Helmet update

Just a quick helmet update after our appointment yesterday.

Since we started Mason's treatment right at 4 months when his head was still growing quickly he had a great improvement after even 6 weeks (we've been going every 3 weeks for measurements and adjustments). His measurements were good and the back of his head where the flat spot was filled in nicely.

The last 2 visits the orthotist has said "now it's up to you if we keep going", and I have, but I limited the amount of time he was in it because he kept developing small pressure sores and red spots that wouldn't heal (we were back there a lot for adjustments to help with this). Sooooo as of last week I took it off him for good after he started to develop a huge blister on his forehead from it. 

We went yesterday for what I figured would be our last visit, and the Orthotist (Brian, or "uncle Brian" as Aidan calls him for no apparent reason) says he was hoping that in all this time that the one uneven side of his forehead would fill in. It hasn't.

I guess I never really noticed it until he and the Physical Therapist pointed it out to me (she happened to mention it that very morning at our session). You can only really notice it if you look down from above him but now that it's been pointed out to me it seems pretty obvious. I've had people tell me they don't see it at all....

He then basically asked me if we stopped now would I be happy with the results and I said No, because if we started it to fix the unevenness of his head then we're going to finish it.

So long story short Brian did an overhaul on the hemet to try and relieve all of the pressure spots, and we will go for another 3 weeks and see what progress, if any, has been made.

I plan on breaking him back in (takes about 5 days of a "break in on and off time schedule") and getting him back to a full time wear (23 hours a day). Hopefully with the adjustments this will be possible, because once they develop sores you need to keep it off until they heal. Ugh.

Anyway, little man is still being a trooper!

Disney Day 3

The forecast for day 3 was 80% chance of rain.

 Which of course the folks in Orlando were looking forward to since they hadn't seen rain since October!

Us of course? Not so much.

I hemmed and hawed for a short bit that morning trying to decide what Aidan and I should do while Ry was at the conference. Then I thought, "screw it, I'm going for it before the rain starts".

We got in a few hours at Magic Kingdom before it even started to sprinkle, so I'm glad we went! The only bummer was that I decided to leave my camera stuff in the room for fear that it might get wet if we got stuck in a downpour...and of course because of that there were no lines for any character meet n greet in the park!

I tried to avoid them because I didn't want to miss the photo ops, but of course Aidan caught a glimpse of Pioneer Donald and asked to go see him, so of course I couldn't say no!

The PhotoPass people took a picture for me and I LOVED it but of course you have to pay like $14.99 for a digital download of the pic so I guess I'll pass. 

Once it started raining we headed back to the hotel for a nap but of course Aidan wouldn't relax so I decided to head back out to Epcot where we could get a special picture with characters because we have a Disney Visa card. 

We had a private meeting with Goofy and Minnie and then they gave us a 5x7 print from their photographer as well, which has ended up on our fridge.

After that we went on the finding Nemo ride again because it was starting to rain pretty hard so I was trying to keep us inside.

Once we got out the rain had stopped so we grabbed some mickey shaped pretzels (uh, why not?) and started to walk to "France" to try to find Belle. 

On the way there, Aidan passed out (guess he should have taken that nap after all, huh?)
If you look close you can see the blue bag of pretzels that he still had a grip on underneath the poncho....

I finally found the spot to meet Belle, and the Beast was there so I didn't bother trying to wake Aidan yet. Belle was set to arrive in about 20 minutes so I walked around a bit to let Aidan rest but when we had about 10 minutes to go, I tried to wake him and it was not happening. He was completely passed out!!!

(For the backstory, when we were talking about all the things we would do and see at Disney on the plane, Aidan randomly asked if Belle was going to be there. NO idea why he was so into Belle all of a sudden, but since he requested to meet her I knew I had to make it happen.)

So since the Belle thing was a no-go I decided to walk around Epcot pushing a sleeping toddler by myself and hit the shops. While perusing Italy I grabbed a bottle of Chianti for the room...Ok and a mickey wine topper too.

I couldn't resist.

Ryan was supposed to meet up with us for dinner but at the last minute we were all invited to a reception and I didn't want  to go with Aidan, so Aidan and I brought some dinner up to the room and ate while Ryan went and shmoozed at the reception.

Afterward we met up on the 4th floor balcony that looks out at Magic Kingdom to watch the wishes fireworks
 show from the hotel. It was so amazing being able to be that close to the park!

...to be continued........ ;)

Disney Day 2-part 2

After nap time we decided to walk over (yes, you can walk from The Contemporary!) to Magic Kingdom, and we were very excited to see that all the Christmas decorations were still up!!

Believe it or not those Christmas decorations would all be taken down that very night after the park closed because when Aidan and I showed up the next morning they were all gone!! I was so glad we had gone to Magic Kingdom when we did!

I tried to get Aidan's picture at the entrance of the park but he was pouty and wanted none of it!  When we got inside we got in lone to meet Tigger and Pooh but after being in line for 2 minutes Aidan wanted to leave, so we did.

I got this great shot of Aidan's first real viewing of Cinderella's castle. After that he became obsessed with it and kept asking if we could go in it (every day we were at MK we had to walk through the castle as per Aidan's request). 

I love the sheer look of Awe on his face:

Our next stop was Pirates of The Caribbean, which I thought might be too scary but there was only one part where the ride went totally black and we went down a quick drop that Aidan freaked out. Once we came back out into the "story" he was OK. He'll actually tell you that it's only scary at one part. But he'll also tell you he doesn't like Jack Sparrow, haha.

On our way out we saw Pirate Goofy was taking pictures so we got in line for that and Aidan was a little shy but warmed up quickly!

Aidan then decided he wanted to go on the Carousel, or "Horsey Ride". 

Woo.

There is no more boring ride than the carousel but hey, he had fun.

At the end of the night there was a light show called Wishes (or something like that). The castle was lit up with all of the pictures that people have sent in to the Disney Memories site (maybe the one I sent of Aidan touching Pooh's nose last year was in there...who knows?) They even played some of the submitted home videos too.

Then they started lighting up the castle with different holiday styles such as making it look like a gingerbread house or striped like a candy cane, etc etc.

 The fireworks were fun and Aidan got to sit on Daddy's shoulders to watch the show while I snapped my pictures.

When the fireworks are over it means the park is closing...it's the same every night and probably has been that way since the park opened way back when.

But instead of fighting the angry mob all trying to cram down Main Street to exit, we meandered over to the front of the castle so I could get some pictures of it head-on with all it's holiday icicle lights.

So.

Beautiful.

Then home we went to rest up for another fun-filled day......

....to be continued.

Disney Day 2, part 1

Day 2 started off with lots of excitement. It was going to be our only non-conference day while we were there so we got to spend the entire day with Ryan!

We decided to start out at Hollywood studios because we were dying to get on Toy Story Mania. It's actually a 3-d "target shooting" type of game and we went on it on our Honeymoon, but when we went last year with the Easler's we couldn't even get a FastPass for it!!!!

We decided to wait in line instead of getting a fast pass for it and Aidan was relatively good considering I think we were in line for close to 30 minutes.

They do have lots of fun stuff to look at while you wait and our favorite was a giant animatronic Mr. Potatohead that sings and tells jokes. Well at one point he says a joke and pulls his own ear out, and dropped it! Everyone laughed and we could all tell that wasn't supposed to happen. So like 10 minutes later we see a ride attendant come out and grab a step stool, climb up and put his ear back in. Of course we all applauded, haha!

Aidan loved it! He even kept his 3D glasses on for most of it!

Ryan had the high score for our car.....

When we were done with that we decided to go across the way and get in line for the Buzz and Woody meet n greet. This was a fun one because while you wait in line there are lots of Toy Story themed things for you to take pictures with. My personal favorite was the Claw. (The claw is our master....the claw has chosen...., et etc.)

We saw there was a short line for pictures with the Green Army Man just outside the buzz and woody spot so Ryan hopped into line for Buzz and Woody and Aidan and I went to meet the army guy. Aidan was willing to give him his book for his autograph but wouldn't get close enough for me to take his picture with him (the green army man was standing at a salute for pics, it was really cute).

By the time we got to our turn to meet the characters Woody was gone and it was just Buzz! Bummer.

Oh well, Aidan told me Buzz was his favorite (he was Buzz last year for Halloween (Austen was Woody) and when we went to the Halloween Party at Magic Kingdom, he got to meet Buzz and have his picture with him all while dressed as him...my fave pictures ever!!) and when we offered up our official autograph pen, Buzz shook his head and pulled out a rubber stamper, haha. He then tapped the side of his head like he was "always thinking"....it was pretty cute.

After meeting Buzz it was time to head over to Hollywood and Vine for yet another character meal. This time it was the "Play n Dine" which features all the toddler-aged Disney Jr. stars, such as Handy Manny, Little Einstein's, Special Agent Oso, Jake and The Neverland Pirates, etc.

Where we were seated I didn't have a great place for photo ops, but we tried to get a few salvageable shots. Aidan met June from Little Einstein's, before my camera was out :( , then he met Oso, Handy Manny and Jake. 

There are also little "shows" every 20 minutes or so and there is dancing and singing and all the kids can join in. Super fun if you have a toddler. It's even buffet-style and since Aidan is under 3 we didn't even have to pay for him!

After that we headed over to the Phineas and Ferb meet n greet where they pulled people out of line to participate in a "movie". Ryan and Aidan got pulled in and it was hilarious. There was a "director" and he told everyone what to do, etc etc. They got to dance in a movie "scene", and that killed so much time while we were waiting in line that by the time they were done it was almost our turn to meet Phineas and Ferb!

Since we could tell Aidan was becoming very tired and crabby we decided to head back to the room for a nap before heading back out to the parks......

....to be continued

Disney Day 1

Ok so this trip started off on a really bad note.

We missed our flight. And not just by like a few minutes. 

I'm talking we woke up at 6:15 when we should have been on the road at like 4am. No joke. Our flight was leaving Syracuse (an hour away) in exactly an hour. There was NO WAY we could get dressed and get there and through security in time. Humanly impossible.

SO Ryan gets on the phone with jet blue while I get Aidan and myself dressed and the suitcase officially packed for the last time. They were kind enough to get us on the 9:15 flight and we ran out the door (literally), coffee in hand (Thanks Nani!!) to catch our flight.

We were waiting to surprise Aidan so he had no idea we were going to Disney, we just kept telling him we were going on a big adventure. We waited until the airport to tell him , and I captured it on video hoping he was going to have a great reaction. Well, it wasn't what I had hoped, but hey he is only 2....

Unfortunately we had to take a flight with a layover, but hey, beggars can't be choosers, right? So we did end up visiting NYC for about an hour ;)

We got to Orlando and the Magic Express picked us up and brought us to The Contemporary, where we were staying.

Aidan immediately got off the bus and started calling for Mickey.

"Mickeeeeeeey! Oh Mickeeeeeey!"

Absolutely hilarious. He totally thought that since we told him we were going to "Mickey's House" that Mickey was going to be there when we arrived.

We got checked in and dropped our stuff off in our room, where Aidan was literally bouncing off the walls with excitement, and headed to Epcot since we had a character dinner with Mickey, Pluto, Chip, and Dale that night at The Garden Grill.

Of course he passed out 30 seconds after we walked through the entry gates, so we let him sleep until we had to sit for our reservation (we went to the UK and got a drink to kill some time, heehee), and even though he was overtired and crabby he was still thrilled to meet the characters at dinner!

When dinner was over we still had plenty of time to hang out at Epcot so we headed straight for The Seas which is where Nemo and Friends is located. We went on the clamshell Finding Nemo ride and then we explored some of the indoor aquarium and play area that's attached.

Once we were all done with that we hopped back on the monorail to head back home where we decided to call it a night since the next day we had a full day together out in the parks......

...to be continued.

:)

Lazy Snowy Sunday

We started out our Sunday with pancakes.

But not just any old pancakes, you see.

In our house we have Mickey "Waffler" which totally makes Mickey pancakes, not Mickey waffles, so I feel the "waffler" title is misleading. 

I have had this thing since about 2001 when I got it clearanced for $15 at the Disney Store in Utica. You can still buy them at JC Penney now but they're over $60!! so it has seen better and cleaner days...but it still works so I still keep using it! (if you look closely enough you can see black electrical tape holding the broken top handle together haha)

Well anyway they are delicious and always perfectly cooked thanks to a built-in timer.

After breakfast we all bundled up and headed to the park because I had a photo shoot so Ry figured he would bring the boys along with our sled since there are a few small hills at this park...and our backyard is completely FLAT.

They had a great time and I managed to get some shots of everyone enjoying themselves!

Snow Day

They were forecasting for snow yesterday and we actually got it. Being a CNY-er I  was excited because I really miss the snow from home in the winter. I mean seriously it took until Jan 21 to get some snow here in PA. Ugh.

The downside was that it made it a little tricky for me to travel to a first birthday shoot that I had scheduled yesterday so I had to reschedule that which totally bummed me and my client out.

Luckily the night before we were at Kohl's looking for a new baby one piece snowsuit (or pram I think they might be called?) and ended up with actual snow pants and jacket for him instead. It seems the stores that I've checked for these baby snowsuits only go up to 9 months. Well he has a 9 month one and it's pretty small so I wanted to find 12 months but of course anything we found in 12 months was actual "big boy" stuff.

So... official snow pants and jacket it was!

Now he can actually go in the snow with his big brother!

I took the boys out to play while Ry was at work and we had a blast!! After lunch we even went back out with Wells and Maddox...and Aidan insisted on pulling Mason around the snowy parking lot in his old baby sled. It was super cute.

When we got back in Aidan had hot chocolate, took a nap and Mason got to play with his brother's "off-limits" toys and wear his slippers to warm his cold little feet.

Elf Hair?

Santa brought Aidan this neat little Elf planter in his stocking this year. It came with seeds and soil and all we had to do was fill it up and water it! 

Within 2 or 3 days we had grass hair for our Elf and Aidan was soooo excited.

Now we give him haircuts very frequently and keep watering his head. He even survived the week were in Disney with no one to water him!