Disney World Adventure! 🏰 👸🏼🤴🏻🎢
James' first time at Disney World!
🛎️ Friday night we arrived at the hotel. We stayed at a Home2suites simply because they have a full size fridge with a freezer. It was our go-to hotel on our road trip and having that freezer instead of going to the front desk makes it so much easier when prepping his feeding pump. Explanation, of photo below, James thought it was hysterical when Dad would do push-ups! 😂
🌛 We knew that these would be late nights ahead so we rearranged his feeding schedule to be continuous overnight from 11pm ending around 1pm the next day. That way the majority of the day he only needed to get water. Unfortunately James was now having really bad constipation because of the formula change. This also came along with a painful diaper rash. 😖 James has never really had one before. We ended up at Walgreens buying water wipes, diaper cream, corn starch, and baking soda. We tried everything and what really helped was the baking soda in the bath and only using the corn starch. 🛁 Unfortunately the diaper cream with the zinc or the aquaphor wasn't helping the rash go away. Also switching to non-irritating water wipes helped a ton. It was rough having to see James in so much pain not only with trying to make a bowel movement but crying once something was in his diaper. 😢 We spent a lot of time in the Disney restrooms. 🚻
Saturday we had a Character Breakfast at the Contemporary with Chef Mickey and Friends! 🍳🥞🥐 This character breakfast is definitely worth the cost! Not only did every single character make a round to every table, but every half hour they played music and all the kids got up to dance with the characters. 🎶 James got his autograph book signed by Mickey, Minnie, Goofy, Pluto, and Donald. This autograph book was actually Moms and is 30 years old. The front half of the book was already filled out. Minnie was very impressed that it was Mom's original autograph book (that Juju found) James also enjoyed his first taste of bacon! 🥓
First ride was Dumbo 🐘, then The Little Mermaid 🧜♀️ (the only ride that seemed to upset him a little), the PhilarMagic 3D Show 🕶️, It's a Small World 🌎, and The Liberty Square River Boat 🏞️ that took us around Tom Sawyer Island. James was exhausted because he did not have his normal one hour nap and it was now 5pm. Mom held him as she sat on a curb. One of the only times James has fallen asleep in her arms. It was adorable and then he got really heavy. 😂 Mom made and makeshift bed with the stroller as Dad was on a mission to fill up our water bottles. Then Juju and Aunt Robin joined us for dinner at The Diamond Horseshoe. 🍽️ We thought it was going to be a character dinner but it turns out they only have a self-playing piano that plays for about 3 minutes every hour. 🤣 Needless to say James was not impressed with the entertainment there, but the food was good especially the dessert! During the dinner we realized that we were running out of diapers. We had gone through a record number! Dad ended up finding the Baby Care Center and was hoping he could buy some diapers, but the cast member told him that that they didn't sell them. A Mom overheard and ended up giving Dad two pull-ups to get us through the night. James would be a big kid now! 👻 Afterwards we went on the Haunted Mansion. James did great and wasn't scared at all! As soon as we walked out the fireworks display had started at the Magic Kingdom. 🎆 We actually had a pretty good spot and James admired all the lights! 🎇 James held onto the side of his stroller and stared up at the sky as the light from the fireworks lit up his face! 🥹 Even though it was pretty late we still made it on the Pirates of the Caribbean. 🏴☠️ At that point we needed to head back to the contemporary where we had valeted our car that morning.
🏛️ On Sunday, we were also in Magic Kingdom, but this time we had our own stroller. The first day we did not bring a stroller and planned on renting one there. That was just a lot of carrying for Dad until we could get to the park. Mom was under the impression that a double stroller was not allowed but it seems like those rules had changed. So because we now had a different stroller we had to wait in line at City Hall again for a handicap pass. With James on his feeding pump we would be able to keep him in the stroller while waiting in line. ♿ Disney was very accommodating.
So we ended up getting a late start, met up with Juju and Aunt Robin in Tomorrowland. We were able to do Buzz Lightyear 🛸, People Mover, Carousel of Progress 📺 (this was definitely one of James's top two), Monsters Inc 🤭 (where both Dad and Aunt Robin were featured on the big screen), and the Speedway 🏁 (James did this with Dad). Lastly we wrapped up with Winnie the Pooh 🍯, and the Jungle Cruise 🦛. James did so good with every single ride and show! Juju and Aunt Robin headed off to their dinner reservations off site. We managed to squeeze in one more show which ended up being James's favorite, the Tiki Room 🦜. It was also Dad's first time experiencing it! Then we were on our way to another character meal at The Crystal Palace right off of Main Street. 🍽️ Originally we had reservations at The Royal Palace but it turns out they were canceled. The park was closing early today due to the "Not So Scary Halloween Party" 🎃 which we didn't have tickets to and we couldn't get anyways because they were sold out. 🙅🏻♂️ It definitely was very odd that Disney let us book reservations months ago for a character meal after the park would have been closed. 🤷🏻♀️ This is something we were trying to fix while we were at City Hall in the morning getting the stroller pass. Anyways, we ended up having a great experience at the Crystal Palace! James was able to meet Winnie the Pooh, Piglet, Tigger, and Eeyore. 🍯🐯🐷🫏 He may not have known who they were but he definitely got their names down by the end of the meal! Of course he asked them all to sign his autograph book. ✍🏻 The videos below are adorable! One of the older waiters stopped at our table when he noticed the autograph book saying, "Wow, I haven't seen one of those in forever". 😮
Our last day was Monday but this time we were at Epcot. At first we didn't think James would be able to do very much there. But it turns out there were quite a few things! James did Spaceship Earth 🌎, Nemo 🐠, Living with the Land 🌱and then we were off to our character lunch for Juju's Birthday at the Garden Grill 🤠 in The Land. James got to meet some of his pals again like Mickey and Pluto and new friends like Chip 'n' Dale! 🐿️ It is a rotating restaurant (super slow) but we were able to meet each character several times because it's a smaller location. James showed them his book and asked them to each play the violin. 🤣 He also loved that Chip 'n' Dale were twins and kept pointing to them matching. After lunch we headed over to watch Turtle Talk with Crush 🐢 from Finding Nemo. It is interactive with the audience so the kids ask the turtle questions and he responds. Very similar to what we experienced on our cruise. The best was when a little girl had asked, "Are you born with your shell?", and the turtle responded with "Yes". She wasn't done though. She followed up with, "Did it hurt your mom?" The adults were laughing. The turtle responded, "You'd have to ask her". Great answer! 😂
Next we explored the countries starting off with France to go on the Ratatouille ride. 🇫🇷 It was well worth the wait! Then we attended The Beauty & the Beast Sing-Along which was mainly just for Dad to belt out the songs! James loved it though and danced the whole time! Then we did the Frozen Ride 🇳🇴 and the Three Caballeros in Mexico 🇲🇽. The sky started getting dark and it looked like it was going to be a very bad thunderstorm. ⛈️ Everyone was buying ponchos but it turned out to not do much of anything. 😊 Mom, Juju, and Aunt Robin then headed off to have dinner in France. Dad took James to the 98° concert 🎤, to listen to a rock band in Germany 🎸, and bang on some drums in Africa. 🪘 We then all met up for the Epcot fireworks and got a great spot on the bridge between France and England (pro tip 😆). James loved the firework show! We are so glad that he has enjoyed the fireworks. 🎆 James has come a long way since our Disney Cruise in January where we had to separate ourselves from large groups because of the noise. Now James is all about it!
🍁 Wrapping up the last week of September! 🍂
📞 Mom had a call on the way home from Disney in the car with St Johns County School District coordinated by Early Steps to get James scheduled for an IEP meeting. We would love James to be able to start school and have the care he needs once he turns 3 years old. Our main concern is that James is still tube fed and getting water via a syringe throughout the day. Getting this setup involves a lot of paperwork, transferring medical records, and several more in person meetings.
🤰🏻 Mom also had a high risk appointment at the end of the month and the baby is 2½ lbs at 27 weeks + 3 days, still with great news. We will be scheduling a date for the C-section shortly. Almost at the 3rd trimester for the 1st time ever!
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