Di$ney

We’re closing in on our 45 day mark for Disney which means I’ve just paid the balance owing on our vacation and I’m really left wondering what happened.



Our vacation started out with a great room only rate for a deluxe resort (Wilderness Lodge) and it has morphed into an expensive beast. Flying is expensive* and I’ve always maintained that by not flying we’ve saved a lot of money. Now I know that is true. Here is the example:

Driving
$400/gas - estimate of stopping 4x each way, not including gas onsite
$200/hotel – estimate for 2 hotels (one each way)
$100/food – estimate for 1 breakfast, 2 lunch, 2 dinner.
TOTAL: $600

Flying –
$1200 – 3 return airline tickets
$250 – 2 week rental car (not including gas)
$300 – 2 nights at airport hotel (we are arriving late at night and leaving early in the AM)
$160 – estimate for Airport Parking/Airport Limo if we can’t convince my mother to drop us off/pick us up.
$50 – estimate for 2 dinners
TOTAL - $1960

I’ve calculated we are paying $50 for every hour of driving we are saving. I can see why I’ve won this argument in the past.

The vacation itself went from 7 nights at a Deluxe resort to 12 at a value (twice the time for the same price), upgraded to include free dining that is actually only saving us $50 (entire vacation) because it meant we couldn’t use our cheap room only rate. Then there is the special event ticket for Mickey’s Not So Scary Halloween Party ($110), pre-purchasing our PhotoPass CD ($100), tickets to “The Wizarding World of Harry Potter” ($185 for ONE day!!) and on and on and on…

Holy $%*& The mou$e really got us this time!!!

*Flying could have been cheaper if we had done the following (I refused all):
- Left from Buffalo, New York
- Considered Charter flights
- Purchased only 2 adult tickets

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Stuff

I'm, uh, still working on that post about our totally fabulous vacation but I'm extremely lazy when it comes to getting on a computer with an SD slot. In the meantime, I thought I'd write what's been going on in the 2 weeks since we've been back!

- I didn't end up going to my Aunt's bridal shower this weekend. The icing on the cake was that not only did she plan her own shower (so tacky) but she asked for cash in lieu of gifts to help pay for her husband's immigration expense. I couldn't do it. I do not want to be a victim of this as well, I don't want my money involved and I don't want to fake happiness for my Aunt who I think has acted foolishly.

-We've found out where our beloved fertility doctor has moved and she's completely "betrayed us" by going to our previous clinic, the one we HATE. Using her is no longer an option since she's the assistant to the RE that I despise the most and would prefer to never see again. So now our options remain the same as when we didn't know where she was. We either stay at our current clinic with the doctor that we haven't met or we check out the Dr. at our old clinic that has come highly recommended by several people. My apprehension with going to the recommended Dr was being at our old clinic and the chance of the above mentioned RE that I hate performing a procedure on me however; it seems there may have even been a development there as well. The recommended doctor used to be listed as part the clinic's team and displayed prominently on their website as such. She's now tucked away on a hidden part of the website under "affiliated physician" (I had to search to find her). This means she uses the facility for IVF but is officially a private practice. Since I'm not supposed to be talking about TTC #2 until October at the earliest, I'm only going to add that the ONLY thing tying me to the clinic we're with right now is the guided ultrasound IUI. I can't ignore the claim that guided IUI has a 50% higher success rate. I had one guided IUI and only one BFP.

-I've started working on Sadie's bedroom and I'm completely overwhelmed by it. I was pretty excited to start painting last weekend, cleared out a bunch of stuff to our basement storage and packed what was left (mostly) into her closet. I was excited to assemble her bed and didn't even want to wait the 72 hours I needed to prep her mattress. Everything was good until I clued in that I should have painted the interior of the closet FIRST. Oops, remember, it's now FULL. Not only that, I'd bought new bi-fold closet doors and those need to be primed and painted before being hung. So while I'd like to do things quick and dirty I'm going to need to be patient. Patience so far has meant a complete lack of forward momentum. Sadie's new bed is blocking half of the stairs to basement and stuff is starting to pile up again. Where are we going to stash stuff we take away from Sadie when we lose that room to good use?

-I'm on new meds. I know I've come on here a lot with my woes but I never really talk much about where I am with my treatment or what's going on. My doctor had raised my old meds to the highest dose I had ever been on. It took a few months before it really sunk in that the new dose was doing more harm than good. I was angry all the time. I was constantly fighting with D and even had a few embarrassing public outbursts including a moment of road rage where I flipped off someone who in turn slammed on their brakes in front of me and came at my car waving their fists saying they were going to kill me. That was a wake up call that I needed to stop with my constant need to instigate shit (online, at home, in public) or I was going to get myself in trouble. I mentioned to my doctor how I felt and she wanted me off my meds ASAP. Apparently when you start feeling homicidal rage, it's not a good thing. I have to admit I was sceptical about switching. My meds had worked for me for so long (15 years) but things had changed after I had played around with them during TTC and being pregnant. I'm now on Zoloft and I'm feeling good. There were moments when I thought I was doomed during the switchover but the result has been a calmness I haven't felt in years. I'm also supposed to be going for Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT) but right now I'm not sure what I'm going to do about that. The clinic I have been referred to charges $195/hour and I have a pathetic $500/year in coverage.

-Sadie is in the early stages of terrible twos and for now it's pretty adorable. She fake cries a lot and throws little tantrums. We can see her checking to see if we're watching. The other day I walked out of the kitchen and left her on the floor crying. Next thing she was toddling down the hall with her hands fanned out over her eyes (so she could see) trying to find me. Sorry sweetie, I'm calling your bluff! She's also started to do some annoying "get our attention" tactics like driving her baby doll stroller right into the dog. Her baby doll stroller is one of the first things that are banished to her unfinished bedroom each day. She continues to be "active" and completely fearless. My co-worker called her "more like a boy" the other day and I have to admit I've noticed that too. I love the fact that she's leaning towards being a tomboy. She's NOT like the other little girls she plays with (or pushes over). She loves trucks, trains and cars. She loves her baby doll too, I think it adds weight to the stroller for when she's running after the dog. Oh, and RUNNING.... We took down the baby gate the was blocking her from entering the kitchen from our dining room and she has since taken to running in a giant circle through the kitchen, into the dining room, through the living room and back into the kitchen. Over and over... catching her for a diaper change is now EXTREMELY difficult!!


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NYC

10 months:

18 months:

I haven't had the chance I thought I would to blog because WiFi has been surprisingly sparse or billed at $13/night! Bummer. I have a great trip report to publish when we get home though!

On the road to Philly

I'm going to try to do something completely different this vacation - blog as I go! That way I won't feel guilty when I don't have a documented trip report.

We hit the road yesterday to make it down to the Philadelphia area a day before the borders were likely going to be madness (Canada Day). This is our 4th roadtrip of that length (8 hours) with Sadie and I'm starting to feel like a pro! We left at 7:30 AM and arrived at our destination at 6:30 PM. It was a long day and I was tired but Sadie held up remarkably well.

How we entertained Sadie:

"Learn to Play Piano with Elmo". This book is a lot of fun. It comes with a small keyboard attached and inside are songs to play on it. The best part is the "piano" is a nice sound (crazy, right?) and doesn't get annoying at all. Sadie loves pounding on the keyboard and if she ever lets us, I bet playing the litte songs will be fun too!
"AquaDoodle Travel n Doodle". This is pretty cool. You fill a "pen" with water and it scribbles in blue. Sadie loves it and it works out amazing for when she decides to draw on herself, her Mommy, her car seat, etc.

And of course, we had the holy grail of road trip sanity, my iPhone, loaded with episodes of Mickey Mouse Clubhouse. What would we do without it??? I love my iPhone!!

One last secret to our success was letting Sadie have time to be a kid. Normally we'd rush a trip like this to try to get to our destination as quickly as possible but from now on we'll save that for when we fly. We decided to stop at the half way mark for some "fun" at the Discovery Center in Binghamton, NY. We LOVE this place and were happy to fit it into our schedule.

Eating Lunch at the "Story Garden"

Peter Rabit's Garden

When we get home we're getting her a broom!

Holy Cow!

Shopping at the Grocery Store!
Pooping at the Grocery Store (Isn't it good we toilet train?)

It was a great day! We arrived just in time for dinner and went to The Cheesecake Factory. They are great with kids and gave Sadie a little plate with bread and banana to snack on waiting for our food. We had a HUGE meal and then brought Cheesecake back to our Hotel! Coming soon will be "HOw to gain 40lbs while vacationing with J & D". haha

SunBLOG

This summer I’ve decided (because who are we kidding, I’m the crazy one, not D) that we’re going to invest in organic sunscreen. I’m big on the idea of covering up and avoiding but my I know I need to loosen up a bit and let my kid see the sun.


Our pre-organic favourite sunscreen is Ombrelle Kids by L’Oreal Paris. We used it last year and we’ve mostly been using it this year (more on that later). All of my research has come from EWG.org who state that only 17% of sunscreens on the market effectively block UVA/UVB, remain stable in sunlight and contain “few if any ingredients with significant known or suspected health hazards”. I would highly suggest taking a minute to go and search the sunscreen brand you are using to see how it rates (0-2 Low Hazard, 3-6 Moderate Hazard, 7-10 High Hazard) because some of the most popular brands (Banana boat Baby (rated 6), Coppertone Kids (rated 3-5) and Aveeno Baby (rated 4-7)) are hit and miss. Our sunscreen wasn’t too bad at (rated 4) and I’m ok to keep it as our “primary non-organic brand”, at least for now. During pregnancy I did use Banana boat Sport which has recently had press stating it is connected to birth defects. Crazy, right? We SLATHER this shit on ourselves and our kids. It’s not a small amount of hand cream so it’s hard to read stuff like that.

So far finding an organic sunscreen that we like has been a challenge. We’re used to the feel and texture of non-organic and organic sunscreen doesn’t compare. We’re also used to pretty smelling sunscreen (Coconut!), and organic sunscreen.... bleh. It’s like wanting delivery and getting stuck with a frozen pizza.

After researching A LOT of the options, I’d narrowed down two sunscreens we’d try. I’ve looked at so many EWG (ewg.org) reports and most of the sunscreens I’ve investigated have rated a 1 or 2 yet they have varied when looking at certain chemicals and UVA/UVB protection. At the top of my list and the two we’ve purchased were Badger and Green Beaver. I liked these two because they both have an “Excellent” UVA protection when many of the others were ranked as “Good”. They also got major bonus points for being available at Whole Foods and as such, are readily available for me to test and buy.

Badger: (rated 1) This stuff is THICK. Sadie looks like she hasn’t bathed in days after a single application. My mother hates it so much that she has practically been dumpster diving at our house to find any sunscreen other than it. I’m not kidding, she’s actually retrieved sunscreen (Banana boat baby) out of the depths of our bathroom cabinet. We’re going to use the rest of the tube ( 87ml/$16.99) and future purchases are TBD. FYI – I’d used this on my friend’s foster son who has very very dark African skin and he turned MAUVE and glittered a bit. So if your kid isn’t fair like Sadie, don’t buy this, it doesn’t blend well on pigmented skin.

Green Beaver: (rated 1) I like this stuff, sort of. It isn’t as greasy as Badger but it still has an odd consistency and it smells like a potato chip when you’re applying it. Also, it feels sticky on your skin when you first put it on but good after it’s been on for the 20 min before sun exposure. Overall I think this is our top choice so far (90 ml/$19.99).

Other brands we’ve looked at include:

Nature’s Gate – Lower rated so we avoided, rated a 2 when the other Organic Sunscreens we were looking at were rated 1.
Heiko – I couldn’t find a rating on this but it was a mud like colour, similar to a mud mask. It didn’t seem greasy but it was very hard to work in.
Alba – This is 3rd on my list for available lotions at Whole Foods it’s only downfall is that it’s UVA rating is “Good” instead of excellent.

I’m looking for feedback on the following I can't in Canada:
Earth’s Best
California Baby

Is anyone else trying Organic? What do you think?

Sooo Upset

I know this isn't "end of the world" but I have Pink Eye and I just woke up to my second eye being infected.
I'm upset by it because we are going away Thursday and now I'm a complete mess. Further, everything I'm reading says days 5-7 are the worst and that is when we're going to be at Sesame Place. Parent's are going to love seeing me at the park!
I'm praying Sadie doesn't catch it too but it seems impossible that she won't. I mean, she sleeps 2 inches from my face. I've been trying to get her to NOT touch my eyes but it's pretty hard. She's going to get it and then we're really screwed.
D has had Pink Eye as an adult and it seemed to clear up quickley but this is VIRAL so no antibiotic drops for me! Online it says it can take a month to clear up? WTF???
What am I going to do? The trip is NOT refundable. We have prepaid A LOT of money ($600 for hotel in NYC, alone).

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Lasagne for Dinner