Getting Ready for Baby

Let's just be honest. My hubby and I are simply overwhelmed. If you look at our "to do" list, it just appears impossible to complete before the baby gets here. Here's just a sample of what needs to be done:

Finish painting baby's room (almost done), Setup son and daughter's new bunk beds in their room, get son's bed out of his room and into baby's room (for mom to sleep on when she comes over to help), Shampoo carpets throughout house, buy new uniforms for son and daughter's new school year (starts in exactly 2 weeks), buy school supplies for son and daughter, get all laundry done (getting close), scrub all bathrooms from top to bottom, buy new shower curtains for guest bathroom, etc...

I just don't know. I think we're at the point where we just need to be realistic, as my hubby suggested. I am only able to accomplish so much, even if my mind and body think that I can do more. I tire myself out after 30 minutes of any type of housework, and that includes cooking. For every half hour of tasks I complete, I need 2 hours to recuperate before I can resume work! Time to prioritize: 1) Finish baby's room , 2) get kids' bunk beds setup, 3) Get bed into guest room, and 4) get shower curtains for guest bedroom and get it scrubbed really well. I may surprise my hubby and get these floors downstairs steam cleaned myself...I said "maybe". But that would take such a burden off of him while he completes his last week of Bar prep. I'm a little worried about him. This has stressed him out more than anything I've ever seen.

On a side note: I've also been trying to plan our 10-year anniversary getaway which will take place this December. My parents' and sister have agreed to keep the kids for us while we're away. Here's what I have in mind: The hubby and I are both obsessed with Orlando, so for the first time ever, we want to get away to Orlando and just live it up swanky-like. I want us to stay in the nicest hotel they have there. Hotel must have in-room jacuzzi and room-service that is to die for, with a great view. I'm VERY picky about the hotels I stay in regularly, so for my 10-year wedding anniversary I want THE BEST they have. I want us to go to all 4 Disney parks and both Universal Orlando parks and ride the rides we NEVER get a chance to ride as many times as we want. I want us to go to dance clubs in Pleasure Island of Downtown Disney during the evening. Basically I want us to have our one opportunity that we'll never forget to live it up in our favorite place on Earth! Problem: It would appear that no such hotel exists in Orlando, FL. I have searched and searched for every amenity I want but no single hotel seems to have it all. So I'm either going to have to prioritize again and get what's most important to us, or I'll just let Priceline do the work based on my personal criteria. I don't do travel agents...

I'm sure I've loaded you with enough info for today. This is quite possibly the last time I'll update this blog before my new arrival makes his way here. Until next time!

Disney Tips for Parents: Where to Visit

I've been going to Orlando, FL every few years since I was 9 years old. We've seen a lot in Orlando over the past 25 years and I feel that I have enough well-rounded insight to aid someone who's never been to Disney World on how to get the most out of their trip to the happiest place on earth!



Speaking of being 9 years old, that is really a great age for most children to really enjoy all that Orlando, FL has to offer. You're old enough to appreciate good food and good entertainment, but still young enough to squeal in genuine delight when spotting characters in the various theme parks. My sister was 6 years old, and that my friends is the PERFECT age. Too old for midday naps, but still a child in every way. So, my sister and I were 6 and 9, respectively, when we took our first jaunt to Orlando. Over the years I've made mental notes about things I would do differently with each trip, and as an adult, I feel like I've got hands-on experience on how to keep the family happy on a trip to Orlando; especially a family with at least one toddler on the trip; So let's get started!

Tip 1: Take the time of year into consideration Disney World is a truly magical place. But even Disney World gets OLD in 90 degree weather. Especially with the park completely filled to capacity and hour-long minimum wait times for each attraction.

Suggestion #1: If at all possible, avoid Disney World after Memorial Day and before Labor Day if you have children younger than 5 years old. Visit Universal Orlando or Sea World which are never as ridiculously crowded as Disney World on a summer day. If not possible (as is the case for most people, obviously) here are a few more suggestions.



Suggestion #2: Be at the Disney Main Gate 30 minutes before it opens. Try to be within the first couple hundred people to enter the park, if possible. This is very possible if you have small toddlers who wake up at 7am anyway! NOTE: Once you have entered the park, go all the way to the back of the park as far as you can get. Human studies show that most people do one of two things: they either stop at the first thing they see once they enter the gate, or they immediately run to their favorite attractions and jump on those. If you can get further into the park and work your way forward, believe it or not, you'll actually be better off than if you follow the crowd.

Suggestion #3: Go the Disney "Fast Pass" route. Disney offers what are called Fast Passes at all of their most popular attractions. And trust me, if your child is older than 3, they will be ALL about these particular rides/shows. So after heeding Suggestion #2, go ahead and get your Fast Pass for the ride your toddler seems the most excited about. The pass should display a time to come back that is one to two hours later than the current time. Spend that 45 min searching for characters in the park, grabbing a snack, or visiting a much less popular attraction to kill the time. If the kids are younger than 5, I promise they should be okay with this. Be sure to keep track of the time, so that you don't venture off too far from the area of your Fast Pass attraction. Also, be sure to confirm that the attraction you're visiting to kill the time won't spill over into your time to visit the Fast Pass attraction. Once your time listed on your Fast Pass arrives, keep in mind that you may still have a 30 min wait if it's noon or afterward. Once you leave the Fast Pass attraction, repeat this whole process for the rest of the day. (i.e. find another Fast Pass ride that the kids will love, get your passes, and do something else in the meantime) Suggestion #4 is pretty important so I will list it as another Tip.



Tip 2: Use one of Tami's Disney World calendar methods As you may know, Disney World Orlando has 4 theme parks. Magic Kingdom, Epcot Center, Disney Studios (formerly known as MGM Studios), and Animal Kingdom. There are two tricks of the trade frequent Disney travelers like myself use when determining which park to visit on which day.

Method 1: The FBT (Florida Bureau of Travel) method Most people in the US work Mon - Fri, and don't take vacations in the middle of the week. So Saturday is the incoming TRAVEL DAY for the bulk of people visiting Orlando. Trust me, there are still a TON of people already in FL visiting the parks on Saturday, but it doesn't come close to the sheer number that will be ready to visit the parks by Sunday! Also take into consideration the fact that most people visit the Disney parks each day in this order: 1)Magic Kingdom 2)Epcot 3)Disney Studios 4)Animal Kingdom.

So with this knowledge, if you are arriving to Orlando sometime Saturday late afternoon, early evening like most people, you don't want to waste money on visiting a park with only a few hours to play. Once you wake up bright and early Sunday morning, eat a very light breakfast (you don't want to set yourself up for feeling extremely tired before noon even hits, so I suggest sticking with continental breakfast), and get to that Main Gate. DO NOT, I repeat, DO NOT visit Magic Kingdom on Sunday. EVERYONE does this, so dare to be different. Epcot is a great park to visit, in my opinion. Lots of cool rides that the little ones can ride. Most popular is Spaceship Earth. It's the landmark of Epcot, and the kiddies will most likely want to ride it, just because it looks so cool from the outside! But again, it's the first ride you hit, so you may consider implementing my previous suggestion from Tip 1 which involves making your way deep into the park and working your way back to the front. This may work differently at Epcot, however, because it's twice the size of Magic Kingdom, not to mention that Epcot is made up of two distinct parks in itself so the "go further into the park" rule can be implemented separately in either one of them. On Monday, visit Disney Studios. Tuesday, Animal Kingdom. This would put you back at Magic Kingdom by Wednesday.

Method 2: The Extra Magic Hour method When you choose to stay at a Disney resort, you receive an EMH (extra magic hour) before the Theme Park opens and after it closes to the general public. Only one of the 4 parks has an EMH each day. So if
Monday happens to be Magic Kingdom's day to have EMH, none of the other parks will have it on that same day. Here's the trick: avoid the park that has the EMH on that day, because it will be extremely crowded due to being visited by almost all of the guests staying on the Disney resort. So if Magic Kingdom has the EMH, skip Magic Kingdom that day. Any of the others will be less crowded. Here's some more information about the EMH.



Method 3: Pad your trip to Disney with other fun things Traveling with toddlers to Disney World for the first time is going to wear you out. Especially if you have a small toddler. The frequent trips to the potty, the need for a nap (lest they become a public embarrassment to you), the heat, etc..., all of these things make for very grumpy parents during the summer at Disney World. My suggestion to you is to leave at least 1 day between each visit to the Disney parks to do something other than Disney. Please trust me, you will love me forever if you try this! Every other day, my family takes a "rest day". This involves either laying around the suite watching tv, hitting the pool, staying in the area doing some shopping at the Mall at Millenia, or just visiting another theme park all together. You could even drive 45 - 50 minutes south east and hit Cocoa Beach for a relaxing time there! Even those with the patience of Job will need a break from the over stimulation and excitement of Disney. Also, don't even think about utilizing the Disney Park Hopper if you've got toddlers. Total waste, because you'll most likely never get around to more than one park in one day; the kids (and you) will be restless by mid afternoon and need a nap so that just won't leave enough time to get your money's worth unless you plan on keeping them out really late.

I really hope that the tips come in handy. Please email me or leave comments with any feedback!

Disney Tips for Parents: The Drive Down

I've got several previous posts from over the past few years about the trips I've taken to Orlando, FL. They are labeled "Orlando" or "Disney" if you want to back search for them. I've been itching to write a post specifically for parents taking toddlers to Orlando. A friend of mine will be traveling to Orlando soon with her family, and it reminded me that I never posted my tips here in this blog! Without the proper planning, insight, advice, etc..., this type of trip can sometimes vary from extremely frustrating to an all out nightmare. I've broken these tips into 3 parts, with one to be published each day over the next 3 days: Travel (the drive down), where to stay: the pros and cons to prepare for, and where to visit: which places are more family friendly. This post, as the title suggests, is on the subject of "the drive down". If you're driving to Orlando from metro-Atlanta, the total time on the road is approx. 6 hours, not counting lunch or other rest breaks, of course. My family of 4 has done this trip 3 times since the kids were 3 and 2 years old, and by now we have it down to a science.

Tip 1: Have a portable DVD player in the vehicle

If you haven't invested in one already, be sure to borrow one from someone if at all possible. Be sure to toss 3 - 5 of the kid(s) favorite movies somewhere in the vehicle. Suggestion: Don't fire up the first movie until you've been on the road for about 30 - 45 minutes or so; this may help stretch out the amount of time you get before you have to make your first stop. As an example, this is how my kids operate: by the time they appear restless (around 45 minutes) BAM! We just pop in their favorite movie, pass the popcorn and drinks back to them, and they are set for the next 90 minutes! By the time the movie ends, you will already have driven for more than 2 hours (over a third of the entire drive) with only one movie down! After the movie goes off, go ahead and stop for a potty/snack/stretch their legs break. By the time you get back in the vehicle and pop in the second movie, they will probably be asleep within 20 minutes, and sleep for about 1 1/2 hours at the very least. When they wake up it will probably be time for a lunch break anyway, and you will already be over 4 hours (2/3 of the total way) into your drive! Suggestion: have headphones to use with the DVD player; otherwise, your FM signal will most likely be compromised by kids movies the whole way down.



Tip 2: Be sure to load up the mp3 player with all of your favorites My hubby and I have done so many road trips over the 14 years we've been together (dating and marriage) that we've also got this down to a science as well. 6 hours is a very short trip to us, and unless my hubby is extremely exhausted, he does all of the driving. We usually spend the first 30 - 40 minutes talking and getting caught up with everything we haven't had a chance to talk about. After we're done with that, the hubby always turns the volume up on the iPod. This really helps the time go by SO fast. I always have my own iPod with all of my road-trip favorites as well...I actually have a "Road Trip" play list on my iPod at this point! I also rip my favorite DVD's onto my computer and upload them to my iPod ahead of time as well. That REALLY helps the time go by fast for the passenger! Suggestion: Also, don't forget your Sudoku/Crossword books, novels, magazines, whatever you love reading to pass the time, if that doesn't make you car sick.

Tip 3: Chart out where you plan to stop beforehand, if at all possible
You will probably only need to stop a maximum of 3 times during the entire trip, hopefully. And there's nothing worse to me than ending up waiting too long for a potty/food break and having no choice but to stop in Bohunk, South Georgia. (especially if you're black, you might want to be planning ahead to avoid this) Here are some suggestions: the cities of Tifton and Moultrie are within 2 to 2 1/2 hours away from Atlanta. Lots of fast food options here: the Moultrie exit even has a nice CiCi's Pizza that we always try to stop at. Valdosta is 3 hours away and is the halfway mark. And Lake City, FL is 4 hours away from metro Atlanta. We love the Steak and Shake in Lake City and there is a mall there also where I usually stop and get my mani/pedi (if I can't make time before leaving metro Atlanta) while Chris walks around with the kids for about 30 - 45 minutes or so. The mall is kind of ghetto in my opinion, but what started out as an accident 5 years ago has turned into a tradition. :-D



Tip 4: Take lots of $1 bills and quarters Once you leave Lake City, FL, you will only have about another hour and 15 minutes or so before you start hitting the infamous Florida Turnpike tollbooths. And depending on what part of Orlando you're staying in, you can hit up to as many as 6 of those things! I would suggest having about $15 in singles on hand just for the 2.5 billion tolls you will have to pass through.

Please come by tomorrow for the post on "Where to Visit" which will probably be my favorite to blog about!!! :-)

Orlando Trip - Days 3 - 7 in a nutshell

Quick explanation about the Orlando trip posts. As you probably already know, my family visits Orlando, FL every year in late Winter/early Spring. Since my hubby began law school a few years ago, we have started vacationing in Orlando during the week of his Spring Break. It always occurs during the last week of February through the first week of March. Due to my obsession with Orlando, FL, and also my new found discoveries of how to have the best Orlando vacation ever, I blogged during the entire week there last year.

This year, I didn't do that. We were in TOTAL relaxation mode this year, and I just decided not to do anything that would require me to actually have to think and ponder. :-) But, I still want to share the great times and also share a few great tips. What follows is a rushed version of the remaining 4 days of my family vacation; bear in mind that I will add updates to this post for the remaining days of the trip as time permits, but I will mostly likely also move on and start posting about some other things that are going on in my life as well.

Mon, Mar 3 -

On this particular day we ended up going back to Universal Studios. We decided to do things a little differently, though, in an effort to determine whether or not we could provide an even more relaxing, productive day. For starters, we got up a few hours earlier; no sleeping in until noon. We all ate breakfast in the villa. Just a small bowl of cereal for the hubby and I, and pop tarts and milk for the kids. We already understood via experience that by the time we actually leave the villa, drive to the theme park, get through the entrance to the park and get ready to start actually enjoying our day it would be time to eat again within 1 or 2 hours anyway, so why stuff ourselves with the Rooty Tooty Fresh & Fruity? Besides, stuffing ourselves this way previously only made us extremely drowsy by the time we actually got settled in inside of the park. I want to point out that the villa we stay in is located in the Buena Vista area, close to the Walt Disney World manigate. So the villa is not close to Universal Orlando at all. And we love taking the scenic route down International Drive to get to Universal; this day was no exception. On the way to Universal, we pass Pointe Orlando which is an area mostly visited by people staying at the Orlando World Conference Center. It's VERY nice, and there's about a half-mile stretch on this area of International Drive that is really pretty and just buzzing with activity. We thought it would be fun to check some of these things out since we kept driving back and forth past them to and from Universal. Unfortunately, we weren't able to find any activities in that area that were age appropriate for our kids. They were either too small or would have been completely uninterested in any of the things we saw at the time. So we continued on for another 10 minutes until we arrived at Universal.

Our morning breakfast idea definitely paid off. We ended up being able to do a lot more in less time, and we never really felt drowsy at all for the entire time we were in the park. Even the kids, as young as they are, were great the whole time; didn't even need naps. We rode ET: The Ride, one of my classic favorites, watched the Barney in the Park show (the kids' favorite), saw the Animal Adventure show for the first time which I highly recommend, and we also had lunch at my favorite spot Boulangerie. We were already tired of burgers, hot dogs, and fries, and Boulangerie was a great change of pace with its yummy crossaint sandwiches and new potato salad. YUM!

By 4:30pm, we felt content that we had done all that we needed to do for the day. Our tickets are unlimited entry for 7 consecutive days, so we didn't feel the need to pack too much stuff into any one day since we would be in Orlando for another 2 1/2 days.

Orlando Trip - Day 2 (Sun, Mar 2)

The kids didn't go to bed until after 1am on the evening of Day 1. So the hubby and I didn't get to bed until even later. We all sleep in Sunday morning as I feel EVERYONE should do at least one day while on vacation. We don't even get out of the bed until after 10am. Everyone finally gets dressed and we packed the kids carry-along bags for our first day at Universal Studios! We leave the villa and drive across the street to I-Hop. This is as good a time as any to point out that there are a myriad of yummy, delicious I-Hops in Orlando, FL. A couple of them are "meh", but most of the ones I've eaten in have the BEST food ever. Why do ALL of the I-Hops in Atlanta suck so bad??!! The best ones in Atlanta are about as good as the "meh" ones in Orlando. This is a major source of frustration. Moving on. We get a waitress with a New York accent thicker than Debi Mazar. I decide I love her based on this alone. GREAT food and service as always.

We leave I-Hop and drive 15 minutes northwest down I-4 to Universal Studios. (Tip: I bought 2-park, unlimited entry tickets for hubby, son, and myself. Only $83 per ticket, and the tickets are good for up to 7 consecutive days. A total STEAL!) We had a great day. It felt like there was no one at all in the park until later in the afternoon. We spent most of the day just enjoying the gorgeous weather and ambiance, but we also rode the Jimmy Neutron ride, Woody Woodpecker roller coaster, and had lunch at Nathan's Hot Dog stand. The kids got pictures with Spongebob, Dora, and Jimmy Neutron which was also fun! We decided that we would have to visit Universal Studios again the next day to take in some fun shows that we knew the kids would enjoy.

We get back to the villa by 6pm or so. We decide to just have dinner in the villa, and by dinner I mean turkey and swiss sandwiches with chips. We all get to bed much earlier this night, thankfully.

More tips: Most visitors to Orlando (and Florida in general) come from all over the country, not just the surrounding states. According to the Florida Bureau of Transportation, since most people have to work Monday through Friday, most of the travelers to Florida get on the road on Friday evening/Saturday morning. Most vacationers don't get settled in until early evening on Saturday. This means that if you were to visit the Orlando theme parks on a Saturday, the park would be a lot less crowded than some other days. Most vacationers wake up in Florida on Sunday morning ready to hit the parks. Sunday will be your most crowded day at any theme park. There is a different formula to take into account for Walt Disney World based on the fact that it consists of 4 separate parks. I'll get into detail in the *tips* section of the Day 3 post.

Orlando Trip - Day 1 (Sat, Mar 1)

My hubby got up at 7am and took Dutch to the kennel on his way to his 9am Saturday morning class. I got my lazy butt out of the bed, showered, and retrieved my "To Pack" list. I threw everything on the list into my suitcase. The hubby's suitcase was already packed so I brought everything downstairs. I got the kids dressed and fed, and finished a little spot-cleaning here and there while waiting on the hubby to get home from school. He got home around 12:3pm and immediately began loading the truck with our already packed suitcases.

We finally hit the road at approximately 1:30pm. We made 4 stops before we got out of metro Atlanta: 1) Gas from QuikTrip, 2) New portable DVD player from BrandsMart in Morrow (the Titan doesn't have a DVD player and the kids need movies, movies, movies), 3) McDonald's in Jonesboro for the kids, and 4) Zaxby's in Jonesboro. (*Note to self, never consider living in Jonesboro - when did that area become so friggin' ghetto?)

We finally hit the road out of metro Atlanta at 3pm'ish. On the way down, we made a couple of stops at little gas stations in one-horse towns. After making a wrong turn off of the turnpike almost to Orlando, we finally got to the villa in Lake Buena Vista around 10pm. The kids ran inside and were SO excited! We let them run around until about midnight, and then everyone called it a night.

Name of villa: Cypress Pointe Grand Villas in Lake Buena Vista.

It's 5:30am...

...and I haven't been to sleep yet.

My hubby picked me up from work at 4:15pm today, and we drove straight to our tax accountant's office. Our appointment was at 5:30pm and we actually got there by 5pm on the dot. We walked in to face about 10 people already waiting. The receptionist asked us if we wanted to go eat, shop, watch a movie...something to kill the time. We gave her our cell number so she could call us while we were out and let us know when we should head back to the office. Oh, by the way, my hubby has been getting sicker and sicker with each passing hour of the past couple of days. Bad time to get sick.

Even so, we went ahead to get dinner at my favorite restaurant...Pappadeaux!! YUM!! I hadn't eaten there in years! I looked at my watch after we finished eating. It was 7:30pm. No call from the receptionist yet, so we decided to chance a movie. We watched a 7:45pm showing of "No Country For Old Men". Please don't get me started about that movie...that is a whole post in itself. We decided to go to Starbucks afterward. Although I'm usually against having caffeine after 5pm, I figured we'd probably be up until at least 2am. I was right.

All's well that ends well. We left the tax accountant's house a little over an hour ago. It is now 5:21am. I will sleep for 3 1/2 hours, and wake up to call Chris's classmate(s) to let them know that he's too sick to go to class. Then I will try to get in another 3 1/2 hours and call my mom to see if she will keep my kids for the rest of the day. Then I will try to get another 2 hours of sleep.

Oh, in other news, the countdown to Orlando has officially begun. 2 weeks from now we will be waking up the kids, getting dressed, and ready to leave the house on our way! We are staying for 5 - 6 days. We really need this trip, and I hope that it's all I think it will be for the four of us.

Planning a trip to Orlando

My family visits Orlando every year. Our kids are age 4 and 2 now, so this definitely factors in to the how's and what's of our trip planning. Each year I try to plan the trip so that it's better than the last. But at some point during every trip something happens that causes me to think to myself "I wish someone had told me to expect this!"

Here is how I plan to help others like me. My next few posts will be write-ups useful for families of young children visiting the Orlando, Florida area. I will divide the posts up so that they are topic specific. The very first post will be entitled "Where to stay".

Enjoy!

Back to the Future: The Ride

The classic attraction at Universal Studios, based on one of my all-time favorite movies is no longer. BTTF the ride took it's last trip through time on March 30, 2007. Half of the Delorians throughout the ride had already been removed last September to make room for a new attraction based on "The Simpsons". What kind of garbage is that, by the way?

As you know, the hubby, kids, parents, and I all visited Orlando together back in early March. We had heard the rumors, but had no idea that this would be our last time riding Back to the Future. :-( Another classic removed to make room for something new and improved, I guess. It'll definitely be new.

Goodbye Back to the Future: The Ride.