4 Kid-Friendly things to do in Wilmington, NC

Dear World,
As many of you know, I've been having many adventures since my departure from South Carolina. I've been to the Virgin Islands, Puerto Rico, New Jersey, New York, Las Vegas, Florida, Panama, and North Carolina all in the couple of years. What an exciting ride!
We're settled in Carolina Beach, NC for now so I'll share some kid-friendly things we have to offer in this area, in case you're ever wanting to visit.

Downtown Wilmington-
If you like history and/or movies, this is a great place to take a tour! If your children are old enough to appreciate history and old pretty houses, there are a few options. You can hop on the FREE trolley that rides around the downtown area or you can pay to take a horse carriage ride to learn about the history of this fascinating town. (The horses are all rescued clydesdales, which is pretty cool.) From pirates hiding treasure to soldiers fighting in the Revolutionary and Civil Wars, there are plenty of exciting stories to be told about downtown Wilmington. There is even a walking ghost tour if your family is brave enough to try it!
Not the tour type? No worries, there is still plenty to see. There are tons of unique shops around town with plenty of exciting things to offer. One of my personal favorites is the Black Cat Shoppe, which is full of gag gifts and quirky magnets. You can walk along the Cape Fear River and admire the Battleship North Carolina nestled up to the bank on the other side. If you need a break from all of this walking around, there are tons of restaurants to choose from! I personally love the Copper Penny for lunch.
In case it's a rainy day, there is a Children's Museum and a Serpentarium downtown, about a block away from each other. I have not gone to either yet, but they seem like good options to nurture your little one's inquisitive mind.

Battleship NC- 
Across the Cape Fear river from downtown Wilmington, you can see a real battleship! This is set up like a museum, so you pay admission and then explore the boat. I went with my family a few years ago and we spent about three hours guiding ourselves through the enormous vessel. The youngest child with us was about 4 at the time, and he had a blast! There are many rooms full of interesting anecdotes and descriptions, and lots of cool gizmos to see.

A boat so big that this plane fits easily on the deck, with plenty of room to spare!

For more information on visiting the ship, click here to see their website.

Tregembo Animal Park-

I hesitate to call this place a "zoo," because it's kind of small...but that's pretty much what it is. Kids love animals, and this place has a unique opportunity for you. At the entrance to the zoo, you can buy peanuts and corn to feed the animals. THAT'S RIGHT! Against all of the typical zoo rules, you are allowed to feed most of the animals at this place, which is super fun. Obviously, if your child has peanut allergies, you might want to be careful here. This isn't a super big zoo, and can easily be done in a couple of hours.

A few years ago, the people working here let us hold baby alligators. This is my bestie ROCKING an alligator.

Like peacocks? That's good, because they run around freely all over the park.

For more information, you can visit their website here.

Greenfield Park-

Parks are so much fun for kids. (And also free. Free is good.) This one features a lake full of gators, paddle boats for rent, beautiful trees and flowers, ducks, geese, and of course, a playground. I usually hit up this park when I want to take a walk on their pathway and enjoy the nature. Here are some pictures of my Greenfield adventures:

Oh hello, Mr. Cardinal.

What an inviting bench.

Baby gosling following mother goose

Not sure what kind of snake this is, but he was small and friendly!

During warmer times of the year, you can spy alligators sunbathing.

In the spring, you can find an explosion of azalea blossoms. 

Nothing makes you feel like a kid again quite like looking up at towering trees.

More adventures to come!
Love,
Steph

One Mom. One baby. One Awesome Disney Trip! (Part 2)

Dear World,
Recently I started a post about traveling to Disney World with my daughter without another adult. You can read my tips and tricks from the first part of the journey here.

(Part 2)

We left off at the changing station/restrooms, right before diving into the rest of the park. One big change that happened since the last time I've been to Disney was the FastPass system. It used to be set up so you go to a ride's entrance, get a FastPass printout, and come back at the designated time slot on the card. Well, things have changed! Now you go to one kiosk to get all of your FastPasses, but the default amount is three. I think there is a way to upgrade to get more, but three was plenty for us. If I had known about the new system, this would have certainly been our first stop. However, I had no clue, so by the time I figured out where it was, most of the rides I would have wanted a FastPass for were not available anymore. Live and learn. So, if you're planning a trip, make this your very first stop! It is located right behind Cinderella's castle, to the left of the carousel.

After you make your selections, they ask you to take a picture with your phone-- so here it is.

Let's talk about stroller parking. Outside nearly all of the rides, there are little "parking lots" for strollers. There are always employees standing around, sometimes rearranging them so they're all easier to access. There is a huge honor system at work here. Now I'm not saying I would trust leaving a diamond necklace around there, but I wasn't about to lug my diaper bag onto every single ride, so it was left with my stroller, unharmed. I don't think any other parent at Disney World is going to loot your stroller, and I'm pretty sure if someone walks up to a stroller without a baby, that would seem pretty suspicious. If anything does get lost, I'm sure you can report it to the employees and they will keep an eye out for it. I made it through the day with everything in place and no worries.

Congo Connie! I love the boat names.

Anyway, our first ride was the Jungle Cruise. Since the line and the actual ride are all outdoors, this is a good one to start with before it gets too hot. We traveled in March, so the weather wasn't terrible, but if you're going during summer, it helps to know where you can avoid the heat. Knowing that my 9 month old is cool with boats, I thought this would be a good start to see how she reacts to the animatronic robots everywhere. Well, she seemed more fascinated by the other people around us than the actual ride experience. If you've been on the Jungle Cruise, you'll remember that the most entertaining part is your tour guide. Every time I take this ride, I hear a different set of corny jokes. My mom asked us later on if the gun scared my baby, because she remembered the gunshot at the end of the ride. I hadn't remembered a gunshot and probably would have skipped it altogether if that was my expectation, because I know my little one is jumpy. When I was pregnant I saw a human cannonball at the circus. The noise was so loud that it made her jump (in utero). Our guide, probably noticing that there were many small children on the boat, acted like he was about to shoot the gun, holding it up and warning us "this might be loud," and instead yelled "GET OUT OF HERE!" Whew. Dodged a bullet there, so to speak.
We went to retrieve the stroller after the Jungle Cruise and headed down towards the "Liberty Square" area. We skipped the Pirates ride and the Haunted Mansion, because baby is jumpy. However, these are both a lot of fun if you think your little one is up for it. The Pirates ride has a pretty intense dip towards the beginning, which makes me nervous about holding a little baby. She may have loved it, who knows. But if she didn't, there would be a screaming child ruining everyone else's time for the whole ride...so I wasn't going to take my chances. The Haunted Mansion is intended to be scary-ish, so that's a no brainer for me.
Our next ride was It's a Small World, which happens to be my favorite. This also turned out to be baby's favorite! She looked around all over the place and was so excited that she didn't want to stay sitting. I let her stand on my lap (while I securely held her, praying she wouldn't try to jump overboard) as she looked all around at the dancing "dollies." It's a Small World is awesome because the boat ride is slow and gentle, the line always moves pretty quickly, and there is sweet, sweet air conditioning. The line is mostly indoors. This is a good relaxing break from the sun.

"It's a Small World"= Air conditioning

The Peter Pan line was pretty long and we didn't get a FastPass for it, so we unfortunately skipped that ride. After It's a Small World, baby fell asleep, which meant it was lunch time for me!
I asked an employee where a restaurant was that allows strollers. Many of the restaurants have stroller parking, much like the rides, and don't allow strollers inside. The recommendation I got was Cosmic Ray's over in Tomorrowland. This worked out because our first FastPass was for the Buzz Lightyear ride, which is my second favorite. We made our way over to Cosmic Ray's where I ordered a barbecue sandwich and fries, and a giant bottled water in an attempt to stay hydrated. An employee carried the tray for me so I could push the stroller to a table. It is always helpful to find an extra set of hands! If you're doing this alone and nobody offers to help you with something like that, just ask. People are happy to help. I chowed down and was just finishing in time for baby to wake up. While she was still in the stroller, I quickly visited the restroom before getting her back in the Kinderpack.

Stroller nap= lunchtime for the mama

After lunch, we got through the FastPass line to the Buzz Lightyear ride. We literally waited five minutes, which is why the FastPass is awesome. Baby enjoyed the ride because there was a  big red joystick that moved our car around. She started playing with that and was having a blast!
Our next ride was Dumbo, which she didn't seem very impressed with. This ride also has a joystick that you can use to make your car go up and down, but ours didn't work. This is another outdoor ride, so I was feeling the need for air conditioning again. We headed over to the very back of Fantasyland, which has also been renovated since my last visit. There used to be an area called "Toon town" where you could tour Minnie Mouse's house. This has been replaced by circus-themed areas. We went into a giant tent to meet Daisy Duck and Minnie Mouse. There is a cute outdoor splash area where little ones can cool off. Since baby isn't walking yet, we skipped that, but did purchase a stroller fan because it was getting pretty warm out.
I could feel my energy winding down, so I wanted to go ahead and get our last FastPass out of the way, which was meeting Ariel. The Little Mermaid ride had a super short line, so we squeezed that in first. Baby totally freaked out when she saw Ursula. Screams everywhere. Also, despite the very quickly moving line, the ride was stopped. While we were in the room with Ursula. Greeeat. Baby cried the rest of the ride and calmed down after I got her out and back in the Kinderpack, which is her safe place. We then headed over to "Ariel's Grotto" which was super charming. Baby really liked Ariel and started petting her fin! Ariel was a pro, so I'm sure she's used to that sort of thing.
Baby was clearly tired, as evidenced by the screaming fit on the last ride, so we started making our way to the park exit. She fell asleep in the Kinderpack and slept through a very noisy parade on Main Street! Once the parade was over, we had access to leave the park.

Stoked about the parade.

Overall, I think the trip was a success. If I could do it differently, there isn't much I would change. Stay tuned, next time I'll be blogging about our trip to Puerto Rico!

Love,
Stephanie

One mom. One baby. One awesome Disney trip! (Part 1)

Dear World,
So I keep reading on the internet about how it might be considered "crazy" to take a baby to Disney World, since they won't remember any of it. But I have also read that it can be very worthwhile, because the babies can still have a good time, regardless of whether they remember it or not. (That's what pictures are for, right?) So let's throw another wrench in the equation. What if you're taking a baby to Disney World by yourself?

Being in charge of a baby by yourself is pretty hard, but does that mean you shouldn't get a vacation? I'm thinking no. Whatever your situation may be, whether you're single, have a deployed husband, or just feel like taking some one-on-one time with your little one, I'm here to share my experience and tell you it IS possible!

So, step one for us was traveling to Florida. I shared my experiences with flying/packing/etc in my previous post.

One of the charming sights in Downtown Disney

Our visit was relatively short, so I decided to do Downtown Disney and the Magic Kingdom. If you've never been to Downtown Disney, it's basically a place to go shopping. (Plus it's free to get in, so that's a plus). There are some super restaurants, as well as Disney Quest and Cirque Du Soleil, which would be great for bigger kids/adults. However, we were just here to shop and gawk at all the stuff. As pictured above, I got the iconic Mickey ears for my little one, and a few other cute accessory items. I thought it would be best to do souvenir shopping first, so I'm not as tempted at the actual park to lug around a bunch of items throughout the day. For myself, I scored a sweet Darth Vader tank top, which I ended up wearing at the park the next day. (Yep, I'm a Star Wars nerd.)

Dino themed restaurant? Yes please.

After shopping around, we enjoyed this street performer/human robot for a while, and then called it a day.

The main attraction awaits. Magic Kingdom. Oh man I was so excited.

So, how do you pack for the actual park? I had been reading that a reclining stroller is a good idea for naps. I have one of those "travel systems" where the car seat snaps into the stroller. Even though my little girl is big enough for the stroller without the car seat, the way it positions makes napping easier with the car seat in: 

This way there are also two shades providing full coverage from the Florida sun.

The only cumbersome part about the stroller/car seat was getting it to and from the parking lot. If you have been to Disney before, you might recall there are little trams that take you from your car to the park. If you have a car seat/stroller/bunch of stuff, sit at the END car. They are slightly bigger because they have two benches instead of one. I sat at the end on the way in, but didn't think about it on the way out and had a heck of a time getting the car seat in and out of the tiny bench. Thankfully another mama was there and offered help. Shout out to that awesome mama. 

Other than that little snafu, I was totally glad to have the stroller. I'm a babywearing nut, and barely ever use the stroller, but when you are by yourself with the baby all day it's good to have the it so you can use the restroom and eat without too much fuss. Now, that being said, I did have my Kinderpack with me and actually used it most of the day, but when baby fell asleep, into the stroller she went! 

So from the parking lot tram, we boarded the Ferry. You could also choose the monorail, but the Ferry seems a lot more spacious and exciting.

Note: The employees claim the monorail and the boat take the same amount of time. If you're itching to get inside quickly, I'm guessing the monorail is actually quicker, due to more efficiency with loading/unloading. I could be wrong. However, I like to take my time and soak in the views, so I was not disappointed with my choice. 

Who doesn't love a good boat ride?

For children under 2 years of age, it is 100% free admission. For myself, not so much, but it evens out since baby was free. Upon arrival, she was given a "First trip to Disney" pin (also free)! I pinned it on my diaper bag for the day. Once inside the gates of the Magic Kingdom, we headed down Main Street to get some pictures. There are professional photographers all over the park. When they snap a picture of you, they will give you a card to give to everyone else to track your photos. You can download them all later for 200 dollars, or at a certain price per picture. The actual price escapes me, but if you plan on taking advantage of the 200 dollar unlimited package, you might as well get as many pictures as possible. This includes the random ones taken during rides. Just get your picture card to register the photo after the ride, and you'll be able to download it later. 

Now, for those of you who don't want to spend 200 dollars on pictures (because let's be honest, that's twice the price of admission for one adult), there was an INGENIOUS invention I saw people using throughout the park. I had never seen these before, but have seen/heard of them since then. It is called a "selfie stick." It holds your phone far away to actually get everyone in the picture. Brilliant, right??! I did not see any for purchase at the park, so if this is the way you want to go, make sure you pick one up in your hometown or order it from the internet before your vacation. I've seen them advertised at our local tourist trap/beach gear/buy hermit crabs here type store, so I'm guessing they are not terribly expensive. 

After soaking in the sights and sounds of Main Street, we headed over to the baby station. This little area is amazing. If you take a left off of Main Street towards Adventureland, there are restrooms and the baby room tucked away in a little corner (with well marked signs). So let's talk diapers.

This is Disney World. There are changing tables in every women's room. (Can't speak for the Men's room, sorry fellas.) Not the junky small Koala Care things, but an actual built in segment of the counter designated for changing diapers. However, in the baby station, there's so much more:

That's right, they're padded. Mmm.

Not only is there this adorable changing room, but there's a mellow little feeding room where I saw some toddlers watching cartoons and having snacks. That's awesome. My only complaint was that the grown up restroom in there wasn't accommodating for a stroller, so I wheeled over to the regular restrooms next door to take advantage of a generously sized end stall.
Disney is also smart enough to sell diapering accessories in case you run out. Isn't that thoughtful?

After getting freshened up, we were ready to hit the rest of the park! Stay tuned for Part 2, where I discuss where to eat that is stroller-friendly, and taking baby on the rides! 

Love,

Stephanie

How to Fly Solo with a Baby

Thinking about taking a vacation with your baby? Nobody else is going with you? I've got you covered!

Last week, I accomplished something that would make a lot of people nervous. I took my 9 month old baby on a plane. By myself. No matter what your situation may be, whether you're single, have a deployed husband, or just happen to be traveling without another adult, you'll have to do some extra planning to make sure you can carry everything. So I'm sharing what I did to give you ideas!

1. Plan ahead- That's why you're reading this, right? I decided quasi-last minute to take my baby to Florida for a 30th birthday celebration for myself. However, even though the decision was last minute, I still considered every detail very carefully. Upon my research, and while buying the plane ticket, there was mention of potentially needing to bring baby's birth certificate because she is under the age of 2. When you don't buy a separate seat for your baby, he/she will still get a boarding pass. Some people at security will ask for the birth certificate, some won't. Really it's a game of luck, like many other things at airports. Instead of a birth certificate (how cumbersome!) I packed her passport. Small, easy to carry/store, not going to get crumpled up in a mess. Perfect. It turned out that I didn't even need it.

Mama's on the left, Baby's on the right. Top flap.

2. Pack the gear. So the big question when bringing baby along, is what gear do you take? For this trip, I brought the stroller, the carseat, and a soft structured carrier (God's gift to moms with puny arms.) I was able to check the carseat and stroller for free, which is another thing to research with whichever airline you choose. I also checked our suitcase, because I'm not lugging that around. I really struggled with the idea of taking the stroller, because I really don't use it much, but decided that it would be worthwhile as a solution for transporting all of the stuff:

Meet my free luggage cart.

The other issue of packing is trying to guesstimate how many diapers to pack. I threw an unopened small bag of diapers in, hoping to use them and free up room for souvenirs. In retrospect, the whole bag was way too much for our very short visit, so I should have left more space/brought a bigger suitcase. Live and learn.

3. Lodging- Something to keep in mind when traveling with baby is your sleeping arrangements! Do you really want to pack that pack n play to lug around? Probably not if you have to lug it all by yourself. Some hotels offer "cribs" for you to use at no additional charge, which is totally what we did. And by "cribs," I mean the hotel's pack n play.

Complete with sheets!

4. Transportation- Do you want to take taxis everywhere? If you're like me, then the answer is no. I love accidentally discovering things when I'm being a tourist (read: getting lost). I also like the freedom to just hop in the car whenever I feel like it, without having to wait on a cab. Plus, my little one naps really well in cars but not if you try to take her out. So, rental was the obvious choice for us. However, if you happen to have friends living in your destination city, you could save a lot of money by allowing them to be your super-awesome chauffeur. 

Note: I have been the chauffeur/host before, and it can get annoying and exhausting, so please bribe them by paying for dinner or something of this nature. Especially if you're also crashing in their house. If you can't afford dinner, make them a trinket. Something. Anything. 

5. Tips for the actual flight- Don't worry, I'm not going to tell you to make cutesy little party favors for other passengers to apologize in advance for having a baby with you. Nobody has time for that, especially people who travel alone. 

Carrying baby around-I have a Kinderpack, which is an amazing soft structured carrier. I use this to carry baby in the airport, onto the plane, etc. My diaper bag can be worn as a backpack, so I basically wear them both and have my hands free to text/take pictures/etc. This way I don't have to worry about folding down the ginormous stroller and wearing out my arms when I have to walk stroller-less to the back of the plane where my seats always are. 

Ear Pressure- When most people fly, they keep gum handy to prompt them to swallow to deal with popping your ears to adjust to the pressure changes during take-off and landing. If your baby is breastfed, then that's what you'll need to do to prevent discomfort from the pressure change. If your baby is bottle-fed, same thing. Have something ready for baby to swallow so those darling little ears don't hurt. I intentionally had both aisle and window seats just to see if I had a preference for either while nursing. I guess the window seat is better if you care about privacy. I kind of don't, so I was comfortable at both. (Although if you're going to have a super long flight, think about if you want other people crawling over your lap to get to the bathroom.)

Entertainment- Depending on the length of your flight, you'll want to have an arsenal of entertaining things to occupy your wiggle worm as you travel, confined to one seat. Babies love new stuff, so maybe get a few new toys/books/random items for your little one to investigate on the plane. Our longest flight was around two hours, and I just made sure to keep her favorite distractions at arm's reach in my diaper bag. My baby also happens to be a people watcher, so keeping her entertained in a plane full of strangers was a piece of cake.Baby ended up falling asleep in my arms for half of our flights, so that was nice too. 

At the end of the day, you know your baby's personality and patience limits better than anyone else, so you are the most qualified person to decide if he/she is ready for a flight! Good luck, mamas!

Love,
Stephanie

The Dirty Thirty

Dear World,
I've noticed many of my friends make a really big deal out of turning 30. In a way, the 30s are supposed to be like the new 20s. The 20s are basically the last chapter of childhood because young people like to not grow up as quickly as they used to. I had my fair share of fun in my 20s. I'm not sure if I sat down and made a list of things to accomplish in that decade, but if I did, it probably looked like this:
-College
-Get married
-Have babies

Check, check, and check. (Barely squeaked the last one in!) For the majority of my 20s, I dated (on and off) the guy who turned out to be my husband. We got married in New Orleans almost two years ago. We welcomed our beautiful baby into the world about nine months ago. So I accomplished my big goals. I did college. I got married. I had a baby.
But, I ended up accomplishing some other cool stuff too. Here are the highlights:
-Finished Master's degree, started a Ph.D. (Which I will return to someday.)
-Presented at an education conference
-Got published
-Got nominated for Teacher of the Year
-Lived on a tropical island
-Went snorkeling
-Flew on a plane by myself
-Had some cool cats (Especially Moobies, the living embodiment of Garfield)

Now it's time to look ahead to my 30s! While I won't be taking a crazy vacation to get drunk somewhere cool with my friends, I will be celebrating with a trip. I'm taking my baby on a plane (her first time) to Florida! While it could be more glamorous, I think a small trip is a good start for her.

After much deliberation, here are my big goals for the 30s:
-Get KangaTu released (website isn't live yet)
-Work on that Ph.D. a little more
-Have another baby
-Move back to a tropical island, possibly live on a boat

Obviously, getting the website up and running is the biggest priority on my list of goals. I will be blogging to keep everyone updated on the progress of the site and with fun mom adventures.
I always like to include pictures, so here is a sneak peek of a logo concept we're working on:

Copyright of KangaTu. Don't steal it.

You'll hear from me about my Florida adventures soon!

Love,
Stephanie