cpayne: We have two children, one four and one 8 months, so we're in the same boat. If you want a true "non-Disney non-theme park" experience, I might suggest going to Green Meadows Farm which is a short drive southwest of the Kissimmee I-4 interchange. It's a real working farm; your older child will get to milk a cow and chase some chickens around, and they have a neat little hayride. It's clean and well-organized with some friendly tourguides. It's definitely off the beaten Disney path. Our oldest was three last year when we went, and she had a blast. (I'm so proud of her. Most of the other children were frightened by the chickens; mine, of course, had no problem cornering one and picking it up -- yes, they do have washroom facilities for cleanup).
Otherwise, unless you head into the city of Orlando, it's kind of difficult to find anything that isn't Disney/Universal related and doesn't have the theme-park feel. If you want to have an old-school tourist shopping experience, you can't beat just getting on International Drive and driving north through all of the crazy congestion north of the Convention Center. Lots of interesting things to see there.
Frankly, I don't think you could beat shopping at Downtown Disney, on the east side. They have a big
Lego playcenter there adjacent to McDonalds, a mini-train ride, and in the past they had fountains that squirt water out of the ground for the kids to run around in. That's all surrounded by shopping and restaurants. You could wander around there for at least half a day without getting bored.
