Our Trip to Disney

Ahhh Vacation.

Our vacation was supposed to begin the day after Christmas. However, due to poor weather forecasting for North Carolina we decided to head out Christmas night instead. In addition to missing the weather, we were hoping it would break up the trip a little more for Jude. The first leg of our trip began by leaving home and going to North Carolina. My parents live there, so it's pretty much a great mid-way(ish) point. We woke up the next morning to about 4 inches of snow covering the ground! The next day we were able to visit with my brother and his family and just enjoyed the day. We ended the day early to embark on the second leg of our trip the next morning.

We woke up somewhere around 4 in the morning and got on our way. The plan was to leave early so that we could get through a good bit of the drive while Jude was still asleep. He ended up waking up as we were loading him into the car and playing in the backseat for about an hour, which worked out well, because he then slept longer into the drive. Ryan made excellent time driving and we made it into Florida around 1:30 in the afternoon - even after making a few stops along the way. Upon arriving in Orlando, we took time to unpack, shower and just relax for a little while. I had found a very reasonably priced hotel on Travelocity.com called the Wyndam Orlando Resort. It ended up being a fairly nice hotel, but missing a few things we were hoping for. For example, it didn't have a fridge (which put a damper on our plans to pack some lunches). But other than that, it was reasonable and just what one needs.

After we were settled, we decided to spend the night in Downtown Disney. It was a nice way to introduce Jude to the crowds and get a little souvineer shopping done (plus, hey, it's a fun little strip). We got him a lollipop, had a nice dinner and saw the lego store and a bunch of other stuff a long the way. Jude took it all in and was ready for bed by the time we got back tot he hotel.

The next day was a big day! MAGIC KINGDOM! Perhaps the happiest place on earth. We got to the park early and immediately started trying to check rides off the list. We (knowingly) chose perhaps the busiest week of the year to go to Disney, but really Disney has crowds down to a science. We were able to Fast Pass where necessary, wait where we could and just really enjoy the day. Jude LOVED the parade, the ferry ride to the park and the whole atmosphere!

We deicded that we wanted to leave the park for dinner (reservations are insane, prices are high, selection is minimal and we just wanted to be able to relax) and headed over to Olive Garden. However, we also wanted to make it back to ride a few more rides, see a Christmas Light parade and see the fireworks show. Lucky for us, Jude had taken two naps in my carrier that day and so he seemed to be able to truck on through to the 10 o'clock firework show (the park was open until 1am!). We got back from dinner just in time for the electric light parade and quickly ticked off the things we had left to ride. Unfortunately by the time 10 o'clock was rolling around Jude was running low on energy and we wanted to skip the crowd. So, we decided to hop on the ferry and watch the fireworks over the castle from the boat. I must say, it was a genious idea. Needless to say, Jude was asleep in the car on the way back to the hotel.

The next day was Universal Studios! We knew that to get into any of the Disney parks we'd need to be there early. However, since we had such a late night the day before, we wanted Jude to sleep in, so we decided to break the trip up with Universal in between the two Disney parks we were hitting. We ended up arriving around 10 AM and the park was filling up quickly - we were smart and made reservations for one of their restaurants right away. There were mounds of people rushing into the two parks and sprinting towards rides. In particular they were running right towards the Harry Potter ride that recently opened. Just to get into the section of the park that had the ride there was a 2.5 hour wait! That's not even to get onto the ride! That's JUST to get to that area! I can only imagine what the ride itself was...

But anyway. The first section we went to was the Dr Seuss area! I was so excited to take Jude to Universal specifically because they have a mini-Lorax section with the Onceler, snergly hose and truffla trees! Jude seemed to (kinda) make the connection, but maybe it's because I know the book by heart and was reading it aloud as we were walking through. We rode the caro-seuss-al and even got to see a pretty awesome Grinch (and Who's).

Afterwards, we aimlessly roamed the rest of Island of Adventure (the second of two Universal Parks) spending quite a bit of time in the Jurassic Park section. Jude LOVED the large 'playground' they had and the triceratops trail. All in all, Universal is not the most young family-friendly park. Most rides (even ones we thought Jude was more than old enough for) were deemed too big for him and the lines were not as well managed as they are at Disney (I'm quickly becoming one of 'those' Disney people).

After going through the rest of Island of Adventure, we went over to the original Universal Park. At this point Jude was ready for a nap, so Ryan waited in a super long line to ride a new roller coaster they opened within the last two years. Afterwards, we were refreshed and again began ventureing through the park. Jude loved the Fival play area and the Curious George "ball room". We wrapped up hitting all the attractions just in time for the Macy's Holiday Parade. They had brought a number of their large balloons and a lot of costumes and floats to Universal and every day the parade went through the streets of the park. Jude again was in awe and loved it all!

It was then time to head back to the Universal strip for a GREAT dinner at Pastamore! We had picked it randomly thinking it would be a pretty basic menu and something that we'd have to be able to find SOMETHING we liked. I must say, it was really yummy! The waitress was awesome and it was just what we needed before heading back to the parks (again!). We then went back to Island of Adventure, did another Dr Seuss ride that we had skipped before (while waiting in line, Jude fell in love with a Grandmom from Peru) and decided to give the Hulk a try. We had skipped it earlier because of an insane wait time and when we got back, it was again more than we'd hoped for. However, we thought we'd give it a try.

See, Disney and Universal both (kinda) have this "parent swap" program. Essentially you both wait in line, one gets on, the other waits and then you swap. Well, we approached the attendant about how this worked on this particular ride and he told us not to even worry about it. He told us to go right up the exit and we'd be put on the next car! It was awesome! I must say a kid is kinda sweet for the extra attention you can get! (sorry to all of you who we skipped!). We left Hulk as the last ride of the night and again took a worn out Jude back to the hotel.

Our last park was Hollywood Studios. We had decided to do two Disney parks and I'm pretty sure we specifically chose HS for Toy Story Mania and Tower of Terror. Period. As we learned before we needed to RUN to get fast passes for Toy Story the second we got in the park. We arrived before 8am (park officially opened at 8) and already fast passes were being issued for about 11 o'clock. We then decided to wander through the park. We rode a few things that I think we missed previously and as it's a smaller park than Magic Kingdom, we were able to take our time getting through each attraction. Jude loved the Tom Sawyer Island and pretty much everything else. We again split for dinner and came back to hit a couple more rides (specifically tower of terror that Ryan had a super late fast pass for). Afterwards it was time to head back to hotel. I'm pretty sure this was the earliest night.

The next day (new years eve) it was time to begin our journey home. We had a nice relaxing breakfast before heading back to North Carolina. We arrived right around 7:30 and had a very un-eventful New Years Eve. I was in bad right around 12:05 after being begged by my dear husband to stay awake. I must say it was nice to just relax for once.

We had planned to leave Saturday morning to come home, but wanted to give Jude another day in between long car rides. Since my mom had gotten him a membership to her local children's museum (which also included ones around home as well) we decided to let him spend a chunk of the day running around the museum. I'm pretty sure Ryan had just as much fun as Jude and mommom and poppop loved seeing him explore.

Finally, the next day was time to go home. We packed up and tried to get on the road early, but were swindled into breakfast. We hit a little traffic, but made it home in a reasonable amount of time. Just in time, in fact, to sit around with our neighbors and relax before Ryan had to head back to work the next day.

All in all, the trip was much needed and such a great time! I'm already itching for another chance to let Jude see new things and see another little piece of the world - no matter how near or far.

***pictures are coming*** - soon.

Our Second Cinco de Mayo Together

Jude's 1st Birthday was fairly uneventful.

The night before his birthday, I set up his toy room so that he could wake up and go downstairs to play. He seemed confused about why all of his toys were moved, but seem interested in the new space.




After breakfast we had his 12 month check up. He unfortunately had to have 2 shots... which I felt terrible about! The check up went normally. Jude is right on track and doing well. He was 19lbs 15 ounces and 29.5" long. The doctor mentioned that he has noticed that Jude may have a slight heart murmur, but that there's nothing to be concerned about. He advised me that it's not uncommon in young children (and I compared it to my dog Zoey... she had one too that she was supposed to outgrow). He said it's so slight that he has no restrictions for Jude, he just thought he'd let me know in case for some reason someone else noticed it and mentioned it. He didn't want us to think he wasn't paying attention.

I got the go ahead to stop nursing and to switch to whole milk. We're still not totally ready... but at least the options there.

After our check up we had a nice relaxing lunch with Uncle Bryan and Aunt Katy and then headed home. I considered going to a park or something, but there was much to do around the house. Instead, Jude and I planted some stuff in the garden and once Ryan got home we did some painting and finishing touches on Jude's toy room (photos to follow).

The day quickly got away from us and so we decided to go out for dinner. Being Cinco De Mayo, we tried to be a little festive. We went to Applebees. Ok... that's not the festive part... Ryan got a Corona, I got a Margarita (or two...).

After hurrying home to meet up with Uncle Byran and Aunt Katy and Ryan Creed, we gave Jude his first of three birthday cakes. It was a classic funfetti cake with vanilla frosting, and Jude loved it.











The day really went by so quickly. It's still hard to believe that he's a year old!

**I can 'technically' cross off 'make jude a birthday cake' from my list with this cake... but I'd say I officially crossed it off with his birthday party cake. Either way, it's done!

Plant a Tree - It (was)Earth Day

So, a few days ago, was Earth Day.


In full spirit, I went out and bought a Peach Tree. I wanted to plant a tree (per my list o' things to do) and figured Earth Day was as good a day as any! Another stipulation was that I wanted something that would be fruitful. The last thing we needed was 'just another tree' in the front yard.

Well, that day one thing lead to another and we never planted our tree. BUT this morning, Ryan and I took advantage of the good weather and planted our peach tree. It's not much of anything yet... but I hope that it grows with us over the next however-many-years and we get tons of peaches year in and year out!

We put lotion on Jude while we were out in the yard. I'm always worried his little scalp will burn, so he got a good dose in his hair and it looked so fun:

ME, ME, ME

Question: do you feel you get enough Alicia time? enough adult time? enough couple time?

Answer:

Hmm... oh my. I don't think I regularly get enough of any of the above. But, I think I take the blame for that for the most part.

1. Alicia Time: I do not get a lot of Alicia time. For the most part, Alicia time is the time after I get off work (or on nights I don't work: when Ryan falls asleep on the couch) and the boys are asleep. Lately I've been working on my quilt, or I'll read, maybe browse online. There have been a few times I go to a late night movie, etc. Do I think that taking the time after everyone else has fallen asleep for myself counts as "Alicia Time"? Not really... but it gives me that extra bit of sanity.

Ryan wouldn't have a problem with me going out or doing something on my own, but during the time when I'm working a lot (which is not always the case), I like to spend as much time at home with Ryan and Jude.

Finally, I really try to avoid pumping at all costs. It's just not something I enjoy doing. I'd like to say that after 9 months I'm finally over the fear of drying up after one missed feeding, but truth is, I get all paranoid. So, I try to not be away from Jude for long periods of time.

2. Adult Time: I get very little adult time during the week/weekdays. I know very few mothers that stay home, so spend the whole day with Jude. There are days that I meet my brother and his fiance for lunch or we'll go shopping or just hang out. This is always a nice change of pace.

I recently started to frequently visit a Delaware Mom's page and I have been trying to put together a play group for people in my area. This was within the last couple of weeks and I have had a few people seem interested. (I'm sure I'll blog more if/when it happens and what we do). If it happens, it should be a nice break to the week.

Other than the time during the day, we have friends over regularly to hang out in the evenings and so, to some degree... I'm getting enough adult time. but, really, Jude is pretty much always there. Whether he's hanging out with us, or asleep upstairs.

3. Couple Time: We really do not get enough couple time at all. Usually when faced with the decision to either go out alone and get a baby sitter or bring Jude with us, I/we chose to bring Jude with us. We frequently make the decision to do something at the last minute, so I'd feel bad calling someone the day of. Plus, there are a lot of things I want Jude to experience. That's not to say every time we go out for dinner, I want Jude there, but it does mean I want him there for the things we don't do regularly.

Just recently we went out for a date night and it was very nice though. It really will be nice to do more and more as Jude becomes more independent and as I stop freaking out about my boobs. I'm pretty sure his Uncle Bryan is looking forward to sleep overs!

OK, I lied...

... NOW mother nature can return things to normal!

Last night, I went sledding for the first time since.... well, I don't know how long it's been!

We went to a pretty awesome hill about 15 minutes from home. The hill is actually on the property of a school/church. The parking lot was roped off (and pretty icy), so cars were lining the road outside the school.

The hill was actually a sort of valley, so there were two hills converging into one common abyss. One hill was long and the other significantly shorter. A lot of the younger kids were hanging out on the short slope.




We had Jude and I wanted him to get a go or two, so we went to an un-worn section of the smaller hill and Ryan and I both took him down. The key is that it was unworn... so, we didn't go very fast at all. I said we'd be fine taking him down something with a little more "umph", but Ryan insisted we hold off until next year.





As I mentioned before, Jude hates being bundled up, so his patience only went so far. After his couple of runs, Ryan and I had our share of fun, trading off Jude-man as we went.




I had to practically tear Ryan away when it was time to go. He was thrilled on our way home when he found out some more friends had showed up after we left and I gave him the OK to head back for just a few more minutes.

Friday Evening...

As in most families, I'm sure, since Jude came along, Buddy has taken a back seat. The bathroom that was once his bathing room was ripped apart and never put back together. He has been reduced to taking very infrequent showers in our bathroom (which actually proves to be much easier). He doesn't see the vet quite as often as he should. His nails are always just a little too long, doesn't have enough toys and we often are scraping the bottom of his food tub for a meal. It's pathetic and he is starting to let us know.

We are beginning to find little Buddy droppings in the dining room, he is taking up more and more space in the bed and he is in your face any chance he can. Lately, he's been growing really antsy. This is not just because of Jude, but because of the weather too. So, we decided to take him to the dog park. We've been saying we need to, and tonight, we just did. We made the decision in a matter of like 2 minutes. Hoping into the car, you could tell Buddy was thrilled to be going somewhere... anywhere!

When we pulled into the park, he was pulling on his leash with excitement and marking his way all the way into the fence. When we let him off his leash, he just took off. He could care less about Ryan, Jude and I. He was free! He was free to run! To make friends! To yelp (embarrassingly) at the little dog on the other side of the fence! It made me both happy and sad to see him having such a great time! Happy, because he deserved it... Sad, that we don't do it more often.

After a few minutes, Jude was losing his patience, so I took him over to the jungle gym while Ryan made sure Buddy was well behaved. For the first time, I put Jude in a swing (one of those round rubber onces with the legs cut out) and pushed. HE LOVED IT! He had this look on his face that just screamed to me "this is so much better than that baby swing you tried to get me into". He giggled. He laughed. He threw his head back as he weightlessly fell back and forth with each push. Then of course, as with all things, he began to lose interest just as Buddy was also running out of energy.

We loaded up our boys and headed home. I look forward to this Spring and hope that as the weather warms up I'll take some afternoons to not only get Jude out and about, but also to let Buddy get some exercise.

Following the dog park, I was thrilled when Ryan told me he was going to start some work on the house. A couple months back, we had bought a lot of the things we needed to re-wire the house. Once all the wire is run and holes are patched, I can finally begin doing some of the things to make the house 'pretty', so this is huge for me! After we got home, Ryan cut all the holes for the new receptacles, figured out placement for lights and basically mapped out his plan for tomorrow.

Last but not least... I got to spend some much needed time with my Feghan love. When I was working full time, Meghan and I's schedules constantly conflicted. She worked mostly nights and weekends while I worked during the day. As luck would have it, as I made the transition to night and weekend hours, she got a job working during the day - in addition to some pretty demanding evening hours. We don't see each other nearly as much as we should, so we got to catch up and go out for a nice dinner together. I left Ryan on baby duty and had an oh-so-wonderful time...

The weekend has only just begun and it's already a great start.

New York Trip: Part II

Original Day Two Plans:
- Wake up after sleeping in a little for breakfast and to check out of the hotel
- head over to New York again for ice skating in Central Park, tour Time Square, stop off at Ground Zero and whatever else came to mind.

Revised Day Two Plans:
- Ground Zero
- Ellis Island and Statue of Liberty

Actual Events:
So, we woke up the next morning unsure of what we was going to happen. Ryan had a rough night and I wasn't about to push it on him. He seemed to be doing alright, so we check out of the hotel and decided to grab a light breakfast. He still seemed to be doing alright and so we went on with our plans - slightly altered.

View from our hotel window... the city skyline

We decided to skip Ground Zero and so there was no real reason to go back into the city. Instead, we decided to take the ferry to Ellis Island from New Jersey. This saved us a bus ride into the city and having to figure out transportation to the bottom of the island. All in all, it worked out great.

Since our plans were slightly altered, I was checking up on ferry times from Jersey on our way there. We were about 10 minutes away and the next ferry left in roughly 15 minutes! We really tried to make it, as the next ferry wouldn't leave for another hour or so, but as we were running up to the security check with tickets in hand, they told us the ferry was pulling out.

The ticket area for Liberty State Park was in this awesome old train station. The area where trains at one point would have pulled into was very "Life After People"

an old train...

ahhh... so we are in the right spot...

I really thought the train station was cool... so with some of our free time...

Here's the boys in line for tickets... at this point we weren't aware we'd missed the ferry

The Statue of Liberty ... from the ferry.

from Ellis Island...

I think "cruises" is a bit extreme..

With our extra time, I went back to the car to feed and change Jude and we walked around Liberty State park. The time passed by pretty quickly and before we knew it, it was time to board the ferry. Time passing quickly became a theme for the day. Because we were at the mercy of the ferries, we had to keep an eye on the clock.

Jude was a trooper the whole trip...

The statue of Liberty didn't let people in past a certain time, so in order to get to Liberty Island (from Ellis Island) in a timely fashion, we needed to get off the ferry and get back on the next ferry. This left us (I believe) roughly an hour and a half on Ellis Island. Of course, we didn't get through all of the exhibits... but there's always next time. What we did see was all very interesting and really displayed nicely. I had never been and so walking through all the different rooms - which once served as examination rooms, luggage rooms and much more was all very... interesting... amazing... etc.

As with present day airports, etc, passengers coming in had to exchange currency...

samples of the graffiti walls...

Katy is checking to see if Jude and Ryan may enter...

I LOVE LOVE LOVE this wall... it was a bunch of faces from one angle and a flag for another.

My girl...

The luggage room had a bunch of trunks and stuff... it was probably one fo the coolest rooms. These folk sure didn't travel light...

Like I said after Ellis Island was Liberty Island. We had a little more flexibility on Liberty Island and so upon arriving we grabbed a snack in their cafe. I am under the impression they're doing some heavy renovations and so the place was kind of a mess.

Next we headed for the Statue itself. Did I mention that you needed to go through security JUST to get on the ferry? Like airport security (minus taking off your shoes)? Well, you did. Not only that, but you needed to go through another mini security to go into the base of the statue. No bags were allowed, so I was thankful that I had just changed Jude's diaper before stowing our bag away in a locker. Also, I made the assumption that one could just go on up to the crown. Well, you can't. You need special timed passes and you need these passes MONTHS (yes, the security guard said MONTHS) in advance. He even said that at this point getting summer passes might be getting slim. CRAZY! But either way, we continued the tour.

For anyone who hasn't been, you enter through the back of the base of the statue. You go into a room which hold the original torch and then follow some steps up to the museum portion. Everywhere you went said that it's basically a one way tour. Once you pass a certain point, there's pretty much no turning back. The museum itself was pretty interesting. There were live-size replicas of certain parts of the statue, lots of pictures, facts, etc. Then you have to climb up a number of steps to get up to where her feet are (that's as far as you can go w/out the timed passes). inside was pretty cool, because you could see "up her skirt' into all the inner workings of the statue. The structural support, etc.

Yes... and the elevator was broken.

Life-size replica of her big toe.

The original torch.

The highest spot you could get to was not exactly the most desirable. There's a pretty poor view of the statue... and really... that's what we were there for.

As we were climbing down, we realized that we were minutes away from the departure of the next ferry. Even though Ryan had toughed it out through the day, he was ready to go. We made sure to get the pictures we wanted and finish everything we had been there to do and then raced back to the ferry. We made it just in time!

It was then back to the car, back to Delaware and back home. We had a busy two days and two busy days of work ahead of us. It's Tuesday already and I'm still trying to play catch up.