I follow on Twitter seem to know more these days.
 
Did I talk about clothes yet? I can't recall. I have no clue what the weather will be like while we're there. I do know that I get hot easily. Pretty much anything over 68 degrees and I'm a sweaty mess. So I'm guessing I'll wear shorts. If I get cold at night, I'll put a sweatshirt on.

Disneyland weather is bizarre to me. Because the temp can change drastically from afternoon to night...the evening temps seem even cooler than they really are. So when the sun goes down and it drops 15 degrees (or whatever) it seems quite cold.

I also think that if weather.com says it's 75 in the parks...it feels more like 85 to me. I think it's because of all the cement or whatever.

So...yeah...packing could be tricky. I am guessing we'll pack pretty much everything. T-shirts, shorts, jeans, and hooded sweatshirts.

What stinks is I'm not sure if we have t-shirts or shorts that fit Henry. Last Summer we bought 24 month shorts/tees. But I am thinking they may be too big still. However, his 18 month stuff from this past summer...may be too small since they've been washed/dried a million times. We just can't win...ha! We are going to try some stuff on his this week and decide what we need to buy. We did try his swim trunks on....too small. I hope we can find some place that sells some before we leave!
 
I'm planning on pants/jeans and a Tshirt weather. I know it gets quite cool at night so we'll be taking jumpers too. For my daughter, I've been buying leggings and tshirts. I've got cardigans if it's cooler during the day. If it's bizarre hot weather, I've got summer clothes covered because it's summer right now in Australia.
 
I'm planning on pants/jeans and a Tshirt weather. I know it gets quite cool at night so we'll be taking jumpers too. For my daughter, I've been buying leggings and tshirts. I've got cardigans if it's cooler during the day. If it's bizarre hot weather, I've got summer clothes covered because it's summer right now in Australia.

For me, anything over 60 (that's around 16 C) is pretty much shorts weather. The forecast there right now is upper 70's (25 C) so to me, that's pretty warm. Especially since it feels warmer in the parks.

Actually, I just looked and today it's pretty cool there in the 50's most of the day. Nice! I would love if we had that. But we always seem to bring a heat wave. Our last trip in late September 2010 it got up to 113 (44 C) degrees or something like that. It was horrible.
 

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