Saturday, November 29, 2014
Memorable Holiday Moment
When I handed my 3 year old son a stack of holiday cards, hand written, sealed and stamped and told him to bring them downstairs. Then he shows up in my room 15 minutes later with his jubilant brother, happy that they opened all of them. Envelopes, stamps, gone. Thanks, guys.
Wednesday, November 19, 2014
Ice Skating
We have been taking ice skating (aka Hockey) classes. Not we, but the boys. They LOVE it! I am indifferent, and I will tell you why… But, the boys LOVE IT!
I thought they would hate it. The first time we went out we brought Nana and Pa with us, and in the haste I forgot their helmets, we needed to borrow some from the lost and found and we rushed our way to get on the ice. I KNEW they would just be freaked out and have the worst time, I was a mess and I was totally giving them the vibe to also be a mess too.
But NO. They fell, and got back up and fell again and go back up and waved excitedly. They smiled and laughed and had a good time and by the end of the class Joelly was gliding. The best part of the entire class was watching Pa's face. I have never seen my father in law laugh so hard as when he was watching these little kids push the little red carts around on the ice and fall straight on their bums. If my boys were having the time of their life, Pa was over the moon.
The next week we went back, and the boys were both much better at it. This made for less fun for Pa and I, as it was a little less entertaining. Not like we are saying we want to just watch our kids fall, but yeah… Joelly did so well he advanced a class. We were proud hockey parents let me tell you.
Week three I was on my own. And, I was a mess. Though we arrived 10 minutes early, Joel did not get onto the ice until 20 minutes into class. We tried three different skates, I couldn't get the helmet to work, I spilled my coffee. Being a hockey parent is a lot of work and you better be prepared. But, despite all my drama - and there was a lot of drama (I need to learn how to keep my cool and be a bit more patient and lower my expectations on how quickly we can do things and how many things we can do…) the boys still LOVED it. Joel can totally skate on his own and has even tried skating backwards. James is doing a bit better, he is doing as well as can be expected for a 3-1/2 year old who does not really like to listen…
Looking forward to a few more weeks of ice skating fun. Then, I wonder… Will it be years and years of ice skating? I will need coaching on how to be a good parent in this situation if so!
I thought they would hate it. The first time we went out we brought Nana and Pa with us, and in the haste I forgot their helmets, we needed to borrow some from the lost and found and we rushed our way to get on the ice. I KNEW they would just be freaked out and have the worst time, I was a mess and I was totally giving them the vibe to also be a mess too.
But NO. They fell, and got back up and fell again and go back up and waved excitedly. They smiled and laughed and had a good time and by the end of the class Joelly was gliding. The best part of the entire class was watching Pa's face. I have never seen my father in law laugh so hard as when he was watching these little kids push the little red carts around on the ice and fall straight on their bums. If my boys were having the time of their life, Pa was over the moon.
The next week we went back, and the boys were both much better at it. This made for less fun for Pa and I, as it was a little less entertaining. Not like we are saying we want to just watch our kids fall, but yeah… Joelly did so well he advanced a class. We were proud hockey parents let me tell you.
Week three I was on my own. And, I was a mess. Though we arrived 10 minutes early, Joel did not get onto the ice until 20 minutes into class. We tried three different skates, I couldn't get the helmet to work, I spilled my coffee. Being a hockey parent is a lot of work and you better be prepared. But, despite all my drama - and there was a lot of drama (I need to learn how to keep my cool and be a bit more patient and lower my expectations on how quickly we can do things and how many things we can do…) the boys still LOVED it. Joel can totally skate on his own and has even tried skating backwards. James is doing a bit better, he is doing as well as can be expected for a 3-1/2 year old who does not really like to listen…
Looking forward to a few more weeks of ice skating fun. Then, I wonder… Will it be years and years of ice skating? I will need coaching on how to be a good parent in this situation if so!
Disney Comments from the Peanut Gallery Part 2
I wrote some basic notes below, with links and my husband commented on them (I assume it was him) - so as not to miss his sage advice, I am copying it here, and in the next post too:
Fast Passes open 60 days prior to arrival at 12 Midnight for on property guests. Anna & Elsa meet is by far the hardest to get with Seven Dwarfs a close second most others are available easily on day 60. On our recent trip, Anna and Elsa was only available on the last day of our trip, 7 dwarfs was open on day 3 of our trip and everyday after that, nothing else was overbooked. But on day 30, Fast Pass opens to offsite guests and Locals. So tons of fast passes and early times will disappear on day 30, so definitely have your plans nailed down by then. As for Fast pass strategy overall. You get 3 per day that can be booked at 60 days out, On any given day, once you USE those 3, you can book a 4th fast pass at a kiosk in the park, after the 4th is used, you can book a 5th, etc... Why does this matter, book your first 3 fast passes for the morning so you can use them up quicker. Ideally, you have booked 9-10, 10-11, and 11-12. Then you can hit a kiosk on the way to lunch and try to book a 4th from 1-2 or 2-3, etc...
Don't waste fast passes on parades or fireworks viewing areas, you still have to show up early to get a good area on the premium sections because of all the other fast pass people, and they often fill up anyway making you fast pass useless. Just fight for your spot with the rest of the masses and save FP's for rides.
Finally if you have a question or want more info, go to disboards.com . There are disney pros way beyond anything we know and they have info and opinions on everything. They have great info on Fast Pass priorities on one of the threads which is a must read. That way you do not waste a Fast Pass on a ride that never has any rides. Here it is http://www.disboards.com/showthread.php?t=3326057
Fast Passes open 60 days prior to arrival at 12 Midnight for on property guests. Anna & Elsa meet is by far the hardest to get with Seven Dwarfs a close second most others are available easily on day 60. On our recent trip, Anna and Elsa was only available on the last day of our trip, 7 dwarfs was open on day 3 of our trip and everyday after that, nothing else was overbooked. But on day 30, Fast Pass opens to offsite guests and Locals. So tons of fast passes and early times will disappear on day 30, so definitely have your plans nailed down by then. As for Fast pass strategy overall. You get 3 per day that can be booked at 60 days out, On any given day, once you USE those 3, you can book a 4th fast pass at a kiosk in the park, after the 4th is used, you can book a 5th, etc... Why does this matter, book your first 3 fast passes for the morning so you can use them up quicker. Ideally, you have booked 9-10, 10-11, and 11-12. Then you can hit a kiosk on the way to lunch and try to book a 4th from 1-2 or 2-3, etc...
Don't waste fast passes on parades or fireworks viewing areas, you still have to show up early to get a good area on the premium sections because of all the other fast pass people, and they often fill up anyway making you fast pass useless. Just fight for your spot with the rest of the masses and save FP's for rides.
Finally if you have a question or want more info, go to disboards.com . There are disney pros way beyond anything we know and they have info and opinions on everything. They have great info on Fast Pass priorities on one of the threads which is a must read. That way you do not waste a Fast Pass on a ride that never has any rides. Here it is http://www.disboards.com/showthread.php?t=3326057
Disney Comments from the Peanut Gallery
I believe my husband Anonymously commented on my last Disney post, and so those of you do not miss it, here are his notes:
Additional Notes
Get you MDE (My Disney Experience) account set up on the Disney website as soon as you make your hotel reservation. This is the online tool for booking everything (Dining, FastPass, Online Check In, Magic Bands, and Tickets)
Dining Reservations can be Made 180 days prior to your Arrival Date for up to the first 10 days of your vacation. Online Reservations open at 6AM, Phone reservations open at 7AM. Online is easier to use. Make sure you have your MDE account and credit card all set up in the system, it will make this process much quicker. As stated in the Blog, Be Our Guest, Cinderella's Royal Table, O'Hana, Askerhaus, Chef Mickey, Victoria & Alberts, Fantasmic Dinner Package and California Grill may get completely booked within hours of the 6AM booking time. Some of the early days of your vacation may already be booked before your window opens, but there is usually availability at the end of your vacation. Also, if you want to get an 8AM breakfast reservation in the parks (most park restaurants open at 8AM) for a day when they open at 9AM (Most parks open at 9AM except for Extra magic Hours that open at 8AM), so you can be first in the park, these spots go quickly at all breakfast places in the parks.
Microsoft excel Hint - enter your arrival date in an excel spreadsheet, then in another cell, calculate that date - 180, and Excel will display the date you can start making reservations.
Look into and do the Fantasmic dinner package, especially if you are on the meal plan. It gets you a meal and premium access to fantasmic at Hollywood studios, which guarantees good seats for a great show, that you would otherwise have to line up for 1.5+ hrs before the show to get comparable seats.
Park Schedules are posted prior to the 180 day mark, so plan your parks then, but be forewarned that park schedules often change about a month or 2 before you arrive. Normally hours get extended based on the volume of bookings, also evening extra magic hours often get extended from 1hr to 2Hrs. Morning Extra Magic Hours almost always stay the same and are only 1Hr.
When planning which parks on which days, consult an online "Disney crowd calendar" Google it, several will come up. The predict which parks will be least crowded each day, and usually do a good job. Some of this planning is counter intuitive. You may look at the park hours and say, "hey look Hollywood studios is open late and has magic hours, lets go there that day", the same logic that makes you think this, makes every other person planning there vacation think the same thing, so all the sudden you have extra late hours and magic hours to spend in lines with every other person in the world, when another park may have been completely empty where you could have done twice as much in half the time. These crowd calendars explain all this backward logic for you.
Additional Notes
Get you MDE (My Disney Experience) account set up on the Disney website as soon as you make your hotel reservation. This is the online tool for booking everything (Dining, FastPass, Online Check In, Magic Bands, and Tickets)
Dining Reservations can be Made 180 days prior to your Arrival Date for up to the first 10 days of your vacation. Online Reservations open at 6AM, Phone reservations open at 7AM. Online is easier to use. Make sure you have your MDE account and credit card all set up in the system, it will make this process much quicker. As stated in the Blog, Be Our Guest, Cinderella's Royal Table, O'Hana, Askerhaus, Chef Mickey, Victoria & Alberts, Fantasmic Dinner Package and California Grill may get completely booked within hours of the 6AM booking time. Some of the early days of your vacation may already be booked before your window opens, but there is usually availability at the end of your vacation. Also, if you want to get an 8AM breakfast reservation in the parks (most park restaurants open at 8AM) for a day when they open at 9AM (Most parks open at 9AM except for Extra magic Hours that open at 8AM), so you can be first in the park, these spots go quickly at all breakfast places in the parks.
Microsoft excel Hint - enter your arrival date in an excel spreadsheet, then in another cell, calculate that date - 180, and Excel will display the date you can start making reservations.
Look into and do the Fantasmic dinner package, especially if you are on the meal plan. It gets you a meal and premium access to fantasmic at Hollywood studios, which guarantees good seats for a great show, that you would otherwise have to line up for 1.5+ hrs before the show to get comparable seats.
Park Schedules are posted prior to the 180 day mark, so plan your parks then, but be forewarned that park schedules often change about a month or 2 before you arrive. Normally hours get extended based on the volume of bookings, also evening extra magic hours often get extended from 1hr to 2Hrs. Morning Extra Magic Hours almost always stay the same and are only 1Hr.
When planning which parks on which days, consult an online "Disney crowd calendar" Google it, several will come up. The predict which parks will be least crowded each day, and usually do a good job. Some of this planning is counter intuitive. You may look at the park hours and say, "hey look Hollywood studios is open late and has magic hours, lets go there that day", the same logic that makes you think this, makes every other person planning there vacation think the same thing, so all the sudden you have extra late hours and magic hours to spend in lines with every other person in the world, when another park may have been completely empty where you could have done twice as much in half the time. These crowd calendars explain all this backward logic for you.
Tuesday, November 11, 2014
Karate
This season's extracurricular activities have finally showed themselves to us - the boys are both in skating (more to come later) and Karate. It is nice that they both go to the same classes and so we are not shuttling here and there but to one place. And, presumably they are both occupied, so we can use that time as relax-down time. Though, we spend most of the time staring at the guys because they are fun to watch.
Joel Andrew enjoys Karate. He listens to his teacher, and within a few classes was awarded his first stripe on his belt. He wants to do good and wants to learn more. He keeps repeating numbers and positions to me, I think he is really enjoying it. He especially loves the goofy times in class. This is a good fit for him in terms of learning how to work for something, and reaching a goal. Before he would get frustrated with activities, say they are too hard and close down. Karate is great, there are small tangible steps and he has yet to get frustrated, though I am sure he will. But, he is learning to work through that which is nice.
James is quite a different story. Karate will be good for him because he needs discipline. He has a hard time paying attention or listening, really. Listening is not his strong suit. I have to remember he is 21 months younger than Joel and yet he is in the same class as him so we need to cut him some slack. He does not have any black stripes on his belt yet. I am not sure that he knows what it means. But we are sticking it it in hopes he will learn how to listen and it will do him some good. Worst part about James in Karate - he yells: "YES, SENSAI" to me, his daycare teacher, pretty much anyway. I guess the is better than Yes, Sir! ...
Sunday, November 9, 2014
Nose Kisses
I maybe baby-ing my baby a little too much, but I am ok with it for now. James and I do nose kisses (aka Eskimo kisses?). And it is the cutest thing in the whole world.
We just got home from seeing Big Hero 6 with the kings, and all I could think of the whole ride home was how adorable these guys are and just how much I love them.
We just got home from seeing Big Hero 6 with the kings, and all I could think of the whole ride home was how adorable these guys are and just how much I love them.
Saturday, November 1, 2014
Morning Cuddles
Each morning, my boys come in and "cuddle" with me. They ask to do this, and they each come in their spots in the bed and snuggle in.
Joel Andrew is kind of a frustrating snuggler. He is polite and well-mannered, and happy for it to be morning and alert and excited for the day. Where did this morning person come from? In our family especially? On the days we need to go, go, go - my 5 year old will get himself dressed, get the dog up and feed and walk him, and even pick out and potentially serve (depending on the meal) his own breakfast to him and his brother. In a year or two I will not even need to wake up!
Anyway, because he is so excited, on the mornings when he cuddles he moves around a lot. He cannot find a spot and stick there. He is constantly moving, scratching, making noises with his nose. I asked him this morning, very calmly, "Why are you moving so much?" His response - "I need to move around until I get a good spot." He finally stopped moving so much, and I asked him if he found the spot. He replied with a very enthusiastic Yes! Then, he scratched his legs.
James Morris is quite the opposite. He is anything but a morning person. On the days we need to go, go, go - he stops, stops, stops. He can be found whining, usually without pants, on the floor of his bedroom or at the top of the stairs. His location is dependent on where you are, close enough so that you may enjoy his whining, but far enough so that you need to come to him. To help him. He needs attention, he needs help, he needs coddling. He will be 16 and probably will need to be beaten out of bed, he will come downstairs with his hair still a mess and he will demand eggs. Joel Andrew, dressed to the nines, will be there serving said eggs. Mommy will be in the corner reading this blog submission, thinking I was so clairvoyant, drinking coffee.
But, for all James lacks in the morning person department, this is made up in spades in the cuddle department. He sinks right in. He climbs in the bed without even asking and fits right into the groove and like a rock just lays there. Every once in a while he will look up and just tell me he loves me. It is pretty much the best. He and I cuddling together is kind of not a good thing, as we both have to convince each other it is time to get up.
How much longer will I get the morning cuddles? Don't get me wrong, sometimes this is a bad thing. I have to put a check on it occasionally because they will wake up earlier and earlier looking for a cuddle. It only happened once or twice, but I have woken up in the middle of the night to James in my bed - snoring away. How did he get there?
I will take it as long as it lasts though!
Joel Andrew is kind of a frustrating snuggler. He is polite and well-mannered, and happy for it to be morning and alert and excited for the day. Where did this morning person come from? In our family especially? On the days we need to go, go, go - my 5 year old will get himself dressed, get the dog up and feed and walk him, and even pick out and potentially serve (depending on the meal) his own breakfast to him and his brother. In a year or two I will not even need to wake up!
Anyway, because he is so excited, on the mornings when he cuddles he moves around a lot. He cannot find a spot and stick there. He is constantly moving, scratching, making noises with his nose. I asked him this morning, very calmly, "Why are you moving so much?" His response - "I need to move around until I get a good spot." He finally stopped moving so much, and I asked him if he found the spot. He replied with a very enthusiastic Yes! Then, he scratched his legs.
James Morris is quite the opposite. He is anything but a morning person. On the days we need to go, go, go - he stops, stops, stops. He can be found whining, usually without pants, on the floor of his bedroom or at the top of the stairs. His location is dependent on where you are, close enough so that you may enjoy his whining, but far enough so that you need to come to him. To help him. He needs attention, he needs help, he needs coddling. He will be 16 and probably will need to be beaten out of bed, he will come downstairs with his hair still a mess and he will demand eggs. Joel Andrew, dressed to the nines, will be there serving said eggs. Mommy will be in the corner reading this blog submission, thinking I was so clairvoyant, drinking coffee.
But, for all James lacks in the morning person department, this is made up in spades in the cuddle department. He sinks right in. He climbs in the bed without even asking and fits right into the groove and like a rock just lays there. Every once in a while he will look up and just tell me he loves me. It is pretty much the best. He and I cuddling together is kind of not a good thing, as we both have to convince each other it is time to get up.
How much longer will I get the morning cuddles? Don't get me wrong, sometimes this is a bad thing. I have to put a check on it occasionally because they will wake up earlier and earlier looking for a cuddle. It only happened once or twice, but I have woken up in the middle of the night to James in my bed - snoring away. How did he get there?
I will take it as long as it lasts though!
Halloween at Our House
People ask me what my sons will be for Halloween and my answer is always - for which event? I think this year, between the two of them we had 6 costumes. It isn't like we purposely went out to buy 6 costumes, it is that most of them have accumulated over the years, and they are just happy to go back to them and use them again. Many of them we now put in the dress up area of their play room, only one of them was really purchased with Halloween in mind, and that was for the family theme - which this year was the Princess Bride.
James had a party for daycare, Joel had a party for school. We had the epic neighbor party to go to (so, so, so much fun!). The PTO had a party. Joel was invited to a classmate's party at her house. Trick or Treat happened too, and that was fun, but it is funny how it is now overshadowed by all of the other events.
With all that happened, and all that we did, for some reason it still felt like it went by so fast and I missed the real celebrations. Is Halloween really over? Is the summer really over? This year we missed so many things we usually do mostly because of my work. There was no Storyland, there was no apple picking. It was sad, and not getting into the Kindergarten groove has really unexpectedly spent us emotionally - so maybe that is the reason too.
We welcomed a new cousin, Lucie! We did have lots of work to our house this last week and a half - still will be going on for another week or two - but I have felt with it much better than I have in the past. I didn't deal with it well, just better. There is just a lot going on. It is stressful, happy, wonderful, annoying, emotional, and crazy things all happening at once. At times I think I might explode (this is usually at work, when I have a volunteer who wants to argue with me about trick or treating candy while I need to be raising $30,000!). To top it off, I have missed my Jamesy-Mommy days (the one big thing I have been looking forward to in spite of Joel leaving me for Kindergarten, James and I are to have this time together! But not yet!) because of all this stuff with work and house and life. This week I am missing a good work meeting because I NEED a Jamesy-Mommy day. We will see if house construction gets in the way again.
The truth is, the boys had fun. We did carve pumpkins and make pumpkin seeds, which is new. We read halloween books every night this week, which I am glad I finally have found the space and time to do. They LOVED trick or treating - and this may have been the last year we can get away with taking the car to our neighbors houses. 45 minutes, 10 houses, done. Next year we might need to drive to where all the houses are and just camp out for 2 hours while they go crazy. That is ok. Times are a'changing. I have to change with them and be excited for them!
Now off to "kill Halloween" and get the house looking Thanksgiving ready. I am so psyched for the holidays this year (the Museum closes November 29th… just a few things in December, and then quiet and family time I hope is mine!!!). So maybe I should just focus on this year being the big year for Christmas in our house!
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