Disneyland with Baby

When I first found out I was pregnant, my parents were in the process of planning a big family trip to California including a day at Disneyland. I did the math and realized that my baby would be about three months old then. I wasn't about to miss out on an opportunity to be with so many people I love in the happiest place on earth so I resolved to have an awesome day, baby in tow. This post includes a few pictures from that day as well as some of my tips for surviving the day. (Unfortunately, my phone died and took a lot of the pictures I took that day with it. I know, I hate technology too.)

I brought three outfits for during the day as well as a set of pajamas to change him throughout the day. It was a warm day in the park so we ended up changing his clothes every few hours to help keep him cool. I also brought a small lunch box to carry bottles for my little bud and some extra formula to supplement just in case. I worked hard to stick to JJ's normal schedule as much as possible and I really feel like it worked. Also how cute is my baby in Mickey gear?!

I'm obsessed with my skinny, all-legs baby. Also, this face is a good example of the potato phase.

I have to admit, I was surprised at just how much I could do with my baby in the park. Obviously, there are the character encounters and parades which are designed to entertain our littles. But with my baby being only a few months old, I was concerned with having my own fun since he's still basically a potato with no opinions. I love my little potato but I also love Disneyland and didn't want to feel like I wasted a bunch of money.

The Haunted Mansion is great, plus half the line is inside an air conditioned space which I love.
Image source: https://media2.wnyc.org/i/800/533/c/80/1/HauntedMansion.jpg

 I decided to just walk up with my baby and get on rides to see what would happen. I avoided ones where I knew it was going to be a no-no for my little bub. Haunted Mansion is a fun, in-the-dark ride in a "doom buggy." The ride is narrated by a voice that plays through speakers in your doom buggy. There's a lot of visual effects which are just great as well. My baby liked all the darkness and just slept the whole time. Win, win!

Image source: https://secure.parksandresorts.wdpromedia.com/media/disneyparks/blog/wp-content/uploads/2015/09/jucmar764321-1024x680.jpg

I don't care what anyone says, the Jungle Cruise is a ride designed for tired adults. The sarcasm of the ride engineers is what has endeared this ride forever in my heart. Cruising through the "jungle" while a young adult makes sarcastic and old punny jokes is my idea of a good time. And it is, again, my baby's idea of a good nap time. 

Image source: https://myyearwiththemouse.files.wordpress.com/2012/04/pirates-1-of-24.jpg

 Pirates of the Caribbean was probably the biggest surprise for being able to take JJ with me. Rusty and I were prepared to do a hand off and ride separately from the rest of our group. I stuck with my plan to just walk up and get on and be willing to get up if I need to. While we were waiting in line, I noticed that there were kids who looked to be just a little bit older than my baby but probably about the same height (like I've said, my kid is lanky). I figured we would probably be okay. 

I really didn't think I would be able to ride this one with JJ because there are a couple of drops where you have potential to get just a little wet. I sat in the middle of the row so I wouldn't be on the sides where JJ and I would have more potential to get wet. The first drop is right at the start of the ride and I knew it would be a smooth ride after that. During the drop, I held JJ close to me and covered his ears. And that was enough for him to (you guessed it) fall asleep. Yeah, he napped again.

I know that a lot of grown ups hate Small World but I love it with all my heart.
Image source: https://a.scpr.org/i/6208aa01c99222cf3b892fcda91e7b2f/57357-full.jpg

Small World was actually our first ride of the day. Normally, it's a really short line to an air conditioned 15 minutes. It was weirdly a long line that day but still worth it. This was also my husband's first time visiting Disneyland and there's not a much better way to jump into the magic of Disney than a song about world peace and togetherness sung by children. And it was JJ's first nap of the day so there's that too.

JJ actually stayed awake through the Pooh Bear ride

In addition to these rides, there are of course lots of rides actually designed for little ones. Toon Town and Fantasy Land are literally filled with them and I love all of them. While the rest of the grown ups in our group rode the Indiana Jones ride (super definitely not baby friendly), my sister and I took our babies on the Pooh Bear ride. Our group had fast passes for Splash Mountain so we were going to meet back up after they were done with Indiana Jones. 

Grace and I got lost looking for Critter Country, which is the land that Splash Mountain and Pooh Bear are part of. We only got to ride the Pooh Bear ride once, but JJ and my niece Charlotte LOVED it. As an adult, it was actually super trippy. But I love Pooh Bear and I love my niece's squealing laughter. Shes obsessed with JJ so she was talking to him the whole time to make sure he was paying attention.

Rusty was not prepared for the big drop, obviously.

Splash Mountain is the only Mountain ride I got on that day. It is literally my favorite ride in the entire park and I desperately wanted to ride it. It was a great experience and I totally loved it. Listening to my husband squeal like a small girl while we all got wickedly drenched at the end of a hot day in August was exactly what I wanted.

After Splash Mountain, we split up as a group. The fireworks at Disneyland are literally the best fireworks I have ever watched in my entire life and I wasn't about to let my husband get through a day at Disney without understanding all my crazy about these fireworks. The 2018 fireworks display is all about this new Pixar summerfest thing they're doing. And I will admit, I totally bawled like a baby. I am a sucker for Pixar films and I was holding it together pretty well. But then, they had a vignette from Coco and the whole crowd around us was singing along  and then the Up house flew around the castle and I couldn't keep it together (Run-ons be damned).  And if you're worried about a baby and fireworks, don't be because he slept right through it all.

I could not have imagined a more perfect day at Disneyland, one of my favorite places in the world, with most of my favorite people in the world. It was a great vacation. I totally understand why anyone would be worried about taking a baby, especially one as small as mine, to an amusement park like this. But if you go with people you love and a plan for your little for the day, I promise you will have an amazing day.

Plus they'll probably just sleep through the whole thing.

Bonus picture of my cute, nerdy husband posing with the Hulk in the Lego Store at Downtown Disney.

Book Review: The Wedding Dress by Rachel Hauck

As I've mentioned, one of my self care things is reading. I've decided I would share with you all when I read a book and what I think of it. You should know, I love me some romance and all the gushy cheesy stuff. It's not all I read but it's a favorite and it's where my heart is right now with my personal reading.

Available on Amazon starting at $8

So I just finished this book. I checked it out at my local library. I had recently been thinking about a series I read a while back that was a modern novel series centered around romance and weddings and was looking for something similar.

Overall, I liked it. The story moves between present day and shortly after the turn of the century in the southern United States. I felt like Hauck did a good job (for the most part) of keeping these stories straight and also intertwining them. I loved the elements of historical fiction and drama. The romance was pretty predictable and I feel like anyone could have figured out the ending by about two thirds in, but sometimes that's what you're looking for in a romance novel. I know I do.

One thing I wasn't anticipating was the focus on faith and God within this book. When I picked it up at the library, I couldn't find anything in the description provided that would lead me to believe faith was such a central focus of the story. One of the characters is even eluded to be God or his messenger or something. It's probably my fault for not paying closer attention when I was picking out a book to read, but when you aren't expecting this aspect of the story it's pretty assaulting.

Even so, I found myself enthralled by the end. It was exactly the sort of fluffy, cheesy, romantic goodness I was looking for. The spiritual aspects sometimes had me rolling my eyes because they were just as cheesy, but overall it was very enjoyable. It's not the sort of story that makes you think or gives you great pause; it's just a happy-ending love story.

What sort of books do you like to read? Any romance recommendations for me? Or even just recommendations in general?

Poop Happens

Source: https://i.imgflip.com/w2prd.jpg

So funny new parent story time. When we first brought JJ home from the hospital, I quickly learned that red meat causes him to get really gassy and constipated. Unfortunately, to learn this meant eating red meat and him being super gassy and constipated. In the hospital, every meal they gave me was red meat (my own fault).

He passed the meconium stage within our time in the hospital, but then he didn't poop again for days. As new parents, this had us freaking out. I knew from things I had read online (I am an over-googler) that it's nothing to worry about until your little one hasn't gone poop for a week. Still, we were pretty concerned as it had been a couple days.

I myself was having some issues with constipation after I got home from the hospital and was nervous about going because of my stitches. I was taking a stool softener, but nothing was happening. I decided to try something that always worked for me before having a baby.

I got one of those Starbucks refrigerator frappuccino things and downed it as fast as I could. Not thinking, I breastfed JJ later that day as well. Rusty and I quickly learned that this was the solution to our little constipated bundle.

JJ suddenly was super fussy and freaking out. Rusty was going to do some skin to skin while I got ready to feed him again. With his shirt off and JJ down to a diaper, Rusty went to put JJ to his chest. He describes what happened next as follows:

"I started hearing him fart. I went to look what the problem was and turned him around slowly. I was holding him with his butt facing me and saw it start gushing out his diaper up his back. I started freaking out and could only say help over and over again. I think I got poop on me." (He definitely did.)

Me after laughing the whole time because, let's be real, it's funny.
source: https://media1.giphy.com/media/3o7aTIkzjTnuJ5ncfS/200w.webp

Rusty quickly went into the nursery where we had a changing table set up and set him down to start changing him at my suggestion. This caused the mess to only leak all over the changing pad. I was absolutely no help unfortunately. I grabbed a new diaper and Rusty got our baby cleaned up and in a new diaper as quickly as he could. JJ then promptly filled that diaper to bursting as well.

After filling two diapers and getting him changed into a third, he seemed much more content. That was four days of poop in his little bitty body coming out all at once. As new parents, we were complete noobs and didn't know what we were doing. We had to clean the changing table with bleach because it was so covered with his mess. We were able to immediately laugh at our complete lack of skill and now it's one of my favorite new parents stories to tell. It was an eventful first blowout experience. I don't know that we really handle blowouts with any less chaos three months later but at least we can still laugh at ourselves.

After all, poop happens.

Our most recent blow-out experience. JJ only poops on his daddy ;)