First of all, thanks so much to everyone for the well wishes for my grandma! They aren't really sure what was wrong, but she got released from the hospital on Friday and she's been getting better ever since. She's starting to put weight on her foot and everything, so that's helpful, because hefting her around is difficult. My mom comes home from her vacation tonight, so we made it without her, which feels like an accomplishment! Taking care of my grandma is no small task!
Vacation Practice Take Two- Maryland.
So, we decided to take an impromptu vacation. We were supposed to go to sesame place with DH's cousin and her family in September, two weeks before our trip to disney. But financially it was uncertain if they would be able to go, so since DH had vacation this week anyway, we decided to take a trip. So, here is what we learned.
Airplane
This was fine. We packed some stuff for J.J.:
But he didn't use any of it. Well, he used the earmuffs. He was completely terrified to go on the plane. All day long he told me planes are not safe for people and he screamed as we dragged him to the car and buckled him in. But as soon as we pulled up to the airport, he was cool with it. Strange, but whatever works.
Sydney did great on the plane...it was only a 45 minute flight so all we brought her was cheerios. She was a little antsy, but not too much. I'm sure we'll be able to bring something to distract her on our flight in the fall, she's just little and doesn't play with much right now. I'm hoping she starts watching TV.
Naptime
I really, really, REALLY don't want to, but I think we're going to have to go back to the room for naps. I just don't think Jay will take long enough naps in the stroller. Sydney would be fine, since she naps in the sling everywhere...and I think that J.J. would nap, but not long enough to be rested, and that would add up over an 11 day vacation. At the very least, he needs to nap at least every other day. Two consecutive days without naps is a recipe for disaster.
This will probably be a good thing though, because it brings us to...
Swimming
This trip was the first time my kids have been swimming. They both loved it. Couldn't get enough of it. In fact, Syd begs to go out in the kiddy pool every chance she gets. She must go out there 10 times a day. DH thinks we messed up and should have made Ariel her princess. Red hair and she loves the water? We were going to make Ariel her princess until after she was born, so apparently we made a mistake. Oh well. So, we'll have to put this on our must-do list. Before, I thought swimming was optional. Now I know I'm not going to make it past that pool every day with them without promising swimming later.
Food
We packed a bunch of food this trip in our luggage, to see if it would survive the journey. Thinking about breakfast this trip, and food for future trips. We packed: pumpkin bread, oatmeal bars (think granola bars but I didn't have granola), carrot muffins, and M&M cookies. They all survived the trip just fine, which made me very happy!
All in all, it went great and we had an awesome time. The first night sleeping away from home was a little rough for Jay, but he survived it just fine and at the end of the vacation he said he wanted to stay at his new home haha. (Oh, another totally off the wall thing that he said: we were at Chick-fil-a and there was a playplace there and DH was trying to get him to go down the slide...J.J. Told him he couldn't because there are too many squares and I'm a different shape. That kid cracks me up. Where does he get this stuff?
And, here are some pictures of the fun! DH's cousin has two boys, ages 4 and 2, so our kids were 4,3,2,1 which was super cute. We went to the national zoo while we were there...DH was stoked about seeing pandas.