National Infertility Awareness Week

This week is National Infertility Awareness Week. 1 in 8 couples struggle to have children for one reason or another. Sometimes these reasons are never known. Once you have a child (Praise the sweet lord for Josiah), that pain doesn't automatically go away. The years of feeling your body has failed you doesn't switch off. Just because you have a first child, or a second, or a 3rd, or a 10th, doesn't mean you struggle any less with infertility. Infertility doesn't automatically stop when you give birth.

It's so hard to put into words how infertility changed our lives. How it continues to change our lives. We have Josiah and we don't take that gift for granted. But we would like to have at least one more child, and just like the 2.5 years before we got pregnant with Josiah, I've been told so many reasons as to why we haven't gotten pregnant yet. "Maybe it's just not your time yet." "Well, you nursed him for a long time and it takes a long time for your body to go back to normal." "Oh it'll happen, just relax and enjoy the 3 of you while you can." or my personal favorite "Well, you already have a child so just count yourself lucky." OF COURSE WE KNOW WE'RE LUCKY. We're so blessed to have JP. Just because we have one child doesn't mean we're not allowed to want more.

As Mike and I look towards the future at our paths to a 2nd child, I know I've been told all of the things above, and plenty more. They're heart breaking. Sure there's some science to the nursing and not having cycles back to normal, but when even a doctor says they won't consider trying medications until 6 months after your cycles come back when they dang well know your history, it's frustrating. So to hear these things from family, friends, random people on the internet, it's hard. The way I've looked at it is like our family is a garden. I love my beautiful potted plant, but would love to have a whole garden full. This doesn't make us selfish, ungrateful for what we have, or bad people. This makes us human. This makes us a family who is happy with 1 child but would love for more.

I know there are women going through so many harder things than we are, have been struggling with infertility for longer, some with no answers. This post is not to take away from them. We all have our own fires we're dealing with. Big or small, we're dealing with them. We can't say "well at least you have a child" to women struggling to have a second. We can't tell people to stop trying since they have one child. It's heart breaking to hear. Just as we can't tell women who have been trying for a first to "Just Adopt" (because it shouldn't be a back up plan. Children looking to be adopted deserve to be more than someone's plan B).

So let's continue to pray for the 1 in 8. Continue to pray for the women who are longing for more. Longing to be mothers. Longing to have more children. Pray for the spouses who may have fertility issues, since it's not just women who can be the problem. Pray for the couples going through rounds of fertility treatments, the couples going through the adoption process (as a plan A), and for those who just are ready to give up. Friends who struggle, you are loved, you are known, and you are destined for greatness.

Xoxo,

Amanda

A Letter to my Two Year Old

My dearest JP,

TWO?? How is this even possible?? It truly feels like we just celebrated your first birthday and yet here we are, 365 days later, doing it all over again!

This past year has been quite a fun one! We started off your 2nd year right by going to Disney with you for the first time! You loved all the rides you went on, but Dumbo and TriceraTop Spin were the favorites. It took you a little while to warm up to the characters, but by the end of the trip,  you were best friends with everyone you met!

We've had many adventures kid. We've gone to the beach, museums, play places, Target more times than I can count. We've been to Disney now 2 times with you in your second year, and you'll probably go another 2 times in your 3rd year!

You are spoiled, but in time, not items. You're content with your Hot Wheels cars and a menu at the local breakfast joint over most toys you've seen. The amount of times I have to get cars out from under the table, the couch, the chair, behind your car seat, and anywhere else imaginable are countless. But the memories we make as we sit and drive cars around are priceless.

Josiah, you are one of the smartest kids I've ever met. And I truly mean that. I was worried about your speech around your 18 month doctors appointment, but you decided to prove me wrong. You know all your colors, can count to 10 on your own, and recognize a handful of letters on your own! Your little phrases you say are absolutely adorable ("Dada...Where are you??" and when we play peek-a-boo under the blankets and you say "hello, bye bye" are my favorites).  We've finally gotten you to start singing bits and pieces of songs, including "Hickory Dickory Dock", "Twinkle Twinkle", "Baby Shark", "ABC's", and I'm sure plenty more I can't think of now. But my favorite is when you help me sing "In the Big Blue World" from the Finding Nemo Musical/Ride at Disney World.

Not every moment is rainbows though. We finally weened you from nursing about a month ago. That transition was not only hard on you, but hard on Mama. As much as I was ready, I wasn't emotionally ready for it to end. But your sleep has gotten so much better since we stopped. Still not sleeping through the night every night, but we'll get there baby.

They say that the two's are terrible, and in some moments they may be. You've started to show us what we have in store for your stubbornness, but you've also showed us how kind and generous you are with other kids, you give Mama and Dada lots of cuddles, kisses, and "Love you's", and you are so good with Toby and Barney! We may get frustrated with the tantrums that are to come, but the good will always outweigh the bad.

I love you JP, Siah, SiSi (Sigh Sigh), JPH, Bubba, Bubs, Baby, Josiah.

My Disney Tips

I've written many posts of just outlining our trips at Disney, but I figured today I'd share a little bit more of the nitty gritty of our trip. So here's my list of tips, tricks, small details not to be missed, and how to survive going to Disney with a whole age range of people.

You can't do everything!

I know, every blog post you've ever read about Disney says this, but it's true. If you're like me, you like to have every second planned, have a rough idea of which rides you'll do what days, what times, when you'll eat, what time you have to be up and out of the hotel by, and exactly how long it will take you to walk to the bus stop at any given time. 

Throw it all out the window.

In April of 2018, we had a seemingly perfect trip. I'm pretty sure we did everything we had on our list to do. We had every fast pass booked, every meal set, a list of characters to meet and when to meet them. By the end of the trip, our feet hurt, we were exhausted, and we said "never. again."

This trip, I planned for us to be in the parks either in the morning OR the afternoons/evenings. This gave us more time to either relax and enjoy the resort, go swimming, or we could stay later in the parks if we wanted to! This plan worked out much better with our group (Myself, Mike, Josiah whos almost 2, and my mom). We each got the relaxation we needed, but also got a LOT of park time.

We didn't do everything we wanted this trip. And that's okay. I had a list going into this trip of things I wanted to do. But being flexible and not sticking 100% to the plan worked out for us in the end. I specifically recall one morning we were going to get up and be at the parks by 8 am, do 3 fast passes (at minimum) and then be at a resort for brunch by 1145. When we woke up that morning at 830 and it was raining and cold, we threw all plans out the window and just went to brunch, and then a completely different park in the afternoon. It was the most memorable evening being some of the only people out since it was so cold and wet. But man was it fun!!

Pack Bags Appropriately! 

One of the most frustrating parts of Disney is their bag checks. I will take that frustration any day since obviously the safety of every person is priority, but when people don't understand that every bag needs to be opened, every zipper checked, it can back up the lines. Typically, one of us would go through bag check with the stroller, while the other 2 went through the no bag line. This also helped because it took 2 extra bodies out of the line! Since we had the stroller, we tried to bring as little as possible, so we never brought a backpack in with us, rather just a few small bags in the stroller baske. We had this amazing Zipper Pouch Bag from Thirty One  as our "diaper bag". It held diapers, wipes, a change of clothes for JP, a few snacks, and a few cars to keep him occupied if we needed them. It was the best purchase I made prior to this trip and I use this now when I'm out and about rather than lugging around a full bag! We also had a few ziplock gallon bags to hold his blanket, sweatshirts, and extra snacks. So we would just throw those bags on the table and then be on our way. 

I also had a fanny pack. *cue the laughter*

I could do a whole blog post of why I loved having a fanny pack on this trip! I won't. But I could. Mike 100% made fun of me for wanting one, and then when I bought one, he was like "oh no, it's actually going to happen" haha! BUT, it meant that he didn't have to carry around items of mine OR have a backpack, so I don't think he complained THAT much.

In my pack I had:

-One Diaper

-Travel Wipes (We used these since we got them for free in a trial box)

-My Lactaid Pills (so I could have the amazing Mac and Cheese Tots)

-My card wallet (You can find it here)

-Reusable Straws (Find a 4 pack here)

-My phone or my lanyard with pins on it would go in while we were on rides.

I can't recommend fanny packs enough. It was great when Josiah would need a diaper change, I could just pull him out and go change it. Or having my Annual Pass right there ready to go rather than asking Mike to grab it from the backpack. Or having a safe place to put my phone rather than just in my pocket of my jeans on a roller coaster. It was SO worth it. In Disney, anything goes! And for me, what will ALWAYS go with us to Disney is my Fanny pack! Even on a trip when JP is older, I may still use it! (You can find my fanny pack here) 

Pay Attention to EVERYTHING

Every detail. Pay attention. Watch what the weather forecast is going to be so you remember sun glasses from the room (since it was raining for 3 days and you didn't need them, then surprise, you're buying a $25 pair of sunglasses you don't need). Make sure you're in the right line for the right bus at the right time! Be self aware. Remember that there are other people around you and that when you and your family of 17 people decide to walk side by side down Main Street USA, and then all stop to take the same picture of the castle at the same time, there may be other people around you trying to walk. 

If you have any sort of wheeled vehicle (stroller, wheel chair, electric scooter) PLEASE FOR THE LOVE OF ALL THINGS GOOD PAY ATTENTION TO WHAT YOU'RE DOING AND WHERE YOU'RE GOING.

I can't emphasis this enough. I understand that Disney is a crowded place and that you're bound to accidentally run into someone with your stroller (or be run into by a stroller). But when you realize you've done this, maybe slow your walk a little bit instead of crowding people. It's kind of like with a traffic jam on the highway. When you see the car in front of you move, keep a little distance because they might have to slow down and stop again. 

And again, I understand that there are people who need scooters at Disney who wouldn't normally use them in real life. That is 100% okay. But be aware of your surroundings. Watch where you're backing up, and don't feel entitled to push your way through a crowd of people. Thank you for coming to my ted talk on proper Disney behavior. 

Interact with Cast Members!!!!!

Somme of the most memorable moments we've had at Disney haven't just been moments between myself and my family. They usually are involving a cast member! On our honeymoon, a cast member organized a group of high school kids to come make a heart shape around us for a photo. In 2018, a waitress at Be Our Guest brought my mom a card signed by the beast and Belle for her birthday which made my mom cry, which lead to a huge hug and lots of love from the waitress. This trip we met Rich at our hotel (shout out Rich at the French Quarter!). He helped us with what we were looking to do, but he made it so fun! What could have been a 2 minute interaction of just paying off our room balance turned into a 15 minute conversation,  getting to look at the resorts giant book of Pins, learning things about Rich, and him showing us one of the coolest hidden gems of Disney! It was such a memorable interaction and one that makes us want to go back to the French Quarter time and time again! 

So, those are just a few little things I wanted to share about our trip that weren't actual things about our trip! Catch us over at our Youtube Channel where we WILL be posting about our trip a lot, and probably doing a lot of Disney related cooking videos in the future!!!

XOXO

Amanda

Disney 2018 (Day 5-7)

Day 5: "Rest" Day

Day 5 was the most relaxed of our days. We had planned to have a full day of rest somewhere in the trip, and it ended up partially landing on day 5. We had spent the day before at all 4 parks, and the day before that drinking around the world. We needed a day to relax and not go crazy.

So obviously the only logical way to relax and have a rest day is to get an 8:05 am breakfast reservation! The grunts and moans that morning were so strong. We knew we had to be in the Minnie Van on our way to the Boardwalk Hotel by 730 at the latest, so we were up probalby earlier than we had been our whole trip. But man was it well worth it! 

We went to the Bon Voyage Character Breakfast at Trattoria al Forno, which is right on the boardwalk. The characters you get to meet are Ariel, Prince Eric, Rapunzel, and Flynn Rider. Obviously this breakfast had me at meeting Ariel in her "human" body (aka legs and not fins lol) but you add in the other 3 and I was sold. 

The food was really good. You get a pastry platter to share (SO good) and then we each got a massive breakfast. I got the Rapunzel Tower of Pancakes and couldn't even begin to think about finishing them.

After a very filling breakfast, we made our way back to the hotel where JP got to play in the splashpad and go swimming in the big pool. I don't know if I've mentioned this before, but he was absolutely obsessed with going in the pool and splashpad. I loved the splash pad at Pop because it wasn't anything fancy. The water probably came up to about his waste at the highest point and he just splashed and played and would have stayed there all day if I had let him!

We had planned on having this full day to just explore hotels or do things out of the parks, but when it was the only day we could get Fastpasses to Flight of Passage (FOP), we had to change our plans and go to Animal Kingdom that night (darn). We made a late lunch reservation at my favorite Disney restaurant, Tusker House, to kick off our evening at AK. The food at Tusker House is AMAZING. I can't even begin to describe it. But it's definitely my most recommended food on property (besides the bacon cheddar roll in Epcot duh). You get to meet Mickey, Donald, Daisy, and Goofy in their Safari gear which is so much fun. AND they have the super cute walk around the restaurant song for the kids (ok I definitely brought JP with me so we could be part of it) and they sing the Jambo Jambo song! Ahhhh. The memories.

After lunch, we booked it over to our first FP, Festival of the Lion King. As I've said before, JP isn't a huge fan of the shows at this age, so he was a little squirmy and not paying attention, but the adults in the group LOVED it. It's truly a Broadway worthy production! 

Finally, the big moment arrived. Flight of Passage. It was dusk. The sun was going down and the lights in Pandora were starting to glow. Everyone had warned me that it was absolutely beautiful at night, and it lived up to the hype. It was absolutely magical.

Mike, Mom, and myself had all gotten fastpasses for FOP because we weren't sure if Mom would enjoy it or not. Rather get them all than not enough right? So we went to the front, got the ride switcher pass for Mom (since she had to wait with the baby) and Mike and I were on our way! I distinctly remember posting on Facebook in line something along the lines of "Waiting to get on FOP. Let's see if it lives up to the hype of everyone on the internet". I had no idea what to expect. I was told it was like Soarin but 1000% better, but I hadn't ridden on Soarin until this trip so I had no point of reference. 

Guys. It surpassed every expectation I had and then some. 

I probably would have ridden on it about 15 times if I was allowed. The story line prior to the actual ride is amazing. The ride is out of this world. I can't begin to describe the emotion I felt ridding it. 

So we get off, we find Mom, and I told her if she wanted to do it she could, but I wasn't sure if she would like it (she gets motion sickness pretty easily on 3d things like this). So after some humming and hawing, she decided not to go on, so Mike and I got to go on a second time and it was even better because I could anticipate things happening and really live in the moment! Gah. So good.

Once we finished riding FOP, we headed out for the night to rest up for the next day of adventures!!!

Day 6: Magic Kingdom, Hollywood Studios, and a New Hotel

Ah, another day at Disney. We were tired by this day. We'd gone out hard for 4 days that just kicked our butts! But we were ready to go! We checked out of our hotel room at Pop Century (sad day) and Mike and I took our "typical" picture outside of our room before we left (it's a fun little memory to have looking back and to see how much we've grown). When we left, we made our way to the Polynesian resort to have breakfast at Captain Cooks. I really wanted the Tonga Toast, but didn't want to have a sit down meal at Kona (and also it was twice the price at Kona) so we just did a quick service meal. It didn't blow me away like I thought it would! The Tonga Toast is Massive, and filled with banana. The only problem was there wasn't a lot of banana in it, so it was basically eating a small loaf of bread. Maybe I was a fluke, but I was certainly not as excited as I was going into it. 

Anyways, we left the Polynesian and then made our way to Magic Kingdom. We had already missed two of our fast passes since we went and had breakfast, but that was okay because we had already done one of them. We went and explored Tom Sawyers Island for a little while. It was SO warm that day that I felt just absolutely exhausted, so we didn't spend as much time as any of us would have liked there. Mike and I then went on Big Thunder Mountain and then made our way back to the Monorail to go to EPCOT. This was basically so I could get one last Bacon Cheddar Roll, and then we could take the boat to HS. Once we got there, we went and met Buzz and Woody (which was by far JP's favorite Meet and Greet), took a few pictures around the park, and then made our way back to our new hotel.

Guys, I never want to stay anywhere else but the French Quarter ever again.

We get there and instantly I'm just completely in love. They have Beignet's which is what made us want to stay here to begin with. It's also the smallest hotel on property, so even though we were in the farthest room from the busses/food/pool, it still was closer than at pops. Speaking of pools, their pool is incredible. It has a water slide! The only bummer part is that we couldn't go down the slide with JP, and I wasn't sending him down by himself at 13 months. But he still enjoyed watching Mama, Dada, and Mema go down the slide! They also have a small little splash pad water park thing? It was a little chilly to be running around in there with JP this night, and it was closed the next day for maintenance, but maybe someday we'll get to use it! After we used the pool we went and took a boat to Disney Springs. We didn't make it too far into exploring (we were all just SO tired) but we did get to go to Basin and the World of Disney stores and stock up on some souvenirs!

Day 7: Magic Kingdom. Our last day!

The saddest part of any vacation. The last day of the trip. We had quite a memorable last day at WDW. We started off our morning by taking one last dip in the pool, eating a few more Beignet's, and then headed out to Magic Kingdom one last time. It was a cloudy morning and we were ready for some rain, but we weren't ready for the rain that was going to come. We decided to do the Carousal of Progress which is one of the most underrated shows at Disney, but it's so amazing knowing that Walt Disney himself had a hand in the making of it! When we exited the show, it was POURING. And of course we couldn't just stand at the exit of the ride so we just decided to make the most of it and just dance in the rain and splash in the puddles as a family! We then RAN to Haunted Mansion (one of my favorite rides in all of the parks) since there was no wait. Josiah did extremely well on this ride considering it's so dark and could have been very scary for him. Again, we exited the ride and it was just a mess outside. We didn't have much time before we had to go back to the hotel to head home, so we just decided to head back. But not before first stopping and getting all new t-shirts for all of us since we weren't about to fly for 3 hours in soaking wet clothes (and of course since they already had our bags we couldn't change).

As we were walking down Main Street, Mike pulled me aside and brought me into one of the shops and told me "Go ahead. Get the Dress. Happy Anniversary" (our 4 year anniversary was a few days before we left for the trip). I knew exactly what he meant and I nearly cried. I had been eyeing a Mary Poppins dress every single trip we'd been on. It was way more than I ever wanted to spend on a dress, but something he knew that I'd wanted. The only thing I wished was that I had gotten it sooner in the trip so I could have WORN IT in the parks. Oh well! Next time I suppose.

Well, that's going to do it for my blog posts on our April/May 2018 Disney trip! It only took me 9 months to finish writing it, but I hope you enjoy reading it!