We're going to WDW! Adventures of a Mom & Toddler the TR! 9/24-9/30/2010 About This Page:

[BeckiO5]

Hi everyone, and I appologize for the delay on the start of my TR for our very magical trip. Since Photobucket is not letting me insert my resized pictures at their new smaller size (they still want to insert them at their huge size) our pictures will be inserted later, although there are a few teaser pictures in my PTR on page 34 for those who don't want to read the entire thing. For those of you who don't know us yet, here is our cast of characters in a nutshell:

Me- Becki, 27, I will be 28 in a few weeks. This wasn't my first trip to WDW, but it was my first trip to WDW since being a Mom. I grew up a few hours south of WDW and we would visit quite frequently as I grew up before leaving Florida for college in Vermont.

DS-Skyler, who is 3. This was his first trip to WDW. He loves Disney as much as his Disney Enthusiast Mom. We are still in the process of finding out if he has Autism, or other things wrong with him, but believe he does have some form of Autism possibly.

DM-Gail, whom has requested I don't reveal her age (but I will say she is still 25 to me) nor post any pictures of her either. There is however one picture of her in my PTR introducing our cast of characters though. She has also been multiple times to WDW, and was part of my first visit when I was 5 years old. This was her first trip as a Grandma, or as she prefers to be called GiGi.

For anyone who didn't read my PTR (I'm sorry it is long and legnthy, but that's me for you, and please excuse the fact that I am an adult with ADHD and it may be all over the place), and would like to read it, here is the link: http://www.passporterboards.com/foru...-trip-ptr.html and if you wish to skip it, no offense taken.

Now that we have the brief introductions out of the way, let's get this party started!

I had everything packed and ready for us to go Thursday evening and all in the car, except for my backpack with what I needed left to pack the next morning for our departure. Since I didn't want anything too difficult to have to cook or clean and had been craving a garden salad & baked potato for dinner, we grabbed dinner from Wendy's. I know Skyler had Chicken Nuggets, and I completely forget what Erick had, but I was so thankful it was quick, easy, no mess, no fuss.

Friday, September 24, 2010
I got up probably about 10 am and Skyler was up shortly after that while I was grabbing the last few items that needed to go into my backpack. I could even hear him say in his cute voice "Hi Mama"!

Since Erick & I right now only have one car between the two of us, Erick had one of his parents bring him to work Friday Morning, however I didn't realize DMIL would be working from home that day because her back was bothering her. We could have had her bring us to the airport instead, but instead took our car to grab some lunch from McDonalds before getting on the plane. Skyler & I each got a Chicken Nuggets Happy Meal (I didn't really want to do this, but figured it would save us the airport food price), and Skyler was happy with 2 toys instead of one. He was content with his nuggets, apples, and milk. We also picked up lunch for Erick to bring back to work with him after picking him up to bring us to the Washington Dulles Airport (a 15-20 minute drive from our home) which is on the backside of where he works. We were there within 5 minutes after picking up Erick from work. Before I get too ahead of myself here, since DMIL was home, we went upstairs to chat for a few minutes with her and so Skyler could give his MiMi lots of hugs and kisses before not seeing her for a few days. She was quite funny as we left and asked us to say hi to Elmo for her. I ensured her we would say hi to Piglet for her (whom is her favorite character). She also handed me $60 cash for Skyler to get something from her & DFIL, which I thought was quite sweet of them, and thanked her before we headed to get Erick. We actually left our home around 11:00 am, and were at the airport by 11:45 for our 3:05 flight to Fort Lauderdale, Florida. I wanted to give myself an extra hour than the required time limit since I was traveling by myself with a Toddler, and we all know you sometimes need a little extra time with them.

Once we were at the Airport, there wasn't an outside Skycap for Jetblue Airlines to be found, so that meant, I was pushing inside our 2 big rolling suitcases, and had my smaller Vera Bradley Duffle packed with 1/2 of our Carry Ons, and my Backpack with the other carry on items, and our stroller with Skyler. We had to say a very quick goodbye to Erick, as he had to get back to work. I certainly held back any tears I had, although I knew I was on vacation, I would certainly miss my hubby. We headed in, and a very nice gentleman who saw me struggling with all my bags offered to pull the rolling suitcases to the front of the ropes for the line for Check-In. A nice Jetblue Associated asked me if I needed to check my bags, and I told him yes, but needed him to reassign my seats please. He did ask me what the issue was with our seats, and I told him that when I did online check in that the only seats available were ones accross the isle from eachother, and I told him it was a problem to have my 3 year old child seated away from me. Without any issue at all, and smiles both from the Associate & myself, our seats were changed and our bags were checked all in a matter of 5 minutes. Next we proceeded to Security where we had maybe a 10-20 minute wait. Not bad. Skyler made friends and giggled a lot while a little boy from Ethiopia was playing with him.

We made it through the bag check area with no issues at all, and even had some help from the nice lady standing behind us with the stroller. Everyone seemed amazed I could fold up and unfold his stroller barefoot and quickly (have I mentioned how much I love his new stroller). None of our bags needed special attention (I even left Skyler's sippy cup with the milk from lunch in the car and asked Erick if he could rinse it out at work and bring it home to have it clean when we came home). Once we got through security, gathered all of our belongings, we found the closest Elevaator and found the new tram system in the airport, which was maybe a 5 minute wait for the next one to arrive, and in no time at all we were in our gate area.

Once we got to our gate's vacinity, we located the nearest restroom for a bio break and the first of 2 pull up changes before we left. After the potty break, I was still a tad bit hungry, so we headed to the Auntie Anne's Pretzels near our gate. Since I have the Gate Guru App on my phone and they had a Buy one Combo, get a Free Pretzel, we did just that, with Pretzel Sticks Combo with Cheese Dip, and a Coke for me, and an Unsalted Pretzel & Water for Skyler. We sat in our gate area and snacked on those. Skyler even said to me "Don't Cry" as I was pouring my Coke into my Aluminum Muppets Water Bottle I brought with me on the trip to use in the parks. My coke spilled a little bit on my jeans, but that's ok. They could be washed (and were a few days later). After our pre-flight snack, we went into one of the shops to try finding a pair of earphones for Skyler as he wasn't too keen on the Earbuds I had packed for him to use with Erick's iPod to watch movies on. We ended up not purchasing any earphones for Skyler as they were all outrageously priced, but did find an earphone splitter if he did choose to use the Earbuds for $10.50.

We then went back to our gate, got the Gate Check tag for Skyler's stroller, and asked if we would be able to pre-board, since I would require a few extra minutes getting settled in with Skyler. Incase any were wondering, our seats were changed from 15 B & E to Row 6 D & E. We passed our time in the gate area watching the planes come and go, and even saw ours pull into our gate area. I did pop on the boards from my phone for a Live Update. I did manage to get a few pictures of us waiting at the Gate. Before Pre-boarding started, we headed back to the restroom for another bio break & pull up change, as I knew it would be a while once we were up in the air that we would get that chance.

We pre-boarded, got the stroller near the door to be loaded under the plane, and found our seats. We were actually seated next to a very nice gentleman who has a 3 nearly 4 year old daughter who lives nearby us in Maryland. He was such a joy to sit next to and didn't complain one bit about being seated next to a semi-fussy Skyler. Skyler felt quite comfortable sitting next to this man, since he sat on his lap to look out the window. The man actually offered to switch his window seat with us, so Skyler could sit next to the window. He had fun pushing the buttons on his and my armrests and changing the stations on the screens. I did occupy him with a couple cars, his travel Magnadoodle, his small Mickey & Pooh dolls, a bunch of snacks, and juice, and even we watched some of Handy Manny & Up on our iPod. I did have to change him once mid-flight.

We landed a few minutes ahead of schedule and were seated on the tarmac for a while as the plane at the gate we were supposed to was still loading their flight. Skyler was getting more antsy at that point and fussy and wanted off the plane. He did have one accident as we waited to get to the gate. I did call Erick while we were still on the plane to let him know we made it to Florida safely, as I knew he wouldn't be able to answer his phone at work. We landed at 5:50. After de-plaining, getting our stroller, we then hit the restrooms again, so I could change Skyler. It was here where my mom called to see if we had gotten off of the plane. I told her we were about to leave the restroom and would be out momentarily. She was waiting for us right outside of the Security Area. We headed down to baggage claim, and she sat with Skyler & our carry-ons, as I went to get our 2 checked in bags, which seemed to be the last 2 to come out.

I had her push Skyler in the stroller and had one of my bags on the handle bars of his stroller, and I pulled the larger 2 bags and carried my backpack. We made it to her car, and had to re-arrange her trunk a little bit to fit everything in. The Stroller was the only thing that had to go in the back seat with Skyler besides the case of water coming to Disney with us. After that was set, we got Skyler into his car-seat (we even had to put down the top to get him in a little easier) and I adjusted the straps which were still loose (mom saved me from having to lug one of our car seats with, and had one in her car ready for us). We were in her car and on the road by 6-6:15. Our original plan was for us to stop at my DA's house on our way to my mom's, however that fell through, so instead we were going to meet mom's DBF Ed for dinner at a Cool Wood Fire Grilled Pizza place called Anthony's in Palm Beach Gardens. Since it was raining off and on on our ride north from Fort Lauderdale, Ed suggested we come by his place and eat dinner there.

Ed ordered and picked up the pizza and some wings. We went in to Ed's home and ate some very delicious Wood Grilled Mushroom, Sausage, & Extra Cheese Pizza, and Grilled Chicken Wings that had Caramelized Onions. OMG was dinner so light and delicious for pizza and wings. We also watched "The Goofy Movie". Sorry no pictures were taken in Ed's place, as I was busy chasing Skyler around, whom had too much energy to spare. We stayed by Ed's for an hour or two and then headed the short 5 minute drive to my mom's. After getting some breakable things out of Skyler's reach, we took a couple of trips getting our luggage out of mom's car, and I got our toiletries out and then it was bath time for Skyler, mom to follow, and then she curled up in her bed with Skyler and they put on the Disney Channel, while I took my bath. It took a little bit to get Skyler settled down and passed out, maybe because he was excited he had a big bed to roll around in, and he hasn't seen my mom in a year, and a new place, but all 3 of us finally passed out and our first full day would begin bright and early the next morning.

I will insert the few pictures we have from this day once Photobucket cooperates.

Up Next: Lunch on the Water, and oh no, not the first Meltdown.

[BeckiO5]

Waiting for our plane to take off. Sorry one picture doesn't want to insert, so I will add that one in later. There were only 3 pictures taken this day.

[chezp]

Great start to your trip report!

[Colexis Mom]

Great start!

[BeckiO5]

Thank you so much Cheryl & Marnie.

[ariel14]

Great start!!!!

[luvnwdwgal]

Looking forward to more Becki!

[BeckiO5]

Thank you. Hopefully if I don't pass out during nap time with Skyler today, or if he will cooperatively play with his toys on his own and let me use the computer without his help, I will hopefully be able to get the last picture from our arrival day and our first full day typed up with pictures.

[OhToodles!]

How do you get Skyler to sleep until after 10am!!!??? The latest Dylan will sleep these days is like 7:30 - and that's if we're lucky.
Glad you had a good flight.

[BeckiO5]

Originally Posted by OhToodles!

How do you get Skyler to sleep until after 10am!!!??? The latest Dylan will sleep these days is like 7:30 - and that's if we're lucky.
Glad you had a good flight.

Kelly, after we got Erick from Work the day before we left and dinner, he fell fast a sleep on the couch for a couple of hours, which I'll
have to insert a picture of, but Skyler
usually doesn't nap. He'll nap if I'm lucky. So
for us with Skyler he'll sleep for 12 hours
and is up for the other 12 and then crashes. That was actually the only day of our trip he slept in that late, as there really wasn't much sleeping in except for departure day from Disney. Since Disney he hasn't been sleeping in that late anymore.

[islandgirl]

Great update! Glad the flight went well & you had good seats. It's always good to be seated next to nice people, especially when traveling with kids. Sounds like Skyler did good overall with the flight. Dinner sounds yummy and glad you got a good nights sleep! Can't wait to read more & hope you get the picture resizing worked out...you know I want to see all of your pictures!

[BeckiO5]

Originally Posted by islandgirl

Great update! Glad the flight went well & you had good seats. It's always good to be seated next to nice people, especially when traveling with kids. Sounds like Skyler did good overall with the flight. Dinner sounds yummy and glad you got a good nights sleep! Can't wait to read more & hope you get the picture resizing worked out...you know I want to see all of your pictures!

Thank you so much Susan. It did help with our flight going and our first flight home from MCO being seated next to two very nice gentleman who had young children themselves, and completely understood what little ones are like on airplanes. I was just so appreciative that we were seated next to just the nicest guys who enjoyed sitting next to us as we were to have them as our row mates. I knew he may be a handful on the plane, but I just had to put practice into play when it comes to our Sunday's watching football out when we don't get the games aired at home, and bring at least a few toys for him to play with and keep his little mouth happy. Thank you, dinner was quite yummy, and I honestly have not tasted pizza or wings that delicious. When my mom asked if we liked wings, I told her I did, but Skyler may not eat them, thinking they'd have Buffalo Sauce on them, but much to my surprise, I couldn't belive how mild they were, that he wwas enjoying them with us too (not the onions). It was actually kind of a relief too with how well he does in restaurants, that Ed offered to let us come to his place, and Skyler was free to play with his toys, especially for being couped up on a plane for 2 1/2 hours and an hour drive from the airport to Ed's house. Thank you so much. I'm going to see if I can get these pictures to work, as there are so many great pictures to share with everyone from our trip. I will try to post as many as I can of them. I still need to get the PhotoPass CD though.

[BeckiO5]

I appologize if I am away from here for a little bit. I'm going to see if those pictures that wouldn't load for me will fit in and type up my next installment which is pretty much already written for me in my journal and see if pictures from our first full day will actually load. There may not be many of those too as we didn't make it that far into The Busch Wildlife Reserve due to our first Skyler Meltdown which you'll read about soon.

[BeckiO5]

Skyler fast a sleep on the couch the night before we left for our Florida/WDW Vacation! I think he was dreaming of Buzz Lightyear & Pooh too, as he was wearing one of his many Buzz shirts and sleeping with his Classic Pooh baby blanket.

The last picture of Skyler from our arrival day to Florida waiting to board our plane.

Sorry these were all of our pictures from the night prior to our trip as well as our flight down to Florida. My camera was in our bag up in the overhead compartment.

[BeckiO5]

Saturday 9/25/2010: Lunch on the Water and Oh no, not the first of the Meltdowns

Mom was up bright and early at 7:15 am and I was up a mere 15 minutes later and the two of us enjoyed breakfast together, which mom cooked us some scrambled eggs, toasted a couple English Muffins, and we nibbled on some fresh fruit too and I chatted with mom while we ate breakfast. Since we were up early, we tried baking a batch of Mom's Banana Nut Muffins that I have loved ever since I was little while Skyler was still a sleep, however her Flour was bad, so the Muffins had to wait until later. Skyler didn't grace us with his presence until 9:30 am. After he was a little more awake, he ate one of his Trix Yogurts mom had for him, and a sippy cup of milk.

After all tummies were full, we decided to take a walk around Mom's neighborhood and visit some of her friends as well. One of her neighbors was out walking another neighbor's dog for him, and we had a nice walk long walk with Sadie the dog. I did feel bad for Sadie as Skyler wanted to keep petting her as she was trying to do her business. Skyler just loved Sadie though, and Sadie was quite well mannered with him. Her neighbor was quite surprised how much Skyler had grown and how he's not a baby anymore, since the last time she had seen him, he was a mere 3 month old baby. Our walk was probably a 45 minute to an hour walk, and boy was it getting hot out. Once we headed back toward mom's place, we stopped to visit her other friend (the one Sadie belongs to), and Skyler was quite funny handing him Sadie's food & water dishes, and other things he knows are "no no's". Also since Mom's fan belt on her car was making some kind of noise, her DBF had mentioned she may want to try spraying some WD40 on it, which we did after we got back from visiting both of her neighbors. There was also another neighbor out who had a dog who wasn't too friendly with kids, so it was a bit difficult to keep her away from Skyler, who just didn't understand. This neighborof my mom's actually volunteers at the Busch Wildlife Preserve which we were going to visit later in the day. She had given us the heads up that there were baby black bears now there and what time they may have some demonstrations with the animals and keepers.

We headed back and changed our clothes, as we were all sweating pretty bad from our walk and how hot it was outside (mom thought it might be jeans weather, but instead it was certainly shorts weather). We cooled off and even drank some ice cold water to get our bodies cooled off. I do have some pictures of Skyler wearing his new Mickey hat from mom and you can see how hot it was by how much my little guy was sweating. Skyler also snacked on some apple pieces and sliced banana while we were waiting to leave to have lunch with mom's DBF Ed at the Waterway Cafe. Waterway Cafe at the PGA Bridge in Palm Beach Gardens, FL. We sat outside on the deck area near the Intercoastal and the outdoor Tiki Bar. I was so amazed at the prices on the menu just for that section of the restaurant as the prices for everything were $6 and under. The Menu we all ordered from except Skyler was The Watering Hole Menu, and Skyler's was off the Kids Menu, but still reasonably priced for what was included on his plate. We all started off with iced tea to drink, and a fruit punch for Skyler (it was too hot for Milk and they didn't serve Apple Juice). Skyler had the Kid's Grilled Cheese that was served with fresh fruit and fries (he didn't touch a single fry, he also ate Mom's tomato from her burger), Mom had the Turkey Burger, Ed had the Nachos, and I ordered a cup of Conch Chowder and the Conch Fritters. I cannot tell you all the last time I had eaten Conch Chowder and Conch Fritters, but these were out of this world. I love conch meat, especially in those 2 dishes. Not to mention the cup of chowder was $3 and for 6 conch fritters $6. For just those two things and iced tea, my meal was great for the value. The conch chowder had a bit of a kick to it and could clear anyone's sinuses in a minute, but I tell you I was in heaven with my lunch.

We had fun occupying Skyler at lunch with his kids menu and crayons, but also I brought in his Thomas the Tank Engine and a car for him to play with. We were there a good hour or hour and a half and he was perfectly content. I was so happy where our table was located too as I could see the Condominium Building my mom, younger sister, & I lived in when I was in High School. Also we were seated next to my favorite bridge (I say favorite with sarcasm, as this bridge used to hold up a lot of traffic as the boats would go under it). It is the PGA Bridge on PGA Boulevard in Palm Beach Gardens. We used to have the name for it the Please Go Around Bridge. I even had to ask my mom if that was our Please Go Around Bridge and it gave her and Ed a good laugh. I appologize no food photos here, but I do have pictures of us seated outside at our table, and outside of the enterance by this gorgeous fountain they had.

After lunch we tried to go to the Busch Wildlife SanctuaryBusch Wildlife Sanctuary. It is free of charge and no parking fee either. We made it to the Florida Panthers and got some pretty decent pictures of them. I needed a bio break here ( for a free animal rescue sanctuary, their restrooms were actually nice and very clean and well maintained, fyi). Mom & Skyler looked at the Snakes (which I would have none of that). Skyler decided he needed to run around and wanted to go in every which direction, so we headed back to the car to get his stroller. This was where our first meltdown occured. He would not go in his stroller, and threw his sippy cup in anger. I wasn't going to let him behave that way, so we put him into his car seat, which he wasn't too happy about either, and headed back to mom's. We did make a stop at the Winn Dixie for flour so we could bake those muffins.

Once back at Mom's I figured Skyler was just in need of a nap, which maybe after 10 minutes of getting him settled down, he was fast a sleep. I had asked mom if she wanted me to help her bake the muffins, but she insisted I get a nap in too with Skyler, and since she couldn't sleep, she would bake while we napped. After naps and mom baked, we headed out to Target for a few things. I did need to pick up more Pull Ups and wipes for Skyler, and Mom needed nail polish remover. We met another one of her neighbors and his son who was 10 years old. They were out tossing around a football. Skyler wanted to play with them too, and they happily obliged. The neighbor's son was actually Skyler's age when my mom moved into her apartment she is in now (which if I failed to mention this, I spent my Spring Break from college that year helping her move out of our Condo which she had sold into that same apartment. Best way to spend Spring Break). We looked in the ads and misread it somewhere, which we thought if you purchased 1 pack of jumbo sized they gave you a $5 gift card. Not the case, as you needed to purchase 2. I wasn't purchasing 2, oh well no $5 gift card. While we were there, we also bought Skyler a small football, Peanut Butter (to eat on apples in Disney), a bottle of nail polish for me, and juice for Skyler.

Mom was craving a Frosty from Wendy's, so she got each of us a small Frosty (I shared mine with Skyler) and a 5 piece nuggets for Skyler. When we got back to her apartment, we ate our Frosties and heated up my remaining 3 Conch Fritters from lunch. Following dinner since it was getting late it was bath/shower time for us all (mom even curled up in bed again with Skyler while I took mine) and watched a little Playhouse Disney on my phone.

Today was in the Mid 90's and was Hot & Humid. No rain as predicted.

Pictures to follow in next post.

Up Next: Sea Turtles & Our Beach Day.