A toddler, preschooler and Disney - Oh My! Pretrip Report

[Zeebs]

Preparing the Kiddos

We bought a new stroller for DS3 for the trip. We're making sure that the youngest is NEVER it because it's a "big boy" stroller and if baby DS is in it that goes out the window!

:

I only wish we had this problem, I can't get my 3 year old out of the stroller, he is going through the I am toooo tired to walk stage unless he can see a play park and then he is quite happy to get out and run towards it.

Looking forward to reading on, especially as we won't be going for a while and my boys are about the same age as yours.

Kirsten

 

[Jenvenza]

What fun! I am defintiely in! We took our 13 month old DD to WDW last Spetember and it was a blast! She may not remember it, but we took plenty of videos and pictures and she loves to look at them! We all had such a great time. Disney at ANY age is fine by me!

 

[Macduffy]

Phew... so glad to hear that! DH just came home for lunch and said that all his coworkers were saying that they thought our kids were WAY to young to go to Disney.

Seriously?

I can't believe the nerve of some people. If a friend/coworker of mine bought a new house/car and was really excited about it I wouldn't say "well it's a bit too small" or "i don't really like the color" so shut the heck up about my Disney trip!

 

[mom2shayleeandlogan]

Wow, you have planned some fun nights for your boys! I have a DD3, 4 in Nov. and a DS 14mo. I also hear people saying the won't remember it, but my dd remembers going to vegas when she was one. We are going in aug, I can't wait. I think i am going to steal your theme nights, they look like a great time. Can't wait to read more!

 

[Macduffy]

Ah... I WISH I could take credit for the Theme Nights but I got ALL the ideas off the Theme Nights thread

http://www.disboards.com/showthread.php?t=1707141

The ladies over there, especially PrincessTigerLily have some amazing ideas and are so creative! They are so fun and so addictive. Family and friends LOVE to see our pictures each week

 

[Macduffy]

Yay - I'm officially out of my 20's and in my 30's! I celebrated my 30th birthday yesterday with my boys! It was pretty low key as we are trying to save money for the trip. DH gave me a dozen roses and the first thing I thought was "oh... these could have been a t-shirt or mickey ears". I think DH knew what I was thinking and told me to get over it and enjoy my beautiful flowers - which I did!

While we were eating cake DS3 said "okay my birthday is next and we are going to Disney to have it with Mickey Mouse" . I reminded him that Sophie's (our dog) birthday's was actually next - yes we celebrate the dogs birthday (any excuse for cake) - he looked at Sophie and politely asked her if she could have her birthday after his. I'm happy he is so excited!

So I spent last night reading about cakes and birthday's at WDW. I looked into the Disney Florist's packages but I really don't think I would get the bang for my buck at his age and with his particular personality.

I met DH at the restaurant for my birthday supper and had a meltdown right along with DS18M. Oh my..... he's in the stage where we wants to run and explore and HATE barriers getting in his way of his exploration. He cried - scratch that - SCREAMED in the restaurant during the busiest time of the day. I brought he and DS3 into the womans washroom and just let him cry. Within 10 minutes he was back to himself and sat in chair like a champ! I just kept thinking - we made a big mistake he's way to young to bring to Disney. But we got through it just as we will WHEN (not if) he does it during our vacation.

 

[mom2shayleeandlogan]

Happy 30th Birthday,it sounds like a great time sans meltdown. I think all moms can relate. Boys in general want to explore, my ds15 mo. wants to jump out of my arms any chance he gets. Boys seem to want to touch everything, my dd was not like that. Hope you have some left over cake to eat this weekend, can't wait to hear more about your plans

 

[Macduffy]

I have a Logan too!

He's the one I'm most worried about this trip You're right boys sure do have a healthy "curiosity" for life

 

[momto2GAgirls]

LOL! I am so glad I came upon your PTR!! I have two girls almost the same age as your boys! DD is 3 will be 4 in Dec. for our trip and a 13 month old who will be 17 months. I have gotten so much grief, including from my DH in the beginning! The way I see it, I want to be able to see the world through my kids eyes...they change SOOO much in a matter of days and months. I want to see each of the experience disney at different times of their lives and right now my older DD is in LOVE with princesses and thinks that cinderella will one day have tea with her...

We are surprising her with this trip! We thought she would drive us crazy asking when we are leaving, but I am working different aspects into our homeschooling, like countries and animals. I LOVE the movie nights, may have to steal that one.

I am looking forward to following your reports and learning from you!

 

[HawkeyeMickey77]

Just adding my subscription to your thread.

We're taking our 2 boys too in Sept (11-19). They will be 4.5 & a month shy of 2. Oldest DS is a Disney nut! (But I think he's strongly encouraged by me! ) Looking forward to planning right along with you!

 

[Zeebs]

I wonder why people care so much when you say you are taking young children to WDW. To be honest I really doubt that many people are taking the kids for the kids. I wanted to go to WDW, I knew the kids would have a good time, BUT, I wanted to go and I wanted to see their faces. OK if I thought they would have a terrible time I wouldnt' have taken them but why does it matter to people what you do on your vacation.

I always answered the "they won't remember it" with I know they won't but I will.

I are going out for lunch today with my boys, who for some reason wouldn't go to sleep last night (sharing a room normally pretty good) and were up early this morning so I hope all will be ok at lunch and no meltdowns but I am not totally hopeful.

Kirsten

 

[crocko]

I wonder why people care so much when you say you are taking young children to WDW. To be honest I really doubt that many people are taking the kids for the kids. I wanted to go to WDW, I knew the kids would have a good time, BUT, I wanted to go and I wanted to see their faces. OK if I thought they would have a terrible time I wouldnt' have taken them but why does it matter to people what you do on your vacation.

I always answered the "they won't remember it" with I know they won't but I will.

I are going out for lunch today with my boys, who for some reason wouldn't go to sleep last night (sharing a room normally pretty good) and were up early this morning so I hope all will be ok at lunch and no meltdowns but I am not totally hopeful.

Kirsten

Agree.

Otherwise, new parents should never go on vacations until children are 5 or older.

Even when I have young kids, I still want to go on vacations. As you said, they may not remember...but I will!
Plus...hello......pictures!

 

[jana616]

I am right there with you on hoping my YDS can handle this trip. He turned 2 a couple of weeks ago, but he is a shrieker. It's great (said with the utmost sarcasm)... Plus he longer sits in a high chair, or a booster seat. He insists on sitting like his big brother. So we can't even contain him if need be. The only silver lining is that we will have 4 adults to 2 kids, so hopefully that ratio works in our favor and we can wrangle them when necessary!

Love your theme nights! I've been meaning to do them, but hadn't had the motivation. Seeing your pics has inspired me, and I think we'll do our first one on Monday. We do a countdown chain, but we started at 45 days. My ODS is almost 5, and he's having a good time with it. 90 days would be long.

Sounds like your trip is coming along great! Isn't the Creative DISigns board addicting? I spend hours on there searching, and now I finally have it narrowed down. We're off to Michael's after naps to pick up t-shirts!

 

[Macduffy]

I wonder why people care so much when you say you are taking young children to WDW.

Kirsten

I know? I mean why do anything with your kids Seriously though we priced renting a cottage near the ocean for a week and doing stuff around our city and the price was just as much as a trip to Disney. I doubt anyone would say anything about that so why WDW? probably jealous

we can't even contain him if need be.

We're off to Michael's after naps to pick up t-shirts!

YDS (I love that acronym btw! I'm so stealing it) is a bull in a china shop glad he won't be the only one LOL

Michael's is EVIL and so is the DISigns board

 

[Macduffy]

DH and I are not seasoned travelers - with very little experience with the kiddos especially! Our longest trip was about 8 hrs in the car when the baby was 7 months old. Our flight experience is only one time to Disney in '00 and a few trips to Cuba.

When pitching the trip to DH one of my *points* was that we didn't have to buy a seat for YDS. He liked that idea very much $$$$$ LOL

We booked it and then the real planning began. I was noticing that EVERYONE was recommending a seat for a child over the age of one. The more I thought about it and the more YDS morphed into a squiggly active toddler the more I thought we made a huge mistake. I've been since trying to convince DH to BUY THE SEAT stressing that he would be too squirmy! He kept saying he would be okay and not to worry. Finally I told him it was safer and *BOOM* "well buy him the seat then!" he said... Go figure...

I booked with Delta last night and now YDS will have his very own seat with his car seat.... I feel a HUGE weight lifted off my shoulders now. I know he can still freak out on the plan but I feel more in control now. Sure we have to lug the car seat around the airport and via ME but I"m sure it's worth it.

I'm still worried about both boys ears and think I'll get some ear planes to try along with the drinking tip.

We had another Theme night but this one was pretty weak. We had a pool party of 20 people that day but DS really wanted to have his "movie night" so we put YDS to bed and set up for Monsters Inc. I decided that we would do a sleepover theme (Monsters/sleep not too big a stretch). We had traditional sleepover goodies and set up our sleeping bags on the floor with pillows and turned off the light! It was sad that YDS was asleep but it was nice to have some one on one time with DS3. You don't get a lot of that when you have kids close in age.
Here are some pics:

 

[crocko]

Cupcakes are cute....good thinking!

 

[Trinity524]

We are going in September and staying at the Poly with my 22 month old son, my mother and my hubby. This is my son's third trip. 1 in utero 5/07, 1 in September of 2008 and the upcoming one. I am posting again in a few moments to your comments.

 

[Trinity524]

Oh Oh....

I sure hope I didn't get in over my head taking a then 20 month old with us. I've gotten a lot of slack from friends about taking him.

Here are the boys wearing mine and DH's mickey ears last night. Ben's are sideways of course. Should we bring our old ears or get new ones on the trip? I don't really want to pack them up and take them....

My son is all boy... and guess what, I am happy about that. Some people say that they are too young to remember and I tell them that I am too young to forget. This is about the adults as much as it is about my son. I say get new ears. Your eldest will be so excited to see it being made for him.

I'm jealous... you're trip is sooner then mine LOL! At least the little ones are free!!! At least that how I'm justifying him not remembering a thing LOL!

My selling point on the hubby is that my son is free!!!

Just because they won't necessarily remember the trip years later.....doesn't mean that you won't.

Passing the Time

I'm excited but a little sad that our youngest won't really enjoy this stuff we are doing but trying to make myself feel better by saying that his time will come and when it does he will have DS3's energy to feed off of and have fun with.

What do you do to help pass the time?

My son at 11 months LOVED disney... all he did was smile and giggle. He especially like the haunted mansion. Don't think that he won't enjoy it, he just might now be able to express it the same way your other son can. All I do is plan!!! I love the DISCreative boards!

DH and I are not seasoned travelers - with very little experience with the kiddos especially! Our longest trip was about 8 hrs in the car when the baby was 7 months old. Our flight experience is only one time to Disney in '00 and a few trips to Cuba.

My son is has travelled more than some people do in a life time. He's been on 10 flights since birth and we haven't bought a seat yet. Normally there is a free seat, but we fly South west. One thing you will want to do is see if your carseat is FAA approved. Booster seats are not allowed in the cabin.

I am so happy to have found your PTR... You will do great! Take lot's of pics and enough life. Don't worry about the people around you if your son decides to fall out on the floor. My son has a great trick where he imitates a bag of water if he thinks that you are trying to make him go somewhere he doesn't want to go or if we are trying to make him go to bed. I will say something that another Mom once told me.... we were all children once and that's for certain. Our mother's somehow survived us and have gained the two things that I desire...#1 is her never ending patience and #2 is the ability to not give a poop what other people say about her children.

 

[Macduffy]

We are going in September and staying at the Poly with my 22 month old son, my mother and my hubby. This is my son's third trip. 1 in utero 5/07, 1 in September of 2008 and the upcoming one. I am posting again in a few moments to your comments.

The Poly? oh I hate you LOL! I'd love to be able to stay at a deluxe but definitely not in our budget at this point. Maybe if a 4/3 deal were to come up again!
I think it will be neat for the boys to say "i've been going to Disney since I was...."

 

[jezaduck24]

You are not alone. We are taking our just-turned-4-today DS - Ben! and our DD Emmie who just turned 2 in July. I just roll my eyes at the 'they are too young' crowd of party-poopers.
I love your theme nights! I wish I had the energy to do those - some nights I barely get the kids chicken nuggets and peas! And believe me, when my Ben demands cereal for dinner, being the picky eater he is, I am secretly relieved.
I loved your Mike cupcakes!
Looking forward to hearing more of your plans!