squeezing the holidays in

The holidays are nuts, always, right? I know I’m not the only one who thinks that!

We are trying to cram so many things into the short period between Thanksgiving and Christmas that between all of the fun stuff, plus work/school/life/new baby prep I can hardly catch my breath.

So here are, squeezing in as much holiday cheer as we possibly can. So far we have:

celebrated Thanksgiving!

Took a quiet day to clean, decorate, and spend some time in our pjs.

Gianna was in our local “welcome Santa” parade with her dance school – she loved it! And we got into the spirit by visiting the Christmas tree festival put on by our local children’s hospital – it’s one of our favorite things to do!

Gianna and Aleesia’s elf, Krista, brought Gianna tickets to see the Nutcracker. It was a really really great date with my biggest girl who was in awe of the ballerinas and really wants to know how she can be in the Nutcracker some day.

Gianna and Aleesia’s elf is lazy-ish, or forgetful, or something, She brings things to them some days but other days? She snoozes on the job and forgets she’s supposed to move! (they are also allowed to play with her, it helps the whole thing not feel so creepy to me!). BUT! One thing Krista can do is deliver notes to Santa. Gianna wrote a thank you note for the Nutcracker tickets (She said it was the best day ever with her mommy. Her mommy cried.) and hand delivered her very thoughtfully written Christmas list to the big man himself.

I wish Krista could cook dinner or clean the bathroom though, that would rock.

We decorated and did some other random stuff throughout the weekend too – like the girls painted pictures for their sister’s room.

It’s all super fun stuff and those two smiley blue-eyed girls that live here love every minute of it! I feel blessed to be able to make these memories with them, even if I’m extra tired and the bathroom still isn’t as clean as I would like.

This weekend will be more squeezing in of things like: Christmas shopping with the girls for their grandparents/aunts/cousin, taking the girls to a fun Christmas event (Mr. Kringle’s Inventionasium) with our niece, hopefully checking out some Christmas lights, continuing to celebrate Advent, finishing up our Santa shopping, and also having dinner for my mom’s birthday. Followed by a week of continued holiday squeezing in of: Gianna has a Christmas program for school and her class is “going” on the Polar Express (at school, sounds cute!). A Santa breakfast, Christmas party, my mom’s actual birthday and who knows what else awaits us next weekend. And all while we continue to get things ready for baby sister who could decide to arrive at anytime, totally throwing off our holiday squeeze in!

Wordless Wednesday

More catch-up!

I totally forgot to mention that Aleesia was baptized in September!

typical – impossible to get everyone to smile or even remotely look in the same direction!

We had fun at my parent’s Halloween party at the beginning of the month

We dressed Aleesia as Linus because she takes her blanket everywhere, which was perfect since her uncle and favorite dog-cousin were Charlie Brown and the great pumpkin!

Our goofy family!

Preparing for 2 under 2

I never really though much about having 2 kids under 2. I know it’s going to be tricky and a lot of things are going to be different than when I had Aleesia, for obvious reasons.  I am generally not a worrier – life has a way of working itself out and bad days don’t last forever – right? (also, I’ll be able to have wine again so that will help with the bad days)

I need to get a few things done to prepare for newborn life again – like packing a diaper bag. Right now, I don’t take a diaper bag with me anywhere – I keep Aleesia’s diapers and wipes in the car and she is really easy to entertain with some crayons and paper! I hardly ever use her stroller because she prefers to walk or “mommy hold you” so I carry her a lot of the time. Although I have a feeling that when she sees the baby in the stroller, she’s going to want to ride too. (I am still not sold on the idea of buying a double stroller) Aleesia’s schedule is fairy rock solid these days – I just pray she continues to nap well as we get into the newborn unpredictable schedule.

Other things that have been running through my head lately are: I am going to have 2 kids in cribs. And 2 kids who are basically wholly dependent on me. But mainly holy crap I am going to have 2 kids in diapers. This did not phase me until last week when I ordered 2 cases of diapers (probably a monthish worth, I figure) at the same time and almost died at the cost.

For my seasoned mom’s with two kids in diapers – how do you do it? Tricks on getting them at the best price? I prefer to use pampers swaddlers (at the very least, through size 1) or the target brand (although, I am concerned that these are contributing to Aleesia’s ridiculous diaper rash episodes). I’ve been considering cloth but am a little too chicken to bite that bullet (our awesome nanny did say she’s all for helping out there, though, so maybe this is a reasonable option??). Although NOT having to budget $100 a month on diapers/wipes would be fantastic!

Aleesia has been my best friend these days, she wants nothing to do with anyone else when I am home. I am as prepared as I can possibly be when it comes to trying to deal with this while I nurse the baby – I am sure it’s going to be tricky at first and she is going to be upset. We have a few things that she likes to do and she has been great at starting to play independently as of late so maybe that will also work to my advantage. Any tips or tricks that I should also be keeping up my sleeve for particularly difficult nursing sessions?

Gianna is like a little mother hen (who has recently been offering to change Aleesia’s diapers and help get her dressed for me!) and I am hopeful that the baby will come right before she starts her Christmas break so she can help ease Aleesia into her new big sister role. She can’t stinking WAIT for her new sister to get here – it’s adorable how excited she gets when she talks about it.

I had a freaking HARD time adjusting to 2 kids when Aleesia was born but I am fairly confident that this isn’t going to be as difficult (mostly because I won’t have a threenager at home, but a super awesome & helpful five year old) and I am sure it will be a whole different kind of difficult. Other than the diapers and the nursing concerns, I can’t think of anything that really worries me about having 2 fairly small people at home (and 1 bigger small person). But what am I being naïve about? Shoot me straight! Tell me what I need to hear.

The countdown is officially on (as in, people ask me regularly if I am going to go ahead and give birth right in front of them), nesting is in full force and THIS MONTH (please God, it needs to be this month!) we are going to bring home a new baby.

Disney 2014–The Recap

Now that you are thoroughly schooled on our trip to Disney this year, how about a quick recap and a few tips for anyone wanting to go with a 5 and 1 year old? I included a few money saving tips, general stuff, etc.

Tip #1 – If you can pull off the surprise, do it! Gianna just told me the other night “that was the best surprise of my whole life” when talking about our vacation this year. Totally worth it!

Tip #2 – You really don’t need a double stroller. We toyed around with the idea of renting one but I’m glad we didn’t. Gianna whined a little bit here and there, but we just went at her pace. We let her ride sometimes and either carried Aleesia or let her walk, which worked out fine.

Tip #3 – Bring a waterproof bag with you. It rains a lot in Florida (esp. in the summer) and it was nice not to worry about our things getting wet. We also pack light – essentials only: diapers, wipes, autograph books, pen, camera, and a small board book that I didn’t care if anything happened to it or not. I packed bubbles but they never made their way into the bag somehow – I thought that would have been a fun way to help entertain Aleesia while we waited for Mike and G when they were riding things!

We are big proponents of staying on-property if you can for a few reasons. Convenience. The experience. Convenience. We have always flown to Florida, so not having any concerns over transportation is fabulous and we have been absolutely over the moon pleased with every experience we’ve had at the resorts.

We are also big proponents of utilizing the dining plan, especially if you plan to do character meals. They can be pricey, and sometimes, the food can be far inferior to what you might ACTUALLY want to eat but Doc McStuffins is there so who cares about the food. It’s nice not to have to worry about having money for meals (aside from tips) or snacks because it’s already handled. Disney is generous with portions so we usually just had Aleesia and Gianna share (or Aleesia and Mike or I) since kids under 3 are free/not dining plan eligible.  My biggest tip here is just to try and schedule your meals near the park you want to go to that day so you aren’t traveling all over trying to get to/from the park or the hotel you are eating at!

We still bring some of our own snacks to try and combat Hangry Kid Syndrome. This time, we brought fruit snacks, cereal, and granola bars. 

Tip #4 – Bring your own special souvenirs. The girls love these. Again, it saves a bit of cash from the get go and we didn’t hear too many “I wants” from the biggest girl since she “got” something new every morning! They each got a special souvenir (and picked one for baby sister) too!

FastPass+ was confusing to me at first, but once we got there it all made sense. I was worried that our days would feel super structured trying to keep up with our dining and FastPass reservations, but they really didn’t. As a quick recap the FastPass reservations we made per park were:

• Hollywood Studios: Star Tours; Toy Story Mania; Disney Jr. Live
• Magic Kingdom Day 1: Splash Mountain;  Anna and Elsa Meet and Greet; Under the Sea – Journey of the Little Mermaid
• Magic Kingdom Day 2: Ariel Meet and Greet; Story Time with Belle; Mine Train
• Epcot: Sourin’; Test Track; Nemo and Friends

My biggest suggestion, try and get your times as early in the day as possible so you can add on additional FP+ reservations throughout the afternoon and evening. It’s okay if you skip out on a FP you already scheduled – don’t sweat it! This is still a vacation after all, so try and go with the flow some and not follow a strict schedule. Unless you like strict schedules, then by all means, carry on!

Tip #5 - Park hoppers, for our family and for most families with little kids, will be an unnecessary added expense. It is hard to do everything in 1 park during the day, let alone packing up and moving to another park in the same day. If you are worried about feeling rushed, skip the hopper. We have yet to have a time where we were sad that we couldn’t hit up another park in the same day because we were all so tired by the end of the day just from enjoying one park at a time!

We don’t usually go to a park on the day we get there/day we leave. This time was a bit different but we didn’t go anywhere the last day. We “slept in”, swam, lounged, got caught in a giant thunderstorm, gift-shopped, and just took it easy. I highly recommend this wind-down time at the end of your trip – and if you are staying more than 4/5 days, try to add in a non-park day in the middle of the week too! Go to downtown disney, it’s super fun and Mike and I were actually really disappointed we didn’t make it down there this trip.

2014 was another super successful Disney vacation for the Dixon family and we are already excited to take baby sister when the time comes!

Is there something else you want to know about our trip? Ask away!!

List of all 2014 Disney posts:

• Hollywood Studios
• Magic Kingdom 1 and 2
• Epcot
• Art of Animation

Preparations

Somehow, we are just a few short weeks away from meeting baby sister. I don’t know how it happened and I don’t know exactly where the last 36 weeks flew away too, but I know the next 4ish until she arrives are going to go FAST FAST FAST. And so many things to do, per usual.

Her room should be close-ish to finished this weekend, I’m excited for it to all come together.

We need to come up with a “hi big sisters” gift from her to G and A – nothing big or elaborate, but G still talks about what Aleesia “got” her, so we need to do something! I’m thinking some sort of sticker or magnetic doll set for G and not a clue at all for A – maybe crayons/coloring stuff since it could keep her busy while I’m nursing.

We need to arrange the car so that the girls seats fit! (it’s cold, I might be dreading this the most!)

There is still quite a long list of things I need to buy for her (diapers!) and for me (breast pads, pump parts, etc.). And things I need to finish getting ready here (washing clothes, setting up her swing, rock & play…)

We didn’t go through any sort of birth prep this time. I’ve been trying to do some of the exercises we learned in our Bradley class and to get my brain in the right place for this – I’m sure it will all be fine but I was obviously MUCH more prepared for the actual labor part last time than I am this time. I’d like to try and focus on that a bit more. The strange labor dreams I am having are probably a good indication that I should focus more on this, huh? Also - I need some new music to use – any good relaxing suggestions from the blogosphere?

Fit in all of our Christmas shopping and holiday cheer over the next 4 weekends. Our schedule is jam packed which is good and bad. Good because it keeps me busy, I like busy. Bad because it keeps me busy, see list above!

Part of me feels so unprepared for her arrival but part of me knows that she will be fed, diapered, have somewhere to sleep, and be loved x a million so who cares about the rest.

I still feel really good for being really pregnant, but I don’t have time to feel anything other than good ya know? Sleep is hard to come by, my shirts are shrinking, my feet are starting to swell, my boobs touch my stomach which touches my thighs when I sit down which is oddly annoying, but I’m still wearing my wedding ring so I call it success!

This little girl is just, if not more (I can’t believe I am saying this), active than her sisters were in utero – I feel her all.the.time. stretching from one hip to my ribs. Clearly, she is already trying to keep up with her (still very active) sisters. We have an ultrasound next week and I can’t wait to see her in there again. I’m trying not to think about when exactly she will arrive, but I would be silly to say that a small part of me is really worried about missing Christmas with the big girls. Whenever she arrives will be awesome, and I just need to keep repeating that over and over. I don’t get to pick when she comes, after all.