I have been looking forward to this for months. Literally months. I was so excited to get away and enjoy some nice warm vitamin D and forget about routine and work and everything else.
We were scheduled to get out of dodge at 6:40 in the morning on Sunday the 24th. The previous Tuesday/Wednesday, reports of another snowstorm to hit us on Saturday evening into Sunday and just knew it was going to be an issue (We’ve had a large snowstorm at least twice a week this month). I called Southwest several times trying to proactively change our flight to get out sooner to avoid it all. They weren’t having it and said I could only change if I wanted to pay the difference. The challenge was, Southwest only flies to PCB on Saturday and Sundays in Feb, so the next flight there was the following Saturday, which was the day we were supposed to come home.
Sure enough, Saturday rolls around and I get the email that our flight was canceled. I get on the phone and start trying to figure something out. They said we could only fly to Pensacola or PCB, but there were no options, so I asked if we could fly into Orlando…which they said yes. So, we booked to leave at 9:40 on Sunday morning and head to Orlando. Given that we were in Orlando and the following day was William’s 4th Birthday, I wasn’t going to pass on the opportunity to take the Birthday boy to DisneyWorld, so I found an affordable hotel–which happened to be onsite at Disney (Pop Century) and gave us the ability to have Magic Hours and get into the park early, which was a huge win considering we didn’t have any fastpasses. Grammy and Papa also decided to join us on the Disney adventure and each drove a car (theirs and the rented one) 6.5 hours from PCB to Orlando. The situation wasn’t ideal, but at least we were going to get a little something extra out of the inconvenience.
Saturday night, I did some research to learn about Animal Kingdom to have a game plan, but was still very skeptical that our flight was going to take off. And by skeptical–I was a ball of nerves and kind of edgy on to whoever I was talking to.
We ended up getting about 1-2″ of snow that evening and had no challenges in taking off. Kate completely shocked me and feel asleep for a good chuck of the first flight and all was good.
We arrived in Atlanta and grabbed some lunch quick while I figured out the Disney Magical Express. We somehow we misread our tickets or the time hadn’t changed on our phones and when we showed up to board our flight to Orlando, the gate had already closed. AHHH! I was SOOOO mad and frustrated. Still am, a month later. The woman at the gate wasn’t the most helpful and put us on standby to the next flight, which was at 5:30…3 hours from now. Thankfully, another employee herd me complaining and gave us tickets. While we were waiting, Kate pooped twice…which always sucks changing a poopy diaper in public, but twice. Then, William had an incident and pooped his pants a little so Bill was cleaning out his underwear in the sink in the airport. Oh yeah, we were those people. Other than that, the kids were amazing. Amazing. They colored and didn’t complain at all.
Kate was fairly tired, and I spent about an hour and 15 min just walking the terminal with her hoping she would fall asleep in the stroller. No such luck. After a slight delay, our flight took off at 6:00.
Upon arrival in Orlando, we boarded the magical express and arrived at Pop Century to great greeting from an excited Grammy and Papa.
We eventually arrived in our room around 9:00. We ate some pizza quick, before I headed down to the concierge to get some of our luggage and ticket stuff figured out. After about and hour and a half and two very helpful cast members–I’ve learned a couple of things:
- It is VERY important to make sure you list everyone that will be staying in your room when booking a hotel room at Disney.
- If you don’t, you will have challenges getting everyone onto the Magical Express
- You may not have the correct number of beds (even if you provide a request)
- Which will require them to give you a different room, which will delay the arrival of your luggage (which by the way, pack swimsuits or any items that will require immediate use in your carry on as it can take up to 5 hours for your luggage to arrive in your room)
- You will have a heck of a time getting magic bands for the unlisted guests and then connecting them to your mydisneyexperience in the app
Finally, around 12:30 am, we were back in our room, had all of our luggage. I spent the next hour going through everyone’s bags and pulling out the things we were going to need in the park and re-packing the bags so it could make for an easy departure to the park the following morning.
Love,
Mama
We spent a good 2 hours opening gifts before eating breakfast, cinnamon rolls and fresh fruit. Then we spent the next several hours putting together Lego kits (Lego hospital and the fire truck) cleaning up and getting ready before heading over to Grammy and Papa’s house around 4.
The following weekend, the whole family went over to Grammy and Papa’s house for breakfast and Christmas Jammies. Grammy created a scavenger hunt for each of the kids that took them around the house and ultimately led them to their Christmas Jammies.
Lexi and William both helped pick out gifts to give each other and loved helping wrap them up. Lexi picked up a green lego car kit for William and William picked out a Barbie car for Lexi. We also listened to a lot of Christmas music and would sing Silent Night and Away in a Manger each night before bed.
Lexi had her annual Dance program. So fun to watch you dance–this is the first time that I’ve seen you smile while you were dancing. In the past, you have always been very focused on the moves and the teacher, you haven’t been able to smile so it was fun to see you ‘perform’
Then, Lexi had two program’s at school. The first one was just for kindergarteners and you had a little saying you had to memorize and say during the program, ‘B is for Bethlehem, crowded and old, birthplace for Jesus, prophet foretold. Then, there was another one in the afternoon with the entire school where you sang a couple of songs. You also had an advent party in your class and I was able to volunteer for it. There were 4 stations that groups traveled to and I ran a game: pin the nose on the snowman.
You’re now officially transitioned out of the two naps and will sleep for 2.5-3.5 hours every afternoon. Many days, you’ll fall asleep on the way home from getting Lexi, but you do a good job transitioning to your bed. After nap time or even in the morning, you’ll often play in your crib and babble to your stuffed animals for a good 20 minutes.
Just as Kate was about to be born, we started to notice some cracking and flaking near the head rest and the ‘leather’ quickly started to peel away. The spots grew bigger and bigger over the year, but for the most part we were able to cover it with a blanket. Around her first birthday, the seat cushion started to do the same thing. Little pieces of brown fabric were everywhere and it was driving me insane.
I vividly remember holding Lexi’s warm 10-day-old little body against my chest feeling her short little breaths tickle my skin while we rocked. And I thought, how could I possibly ever let her go to school? She was a mere 10 days old, when 20 six and seven year old kids were shot to death at school. The innocence of those children, the fear they must have had and lack of knowledge they had to know what to do. And don’t even get me started on their parents. I couldn’t. How could I ever let my heart walk out of my body and know there was a chance that something so horrific could possibly happen. So, I held your sweet, innocent little body next to mine and we rocked. And I prayed, a lot. And I still do today.
Every single night, for 5 years, i sat in that chair and nursed my babies, read stories and sang twinkle twinkle and snuggled for sometime hours on end while they fell asleep in my arms. I can still feel our two little bodies smushed between the arms, wiggling around to get comfortable. There were many nights that I slept the entire night in the chair with the kids to ensure they got some sleep while they were under the weather.
Peanut Smiles 