It seems like just yesterday that we were in the early stages of planning a Disney cruise, and yet… Here we are in March, having returned from the Western Caribbean over a week ago. Given that it’s still relatively fresh in my mind, I thought I’d put pen to paper (so to speak) and hammer out a review of our trip. With all that transpired, I hope I don’t leave out anything major… [more]

This is just a quick note to wish you all a (slightly belated) Happy New Year! We just returned from a trip to visit family (where we got a much-needed dose of snow) and are still recovering. All in all, things went very well.

We had actually planned to stay home for the holidays, but I snagged a great deal on airfare, so we decided to go visit the grandparents (on my side). And we actually managed to keep the nature of our trip a secret until we pulled into the airport!

We live about an hour and a half from the “big city” (and the airport) and the boys only knew that we were going on a fun trip to the city. They were under the (mistaken) impression that we were going to drive in and spend some time away from home doing semi-local stuff. Imagine their surprise when we ended up pulling into the airport and jetting of to visit family…

The outbound trip was uneventful, but tiring. We flew Christmas evening after having gotten up early for the usual festivities. But the return trip was a snap. We even managed to turn it into a nap flight for Son #4 (we didn’t push the sleep thing on the outbound trip since it was an evening flight and we wanted them to sleep when we got there).

So there you have it… We’re back, the trip was great, and we’re now settling back into our routine.

We’ve previously written about the life of a third child, and how you need to be careful not to let their needs slip between the cracks. Well, it turns out that the same sorts of things need to be said in defense of the fourth child, as well…

My lovely and talented wife was recently gathering the necessary paperwork to get passports for herself and the kids (I applied for my passport awhile back). When it got down to Son #4, she couldn’t find his birth certificate — all she could come up with was the unofficial “mother’s copy.” It seems that we managed to get through the first 2+ years of his life without having applied for his official birth certificate! Whoops! This is why we’ve lovingly labeled him “One Child Left Behind.”

Fortunately, getting the official copy was straightforward… We simply had to fill a bit of information on the unofficial copy, enclose a small fee, and mail it in.

This just in from the Department of Homeland Security…

The Bush administration is expected to announce on Thursday that it will exempt children from new rules that will require people to show passports when entering the U.S. at land or sea borders.

In case you haven’t heard, new passport restrictions that went into effect in late January require a passport when entering this country from North, Central, or South America as well as the Carribean (and Bermuda). Previously, U.S. and Canadian citizens were allowed to enter the U.S. from select countries if they presented a birth certificate or driver’s license, and some Mexicans could enter without a passport if they had a special border crossing card.

Under the expected announcement, kids 15 and under will be allowed to cross the borders at land and sea entry points with a certified copy of their birth certificates rather than passports. Moreover, kids aged 16-18 traveling with school, religious, cultural or athletic groups and under adult supervision will be allowed to travel with only their birth certificates.

Children entering the U.S. by air will still have to show passports, which means that the passports that we just applied for on behalf of our kids won’t go to waste…

[Source: NPR]

(Hat tip to my lovely and talented wife for finding this.)

Son #4 had some “intestinal distress” on the drive back home from Disney World. Since we had been visiting Florida, I hadn’t packed very many pairs of long pants. As we drove further north the weather became very chilly. Unfortunately for him, he had exhausted his supply of long pants because of the illness. What to do? I decided to use my big cozy sweatshirt to keep him warm. I turned the sweatshirt upside down, stuck his little legs in the arm holes, and pulled the rest of the sweatshirt up and over his body. It worked perfectly! He had a warm and cozy “bunting” to snuggle in for the rest of the journey. (And thankfully he didn’t soil the sweatshirt.)

We’re looking for a nice family-type vacation spot along the Florida panhandle that would be suitable for a 3-5 day trip in mid-February. Does anyone have any recommendations? We’re looking for both general information (cities and whatnot) as well as specific information (e.g., hotel/resort recommendations and things to do). Please don’t be shy…

After a whirlwind week at Disney World, we arrived home Friday night just in time to take our sick two year old to the pediatrician before they closed for the weekend. As it turns out, there’s been a nasty RSV (respiratory syncytial virus) making the rounds, and he came down with it about halfway through our vacation. Fever, coughing, gagging, a bit of vomiting, and some sleepless nights… Just what you want to experience in the midst of a vacation while living out of a suitcase in a hotel. The good news is that he hasn’t developed a secondary infection (yet) and he’s finally turned the corner and is feeling better. Anyway, things around here are now slowly returning to normal… The only remaining problem is that we now need a vacation to recover from our vacation!

We’re a little over halfway through our Disney World vacation, and I wanted to share a bit about how we got a ‘discount’ on our park tickets. First off, I should say that Disney is pretty stingy when it comes to getting a ‘deal’ on park admission — people will pretty much pay what they’re asking when it comes to ticket prices, and they know it. But if you vacation there fairly regularly, you can create your own deal by buying a multi-day pass and splitting it across trips. This is what we did, and I thought I’d explain how it works… [more]

I’m writing this from a hotel room in Orlando (actually Lake Buena Vista) where we’re on vacation at Disney World for the week. We’re two days into our vacation (three if you count the drive). Day One was spent at Epcot (with a quick bit of ParkHopped to the Magic Kingdom at the end of the day), and Day Two was Disney/MGM Studios. Tomorrow we’re laying low for a day to check out the resorts, bop around Downtown Disney, and recover before two more days at the parks. Next up, Magic Kingdom followed by Animal Kingdom (and more than likely a bit more ParkHopping).

If you’ve ever flown with kids, you know how nice it is when they conk out and take a nap for most the your time in the air. Well, I’m here to tell you that you don’t necessarily have to resort to sedating your kids to get them to sleep when you’re travelling. Rather, whenever we fly, we tell our kids that we’re on a “Nap Flight”. A “Nap Flight” is defined as a leg of the flight when everybody has to take a nap — except, of course, for the cockpit crew and the flight attendants. Granted, we don’t travel by air that much, but to this day, our eight year old will still ask, “Is this a nap flight?” before boarding an airplane. If your child is a little more skeptical, start pointing to people on the plane and say, “Look… He’s going to take a nap. She’s going to take a nap.” And so on, until they’re convinced. You’ll be amazed. This has worked wonders for us, and may work for you too!