Tis The Season!

So a year ago I wrote this post about Balancing Christmas ... and if you haven't read it you should ;)  At that point last year Dax was barely two, so we didn't have to think much or put this idea of "Balancing Christmas" into action. But now we're in full blown Christmas tradition mode. We have a three year old little boy on our hands that is really soaking in everything about the holiday season and is already asking me everyday if Santa is coming tomorrow.
So this year I started two different things that I hope will grow into traditions for us... because I really love what they stand for and they help keep me accountable everyday to Balance Christmas for our little guy.

So this is the letter that our sweet little Elf on a Shelf brought with him Saturday morning when he made his first appearance. This is a really simplified version of what I got at in my Balancing Christmas post, and as he gets older I'll go more into detail about forgiveness, intentions, a faithful value system, and a heart like our Creator. As I mentioned before... he's barely three and this letter seemed to be on the perfect level for him.

The second thing we started this year was an advent activity. I searched all over (with no luck) for an advent calendar of some sorts that would help me in the process of Balancing Christmas. Something that would help us count down the days until the oh so fun Christmas morning, but also kept our hearts wrapped around the true meaning of the season. Luckily, yesterday I stumbled upon this site and will be using it to base our daily activities on.  So today I printed the bible versus for the countdown chain and we did the first activity with Daxton's nativity.

For the countdown chain I just used red and green scrap book paper that I had and printed these perfect little activity strips. I cut them out and glued them onto the back of the scrap book paper. I love that the strips have not only the daily verse on it, but additional readings and an activity as well.

So those are a couple traditions we started this year to help us Balance Christmas! What are some things you and your family do to keep perspective on what it should be on during the holiday seasons??

Medical Mondays: A little moving advice

First off... it's Medical Monday!! 

If your a friend or family member, Medical Mondays is a blog hop for anyone associated with the medical field whatsoever. It's a great way to connect with other women who are going through or have gone through life as a medical spouse (because I truly feel like there's no way for anyone to understand what life during training is like unless you're married into medicine or the military).

And for visitors from the blog hop.... welcome!! A quick introduction.... I'm Kandice, started dating my now husband at the age of 14, got married in undergrad, had our son at the beginning of MS2, moved 2 hours away from family for MS3 & MS4, and just recently found out that we matched for General Surgery in Mobile, AL. Other than medicine.... I have a degree in Early Childhood Education but am currently staying home with our little boy, I love crafting & photography & the outdoors... now if only I had more time for all that :)

Now on to the good stuff! Sorry I've been a little MIA... but as you can imagine life has been crazy as fourth year comes to an end.  Two huge things that are a big part of our life right now is preparing to buy our first home and preparing Dax for the big move.... and I would lovvve your input on both of those things!

This time next week we'll be in the midst of our 12 hour drive to Mobile to spend a few days looking at houses and hopefully putting an offer in on one. We have a narrowed down list and our realtor also has some she'd like to show us. We've been renters up until this point so this is a whole new world for us! And frankly... only having 2-3 days to look at houses in person makes me pretty nervous! So.... for you ladies that have bought houses.... what did you do to make it more successful... AND, what are some things we should make sure to look at/check before committing to a house?

And the second thing I would love your input on is preparing our 2 1/2 year old for the move. We have a map and have showing him and talking to him about "our new home"(check out a precious video of that here). We've also tried to include him in the packing. I've been letting him help me pack boxes and tape them shut. And I also bought 3 new books for him... Boomer's Big Day, Melanie Mouses Moving Day, and Berenstain Bears' Moving Day. We've been reading these at least once a day (initiated by him) and make connections between what's happening in the book and what we're doing. We're also redoing his room at the new house so we've been showing him all the things for his new room... and that seems to be helping get him excited for it. He asked me at snack time the other day, "We have a new snack at our new home?" Not surprised that his main focus is on what he's going to get to eat there :)    Again for you medical moms (and any other moms for that matter) that have gone through a big move with your little one.... what did you do to help prepare your little one?

And to end the post.... here's a little cuteness to brighten your day!

PS.... I just got set up with Bloglovin' so follow me there!
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Fine motor work...

I've really been focusing lately on building some fine motor strength in Dax (fine motor strength would be the muscles in his little fingers and hands... this is essential for being able to write). We've been playing with a lot of playdoh (squeezing it, poking it, tearing it) and stringing his beads on laces. But this week I wanted to let Dax work with scissors a little more. He got scissors for Christmas so we've used them here and there since then... but this week I started off by putting them in with his playdoh.

Like I said, we've used them before so he knew how to hold them... but it was pretty cute to watch his problem solving skills go crazy as he figured out how to use them with the playdoh. He started out trying to cut the playdoh while it laid on the table (obviously didn't work). Then he tried cutting with his left hand (that was really awkward). And finally he got it all figured out.

A couple days later I busted out a new pair of scissors for him. These had the actual blade but had a great spring in the middle that you could flip up for beginners (it helps the scissors open back up). PS... I found these at Dollar Tree!!!  I then decided to draw lines on strips of construction paper for him to try to cut on (cutting on lines is a skill they'll need in pre-k and it helps with eye hand coordination). Sidenote: While cutting on lines is good, make sure you also give kids paper without lines so they can have some free expression with their cutting.

He loved this activity and you could see the pride in his face! He thought he was so big!  After he finished cutting I gave him a glue stick and let him collage his shapes.

 This past week I've also had him start "writing" his name (the lines on the bottom). His fine motor skills aren't strong enough yet to write actual letters, but I was really proud of him when he drew a corresponding individual mark as he said each letter of his name. Baby steps!

Dax has still been very into letters this week, but his newest love is doing puzzles! I would say he spends most of his time during the day doing puzzles. Right now since he just started using puzzles I've been keeping the outer edge of the puzzle put together for him so he has a starting point. But he is building some awesome strategies so I'm sure he'll be doing the entire puzzles on his own before long!

 

Dax made his own matching game with his puzzle and letter rocks.

 This was a birthday gift... lettter book with meaningful things in it.

Struggles

So I've really been pushed lately to write about my journey with Dax as a baby.  I'm not sure if it's because God needs me to get my message out because one of you reading this is facing it as well... or because one of my many pregnant friends is getting ready to face this battle before long... or because so often in blogs the "rough" part of parenting gets left out. But whatever it is... here's my story.
While pictures I post of him now are mostly smiles and fun...he wasn't an easy baby to say the least (and still has moments in each day that he is not an easy toddler).

 

At the time (between the time Dax was born and he hit 10 or 11 months) I tried to come up with every excuse I could for how he acted. He has acid reflux, he was colicky, he was teething. Anything. But as time has gone on and I've come less concerned with what other people think I've come to realize that Dax was simply a high needs baby (really... you should read this).
He cried screamed most of the day, he was an extremely light sleeper, nursing was a battle, he didn't want anyone other than mommy, he threw himself backwards arching that back as far as he could, he wanted to be held all the time, I felt like I was walking on egg shells (making it scary for me to leave the house), change and transition was awful for him, and he just simply was not a happy baby.
During this time, I was hearing how wonderful and happy other people kids were.... and I often heard things like "he's a handful Kandice", "he's spoiled rotten", "our kids never did that", "you need to change how you do ____", "I've never seen a baby act like that".  It was very disheartening.... and I think that's the reason why I never talked about it to anyone. I had the kid that was different... the one that people probably talked about when I was out of sight... and he was just a baby... so it was obviously something I was doing wrong. I had decided that I was never having another kid because I was not cut out for being a mom.... therefore crushing what I had known since I was very little was the one thing I wanted to be when I grew up... a mommy.

Dax did best in wrapped tight or in tight spaces. He slept great here.

As time went on things got better (he was closer to a year old). He got big enough to say a few words, learn some sign language, and get around on his own. And I got better at reading his cues and meeting whatever need he had before a meltdown. Meltdowns happened less often... but still happened several times a day and on the drop of a dime. And things just keep getting better... slowly but surely.
Now at 2 1/2... life is much more manageable. He is able to express his needs and emotions. He still loves hard and fights hard. He's passionate, energetic, high strung, and strong willed. Our biggest issues at this point are sensory issues, he gets really frustrated with the dogs really fast, he's impatient, and really strong willed.

Having a high needs kid is tough to say the least. I wish there was some magical advice I could give to mommas but there just isn't.... because each of our high needs kids is so different. There are a few things that made my life easier and more manageable... and also a few things that hindsight has given me...
1.  Look for support. I thought I was the only person with a baby like Dax. But hindsight has shown me that it's a lot more common than I thought.  Unless a momma has a high needs baby... they're not going to "get" what you're going through, they're just not. And things that work for your everyday baby aren't going to work for a high need baby.
2. Find some "me" time. And outlet. Whether that's journaling, meditating, praying, talking with a friend, or just vegging out on the couch watching something completely ridiculous on the couch. And high needs babies don't let you have much of it... so grab it when you can (5 minutes here, 5 minutes there).
3. Baby wearing. Baby wearing helped a lot when Dax was little. It gave him a sense of closeness to me, it gave him the sensory feeling of tightness that he liked, and it let me get some things done.

4. Sign language. Signing helped a lot for us. Dax was able to give me a few signs before he could talk and that allowed me to meet some of his needs before a melt down. Eat, water, more, milk, and help were big ones for us.
5. Watch for cues. All babies have some sort of cue when they're hungry, tired, or getting frustrated. And mommies can pick them out better than everyone. Just watch for those and meet that need as soon as you see that cue.
6. Learn to let what people say go in one ear and out the other. But also stand up for yourself when you need to. When you're being flooded with remarks on how your baby acts, inform them on high need babies. And when you're being told that you're spoiling your baby, let that go in one ear and out the other.
7. As your baby grows... make sure you're giving them the words for their emotions. "You're angry" or "You're sad" or "You're frustrated". Now at 2 Dax can tell me what emotion he's feeling and it's a huge help.
8. Do breathing techniques. Hold that baby as close to your chest as you can and take big deep breathes. This will help them feel close and help regulate their breathing.... helping them and YOU calm down.
9. Plan everything. High needs babies don't handle change in environments or schedules well. Be a little less spontaneous for awhile and prepare for outings to take quite a bit longer than they usually would. Go into the event expecting a meltdown... that way when it happens (because we all know it will) you will be prepared and won't get as frustrated.
10. Happiest Baby on the Block helped a lot when Dax was small. He hated when we first started... but after screaming for a minute he was quickly stop and cheer right up.

swaddled tight... part of Happiest Baby on the Block

The other four "S's" of Happiest Baby on the Block... side/stomach position, swinging, shhhh sound, and sucking.

11. And my biggest piece of advice that I'm just now realizing... find the beauty in your high needs child.  Realize that these traits that are just completely wearing you down now will be what makes them an amazing adult. They're going to grow up to be strong, strong leaders. They're not going to be pushed around and they are going to have beliefs and values that they stick to. They're going to give everything they have in every aspect of their life... whether it be in their work, how they love, etc.

I saw this personality profile of high needs kids on pinterest and just loved it. It gave me comfort knowing he was like other kiddos and gave me hope for the future. Here's the list as given by Dr. Sears... and I highlighted all of the ones in the infant and toddler category that fit Dax... just so you can see how accurate it is :)
 Infant:  alert, intense, draining, demanding, cries impressively, loud, unconsolable, supersensitive, high touch. (no exaggeration... I would use every single one of those words to describe him as an infant)
Toddler-Child: busy, high strung, exhausting, spunky, energetic, stubborn, impatient, strong willed, obstinate, discerning, challenging, expressive, tantrum prone, interesting, tender, huggable (again... no exaggeration)
Teen-Adult: Enthusiastic, deep, passionate, resourceful, dominating, opinionated, determined, persistent, insightful, fair, sociable, compassionate, empathetic, caring, affectionate.  (these are teen and adult.. but the highlighted ones I already see in Daxton's personality... so I can't wait to see what sort of wonderful adult he grows into).

Know you're not alone mommas....

Take that Mom

Dax gave me a big fat slap in the face this past week. Not literally a "slap in the face" (which I may not put it past him) but instead a slap that put me back in my place and reminded me of the things I was taught in collage.

Our boy.... who can count to 20, tell you every shape possible, remember things you told him once 3 months ago (he seriously does this... must be his fathers son), explores nature, and can question and reason with the best of them still does not know his colors. Two. Two colors is all he knows. Orange & Purple. Really? What kid learns orange and purple before all other colors?  Daniel thinks he's color blind.... but that's another post. I think he's stubborn. We shall see.

But starting out this week I was ready! I was ready to tackle colors head on. We were going to learn those colors and have fun doing it!  We did puzzles with colors on them...

we painted and talked about the colors...

and I even swiped come color chips from walmart and played a "drive your car to this color" game...

which he enjoyed.... but could only get orange and purple. 

But then he slapped me in the face real hard. There's a show on Netflix that he likes called "Super Why" about letters and this week he got really into it and it hit me. 

Stop with the colors... he's not interested.... his window right now is letters!

I was quickly reminded that you have to let children lead their own learning. This is something my classrooms revolved around.... but getting wrapped up in the day to day business at home I forgot to do it with my little boy.  So now we're exploring letters full speed! I saturated the house with letters and am pointing out environmental print even more to him. I wrote letters on his dry erase board, put the letter magnets for his name on the door, and changed his table around in the living room to look like this...

He is pointing letters out everywhere now and is naming a few letters and making the sounds for some as well. All in just 5 days. Because he wanted to learn those skills right now. Right this very minute. Not because I wanted him to or because he "should know those by now".  We went to the store today and he got so excited when he saw "yetters" (mind you he still cant say his L sound) on the outside of the building. When he's playing independently he is pointing out letters to himself. He even created this game tonight on his own....

(pick a letter and let the train run over it while saying, "watch out letter N! The train is coming!")

And it's amazing. The amount he has grown in just 5 days with his early literacy skills is unreal. We'll keep going with letters as long as he wants and see where it takes us....

one day we'll learn colors.... just not right now.

Linking Up

I'm a big reader of blogs that are written by medical wives since we're right smack dab in the middle of our journey. Well a blog that I recently started reading, Medicine: A Love Story has started a link up on Thursdays.... and I decided I wanted to try to take part in it! I"m hoping to start writing more about our medical journey as the next 5 years are about to get nuts-o so I figured this would be a good starting point.... so here goes nothing!
  

This weeks question: What's the most interesting medical fact you've learned vicariously?

Being married to someone in medicine you learn a lot. I mean let's face it.... you're basically a doctor too (Daniel loves it when I say that). A few things super interesting, some things helpful, a lot of things you could care less about, and a ton of things that just make you say "ew". I'll start with a helpful fact I learned.... and then move on to something more exciting.... and "ew" fact.

Helpful fact: As I'm sure most moms were (unless they happen to be in the medical field too), my mom gave Tylenol the second my temperature got to 99.9.  "Got to keep that fever down!"  "Don't want to have a seizure!" Ideas that that were common in my house/family in general (and I still hear them anytime I tell them my little boy has a fever). But since I've been on this medical school journey I now know that fevers are great! Yeah, they mean you're sick, but you want a fever. I means your body is doing what it's suppose to and fighting the infection. So as long as you don't have a history of seizures, you're not in pain, and you're not rockin a temp of over 104..... it's probably safe just to wait out on the Tylenol.  Cue, "You're a crazy lady, I'm given my kid Tylenol right now" faces.  For me that's great knowledge since I don't like using medicine for myself (or little one) unless I absolutely have to :)

Now onto the part you've been waiting for.... my "ew" medical fact.  This will be short and sweet. Because I don't like to think about it....
While eating dinner I was putting butter on some corn on the cob (sometimes it's just necessary to make your healthy food a little less healthy) and Daniel, out of no where says.... "you know what cauterized fat looks like?"  and before I could even say "No...  I rather not know"..... he  splurts out "butter".
Nice babe, nice.

Potty Training.... maybe?

So the title of this blog sums up the last 2 1/2 days for us. We could possibly be in the official business of potty training.... maybe.... we'll see how it goes.
Friday morning I took Daxton's diaper off and let him run around the house naked. I didn't have any intentions on making it a potty training experience... just simply letting him get some fresh air. But when he started peeing while we were playing I hurried and carried him to the potty and he finished up there. From there I decided to try out some naked potty training. I thought "why not".... we have nothing better to do today so we'll see how it goes.
I was completely surprised (that's probably an understatement) at how awesome he did)! By the end of the day on Friday he had peed in the potty over 50% of the time and even got to the point where he would be playing, stop what he was doing, and run to the potty completely on his own.
Saturday morning we were at Target so I bought some underwear just to try out. We put them on him when we got home and quickly found out that naked was the way to go with Dax for now. If he had underwear on he would just pee in them and not think anything about it..... but if he was naked he would stop as soon as the tiniest amount of pee came out and run to the bathroom to finish. Needless to say, Daxton was naked from the waste down again all day Saturday. I was really shocked after nap when he was having snack at the table (still in his diaper from sleeping) and said "mommy i need to go pee) and ran to the bathroom! By the end of the day we had peed mostly in the potty and even went #2 in the potty completely on his own!! (As in came out of the bathroom saying "Mommy I poop").
We're now at Sunday morning and still doing great! As we speak this is going on....

 Someone wanted to watch Barney and I knew he wouldn't dare leave the TV long enough to go potty so I made a little set up for him in the living room.

I think one of the biggest reasons this has been successful is because he has had a potty sitting around the house for almost a year now that he has been able to get comfortable with and sit on whenever he wants. We also have a pretty open door policy when mommy and daddy are going potty too so Dax has been able to learn from that and realize that it's a natural thing. We also have never pushed going potty. This has to be something they're completely ready for themselves and the more you push the longer it takes.

So if you're thinking about trying out a little bit of naked potty training on your own then here are my biggest tips..
#1:  Try and do it over a few days span where both parents are home (or a parent and another adult). It's completely exhausting! You have to watch your little one 110% of the time so you can see cues that they're getting ready to potty. And there's lots of cleaning carpet, emptying potty seats, wiping up floors and legs. It's tiring.... very tiring. So try to have some support there for yourself!
#2: Have lots of these around...

 Stickers, paper towels, and carpet/surface cleaning product. You'll do lots of cleaning carpet and bathroom floors (especially with little boys).  And every little kid loves a good sticker after they potty. But for Dax the most effective rewards has been ridiculous singing and dancing on mommy and daddy's part while singing a pee pee in the potty song!

 New books and toys! Dax loves sitting on the potty and reading his new books and playing with toys! It makes the potty a fun, relaxing place to be!

 We we made this mistake of getting super excited and giving Dax candy after the first few times he pottied... well he quickly learned that making himself pee... even the tiniest drop... would get him something yummy. We ended up opting for a bowl of m&m's or sixlets and only giving him one or two little pieces each time. This was enough to satisfy him.

Potty training is a process and it's going to take longer than a few days to get it down. Dax is making baby steps. He has gone from just peeing all over the floor, to starting to pee and then stopping himself and finishing in the potty, to going in the bathroom all on his own and doing the entire act. And I'm sure he'll have good days and bad days.... but we're just taking it day by day. If this ends up being the starts of him potty training then great.... but if he decided tomorrow he doesn't want to go anymore we won't make him. We'll take a break and wait until he's ready. I'll keep y'all posted!

Toddler Eats

So what happens when I have a random day off..... two blog post! yay!! 

I haven't blogged about food in quite awhile.... quite frankly because I felt like I was writing the same thing each time. To be completely honest, getting back into the routine of work had me in quite the food rut. Plus Dax's lack of teeth made food time not that exciting. But good news is now I'm settled into our new routine of work and Dax now has two sets of matching teeth (by that I mean teeth that match up on the top and bottom... molars on top and bottom, and middle teeth on top and bottom)  He still only has 9, working on 10, teeth so we're still a little limited but we're able to do a little more now. 

My main goal with Dax's food is that it's organic, has no high fructose corn syrup (I swear this stuff is a drug), low sugar (especially refined sugars), whole grain, and fresh/no processed (whenever possible). The one I have the hardest time with right now is the no processed one. With mine and Daniel's busy schedules it super hard to only do fresh stuff. But I do try to at least go organic with my processed food. Don't beat yourself up over it... it's tough to do everything right... just do what you can... and for now in our house... there has to be a bit of processed food. Moderation is key.

Here are some of the things that make up Dax's meals each day...

Breakfast:
*Earths Best Organic Mini Blueberry Waffles
*Earths Best Organic French Toast Sticks
*Whole Grain english muffins (with an organic fruit spread or a bit of butter and cinnamon)
*365 (whole foods brand)  Morning multi-grain O's   (these are like cheerios but organic and mulitgrain... I like them SO much more than Cheerios) .... when we do these we mix in some berries as well.
*Earths Best Organic Baby Yogurt.  We have the Vanilla Prune flavor right now. The only real difference between baby yogurt and regular yogurt is that it's made with whole milk, had no refined sugars, and is infused with a few more vitamins.  Dax recently saw me put granola in mine and wanted some in his. Since granola is still a little hard for him I crunched up some of his morning O's and put them in there. He loved it and it added some good whole grains
*Organic Unsweetened Applesauce.  This is a good side with his waffles or french toast. He liked to dip them in it :)
* Berries: He has some sort of berry every morning with breakfast (unless he's having applesauce). We rotate between blueberries, strawberries, and raspberries. All are on the dirty dozen so we go organic with them whenever possible.
* Omelets. I don't have much time during the week to make an omelet so these are the occasional weekend thing. Add in a small dash of shredded cheese and veggie (spinach works nice).
*Toast. Whole grain bread (we use Natures Own 100%Whole Wheat bread. It has 14g of whole grain per slice and no high fructose corn syrup! I top it with the same things as I do with the english muffins


 Lunch/Dinner: 
*Whole grain tortilla with low fast cheese. A toddler quesadilla.... Dax loves it.
* Grilled Cheese: On our whole grain bread of course and one piece of low fat cheese.
* Veggie Corn Dogs:  Dax still wont eat meat so this is our go to "meat" for him. They're Morning Star brand. Lots of good protein in these!
*Veggie Chicken Strips:  See above :)
* Spaghetti:  We use wheat pasta and organic sauce. Also if you get plain sauce and season it yourself you can cut back on the sodium drastically.
* Fruit: Dax has fruit with every meal. We mix it up between berries, mandarin oranges, watermelon, peaches, pineapple. We stick to the dirty dozen on these. And if you happen to get canned things (try to go fresh but I know it's hard) make sure you get some that aren't packed in syrup or "light syrup". Get the ones that are in their natural juice or water!!! 
* Veggies: We also do a veggie with each meal... but this is still a struggle for us. Dax has texture issues so a lot of veggies he won't eat unless they're pureed (he'll eat anything pureed). So we go with peas, carrots, green beans, and the occasional pureed veggie.  For our pea and green beans we go with frozen. We steam them all at once, put them in a freezer bag, freeze them flat, and break off what we need for each meal. Carrots we do the same thing but buy fresh.
* Annie's Whole Grain Shells and Cheddar. This is a "healthier" version of mac and cheese. We also mix it with veggies which Dax really loves (esp peas).
*Sweet Potato Fries: We use the Alexia Natural frozen kind.... delish!
* Earths best mini cheese pizza! These are made on whole grain bread and very yummy.

Snacks:
*Fresh fruits: berries, apple slices, watermelon, mango slices.
*Fiddlesticks: These are a processed snack that we throw in the diaper bag for when we're out and about. They're organic (Plum Organic Tots) and super easy for him to eat as a snack independently.
* Cheese sticks:  We buy a low fat, low sodium string cheese. Dax could live on these.... and so could I :)   We do a lot of cheese to get protein since he won't eat meat.... and he eats so much fruit that they balance each other out in the diaper area if you know what I mean ;)

*Trailmix:  I made Dax a trailmix yesterday and it went over really well. I mixed some of his Morning O's, dried strawberries and bananas (I bought at Whole foods), Pecans, Shredded Spoonfuls (organic cereal that's sort of like chex... again... these are seriously delicious!), and Annie's organic whole grain bunnies (they're just crackers in the shape of a bunny). I wanted to put some raisins in too but forgot to buy some.
*Yogurt
*Applesauce
*Raisins.... we go organic
*Kale Chips..... I actually just made these today. I love them so hopefully Dax will as well!



Well that sums up the majority of the things Dax eats. We are far from where we want to be with his food (especially his dinners and lunches) but we're getting there. And it will be much easier as he gets more teeth. We're hoping now that he can eat a little more we can all eat the same dinner more often instead of having separate things for him and us. What are some your little ones favorite things to eat??

Cruising with a Toddler

So I know it's much overdue.... but I'm finally getting around to doing that post I promised on cruising with a toddler....

So many people thought I was completely crazy when they found out I was taking Dax on the cruise with us... 18 month old .... on a big boat... yikes.  But there was absolutely no way I would go on a big family vacation without him. And that's the wonderful thing about cruises.... they're super family friendly. You can make them as wild and crazy as you'd like, or as calm and relaxing as you'd like.  Here are a few of my tips to make cruising with a toddler successful..

1. Take a stroller!

I went back and forth on this and boy am I glad I decided to take one! This trip would have been simply miserable without it. There were many times we just walked around the entire ship using that stroller. Dax loved going on his "ride"! It also made the boarding and debarking go 10x smoother than it would have went without it. I'm also glad I decided to bring ours instead of buying an umbrella stroller. You want to bring something that can fold up small (there's not a lot of extra space in your room for a big stroller), something light weight (for carrying it around in the sand or up and down stairs), and for me a big thing was having a stroller that would lay back (so Dax could sleep in it) and had a cover to protect him from the sun. I've talked before about how much I recommend this stroller so here's my plug again (I think I should get paid for this).

2. Safe space to run!

Toddlers are a big ball of energy.... and your rooms are barely big enough to sleep in so getting rid of a lot of energy in your room isn't really an option. Find a safe space for your toddler to do nothing but run and climb. For us, we found a deck on the side of the ship where there weren't many people were Dax could just run his little heart out. Also, the stairs. On the last day while waiting to be call to debark we climbed up and down between the 3rd and 6th floor about 5 times. I was exhausted, but somehow his little legs kept going. You may get some strange looks from people when they see you chasing a toddler on a deck or when you pass them 10 times going up and down the stairs. But you can always tell the moms who have had a toddler once in their life because they have this "Oh bless your heart, I can relate" look in their eye and for just a minute, you feel like a normal person again. You do what you gotta do!

3. Find an elevator and become BFF with it!

This "beep beep" as Dax called them became a part of the family. It's like magic... cranky baby... go ride the beep beep. And we didn't even have to ride it, he was perfectly content just watching it go up and down. Again, we may have got some crazy looks, but most people have been there so they relate!

4. Find an arcade!

Oh the arcade... a boys dream world. Apparently this fascination with arcades doesn't happen when a little boy turns 8 or 9.... they're born with it. Nature vs. nurture? Arcades are nature for sure.  He loved running around in this room, climbing up on all the games, and pushing any buttons he could find. Now I about went crazy being in a small, confined place with about 15 boys... but again... you do what you gotta do.

5. Bring dinner activities!

Formal dinners are a big deal on the cruise... and if you want to make it through one you have to have some fun things to keep your little one occupied, because boy can they be long. So in our bag we would have some special activities that I only got out at dinner time... the biggest success was playdough with Popsicle sticks. Always a winner for this boy.

6. Have a picnic!

So during our cruise we had two day's at shore. These mornings were busy mornings spent mostly out in the sun. By the time lunch rolled around Dax was usually starting to get fussy. Being hot and sleepy and most of the time locked in a stroller would make anyone fussy. So instead of going back on the ship and heading to the buffet or dining room... we opted for room service! Room service is completely free 24 hours on a cruise and this was always the best decision. Dax would get a grilled cheese, pickle, yogurt, and chips (which he wouldn't eat but they came with the sandwich), and I would get a grilled turkey and cheese, pickle, potato salad, and cheese cake. When we got back to the room from our day at shore I would call and place our order. While we waited we would get cleaned up and about 10 minutes after ordering our food would come. I just laid a towel out on the ground and we would sit together and have a picnic. We both enjoyed this SO much :)

7.  Last tip..... opt out of dinner.

Dax doesn't get to watch TV at home, I love Annie (and come to find out he does too), and it was just us watching the movie and having some great conversation over dinner. <3


Well I hope this was somewhat helpful! I know before we left for the cruise I search all over the Internet and read every blog and website I could find about cruising with a toddler to help me prepare. These made our life much easier.... so hopefully they help you as well!

Travel with a Tod

8 + hour drive in a car, plus 6 days in a completely new environment completely different from what he's use to had me a little nervous..,
but luckily, things went super smooth. Before leaving on the cruise I found some wonderful blog post on cruising with toddlers that were super helpful giving me some ideas of things to bring with us to make our trip a bit easier. I added some things too, so  I thought I would share some of the must have things to pack that made our trip drastically less stressful.

* Car activities!!!

For the long car ride I made a few different activities for him and also brought a long a couple things that he really likes and I know will keep his attention. One activity I made was small wooden blocks with magnetic tape on the back (top picture) that stuck to a cookie sheet. The blocks were new for him (he got them at Christmas but I hadn't got the out yet for him to play with) so he was pretty excited about that... and the fact that they would stick to the sheet if he picked it up and shook it as hard as he could. I also put magnetic tape on the back of some shapes I cut out of construction paper. He really enjoyed those a lot more than I thought. Next time I'll laminate them first because they got pretty bent up, but they were a last minute addition so i didn't have time. I also had felt pieces from the story The Very Hungry Caterpillar that I had made for my class so I added some magnetic tape to the back of those and he played with them as well (in the last picture you can see the cupcake from the story didn't quite make it back into the bag...it's still hangin out on his shirt). I just kept each activity in a Ziploc baggy inside my "car bag" and pulled them out when I saw him getting antsy.

* Snacks Snacks Snacks!
So over the span of our entire vacation Dax ate way more snacks that I would normally like him to eat (especially processed snacks.. ugh). But, it was vacation... and you have to get by with a toddler in some way. I brought a long some new, different snacks that he hadn't had before, as well as some of his favorites. In most of our pictures from the cruise he can be seen with a snack in his hand. Some times I think it was a security thing for him but I'm ok with that for just one week.

*New cup!
So this is sort of completely random but I wanted to make sure he would drink tons of water when we were going to be in the sun a lot. He loves water in the first place, but I wanted to make it super exciting to drink. We bought some adult water bottles (the kind with the sports lid that you can squirt out of) and he thought those were the coolest things in the world to drink out of. I had no worries whatsoever about him getting dehydrated!

*Diaper Sacks!

These things are AWESOME! I just happened to wonder upon some in the store before we left and thought I would give them a try. They're just the right size for a diaper and are baby powder scented. Dax may be a little boy but he can smell like a man (tmi... maybe) so I was worried what would happen if we had to end up changing a diaper on the side of the road, or even in our room on the cruise (those rooms are pretty small and I did NOT want to be locked in a small space with the smell of a dirty diaper). You just throw the diaper in these bags and tie them up and you never smell ANYTHING but baby powder! They're awesome! I'll be using these regularly that for sure!

*Stroller!
Our stroller was a life saver for sure! It made the entire process of boarding the ship and going through customs SO much easier. It also saved my back by keeping me from carrying my chunky boy around on the ship all the time. We loved just going for walks around the entire ship and people watching with the stroller. If he was in his stroller... he was happy. We have the Combi Cosmo Stroller  (I've mention before how much I love it) and it was the perfect size for the cruise. It's not much bigger than an umbrella stroller, but has the ability for him to lay down and be covered by a sun shade unlike most umbrella strollers. It also folds up pretty small, a must for storing in a small cruise ship cabin.

*Cup Leash!

This isn't the exact one we have but it's pretty similar. These are wonderful! There were so many times that I"m certain we would have lost a cup and not known about it without our cup leash. They wrap around any size cup and you can hook it to the stroller to keep it from falling on the ground. Wonderful! We also used it a lot when he was younger to keep toys from falling on the ground while sitting in highchairs at restaurants. It kept us from losing toys and saved Dax from a lot of germs in his mouth. We got ours at Buy Buy Baby but I have recently seen pins on Pinterest on how to make your own!

* Travel Changing Pads and Bibsters!

*Baby Powder!
Thanks to pinterest I found out that baby powder is a must have for visits to the beach. Sprinkle baby powder on them and the sand rubs right off!! Dax especially appreciated this because he was not a fan of baby powder being stuck to his legs!

* New Toys!
Before going I stocked up on a bunch of small, cheap new toys for Dax to play with on the ship (play dough, painters tape, a fold and car set, small zoo animals, nesting cups, funnels). They were new so he was super excited about them and they were all small so they didn't take up much space in the suitcase. I made sure not to give them to him all at once so I had new things to offer him throughout the week. The painters tape was super fun to pull and tear and stick to things and  the nesting cups and funnels were fun to stack. Our most expensive toy purchase was this...

(Sorry for the blurry picture... best one I could find) It cost a total of $10. The ramps fold up so it didn't take much space at all!


Well those are my must have items to pack for long trips! They were life savers for sure! I'll be posting soon with a few more travel tips that made our vacation successful!