We're Doing Disney Again Someday...Plus One! ~ Come Read my Trip Report!!!

[Dugette]

Hi, all. Just a brief update, as opposed to my last one.

Dug Baby turned 11 months on Tuesday. So very hard to take these monthly pictures now. I'd put her in the chair with the sticker and within 1-2 seconds, she'd pulled off the sticker and slid out of the chair. Silly baby! The best picture I got was when I caught her before she left the chair:



In other news, you know how we settled for the 1pm flight even though we really wanted the 10am? Because the 10am wouldn't go under $400? Yeah, so shortly after we booked, Spirit Airlines decided to join the market for this route. At way cheap. Prompting other airlines to lower their prices. So, 4 days after securing our tickets, the 10am went under $400 (and is still there, I think). Bummer, because there is no way to change our flights now, other than paying a bunch of change fee $$$. At least there are advantages to taking a later flight out--primarily more time to get packed and out the door for our first flight/real vacation with a baby. We'll probably need that time. Just hate to miss out on 3 hours where we could have been enjoying the Poly. Our first day will be fairly rushed once we arrive. And we'll have to skip swimming and exploring and maybe even unpacking. Oh, well, we'll be at the Poly, so we'll be happy!

Poor Dug Baby is sick again. I swear, she has had way too many colds/ailments for an 11 month old. And all this immunity she's supposed to have from breastfeeding? Yeah, I'm not seeing that. She's been insanely tired, general cold symptoms, etc. Took her to the doctor today and, sure enough, ear infection. Luckily just one ear this time (she had both the other time). Hope she'll be feeling more like herself again soon. Here she is when we went to pick up her prescription today:



Feet are still fun, even though you're exhausted. And, yes, that is another Minnie Mouse onesie. The pharmacist recommended giving her yogurt to help combat the antibiotic's side effects, so I gave her a tube of yogurt tonight (forgetting that she has some pouches with yogurt ). So messy, but she loved it. This was before she had yogurt all over her forehead and eyelids:



It was a bath night after that. And now she's sleeping soundly. Which I should be doing too, so goodnight!

 

[amazingact21]

How frustrating that the airlines lowered their cost right after you booked. Isn't that the way it always goes, though.... But like you said, now you have more time to get ready. I know from experience a baby adds unbelievable time to departures. It's crazy how much more stuff you have to worry about when you have a little one.


Aw, I hope Dug Baby starts to feel better soon. Ear infections are no fun, but at least she enjoyed the yogurt!

 

[jeni16]

My DS who is 11 1/2 months is sick about once a month as well. Since he was a Preemie, he ends up with Bronchiolitis all of the time, no fun. I feel your pain.

We were going to go to Disney this year with him for the first time as well but have decided to wait until next October instead. Grandma wants to go with (her first trip as well) so the extra help will be nice.

In your previous post you mentioned the food in the pounches. Are you just giving those to her to eat on her own? We haven't tried that. We've been feeding them to him. Just wondering how this was going? It looks like she was eating the yogurt herself as well. Would love to have him eating more on his own

To bad about the flights. Minneapolis doesn't have to many options for flying to Flordia. We've done Sun Country a few times & liked them but they don't seem to have very many direct flights anymore.

 

[Leshaface]

Aw poor Dug Baby, hope she feels better soon! I'm so lucky, DS has only been sick twice and both times not even bad at all. I too, thought babies weren't supposed to get as sick as formula fed babies

Ugh, I keep checking out flights on our last day, seeing if we could fly out later than earlier (flight is at 11:20am so DME will probably pick us up at 8:30), but like that we get into LAX at 4:45...still not sure what to do..

 

[Dugette]

How frustrating that the airlines lowered their cost right after you booked. Isn't that the way it always goes, though.... But like you said, now you have more time to get ready. I know from experience a baby adds unbelievable time to departures. It's crazy how much more stuff you have to worry about when you have a little one.

Yeah, that's what I keep telling myself -- we'll need that extra time. Probably a blessing in disguise that things worked out the way they did.

Aw, I hope Dug Baby starts to feel better soon. Ear infections are no fun, but at least she enjoyed the yogurt!

She seems to be feeling quite a bit better. Funny story on the yogurt, though: Dug got up with Dug Baby this morning and I asked him to give her a baby food pouch for breakfast. Meaning one with yogurt in it, since that's what we've been doing the last few days to get the probiotics in her. Well, he wasn't really paying attention to what flavors the pouches were and assumed all of them were yogurt. And gave her one called "Just Prunes". Not yogurt. Just prunes. The one I had on hand just in case we ran into the exact opposite of our current digestive situation. We didn't figure out what he'd fed her until later in the day when she woke up from her nap screaming. And everything was covered in poop. Her, sheet, mattress pad, a book, pacifiers, etc. She needed an emergency bath and we had some laundry to do. Poor baby!

My DS who is 11 1/2 months is sick about once a month as well. Since he was a Preemie, he ends up with Bronchiolitis all of the time, no fun. I feel your pain.

Bronchiolitis doesn't sounds like fun at all, poor guy!

We were going to go to Disney this year with him for the first time as well but have decided to wait until next October instead. Grandma wants to go with (her first trip as well) so the extra help will be nice.

I bet that will be nice to have Grandma there! She'll have a great time seeing him take everything in and maybe she can watch him and give you some free time too. Gosh, it would be hard to wait that long to bring him, though.

In your previous post you mentioned the food in the pounches. Are you just giving those to her to eat on her own? We haven't tried that. We've been feeding them to him. Just wondering how this was going? It looks like she was eating the yogurt herself as well. Would love to have him eating more on his own

Yep, you got it. We just take the cap off and let her go to town. She sucks it out as if it's a bottle or something. The only thing she seems to need help with is when she's consumed the first half and the rest is at the bottom. She doesn't understand squeezing the pouch, so we do that for her. Then she's good. In general, she's a really good eater and completely feeds herself. I credit that partially to luck and partially to having followed the "baby-led weaning" approach to solids with her. We never spoon-fed her, just started having her sit at the table and munch on things with us when she turned 6 months.

To bad about the flights. Minneapolis doesn't have to many options for flying to Flordia. We've done Sun Country a few times & liked them but they don't seem to have very many direct flights anymore.

Yeah, Sun Country has a couple on our dates, but not great times. My former boss (turned Disney planning buddy) is going about the same time as us and got a good deal on Sun Country, though.

Aw poor Dug Baby, hope she feels better soon! I'm so lucky, DS has only been sick twice and both times not even bad at all. I too, thought babies weren't supposed to get as sick as formula fed babies

That's great that he hasn't gotten too sick yet! Hope he stays that way. It seems like Dug Baby is like me, in that I seem to get about everything that goes around. I hope she's getting it out of the way now and has more immunity going forward. Sick babies are no fun.

Ugh, I keep checking out flights on our last day, seeing if we could fly out later than earlier (flight is at 11:20am so DME will probably pick us up at 8:30), but like that we get into LAX at 4:45...still not sure what to do..

Yeah, that's an early DME pickup. That would be tough flying that far and across time zones. It's like a battle of lose-the-last-day vs. get-baby-to-bed-on-time. I don't envy your choices there! I'm glad we can fly out at a reasonable time and get home (hopefully!) pretty close to normal bedtime.

 

[amazingact21]

She seems to be feeling quite a bit better. Funny story on the yogurt, though: Dug got up with Dug Baby this morning and I asked him to give her a baby food pouch for breakfast. Meaning one with yogurt in it, since that's what we've been doing the last few days to get the probiotics in her. Well, he wasn't really paying attention to what flavors the pouches were and assumed all of them were yogurt. And gave her one called "Just Prunes". Not yogurt. Just prunes. The one I had on hand just in case we ran into the exact opposite of our current digestive situation. We didn't figure out what he'd fed her until later in the day when she woke up from her nap screaming. And everything was covered in poop. Her, sheet, mattress pad, a book, pacifiers, etc. She needed an emergency bath and we had some laundry to do. Poor baby!

Oh my gosh, I can't even imagine....!!!


That'll be a funny story to look back on years later, but at the time I'm sure it wasn't very amusing.

I had my first ever "incident" where wipes just weren't going to cut it yesterday. I just picked up the baby and ran upstairs to the bath. and having done that, I can definitely empathize with you on the prune mixup. Youch.

 

[Dugette]

Oh my gosh, I can't even imagine....!!!


That'll be a funny story to look back on years later, but at the time I'm sure it wasn't very amusing.

I had my first ever "incident" where wipes just weren't going to cut it yesterday. I just picked up the baby and ran upstairs to the bath. and having done that, I can definitely empathize with you on the prune mixup. Youch.

Yeah, it was somewhat terrifying/traumatic at the time, but we had a good laugh later. Poor baby, though. And we had to put her in the bath, wipe her down, take her out and drain and refill the nasty tub, then put her back in and wash her. All right before we were meeting my parents for dinner, of course. At least they understood (and were grossed out). I'm so glad that I heard a tip at some point that most onesies are made to be pulled off from the bottom in an event like this. I would have hated to pull it over her head, so that was helpful. I hope neither of us has any further incidents like this. This is the first time we've had a crib mess. And there are no more prunes in the house.

 

[AprilRenee]

I hope neither of us has any further incidents like this. This is the first time we've had a crib mess. And there are no more prunes in the house.

Watch out when she gets older and learns to take off her pants!! We've had 1 near miss (diaper was off but poop stayed in the diaper with a tiny bit on the sheet) and 1 poop all over the crib, face, thumb (the one he sucks!!!). It was nasty!! We had to put him to sleep in onesies for a while cause he couldn't get to his diaper in those! Lol Finally I figured out that it was only 1 certain pair of pants that he could get out of and now we don't use those anymore.

 

[Dugette]

Watch out when she gets older and learns to take off her pants!! We've had 1 near miss (diaper was off but poop stayed in the diaper with a tiny bit on the sheet) and 1 poop all over the crib, face, thumb (the one he sucks!!!). It was nasty!! We had to put him to sleep in onesies for a while cause he couldn't get to his diaper in those! Lol Finally I figured out that it was only 1 certain pair of pants that he could get out of and now we don't use those anymore.

Ha, funny! I have a co-worker who was telling me about how her son figured out how to remove his jammies and diaper too. They started duct taping his diaper on, but he still was able to remove it. I guess she ended up finding some jammies he couldn't get out of. But, yeah, she said it wasn't pretty in there. By the way, Dug baby had poop covering one of her hands and on her forehead (probably from the hand). Yuck!

 

[Dugette]

So, I am way, way behind on my DIS-ing again! And I actually was "caught up" for a short while. So it goes, I guess...

Given that it's been over a month since I last updated, we've had a first birthday here. I have some photos of that, plus a bunch of random other stuff. This will jump around a bunch, but oh well. Here goes:

Dinner on the in-laws' back deck this summer, with the pretty flowers:



There was a little fair/festival thing in our city and we went there for a little while, on a pretty hot day. Dug Baby finally decided to give napping in her stroller a try:



She seemed comfy, so hopefully that will work well in Disney too. And speaking of Disney, at that same event, we found a sign promoting Test Track:



Go figure. We entered the drawing for a trip to WDW, but no word on that yet.

Even though I've been a bad DIS-er, Dug Baby is taking up the slack:



We went to the Minnesota Zoo again and had a great time with Dug's family. We watched a puppet show and, afterwards, the kids were invited to meet the characters. Unlike the 5-year-old in front of us, Dug Baby was not the least bit scared to give the shark some fin:



She was also unfazed by the dinosaurs:



What, you don't have dinosaurs at your zoo? Ha ha. (Special exhibit - animatronic - good training for Dinosaur at DHS?)

We were originally going to have Dug Baby's first birthday party on 9/21, the day after her birthday. However, it turned out that nearly everyone we invited was going out of town that weekend. We were hoping for more than 2-3 people to come, so we ended up changing the party to 9/7 with only 3 days notice. And it worked out much better and 15 people made it. And, really, 9/7 was her due date, so if she'd been born on time it would have been her birthday!

The party was Minnie Mouse themed. Here's some decorations:







Dug Baby had fun opening her presents:



And, as we all know, boxes are at least as fun as what is inside of them!

Dug's boss apparently has been working with him too long, as she sent us a perfect gift:



Yes, "Vader's Little Princess". Dug Baby thought the gift tag was delicious.

We tried to get Dug Baby to wear her Minnie ears, but she doesn't let things stay on her head for long, so we only got a couple blurry pictures. However, Dug decided to model them for the camera:



Good look, right?

We really lucked out on the cake. We found a lady nearby who does amazing cakes and cookies out of her home. She was able to accommodate the short notice and did an outstanding job. Here is the full cake:



And here it is being served:



The bottom was red velvet and the top was coconut. Both great!

Dug Baby got her own matching chocolate smash cake:





She liked it okay, but I don't think it was really her thing. Dug's dad kept asking her for some and she kept giving him handfuls of frosting. Very cute. But she soon tired of the cake and got fussy. So, I gave her a green pepper slice and she was a happy baby:



Silly girl loves her veggies!

The same person who made the cakes also made us cookies to use as party favors:



Very nice!

It was a fun party and great to spend time with family and friends. And I was kind-of relieved when it was over, because we'd be able to just relax and enjoy spending time with her on her actual birthday and that weekend after.

My dad and step-mom were out of town for both the original and the changed party dates, so they came over a couple nights later, once they were back, and shared some leftover cake with us. They also brought sushi, which made Dug and Dug Baby quite happy. It's not my thing, but Dug loves it and Dug Baby is a fan of avocado rolls:





With the fall season upon us, it felt right to go get some apples from an orchard. Well, and we were in the car with a sleeping Dug Baby, so had time to kill. She woke up when we got there:



We got a yummy bag of Sweet Tango (SweeTango?) apples.

Another night, I went to a big consignment sale nearby and found some fun things for Dug Baby. She loves cooking us dinner now:



I got her some Disney toys too: a Buzz Lightyear phone and a Winnie the Pooh block/honeypot set. And I guess the talking Yoda is also Disney now (that was mostly for Dug). Not bad for a few bucks each.

I also got way too many Disney (mostly Minnie Mouse) pieces of clothing at the sale. This kid is seriously going to have like 4 outfit changes per day on our trip. It's nuts. But, I mean, who can resist Minnie Mouse jeans for $3? Also, I got her a Minnie Mouse dress off the Halloween costume rack. But not for Halloween...I figure she can wear it sometime at Disney. Though, not sure when. It kinda makes me want to schedule a meal at Chef Mickey's, just to give her a good place to wear it! For Halloween, I found her the costume that I wanted to put her in last year, but couldn't find it anywhere at that time: a little green alien from Toy Story! Yay!

In other news, Dug Baby got a new part-time job:



And, yes, she is wearing khaki shorts with that. The fun things you find at Target HQ's company store!

While we were there, we bought some cupcakes to bring to daycare to share with her friends:



And then came her birthday morning, September 20th. Even Dug Baby was a little teary about it:



Continued in next post...

 

[Dugette]

Later on her birthday, after work, we grabbed Minnie off the mantle (still there from the party) and brought her upstairs to do the last of the monthly pictures. Dug Baby hug/carried her:



Gone are the days where she just sits in the chair next to Minnie:











I did manage to get one decent picture in all of this, though a touch blurry:



You can kind of see in that picture that she's finally getting teeth. She didn't have any until about 11 months, but got 6 pretty much all at once!

And my favorite symbolic one...leaving her first year behind and crawling towards all the fun that is still to come:



Crazy to think, at her one month photo, she couldn't even hold her head up and was just flopped over on the arm of the chair next to Minnie, who was about the same size as she was. And now she throws Minnie to the ground and leaves the room. Wow. What a year.

The day after her birthday ended up being a really fun family day. We started off getting professional pictures taken by one of our friends from our "new parent" group (she has twin boys!). She did an amazing job and here are some favorites:

















After that, we went to Dug Baby's swimming lesson and headed home for a long nap. Once Dug Baby woke up, we headed to a big apple orchard here to enjoy the afternoon. If you've been following this PTR for a long time, you may recognize it from a year ago. We went here when I was overdue with Dug Baby. It's kind of a new family tradition, I think.

Dug Baby enjoyed the little ride-on tractors:



She really wanted to pet a goat, but the bigger kids were in her way, so she just watched:



She loved the baby swing:



And, naturally, she enjoyed munching on an apple:



It was a whole different experience going with a little one. A lot less snacking and a lot more playing. Though we did enjoy some apple brats, apples and cheese, a piece of apple cobbler, and some apple cider. Yum!

After that, we headed down to see Dug's parents for a brief visit. Dug Baby had the best time wrestling with "Big Bear":



I don't have great pictures of it, but she was just tackling him and rolling around on the ground with him...so cute!

We had a fun visit and slept well that night. Busy day!

The next morning:



A random shot of Dug Baby "reaching for the stars" (on her ceiling fan):



And a couple of my favorite recent videos to finish things up.

First, Dug Baby and Dug dancing at the dinner table (with a brief chili-eating interlude):



We got her a little drum set for her birthday and she seems to like it. Super cute video of her standing:



On the Disney-planning front, we have flights, we have a room, we have ADRs, etc. But we aren't entirely pleased with our day-to-day agenda and have been working on modifying it somewhat. We also may change some ADRs. I'll keep you posted once I have a clue!

I've been watching Tikiman's posts on Facebook about the construction at the Polynesian and it makes me a bit nervous. I hope everything is still beautiful and intact when we are there. And I hope the construction isn't an issue. I know Disney is usually pretty good about these types of things, but it still worries me. Splurging on a Deluxe makes you want to get every bit of enjoyment out of it. If anything takes a turn for the worse, we've talked about changing resorts. Not entirely sure on where we'd go, though. Cross that bridge when/if needed.

It's been so fun seeing Dug Baby change and grow and seeing her personality develop. I think, by the time we take this trip, she'll be in a great stage to enjoy it. Really fun to think about what she'll be like then and how she'll react to everything. I think we're going to make a ton of great memories!

 

[AprilRenee]

I'm only thru post one but I have to comment and then ill comment again! Lol
Happy birthday baby girl!! I can't believe she's already 1!! She's so grown up! And I think she and Caden would really get along. Looks like she's enjoying the same things he does!
Love your travel high chair. We have the same one as our high chair and it's the best ever!! Great for taking along. Lol we have the same cart cover too!

Consignment sales are awesome! We just checked out our first one a few weeks ago and got some great deals!

Can't wait to see her Halloween costume! Caden is going to be Peter Pan. I just made his costume and it ended up being a little big so I'm kinda hoping he doesn't get much wider in the next year so he can wear it on our trip! Lol

Ok off to read the next post!

 

[AprilRenee]

Lol cutest chair pics yet!! Love the one of her sprawled all over it like "are we DONE yet?!?" Lol

Cute family pics!! we need to get that done!

And the apple picking looks fun!!! I wanna go! The weather here just finally got nice and it's thinking about being fall so it would be a perfect time to go!

Adorable dancing video! Fun to see her in action! And we have that drum set and Caden loves it. Lol. I taught him that he has to hit the sticks together and say "5-6-7-8!" before playing. So now he rubs them together and looks at me so I will say it and then he plays. Hilarious.

And oh my goodness. The best is yet to come. The first year is fun but these last few months Caden has just grown and changed and learned SO many new things! For about 2 weeks recently every morning he woke up with a new skill or 3 new words. Every single day!! It was the coolest thing ever! I'm having a blast! And you'll have so much fun at Disney!! Caden is 17 months now and I know he would love every minute of it!

Can't wait to read your TR!! :-D

Haha sorry about the double comment novels!

 

[disneybarbie]

Lovely update - DD is beautiful! So cute, loved the birthday cake too


Emma x

 

[amazingact21]

Happy Belated Bday to Dug Baby! That picture of her from her party where she's sitting in front of some gift bags is ridiculousy cute!

Love the professional shots, they turned out really well.
And her cake is great. Not to mention...red velvet and coconut! Sounds delicious!

 

[jc040404]

Happy Birthday, Dug Baby!! How is she one already?? I can't believe how big she's gotten. And so fast! All of your pics are just adorable. I love the one where she's crawling away from the chair. Time goes too fast. All of the professional pics are gorgeous, too. It's crazy to see her standing there, when she was just born.

What's going on at the Poly? I'm so behind on most of my Disney reading, just sticking with what little updates I see on FB or when we have a visit coming up. This magicband stuff is a little nuts!


Loved the update! I can't wait to hear about her first Disney trip soon!

 

[dtr_angel]

Loved all the pictures and update! Happy Birthday Dug Baby! Your trip will be here before you know it!!

 

[Dugette]

I'm only thru post one but I have to comment and then ill comment again! Lol
Happy birthday baby girl!! I can't believe she's already 1!! She's so grown up! And I think she and Caden would really get along. Looks like she's enjoying the same things he does!

That would be so fun if they could have a play date! Now, just to get to WDW at the same time...

Love your travel high chair. We have the same one as our high chair and it's the best ever!! Great for taking along. Lol we have the same cart cover too!

I remember seeing the high chair in one of your pictures! I keep it in my trunk all the time and it's super handy, especially at the in-laws'. Much better than having her sit on my lap and make a mess of both of us! Love the cart cover too, but Dug Baby was working on her escape artistry last time I used it. Even the strap from the cart AND the strap from the cart cover couldn't keep her sitting. She kept shimmying around backwards, then standing. Ugh. Hard to shop.

Consignment sales are awesome! We just checked out our first one a few weeks ago and got some great deals!

Yeah, I'm glad one of the moms in our new parent group mentioned it. Great deals on things!

Can't wait to see her Halloween costume! Caden is going to be Peter Pan. I just made his costume and it ended up being a little big so I'm kinda hoping he doesn't get much wider in the next year so he can wear it on our trip! Lol

Ok off to read the next post!

Can't wait to see your little Peter Pan! Hope he can get double-duty out of the costume!

Lol cutest chair pics yet!! Love the one of her sprawled all over it like "are we DONE yet?!?" Lol

It's funny when I look through all the pics in order, because I can see her looking at Minnie laying there and then deciding to get in the same pose herself. Silly baby.

Cute family pics!! we need to get that done!

I'm so glad we found out that one of our mom friends was a photographer. And she practically lives across the street from us. Worked out great!

And the apple picking looks fun!!! I wanna go! The weather here just finally got nice and it's thinking about being fall so it would be a perfect time to go!

Just to clarify, we didn't pick any apples, we just bought some. We're lazy that way. But it's fun to hang out at an apple orchard. Some day we should pick our own...

Adorable dancing video! Fun to see her in action! And we have that drum set and Caden loves it. Lol. I taught him that he has to hit the sticks together and say "5-6-7-8!" before playing. So now he rubs them together and looks at me so I will say it and then he plays. Hilarious.

That's adorable about Caden and his drumming! Dug Baby's still figuring it all out. Like which end of the drumstick to use.

And oh my goodness. The best is yet to come. The first year is fun but these last few months Caden has just grown and changed and learned SO many new things! For about 2 weeks recently every morning he woke up with a new skill or 3 new words. Every single day!! It was the coolest thing ever! I'm having a blast! And you'll have so much fun at Disney!! Caden is 17 months now and I know he would love every minute of it!

Can't wait to read your TR!! :-D

Haha sorry about the double comment novels!

I love hearing things from you about how much fun Caden is as he grows up! I think of you often, because you've said that each stage just gets better and better. Whenever I feel a bit sad that she's not much of a "baby" anymore, I think about that. It's amazing to see her becoming this little person!

When are you taking Caden to Disney? I'm thinking when he's closer to 3? Can't remember. I bet he'll have a blast, though!

Lovely update - DD is beautiful! So cute, loved the birthday cake too


Emma x

Thanks, Emma! And, yes, that cake was awesome.

Happy Belated Bday to Dug Baby! That picture of her from her party where she's sitting in front of some gift bags is ridiculousy cute!

Aw, thanks! The one with the blurry legs in back? Yeah, it was a good enough picture that we tried to ignore that part.

Love the professional shots, they turned out really well.
And her cake is great. Not to mention...red velvet and coconut! Sounds delicious!

Yes, we were so happy with the pictures. And the cake. Mmmmm, cake....

Happy Birthday, Dug Baby!! How is she one already?? I can't believe how big she's gotten. And so fast! All of your pics are just adorable. I love the one where she's crawling away from the chair. Time goes too fast. All of the professional pics are gorgeous, too. It's crazy to see her standing there, when she was just born.

Agreed! I know you've mentioned in your TR about how quickly your boys are growing up. And I always understood that, in theory, but it's so different to see it happening right before your eyes. I totally feel like she was just born. I can only imagine how fast the next years are going to fly by too. Must make lots of Disney memories...

What's going on at the Poly? I'm so behind on most of my Disney reading, just sticking with what little updates I see on FB or when we have a visit coming up. This magicband stuff is a little nuts!

Loved the update! I can't wait to hear about her first Disney trip soon!

They are building DVC at the Poly! Honestly, I'm really out of the loop on most new Disney developments too, but since I follow Tikiman on Facebook, I at least see these updates. They've had some fencing go up recently and Sunset Point is closed. I'm hoping it doesn't spoil the ambiance of the Poly. There's also rumors of the Great Ceremonial House being refurbed and the pool/waterslide having work done, but I think those would be after we go, if they happen. I just hope everything is functional and beautiful (and open) while we're there.

Loved all the pictures and update! Happy Birthday Dug Baby! Your trip will be here before you know it!!

Thanks! I can't believe we're only a bit over 2 months out! This trip has always felt "forever" away. We've never planned a Disney trip so far in advance and it seemed like it would never come. And now it's sneaking up on us. We've got to get to some serious Disney planning soon!

 

[AprilRenee]

Ok. I can't figure out how to break up a quote so I just wrote inside the quote

That would be so fun if they could have a play date! Now, just to get to WDW at the same time...


----It would be so fun! Maybe one day we'll end up there at the same time and can hit a few rides together! -----


I remember seeing the high chair in one of your pictures! I keep it in my trunk all the time and it's super handy, especially at the in-laws'. Much better than having her sit on my lap and make a mess of both of us! Love the cart cover too, but Dug Baby was working on her escape artistry last time I used it. Even the strap from the cart AND the strap from the cart cover couldn't keep her sitting. She kept shimmying around backwards, then standing. Ugh. Hard to shop.



----Haha yeah, Caden decided for a while that he needed to stand or ride in the back of the cart. Super annoying. I finally just had to put my foot down, strap him in, and deal with a screaming toddler at the store. Only took a few minutes of me ignoring him scream for him to realize that his cart surfing days were over. wasn't fun though. And if I don't strap him in now he flips around as soon as he realizes that I didn't use the straps. Little stinker! Haha---


I love hearing things from you about how much fun Caden is as he grows up! I think of you often, because you've said that each stage just gets better and better. Whenever I feel a bit sad that she's not much of a "baby" anymore, I think about that. It's amazing to see her becoming this little person!

---it's really awesome. Though we're right at a year from when he was the most fun. Looking back at his 6 month photos make me miss baby Caden. However toddler Caden is just so smart and funny and I love getting to know his little person. He's not a baby anymore, he has opinions and ideas. It's just so cool.
I will say, when he hit about 15 months we had a few weeks of a rough patch. He finally hit toddlerhood and I was still treating him like a baby. I had to totally reassess my parenting to allow him some choices and freedom. One thing we do every morning now is let him choose his shirt. I pick 2 out and then hold them in front of him and he picks the one he wants to wear. Just little things like that have given him the feeling of having some control and things got a lot easier once I realized that. I found the book "secrets of the baby whisperer for toddlers" and it really helped me figure out how to relate to Caden as a miniature person instead of just a baby. I highly recommend it! ----


When are you taking Caden to Disney? I'm thinking when he's closer to 3?

Yep! Jan 2015. He'll be 2 yrs 9 months. I'm already planning in my head. It's so much fun to dream about it. And I've been reading TR about toddlers and kinda figuring out what reasonable expectations are. I'm a planner and like to have a good idea of what to expect!

 

[Imagineer5]

I just read through your 1 YEAR update OMG! She is so stinking cute how is she a year old. Wow. This time last year we were almost off on our FIRST adventure to Disney with aria. Wow how time has changed things!

I love the professional photos. And your monthly ones - reminds me of those good times.

Sorry I haven't been around much but love your updates and can't wait until your trip!!