1st Trip as Mommy & Daddy! Celebrating DSs 1st Bday Nov 11-UPDATE 11/13 TR LINK!

[khertz]

Today is Paxton's birthday! I can't believe an entire year has passed since he came into the world, and yet somehow it has. It is really incredible to see how much he has grown & learned in the last year.

He is now walking all over the place too!! The last couple of weeks, he has been doing great walking to me or DH when we held our hands out to him, but he hadn't made that leap to walking around on his own yet. This weekend, that totally changed! I think it was because everyone at his party on Saturday was encouraging him to walk, and he realized he could actually do it whenever he wanted to, not just when someone was calling to him. lol So now he is zombie-walking all over the house! I know DH is happy...I had convinced him to read a trip report of someone who took their 13 month old, and it said somewhere in there that the little girl didn't walk yet. I guess DH had an image in his head of DS toddling over to Mickey's open arms, and was disappointed when he realized that might not happen. Needless to say, he is very excited that his image will become reality, so long as DS is not terrified of a 5 foot mouse!

Saturday was his birthday party, which was a huge success! Almost everyone we invited showed up, even though most of them had to travel 2 hours or more to get to our house.

We decorated everything Saturday morning while DS was napping. This was his face when he came out and saw everything for the first time!

The party was set to start at 1, but the fun jump we reserved from 12:30 to 4:30 was actually delivered at 9:15! So we had plenty of time to let him crawl around and play in it before anyone else started arriving.

The first guests were my aunt, uncle, and 2 cousins, who are notoriously late for EVERYTHING, yet they arrived 20 minutes before 1 pm! My uncle is my godfather, and also godfather to Paxton. Paxton was excited to see his Parran!

With my aunt

Playing on the fire engine he got from my mom & dad

The cake table!

Close-up of his cake. A girl I went to high school with made it!

Another girl I went to high school with has a cookie business out of her home. She had made some cookies for my baby showers, and I was excited for another occasion to buy them! They are delicious, and they looked fantastic!

Once everyone got there, it was time to open presents!

The first big hit of a gift was the dancing Mickey Mouse my father in law got for him.

Then he got the Rock Star Elmo, and OMG he just LOVED that thing! He kept circling the box trying to figure out how to take him out!

But more than anything else, he loved the tissue paper and the wrapping paper

He also got a little ride on Mickey Mouse Clubhouse activity car that he loves. He pushes it around all day, and every time you honk the horn, it plays the theme song from the tv show.

Soon it was time for cake!

Blowing out the candle!

He is obviously my child, because he did not enjoy getting messy! He dunked his hands in the icing and licked it a few times, but wouldn't dive into the cake. Then he got tired of it and tried wiping the icing off, but just got it more up his arms and started crying. lol

Riding around in the Cozy Coupe DH and I got for him. This kid now has more vehicles than us!

We celebrated his actual birthday this morning by going to the Pumpkin Patch. He had a lot of fun, and the weather was great!

We have SO MUCH coming up before our trip, which is in just 11 more days!! I work 6 more shifts, and we have Halloween in the mix, plus his first dentist appointment, his 1 year check up with the pediatrician, and we have to find time to get his 1 year portraits and Halloween pictures done, and of course, the most important thing, PACK!! I'm exhausted but excited just thinking about it! We are ALMOST to single digits!!

 

[khertz]

I'm glad you are not re-arranging your plans. I think "best"/"worst" parks sometimes gets overhyped. If the crowd level is an 8 or higher, I might be concerned, but if you are going on a low-crowd day anyways, which park is "best" should hardly matter much. Certainly not enough to make changes.

Plus, I watch two web-sites for crowd calanders, Touring Plans and EasyWDW. They recommended parks never seem to match up...so how are they really determining these things anyways. At this stage, just go and enjoy yourself!

Single digit dance for you soon!

SP

I'm hoping you are right, that the crowd levels will be on the lower end so a best/worst park day won't even really matter!

I'm getting warmed up for that single digit dance!!

 

[Dream426]

Happy 1st Birthday to your son. That cake table looks DELICIOUS!!!

 

[CandleontheWater]

Happy Birthday Paxton! and congrats Mama, for making it to this big milestone!

Where did you get his shirt! It is sooooo cute! I'd love to get Everett something like that, he just loves Elmo.

I also can't believe that you went to high school with such crafty people, the cake and cookies look awesome!

Good luck on that to-do list, but at least it will keep you busy, and before you know it you will be in Disney!

 

[khertz]

Happy 1st Birthday to your son. That cake table looks DELICIOUS!!!

Thank you! That cake not only looked amazing, it tasted delicious too!

Happy Birthday Paxton! and congrats Mama, for making it to this big milestone!

Where did you get his shirt! It is sooooo cute! I'd love to get Everett something like that, he just loves Elmo.

I also can't believe that you went to high school with such crafty people, the cake and cookies look awesome!

Good luck on that to-do list, but at least it will keep you busy, and before you know it you will be in Disney!

Thanks so much! Hard to believe a year has gone by so quickly, and so much has changed since the day we took him home from the hospital.

We got his Elmo shirt from Stitcheroos. I also got a Mickey Mouse one that will make an appearance on the TR. She has a TON of cute designs to choose from!

Yes, I definitely have LOTS to keep me busy before Disney, but you're right, it should make the time go by much quicker!!

 

[afwdwfan]

Looks like a fun time! Paxton's 1 and you're about to go to Disney World! Time sure flies, doesn't it.

 

[skier_pete]

Thanks for the birthday pictures. He's such a cutie! You all look like you were having a wonderful time. Funny that he didn't like making a mess of the cake. At least he would open things - our daughter was 4 before she would open more than one or two presents. Her favorite things from 1st birthday was a bow - or was that first christmas...

 

[Leger13]

Jumping in here to get ideas and see how your trip with a 12.5 month old was. I'm planning my first trip as a parent for Feb '12. My DS will be 14 months old so it'll be nice to read a report of a trip with a baby around the same age. Will work on catching up throughout the week!! Your baby is so cute!!

 

[leshunlenese]

Happy Birthday Paxton! Those pictures were great! I wanted to be at that party. The cake looked soo good and i love his 1st birthday shirt and your matching sesame shirt. too cute and you are getting so close!!

 

[Leger13]

Ok I'm all caught up! Great PTR so far. I also really enjoyed the mini TR's you threw in too. Paxton has had a great first year so far His birthday party looks like it was a success too! Your trip is so close!! I can't wait for you to go so you can come back and tell us all about it.

 

[khertz]

Looks like a fun time! Paxton's 1 and you're about to go to Disney World! Time sure flies, doesn't it.

It definitely does! Not too long ago I had a countdown of 90+ days ahead of me, and not too long before that, I was bringing home a newborn!

Thanks for the birthday pictures. He's such a cutie! You all look like you were having a wonderful time. Funny that he didn't like making a mess of the cake. At least he would open things - our daughter was 4 before she would open more than one or two presents. Her favorite things from 1st birthday was a bow - or was that first christmas...

Glad y'all enjoyed the birthday party pictures. Actually, there was a blue bow that was a hot commodity between Paxton and my co-worker's 10 month old...I actually have a picture of Paxton shooting the other baby a death glare for taking it from him, but I might not have posted that one!

Jumping in here to get ideas and see how your trip with a 12.5 month old was. I'm planning my first trip as a parent for Feb '12. My DS will be 14 months old so it'll be nice to read a report of a trip with a baby around the same age. Will work on catching up throughout the week!! Your baby is so cute!!

Thanks so much!! I've learned so much from other TR's written by parents taking their infants & toddlers, both what to do and what NOT to do, so hopefully I can impart a little wisdom on you for your upcoming trip.

Happy Birthday Paxton! Those pictures were great! I wanted to be at that party. The cake looked soo good and i love his 1st birthday shirt and your matching sesame shirt. too cute and you are getting so close!!

Thanks!! It was a great party & a great turnout! I kept thinking to myself I was probably going overboard, but I wanted his 1st birthday to be memorable. I think the 2nd will be much tamer. We really all wanted to match, but could never find an Elmo shirt in DH's size at Wal-Mart, so he was really bummed.

Ok I'm all caught up! Great PTR so far. I also really enjoyed the mini TR's you threw in too. Paxton has had a great first year so far His birthday party looks like it was a success too! Your trip is so close!! I can't wait for you to go so you can come back and tell us all about it.

As much as I dread the end of a trip, I do always look forward to writing the TR!

 

[khertz]

Just dropping in before work to say...

SINGLE DIGIT DANCE!!!!!!










Only 9 days to go!!!​

 

[Leger13]

Thanks so much!! I've learned so much from other TR's written by parents taking their infants & toddlers, both what to do and what NOT to do, so hopefully I can impart a little wisdom on you for your upcoming trip.



As much as I dread the end of a trip, I do always look forward to writing the TR!

I hope so too!! I definitely need all the help I can get!

I kwym!

And yay for single digits!! I'm dancing with ya!

 

[skier_pete]

Yeah for Single Digits.

'Cause single digits for you means 15 days for me!

 

[khertz]

Yeah for Single Digits.

'Cause single digits for you means 15 days for me!

 

[khertz]

A week from tomorrow we will be getting on a plane and flying to WDW!!

I can't believe how quickly it is coming up! We have knocked a few things off of our to-do list the last few days, so I thought I'd drop in to share them.

We finally (FINALLY!) booked our rental car! We have been watching the rates and debating on trying the Name Your Own Price on Priceline for awhile, and decided to go ahead and do some NYOP bids and see what happened. Our first few bids were rejected, but we ended up with a full size vehicle for $11/day. Should be perfect for us. Speaking of cars, we also went ahead and ordered Paxton's new forward facing carseat from Amazon since he is a big boy now & definitely outgrowing the infant carrier! It actually should arrive today, just in time for our trip.

Today I made a run to Target for those last minute things that have been on the list forever. I picked up some disposable bibs and disposable Sesame Street placemats, and some new socks & tennis shoes for my little walker. I also had gotten a "license plate" stroller tag made for me on one of the DISign threads ( Marion's License Plate/Stroller Tags), so I printed that out and brought it to work to laminate. It came out so cute!!

DS had his first dentist appointment today, and he told me he has about 4 teeth that are ready to come out. Hopefully that doesn't mean he will be miserable & teething on vacation, but we will come armed with infant Tylenol & Orajel just in case and hope for the best.

Only 4 more shifts at work until we leave! The schedule for the next week is:

Tomorrow - Take Paxton to have his Halloween and 1 year portraits done.
Sat & Sun - Work
Monday - Paxton's 1 year well visit with the pediatrician and his first year of Trick or Treating...plus start packing!
Tuesday - work a 12 hour shift
Wednesday - work an 8 hour shift, more packing
Thursday - finish packing & head for New Orleans for the night so we can be up early Friday morning for our flight!

So much to do in so little time, but I'm happy to keep busy so that it will go by faster!

One last thing...I just called Bonnet Creek to put in our reservation for a fireworks view room, so hopefully that comes through. Also was able to put in our request for a pack & play and a highchair for DS. She noticed that our reservation was split into 2 4-night reservations since you can't book more than 7 nights at a time, and she went ahead and put those into 1 reservation for us. So yay no having to move rooms in the middle of the week! We had put it to where if we did end up having to move rooms, it would be on our resort day anyway, but that is just one little stressor I'm happy to avoid altogether. We can just unpack & spread out on day 1 instead of living out of the suitcase!

 

[Leger13]

Yay for not having to move rooms!! FX you get the view you want. Praying Paxton isn't a teething mess on the trip! This may be dumb but is it a year you're supposed to take them to the dentist? I haven't even started looking for pediatric dentists in my area yet. And that's a GREAT price for the rental! I need to do the NYOP I think too. We really want to rent a van for our trip.

 

[exwdwcm]

Hey there- finally catching up after returning from our week at WDW last week!

The plans are looking good and I can't believe you are at the single digit countdown already- how exciting!!!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY Paxton! The party looks like a blast. his cakes and those cookies were awesome! It looks like he really had a great time. lol at you trying to pick Mickey and he wanted Elmo- i did the same thing and in teh end, he wanted Pooh instead. But when you think about it, he can pick Mickey for many more years to come, but will quickly outgrow Elmo. So you still have plenty of years to do Mickey!

So on the touringplan days changing, I wouldn't worry about it. Just stick with your plan and know it could be higher crowds. We knew that both Saturdays we were there would be really crowded, so we planned to do the less popular stuff on those days and it worked out fine.

For the Osborne lights, I think Paxton will love it. That is the one thing William loved when we took him as an infant. He loved catching the snow. So like you said, it is going to be crowded regardless, so just go in knowing that. I would say, you might consider leaving your stroller outside of that area. We've been once when it was really packed and maneuvering a stroller (or in our case wheelchair and stroller) is tough in those crowds. Easier to just hold him. We did have the best luck with the crowds when we went just before closing time, it was pretty empty then, but like you said, he might not be able to stay up that late.

Your little weekend away looked like fun too- that hotel and church are absolutely gorgeous! And the zoo looks amazing too. I'll have to check it out next time I visit New Orleans.

Sounds like you have all of your ducks in a row and it won't be long now!

 

[CandleontheWater]

You are SO CLOSE!!!!

I hope you keep chugging away at that to-do list!

Oh, and thanks for the link, guess who is getting a mickey mouse birthday shirt!

 

[khertz]

Yay for not having to move rooms!! FX you get the view you want. Praying Paxton isn't a teething mess on the trip! This may be dumb but is it a year you're supposed to take them to the dentist? I haven't even started looking for pediatric dentists in my area yet. And that's a GREAT price for the rental! I need to do the NYOP I think too. We really want to rent a van for our trip.

I think generally the rule is 1 year or first tooth. However, DS's teeth started coming in around his 9 month well visit with his ped. She said as long as he didn't have a mouthful of teeth already, we could wait until he turned one. He only has 4 on top and 2 on bottom right now, she said she recently saw a 6 month old with 8 or 10 teeth already!! So I would just check with his ped and see what he/she recommends. I don't know about the ped dentists in your area, but I just called to make the appointment a couple of weeks ago, and he is a pretty popular ped dentist. Don't stress yourself out too much about it!

Hopefully the NYOP works out well for y'all. I was surprised at what a good deal we were able to get! One of my biggest concerns with doing it is that you don't know what rental car company you are getting, and I was worried about ending up with on that wasn't in-terminal. But as DH was looking through all of it, he said the only companies that do the NYOP on Priceline are in-terminal! So that is one less stress to have to worry about there. I wasn't looking forward to putting the three of us, all our luggage, and the carseat & stroller on a shuttle bus just to get to the rental car counter!!

Hey there- finally catching up after returning from our week at WDW last week!

The plans are looking good and I can't believe you are at the single digit countdown already- how exciting!!!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY Paxton! The party looks like a blast. his cakes and those cookies were awesome! It looks like he really had a great time. lol at you trying to pick Mickey and he wanted Elmo- i did the same thing and in teh end, he wanted Pooh instead. But when you think about it, he can pick Mickey for many more years to come, but will quickly outgrow Elmo. So you still have plenty of years to do Mickey!

Hopefully I can convert him into a Mickey Mouse lover like me! That just means I need to take him to Disney as often as possible! There is just something about Elmo & Sesame Street that he just loves, but I'm not going to lie, I enjoy it too. They really put a lot of jokes and parodies in there for the parents, so I like watching it with him in the mornings. My co-worker swears our children were switched at birth because her little boy is OBSESSED with Mickey Mouse!!

So on the touringplan days changing, I wouldn't worry about it. Just stick with your plan and know it could be higher crowds. We knew that both Saturdays we were there would be really crowded, so we planned to do the less popular stuff on those days and it worked out fine.

I think this will really help us out. We won't be trying to hit the Mountains/roller coasters/thrill rides etc. over and over like we normally do. Our touring plan will consist more of the smaller & less popular attractions. I think we will be ok the beginning of the week before Veteran's Day, so we will try to squeeze in the big stuff when it is less crowded. I'm not letting myself worry about it too much!

For the Osborne lights, I think Paxton will love it. That is the one thing William loved when we took him as an infant. He loved catching the snow. So like you said, it is going to be crowded regardless, so just go in knowing that. I would say, you might consider leaving your stroller outside of that area. We've been once when it was really packed and maneuvering a stroller (or in our case wheelchair and stroller) is tough in those crowds. Easier to just hold him. We did have the best luck with the crowds when we went just before closing time, it was pretty empty then, but like you said, he might not be able to stay up that late.

Thanks for the tip on leaving the stroller out for the lights. We might not have thought of that! I totally forgot about the "snow." I bet DS will love that too!!

Your little weekend away looked like fun too- that hotel and church are absolutely gorgeous! And the zoo looks amazing too. I'll have to check it out next time I visit New Orleans.

Sounds like you have all of your ducks in a row and it won't be long now!

Only 1 more week! DH and I took DS for his 1 year and Halloween pictures and we kept looking at the clock and saying, "In 1 week, we'll be getting on the plane." "In 1 week, we'll be driving to Bonnet Creek!" "In 1 week, we'll be in the MK for lunch!" etc. It's so fun! I hope this week goes by really fast!!!