We were told about the Guest Assistance Card (GAC) before our trip and were encouraged to talk to Guest Services when we got to Disney. It’s fairly easy – you tell someone at Guest Services what the nature of the disability is in regards to what accommodations are needed. Based on what you tell them, they provide one of three different GAC passes. The pass is good for your entire stay at all parks, and allows the disabled guest and their family to stay together for any rides.

Cordy’s GAC

I was nervous about asking for the card – while Cordy’s autism can make situations difficult, I worried that she wasn’t “disabled enough” to deserve a GAC. (The Guest Services folks were amazingly kind about the whole thing, though.) I was also a little embarrassed about using it at first, feeling like I was cheating by getting to use the Fast Pass entrance instead of the standard lines. I worried we were being judged.

But then I tried to remind myself that it took a lot more energy for us to go from attraction to attraction, and we often needed more downtime for Cordy, so we really weren’t getting to more rides and attractions than any other family in the park. And OH did it make the experience SO much better for our little ball of anxiety! Without that pass, we wouldn’t have been able to get through more than one or two rides at most before she would have felt overwhelmed and been done. Or worse – annoyed everyone else around her and ruined their day. And even with the pass it still wasn’t all roses and butterflies, but it was a huge improvement.

So I was horrified when I read a New York Post story stating that a new trend in visiting Disney for an elite group of rich NYC moms is to hire a disabled person to pose as a “family member” for the day, allowing the family to use that person’s Guest Assistance Card to “skip the lines” and enter through the alternate entrance.

Yes, you read that right. Moms and their families, all perfectly healthy, free of disabilities, cutting their wait times for rides to nearly nothing all because of their newly hired “distant cousin” who is handicapped and has the ability to bypass the general line.

Before you say, “But we all know that the rich can buy their way to the front of the line with anything, so what’s the big deal?” consider this: Disney already has a VIP Tour Guide service the wealthy can pay for that will provide a Fast Pass for rides. The VIP Fast Pass will get them to the front of the line nearly as fast as a GAC access. It costs a little more, but what’s a few more dollars to those with this kind of privilege?

(It’s also possible to reduce your wait time to practically nothing through using the free Fast Pass system and doing a little planning. But I suppose that’s too much work for them.)

No, I don’t think it’s about the money. Rather, it’s about the smug satisfaction of telling your fellow rich moms at the next playdate how you gamed the system and had your own pet “cripple” (ugh, I hate that word, but it gets the sentiment across) to grant you your privilege and make you feel even more special.

Because an official Disney VIP tour guide? That’s something anyone can get! Having your own disabled fake family member, on the other hand, is only for the 1% insiders who know the secret of how to hire them.

What kind of self-absorbed idiot would willingly and knowingly take advantage of an accommodation for the disabled for their own selfish reasons? I can’t wrap my mind around what would assure someone that this was a great idea, other than they’ve lost all shame and humanity in their black hearts. The Evil Queen would be proud.

Beyond that, I’m appalled at the message this sends to their children. They’re being taught that the rules of the world don’t apply to them, and that the struggles of others can be exploited for their own gain. That any obstacle in their way, or any special exception allowed to someone else but not them, can be bypassed by throwing money at it. Good luck when those entitled kids become teenagers and will do anything to get their way.

I worry that behavior like this will force Disney World to tighten its restrictions on the GAC pass, making it harder to obtain and possibly denying some people who really do need it. Few places offer accommodations with such generosity as Disney, but any increase in the abuse of these accommodations might cause them to rethink their policy.

I’d hope that the actions of a few despicable people wouldn’t affect those who legitimately qualify for it, and I also hope Disney can find a way to weed these folks out and shut them down.

Because as much as they’d like to claim it is if it would get them to the front of the line, being an entitled, elitist cheat is NOT a disability.

The post Being Rich And Entitled Is Not A Disability At Disney appeared first on A Mommy Story.

I don’t know who I thought would take care of all of these things – perhaps I thought we’d be wealthy enough to afford a landscaper? Because certainly I wasn’t going to be the one to nurture all of these plants.

My mom is the green-thumb in the family. She can keep nearly anything alive, even if it’s on the brink of withering away. I, on the other hand, am usually the one who can get a plant to the nearly-withered-away state. My ability to kill plants is nearly a superpower – if I were an evil villain, I’d probably be called the Wilter.

It’s not intentional, though. I try to do my best with our yard. I had a garden for a few years, and even managed to produce some broccoli from that garden. Cosmo has reduced my ability to have a garden now, thanks to his evil sidekick taste for young plants, but I did do some container gardening last year that was a semi-success. And (with help) we planted our little arborvitae evergreen trees out back last year, which have so far survived my care.

With my new mission to make this house a little more home-like, I’ve had to take a tough look at the outside as well. I don’t want to be that house in our neighborhood. (To be honest, it would be really hard to be that house with the number of rentals and foreclosures in our area, but I’m also aiming to not be in the bottom 50% either.) My project this past weekend was the tree in our front yard.

We placed a little ring of landscaping bricks around this tree years ago. Originally there was mulch inside the ring, but over the years it’s all disappeared and the ring has contained a mess of dead leaves and weeds. Our soil is also extremely hard clay soil, making it impossible for things to grow well, and that’s resulted in our tree’s roots staying close to the surface as well.

The first thing I did was scoop out all of the leaves into a yard waste bag, along with pulling most of the weeds within the ring. Some of those weeds were stronger than expected and tried to pull back. Then I carefully adjusted the woefully uneven bricks, trying to make them lie even again. I wasn’t able to get them to lie perfectly even because the tree roots have pushed some areas up, but most of the ring looks pretty good now.

Tree roots made the back part of the ring bumpier than I’d prefer.

Next, it was time to fill in that ring. I emptied three bags of topsoil, combined with half a bag of peat moss, inside the ring around the tree and mixed it all up. At the very least, I hope covering the tree’s roots will help protect our red maple from the fate of so many other trees in the neighborhood. (Tree death is high when you live in a new subdivision that stripped all the topsoil off to sell before building houses on clay.)

Mira went with me on Saturday to pick out flowers to plant in the ring. A five year old doesn’t necessarily know the best flowers to pick, so I enlisted the help of a store associate. After describing to her my lack of skill with anything green, and my requirement that anything we buy needs to be easy to care for, able to handle some neglect, and preferably could handle itself like a weed, she pointed me to the right flowers. She didn’t even laugh at me, though, which I appreciated.

This was the final result:

Not a bad transformation compared to the naked tree above, right?

The light purple flowers are creeping phlox, and the bright pink ones (Mira’s choice, no surprise) are dianthus. And yes, I still had to look at the little cards that came with them to remember what they were and how to spell them.

There was nothing complicated to planting the flowers – I dug a hole with my hands, took the flower out of it’s plastic pot, and plopped it in the hole, filling the area back in with dirt. I’m not sure if I spread them out well enough, so we’ll see how they grow. I finished this project by covering everything with a good layer of mulch and a silent wish that they don’t die.

No really, please don’t die, little flowers. You cost too much.

And just like that, our front yard has a little bit of color now, hinting that someone actually lives in this house and cares about it’s appearance. The next step, of course, will be keeping these little plants from wilting away. Who knows – maybe if I can keep this little contained flower bed alive, I’ll add more flowers to other parts of the yard?

The post Green-like Thumb appeared first on A Mommy Story.

Chirp.

So then I began the process of positioning myself in different rooms, listening to determine which smoke detector had the low battery warning. Once it was found, Aaron replaced the battery and we both went back to bed. Only I slept poorly after that. Ugh.

When I finally gave up on trying to have any meaningful sleep hours later, Mira was ready to tackle me with a Mother’s Day hug. Homemade cards and gifts were part of the celebrations.

If you can’t read Cordy’s card, it says, “Dear mom, Fire types are red. Water types are blue. Flowers are nice. And I love you!” That’s probably the sweetest Skylanders Mother’s Day card I’ve ever received. Bonus points for making it rhyme.

Aaron fulfilled my requests for a Mother’s Day gift that was practical and didn’t add to the clutter in our house. I received a membership to Massage Envy, so I can have once a month massages for my oft-injured back. He wins.

I’m never quite sure what to make of Mother’s Day as mom. Should I want to spend the day with my family? Or should I want to spend the day away from them, doing whatever I’d like? Since I also have a mother, I have an obligation to her, too, so then it isn’t my own day, right?

In the end, it’s always a day balancing family obligation and relaxing. It always goes by too quickly, too.

We visited with my mom and grandmother, going out for lunch together. My grandmother has slowed down since she had a stroke a few years ago, but she insists on being as independent as possible. She now requires someone’s arm to hold onto to steady herself while walking – a development that still seems so odd to me. She’s always been so strong and served as the no-nonsense matriarch of the family. But she still smiles warmly at my kids’ antics and lets them tell her the same bad jokes over and over. (To be fair, I don’t think she hears the jokes every time – that probably helps.)

I’m always happy to spend time with my mom, too. She was my rock growing up – the one person in my childhood that I could count on – and even though there’s plenty we don’t agree on, I still seek out her advice on practically everything. She gives far too much of herself to everyone else, and I worry that one day she’s going to completely exhaust herself by helping others and ignoring her own needs. But it’s hard to tell her to stop being so generous with her time and money, especially since so many people depend on her help.

I occasionally complain that she spoils Cordy and Mira too much when they’re with her, forgetting that she was fairly lenient with me, too. It’s no wonder the kids love to spend time with her – she encourages them to roll down hills, teaches them how to plant seeds, and lets them have ice cream with practically every meal.

Were it not so wet outside today, she probably would have taught them to pick asparagus with her.

After leaving my mom, we stopped to visit briefly with Aaron’s step-mom so the girls could give their Bubbie her Mother’s Day card. Like my mom, the kids love all of the creative pursuits they get to do with their Bubbie.

The rest of the day was a typical Sunday evening: a little quiet time, dinner, bedtime for the kids, and watching some TV into the evening while working on the computer a bit. Successful day? Absolutely.

But Mother’s Day, to me, is also about the two beautiful little girls who made me a mom. I’m so grateful that becoming a mother wasn’t the struggle for me that it is for some. We wanted children, we had healthy children…it was that simple. These two drive me nuts sometimes, they fight with each other and make messes, but they also give me purpose, shower me in love, and have taught me so much.

I’m so lucky to have my family.

The post Happy Mother’s Day! appeared first on A Mommy Story.

I’ve submitted posts in the past, but have yet to be selected. (No, not whining here. Those who were selected completely deserved the honor and had fantastic posts.) But it’s always good to keep trying, yes?

So this year I’ve tossed my evil Furby post into the ring. Humor generally isn’t my category, but sometimes terrible things happen in your house that are simply too disturbing to not tell as a funny story. And that pink demon counts as both amusing and disturbing, depending on which side of our walls you live on.

I’ve told friends that if my Furby post is selected, I’ll be bringing it with me to BlogHer for the reading. Don’t worry, I’ll neutralize any threat by removing its batteries first. I can’t imagine trying to keep it from waking up for the entire trip.

Shhhh…don’t wake the fuzzy overlords of DOOM.

Maybe if I’m lucky it’ll get lost in a pile of swag and be left behind to terrorize the city of Chicago? (You’re welcome, Chicago friends!) I’m sure I could offer Mira a trip to the Disney Store or Build-a-Bear to soothe any sadness over losing her Furby. Considering how it’s played with only once a week now, she might not even notice.

If you’re a member of the BlogHer community and want to spare a vote for my post, you can find my entry here. Votes don’t have any sway on the committee selecting most of the posts, but they do matter for the People’s Choice honorees. I’d love a vote if you feel up for it.

The Furby doesn’t want me to tell it’s story. Don’t let the Furby win, folks.

The post My Entry for BlogHer’s Voices of the Year appeared first on A Mommy Story.

She then began asking me several questions about my chin. I continued to not take my pimple issue seriously, telling her how I’ve never in my life had these large, deep (and painful, to be honest) pimples before and I guessed it was probably part of the joy of growing older. You expect the grey hairs and wrinkles, but no one ever tells you about the thinning eyebrows, whiskers on your face and neck, and pimples that also appear in the second half of your thirties. (Sexy, right?)

I never intended my casual mention of my chin acne to result in a full discussion with my dermatologist about hormonal changes in our thirties and how it can result in acne coming back. Wrinkles and acne – so not fair. I fully expected to be told that Clearasil isn’t just for teens, but instead she recommended a prescription cream called Aczone to help ease and hopefully prevent some of the acne breakouts. I’m not a vain person, but I’m also in favor of not having painful breakouts on my chin, so I agreed to try it.

As her assistant handed me the slip of paper on the way out, she also handed me a discount card from the drug company. “Oh, I have insurance,” I told her.

“You’ll probably still need this,” she replied.

She wasn’t kidding. When I went to pick up my prescription, I was told it was $75 – with insurance. For an acne cream? So I handed over the discount card, which took the total cost down to $25. That was far more reasonable. It wasn’t until I looked at how much I saved with insurance that my jaw dropped:

Again, I ask – for an acne cream? Is it made from unicorn tears filtered through a golden, diamond-encrusted sieve? How can an acne cream seriously cost so much?

But wait – it gets better!

Since I’ve never heard of this stuff before, I carefully read through the side effects, cautions and warnings. (As we all should.) A few things caught me by surprise. First, whatever this stuff is, it’s not to be used while pregnant or breastfeeding: “This medicine is found in breast milk. Do not breast-feed while taking this medicine.” No worries there for me, but I’m again wondering what chemicals are in this cream that make it even more toxic than the pesticides on our food?

The side effects were pretty standard: “Side effects may include dryness, oiliness, peeling or redness of the skin.” Wait, I thought this was to make my skin look better? It continued:

Contact your doctor immediately if you experience dark urine; fever, chills, or persistent sore throat; mental or mood changes; numbness, swollen, blistered, or peeling skin; severe stomach pain or vomiting; shortness of breath; sudden back pain; suicidal thoughts or attempts; unusual tiredness or weakness; or yellow or pale skin.

And those weren’t even the allergic reaction symptoms. No, flu-like symptoms, blistered skin, stomach and back pain, mental changes and thoughts of suicide are just things that could happen to you even if you weren’t allergic to this topical cream for acne.

Then there was this warning in the leaflet:

I wasn’t planning on it, but good to know!

Let’s be honest – you know they only put those warnings in there because someone has tried it. I don’t want to know what the thought process was that led to someone trying that.

Folks, if you think you have acne in your vagina, please go see your gynecologist, because I’m pretty sure that’s not acne.

On the upside, this prescription really is magic. When applied to a newly forming red spot on my chin before bed, it’s already less painful and less red the next morning. I don’t know if it’s $600 worth of magic, but I’ll say I’m impressed as long as I don’t develop shortness of breath or suicidal thoughts.

The post Adventures in Adult Acne appeared first on A Mommy Story.

Cordy is in the middle of her spring soccer season, so every Saturday morning we’re out on the field. She’s part of a special needs soccer group, which is awesome for kids who want to play, need the physical exercise, but can’t handle all of the training and gameplay of a typical soccer league. They spend 15-20 minutes of each session drilling basic skills, then the kids play against each other in a friendly game.

Parents and teens from the local high school soccer teams volunteer their time to help the kids, and everyone does their best to emphasize the fun and not the competition. No official score is kept, and volunteers try to help each kid get their own moment in the game.

Cordy loves to play goalie. I’m not sure if it’s because she likes to be the one allowed to pick up the ball with her hands, or because she gets nervous with too many people in one place, all kicking at a ball, or if she just doesn’t feel like running and likes having the time to relax when the ball is at the other end of the field.

When she’s not goalie, though, the kid has a forceful kick that is amazingly straight. If only she would continue to run with the ball when she kicks it.

Not only did we have soccer this Saturday, but it was also Free Comic Book Day. Aaron was volunteering his time as a costumed superhero at the comic book store, with Mira along to hang out and say hi to all of the superheroes. I took Cordy over after soccer so she could also enjoy the day and pick out some free comics for herself.

After we went there, I took the kids to my aunt’s house for a sleepover, met up briefly with some friends who were in town, and then re-joined Aaron at a movie theater for the annual 24-hour Sci-fi Movie Marathon. (No, I had no intention of staying for the entire 24 hours, or even most of it.) It was at that point that I realized this was too much for a single day – I couldn’t enjoy the movies when I was so worn out, and I knew Sunday would be no less forgiving. I left the theater around midnight while Aaron stayed to watch them all – unlike me, he doesn’t seem to have lost his ability to sit in hard wooden seats for hours without getting achy and antsy to move around.

Sunday was just as busy, but in an entirely different way. My friend Joanne had asked if I would cover The Ohio State University commencement ceremony for her site, The Broad Side, because President Obama was the speaker. It was impossible to turn down a request like that, so I agreed and she obtained press credentials for me. I was excited and nervous at the same time, which led to me being unable to sleep more than a few hours.

I’ve never been press for an event like this. It was completely alien to me, but also kinda fun. Being able to walk right down onto the field, and wander the area right in front of the stage was awesome. I didn’t realize that most of the press brought their laptops with them – and here I was, an internet press contributor, with some paper and a pen.

We could wander anywhere behind that metal railing. The graduating students were behind us.

To complete my dorky look, I trusted my DSLR when I quickly checked the battery and it displayed as 2/3 full. I took one shot of the outside of the stadium, then when I reached the press area on the field, I pulled it out again to take a shot of the stage, only to have the message “Change battery pack” flashing on the screen. Seriously? So while all of the other media folks had their professional cameras and were swapping out lenses, I was right in the middle of them with my little iPhone camera. Note to self: invest in a back-up battery pack, or bring a charger with you next time.

I didn’t get the clear shots that my DSLR would have provided, but the iPhone was tolerable:

The President’s speech was great, and I was in awe of being THAT CLOSE to him. You can read my full write up over at The Broad Side.

After the commencement ceremony, I came home and collapsed. Other than writing the article, very little was accomplished Sunday evening.

So, how was your weekend?

The post My Weekend: Soccer, Comic Books, Sci-Fi & The POTUS appeared first on A Mommy Story.

(It’s a play on “May the force be with you” if it still doesn’t make any sense to you.)

When we recently went to Disney World, Mira got to take part in the Jedi Training Academy at Hollywood Studios. She was part of a class of kids who were trained to do a short lightsaber fight routine, and then put their training to the test when Darth Vader came out to challenge them.

Look at the concentration on that face.

Each kid had their moment to shine, facing Vader one-on-one. Naturally, Darth Vader made sure to follow the kid’s lead and not accidentally hit them, although Vader did get tagged a few times by kids who didn’t follow the choreography, including Mira. It was very, very cool, and Mira didn’t get scared at all when it was her time to face off against the (very tall) Vader. Nerves of steel, that kid.

That’s her Jedi Master next to her, helping guide her through the fight sequence and giving moral support.

Mira still tells us she’s a Jedi now and she knows how to use the force. She’s so proud of her accomplishment.

This particular Star Wars Day also happen to be Free Comic Book Day at your local comic store, too. Be sure to visit them and pick up some free comics.

And, to make this the geekiest Saturday ever, it’s also the opening weekend of Iron Man 3. We got to see a sneak preview earlier this week, and I highly recommend seeing it. If you want to read a full review of it, check out Aaron’s review of Iron Man 3 on his blog.

It’s a good day to be a geek. Happy Star Wars Day, everyone! Just because I can’t get enough of Mira in her Jedi robe, here’s one more photo to leave you with:

The post May the Fourth… appeared first on A Mommy Story.

While I’m not graced with an alabaster complexion, we can safely call my skin tone extra light beige. Pale skin might have been all the fashion at some point, but it doesn’t hold up well to sunlight. When I was a kid, even though my mom made sure there was a bottle of sunscreen in my bag when she dropped me off at the pool each day for summer break, I didn’t wear sunscreen. I also don’t tan easily, meaning I spent most of my summers in various phases of the burn and peel cycle. My nose was permanently red during the warmer months, and remains redder than my other skin from repeated burning.

And let’s not forget my teenage obsession with tanning beds. After all, everyone was doing it, and I didn’t want to be the palest girl at the prom. Thankfully, I was only allowed to tan right before prom and no other time.

So with that kind of history, I’m a heightened skin cancer risk. Before my most recent visit, seven suspicious moles have been removed over the years. (Seven? I think it’s seven. I’ve lost count, truthfully.) Of those, all but one of the biopsies came back as abnormal. Not cancer, but displaying the behavior of cells that could become malignant. I haven’t missed a single one of them.

I wasn’t that surprised, then, when my dermatologist took a close look at a spot that had been growing on my back and determined that it might be worth getting a tissue sample just to check it out. I never argue with her on this – if she thinks it warrants a sample, grab the lidocaine and scalpel and get to it.

The wait for the results is such a long wait. It takes about two weeks, but I didn’t hear anything back as the two week mark passed. I finally called yesterday to get my results. When they called me back, the triage nurse thankfully started with the most important part of the news: cancer-free.

Yay!

Then he started into a long explanation of how the pathology report showed that the cells did have an unusual behavior, could turn into cancer at some point, etc. I’ve heard it all before, and I’m a nurse so I understand the basics of skin cancer, but let him keep explaining it as if it was my first experience. He noticed my silence and asked if I understood. I replied, “Oh, yes, I understand. I’ve had several other moles removed that came back the same way.”

He laughed and asked why I didn’t stop him during his spiel if I was an old pro at this. I still like to hear the reassurance, and I need the reminder that a little mole can be abnormal but harmless at the moment and deadly later, so it’s good to stay vigilant about getting them checked.

The doctor didn’t take all of the edges of this one, so I have to go back under the knife in a month to remove more. I really don’t mind. Any mole she excises that is determined to be abnormal but cancer-free means we won that battle. Parts of my skin considered trying to kill me, but I cut them out before they had the chance to act. The (mutated cell) terrorists don’t win today.

I willingly show the tiny scars on my back, arms and abdomen to my kids, explaining why I have them and why it’s so important for them to be safe in the sun. My mom WAS right – I needed to wear sunscreen, and I’m dealing with the consequences of not listening to her. And I make sure my two girls wear sunscreen and hats as much as possible, too. They don’t like it, but it’s not nearly as uncomfortable as cleaning & caring for a hole in your skin where a suspicious mole used to be.

What? You don’t have Mickey band-aids in your house?

I wear sunscreen regularly now. I try to respect my British Isles heritage and avoid the sun. And I monitor my skin for any changes – new moles, larger freckles, changes to shape or color, etc. (Which isn’t easy when I’m completely covered in them and can’t remember if that spot on my leg is new or I just forgot it was there.)

Too many people die from skin cancer, and it doesn’t have to be this way. Even if you can’t play connect the dots on every inch of your skin like I can,  it’s still important to check your skin for any changes and make sure you see a dermatologist at least once a year for a screening.

Take five minutes to check your skin and set up a dermatologist appointment if it’s been awhile. Consider this your PSA for the week.

The post Another Mole Removed & My Skin’s A Little Safer appeared first on A Mommy Story.

We’ve also tried to teach our kids the importance of saying thank you and being grateful when someone gives you something or does something helpful for you.

So I shouldn’t have been surprised when Mira proudly presented me with a thank you note. She admitted she got help from daddy on spelling some of the words, and help in taping it back together when it ripped as she pulled it out of her notebook. But the sentiment? All hers.

I’m the blue person on the left, Mira is the pink one in the middle – her marker was drying up and it got fuzzy.

Of all of the things she could think of to thank me for, she chose taxes. I’m really not sure what to say to that.

The post At Least I’m Appreciated For Something appeared first on A Mommy Story.

It’s been two months since we returned from our Disney World vacation, and I’m just now getting around to part two of my guide. However, it’s also been two months and we’re still talking about all of the wonderful memories we have from our trip, so you could say it’s still fresh in my mind.

I covered all of my tips for planning your Disney vacation in Part 1, and now I wanted to share my tips for when you finally arrive at Walt Disney World. These are what worked for us – your family may have a totally different way of doing things, and that’s perfectly fine. But if you don’t even know where to start, some of these tips might work for you.

Map out your “must do” list in advance.

Walking into Magic Kingdom is overwhelming. There are people everywhere, and after you walk through Main Street to the castle, you’re presented with the ultimate Choose Your Own Adventure. The castle is the center point for all paths leading to each area of the park. You’ll see amazing sights off in the distance of each, and if you didn’t put a plan in place, your first family argument will also begin here.

Take some time before the trip, or even the night before you visit each park, to discuss as a family which rides and attractions are the “can’t miss” ones. For my family, we each named one or two rides we absolutely wanted to ride in each park. Then we used that list as a starting point to make sure everyone left the parks each night feeling like they got to do all of the things they really wanted to do. We also compared our list to a few guides that showed us which rides had the longest lines to prioritize which ones we needed to get to before the lines got long.

Added tip: The My Disney Experience app for iPhone lets you make reservations, check ride wait times, and has a map to show you where you are in the park. But use carefully – the GPS drains your battery quickly.

If you’re staying at the resort, take advantage of the Magic Hours.

This is a huge perk of staying at one of the Disney resorts: each day, one or two of the parks has “Magic Hours” only for resort guests. Some offer early mornings, where those with resort passes can enter the park an hour earlier than everyone else. Other times they have late Magic Hours, where the park remains open an extra hour for resort guests. (They can’t officially kick out those who aren’t resort guests, but once the Magic Hours start, you have to show your resort pass to get on any ride.)

The lines are SO much shorter during Magic Hours. We wanted to go to Enchanted Tales with Belle on our first day in Magic Kingdom, but the lines were impossibly long. (Over an hour and a half.) At the end of the week, we went back to Magic Kingdom on the day they opened an hour early for resort guests. We got in right when the park opened, went straight back to Enchanted Tales with Belle, and were a part of the first performance with no waiting. It wasn’t even as crowded as they usually make each performance, so both girls had the chance to play good roles in the story.

Mira got to be Chip, Cordy was Philipe.

After that, we still had 40 minutes left in the Magic Hour, so we rode Dumbo with only a five minute wait and Under the Sea – Journey of the Little Mermaid with no wait. The Magic Hours are definitely worth it.

Use the Fast Pass system.

One of the smartest ideas Disney World ever implemented is the Fast Pass system. Here’s how it works: say you want to ride Big Thunder Mountain Railroad and the wait is currently one hour. If you don’t want that wait, you can go to the Fast Pass kiosks near the entrance to the ride, insert your park ticket (or resort pass) and it will return your park ticket and spit out a Fast Pass ticket with a return time, usually an hour later or more in the day. The return time is an hour long window, so you don’t need to be back at a precise time.

At that point, you can go shop, ride another ride with a shorter wait, or do whatever you want. When your Fast Pass time window opens, you go back to the ride’s entrance, find the Fast Pass entrance, hand the cast member your Fast Pass ticket, and then bypass the long line. There may still be a short wait, but it’s usually no more than five or ten minutes at most.

This system works very, very well, and many rides offer Fast Pass. Some of the character meet-and-greets have the Fast Pass system, too. Best of all, this is a FREE service available to any park guest. It’s genius – you spend more of your day seeing the parks and less time waiting in line.

There are a few things you need to be aware of, though. First, you can’t run to each ride and collect all of your Fast Passes at the start of the day. You can usually only have one or two at a time – your Fast Pass ticket will tell you when you’re eligible to get a pass for another ride. If your Fast Pass doesn’t have you returning until much later in the day, you’re usually allowed to get another Fast Pass within an hour or so.

Second, there are only a limited number of Fast Pass tickets each day. When one time window fills up, it rolls over to the next time window. So if a lot of park guests are trying to get Fast Pass tickets for Toy Story Midway Mania! in Hollywood Studios, it’s possible they’ll be out of Fast Passes for the day by lunchtime, and then your only choice is to wait in the long line.

And that’s not just any example: Toy Story Midway Mania! routinely is out of Fast Passes by midday. Same goes for Under the Sea – Journey of the Little Mermaid in Magic Kingdom and Soarin’ in Epcot.

Get a PhotoPass right when you walk into your first Disney park.

You know when you go to an amusement park and they have photographers mobbing the entrance, all trying to get one photo of you at the park and then hope you’ll buy that single photo (in multiple sizes and a photo keychain) on the way out? Well, this is one case where you really DO want to let them take your photo. And then immediately ask the photographer for a PhotoPass.

Chances are, your kids are going to want photos with characters, and you’ll want photos of them in front of the castle, or the tree in Animal Kingdom, etc. But for once, YOU can be in the photos, too, thanks to the PhotoPass. It’s a card with a barcode and retrieval code on the back. Whenever a Disney photographer takes your photo, you hand them your PhotoPass, they scan the barcode, and the photos are now assigned to that card’s account.

One card is good for your entire Disney stay, so you’ll have all of your Disney photos in one place online. Then, when you get home you can log on to the PhotoPass site, enter the code on the back of the card, and view all of your photos. The site has editing options, including adding special effects to your photos:

 Mira loved twirling for Tiana.

It’s easy to order prints or photo products from the site. Or just purchase the rights to all of the photos. (Hint: it’s a flat fee for buying all of your photos. If you think you’re going to do this option, make sure you REALLY load up on photos at the parks!)

Unlike most parks, Disney parks have photographers throughout the parks. Many of the characters have an official photographer with them, Enchanted Tales with Belle uses a PhotoPass photographer, and they’re also stationed around most popular photo spots. Mira participated in Jedi Training at Hollywood Studios and there was a PhotoPass photographer who took photos for all of the parents. Without her, we wouldn’t have had this great shot:

Mira takes on Darth Vader, guided by her Jedi Master

Certain spots can also allow the photographer to add in “surprises” – we had no idea why the photographer was asking Cordy to do this pose until we viewed the image at home:

Wow! Hello, Sebastian!

I’m a huge fan of the PhotoPass, and it was awesome to actually be in my family photos for once.

One final tip: if you have a smartphone, take a photo of the back of your PhotoPass right when you get it. That way, if you lose the card, you’ll still have access to the code so you don’t lose the photos you already have.

Take advantage of “special event” buttons.

If you want to feel like a rock star, visit any guest services and pick up any “special events” buttons that apply to your family. In our case, Aaron and I wore “Happy Anniversary” buttons and Cordy and Mira wore “1st Visit” buttons. They also have buttons for birthdays, special celebrations, family reunions, and many other situations. Cast members will go out of their way to wish you well with these buttons, and sometimes offer up a little surprise, too.

In Hollywood Studios, one of the cast members in a shop gave Aaron and I chocolate-covered marshmallows when she saw our buttons. The kids were each given a pin from a pin trading board when another cast member saw it was their first visit. Even guys in business suits (I can only imagine that they work in Disney management or something) stopped to talk to the girls and ask how they were enjoying their first visit to Disney. It was very sweet and made our trip even more special.

Tip: want a really personal experience? Write you kid’s name on his/her button, and the cast members will call out to them by name as if they’re old friends.

Consider a park hopper pass.

There is a lot to do in every Disney park. But despite all of the planning, you may find that one day just isn’t working out as planned, either due to weather or sore feet in a large park, or because the kids just aren’t feeling the international mood at Epcot and would rather spend some time in the Pixar area of Hollywood Studios. With a park hopper pass, it’s not a big deal. It’s a small additional cost to your park tickets, but with the park hopper option you can visit multiple parks in the same day.

This is useful if you can only get a character dining reservation on a day when you didn’t plan to be in that park. For us, it was useful on the day when we went to Animal Kingdom. It was only open until 5pm that day, and my mom was taking the kids for part of the day. So we spent the morning there, and then Aaron and I went to Epcot for a bit, then met up with friends at Hollywood Studios, and then ended our night under the fireworks at Magic Kingdom. We didn’t plan to hit all four parks – it just worked out that way, and we were thankful to have the park hopper passes!

I think that covers most of the big topics for visiting Disney. I still want to point out some of the best rides and attractions, as well as tips for smoothly sailing through Disney World with a special needs child, but that will have to wait for another post.

The post Surviving Disney World Part 2: Tips For At The Parks appeared first on A Mommy Story.

Cordy has hair that many people would pay a high price for. It’s super-fine in texture, and her mane is super-thick. There’s so much hair that it takes effort to part it, then keep parting it, and then push even more hair out of the way to finally find her scalp. You could say she’s got the Rapunzel effect with hair follicles instead of length, and it easily tangles.

It’s not fair that a child with such amazing hair would also have such amazing sensory issues related to her head. I had to distract her and secretly trim her hair until she was six. Years of hair combing still haven’t made her accustomed to it and she still fights against the comb.

I miss all that hair from when she was little – but I don’t miss combing it.

I’d love her to have gorgeous, long locks of hair that we could style and put in ponytails or curl, but I know it’s unlikely to happen. For both our sakes, I will take her to the stylist right before summer to take more length off to get us through the warm, humid summer. She hates having it cut, but she hates having longer hair combed even more.

Mira, on the other hand, does not have her sister’s hair issues. Her hair is also fine, but there’s not nearly as much of it. And her head isn’t as sensitive. She loves to play dress up, loves hair clips, and loves to look pretty. She can be my little hair model then, right?

Nope. Turns out, this kid LOVES having short hair. She thinks it’s cute.

OK, she’s right. It is super cute.

When I asked her today if she’d let her hair grow out so we can put it in ponytails and braid and curl it, she agreed at first, then later came to me and said, “Mommy? I don’t think I want longer hair. My hair is too cute when it’s short! But I’ll help style your hair, OK?”

Ummm…I don’t know if I feel so comfortable with that.

I’ve had long hair for most of my adult life. (With one very bad period of short hair.) Despite having long hair, I’m not very skilled at doing anything with it. That’s part of the reason I love longer hair – it doesn’t need a lot of styling, and the basic ponytail requires little effort.

If I can’t play with my daughters’ hair, maybe it’s time for me to learn how to do more with my own hair. This video is where I’m starting: learning to put hot rollers in my hair. Maybe I should let Mira watch it, too? She’d be great at handing me the pins for the rollers.

Other bloggers are choosing their favorite hairstyle tutorial videos and asking for your opinions on which you love most. Each week, BlogHer is giving away prizes to 3 lucky winners: one grand prize viewer will receive a $250 Visa gift card and two more folks will each receive a $100 Visa gift card! Visit the Prizes and Promotions page on BlogHer.com for more info!

Hair Sweepstakes Official Rules.

The post Daughters Aren’t Always Hair Models appeared first on A Mommy Story.

There were none in common, of course. Which led to more arguing. Mira finally sighed that The Lion King (on Cordy’s list) was close enough to The Lion King 1 1/2 (on Mira’s list), and agreed to Cordy’s choice. But she threw in her oft-repeated complaint that it isn’t fair that Cordy won’t compromise, and how she always has to do what Cordy wants to do.

The peak of Mira’s frustration came at bedtime, though. While I was turning on Mira’s bedroom light, I heard them arguing in the bathroom. Mira puts her own toothpaste on her toothbrush, and if Aaron or I aren’t in the bathroom, she does it for Cordy, too. This time, I could hear Mira telling Cordy, “I’m not doing it for you, Cordy. You’re eight and I’m only five. Here, you can put your own toothpaste on.” I knew this could end badly, so I started towards the bathroom.

Cordy immediately went into her unhappy whine and starting shrieking at Mira, demanding that Mira stop being a mean sister and demanded that Mira put the toothpaste on her toothbrush. Mira held firm and yelled back, “No, Cordy! You’re older than me – if I can do it, you can put on your own toothpaste!” She then tried to force Cordy to take the toothpaste container.

Aaron came in at this point, hearing the commotion and already at his wits end with the bickering from the two of them. On first glance, I’m sure it looked like Mira was taunting her sister. He turned to Mira and angrily asked her why she was upsetting Cordy by shoving the toothpaste at her.

I watched as Mira held her ground, equally angry and ready to defend herself. Without hesitation, she looked up to meet Aaron’s gaze with a hard stare of her own, tears forming in her eyes, and exclaimed, “Because she’s eight years old! She’s old enough to do it herself!” I could hear the exasperation in her voice.

I stepped in at that point and tried to calm everyone down, reminding Mira that just because someone is older doesn’t mean they can do everything better than someone who is younger. We all have things we’re good at and things that require help from others. That did little to help soothe her sense of injustice as she cried while brushing her teeth.

I understand her frustration. It has to be terribly confusing at times to be the little sister of someone with autism. Cordy was only told about her autism a little over a year ago, when we explained what it meant in regards to how her brain works. Mira was told about it shortly after, and because of her age we’ve kept our descriptions simple for her. Cordy has autism, which means her brain works differently than most people. It means she’s really good at some things, but that she can also have a lot of trouble with things that most people might find easy.

Mira knows that Cordy often has limited patience for playing with others and when she does play it’s often only on her own terms. And while Cordy can teach Mira all about Skylanders and Pokemon, she’s not a typical big sister when it comes to serving as a role model for school, social behaviors and personal care. And she’s brilliant with reading, but refuses to help Mira learn to read.

Mira will likely learn to tie her shoes before Cordy. She can already work a button and zipper on her pants while Cordy remains in elastic waistband pants. Mira learned to buckle her seatbelt first. And while Mira eagerly anticipates each lesson in how to be independent and does her part to help the family with chores, any new task we ask of Cordy involves a lot of resistance and the need to do it in baby steps to gradually increase her comfort with something new added to her routine.

So in order to make things go smoothly and get more done, we do occasionally ask Mira to go above and beyond in helping out. She’s asked to help with the toothpaste when we’re busy. She opens food containers and packages for Cordy at times. She zips Cordy’s coat.

I know she tries to understand, but it doesn’t always make sense to her. Conventional wisdom says that her older sister should be able to do the same tasks she can do and more. And she feels like Cordy gets special treatment sometimes and is jealous of it. Mira does more chores, and even though she’s rewarded for her extra help, she still knows it’s not equal treatment. (Which I suppose is a good lesson for life, although hard on the spirit at five years old.) Mira doesn’t know it, but she benefits from having Cordy as a big sister – she’s awesome at accepting people no matter how different they seem, always doing her best to befriend anyone.

However, Mira is too young to realize just how important she is to Cordy. Being super-ultra-mega social, Mira provides constant social skills practice for Cordy. Mira doesn’t hesitate to tell Cordy when she’s being rude or make suggestions on how she should respond in a particular situation. (Whether Cordy listens or not is another issue.) She forces Cordy to cope with another kid in her territory all the time, meaning she has to share any decision on our daily activities. Like going out of the house, or sharing the computer, or watching TV, which doesn’t always end in arguments. Mira runs into Cordy’s wall of inflexibility all the time, but that doesn’t keep her from giving up. She continues to throw herself against that wall with the unending determination of a child, hoping that someday she’ll chip away at it and Cordy will do something new for Mira.

I’m an only child, so I’ve never understood the relationship between siblings. I know that siblings often fight, but they just as often share a fierce love and devotion for each other. I have no doubt that these two love each other, even with the fighting. Mira feels like an only child sometimes, Cordy feels like Mira is the stereotypical “bothersome little sister” sometimes, and then at other times the two of them are inseparable.

Proof: they do get along now and then.

For now I can only explain again to Mira why Cordy needs her help, and then do what I can to make sure Mira feels important to us as well. Her frustration and feelings of injustice are sure to come back again, repeatedly. I can only hope that as she grows, her understanding of Cordy’s differences, her compassion and her generosity will continue to grow with her.

The post When Your Big Sister Has Autism appeared first on A Mommy Story.

Clean eating, for me, means no soda, no artificial sweeteners, limited sugar, and limited processed foods. Lots of fruit and vegetables, nuts, lean meats and eggs, beans, and smaller amounts of rice and dairy. Along with water to drink, I’m also having one coffee or tea each day. It’s not exactly Paleo, but it seemed like a good idea to help me detox from the foods I’m most addicted to.

So how’s it going so far? I’ve made it a week and half now without any soda, sweets, or heavily processed foods. The most processed thing I’ve eaten so far was the tortilla strips on a McDonald’s salad.

My feelings over the past week and a half have swung back and forth. The first seven days went a little something like this:

Day 1: Hahaha, this is fun! We’re going to be healthy! We’ve got this covered!

Day 2: What the hell do I eat for breakfast? Or lunch for that matter?

Day 3: It’s 8pm, I really, really, really, really, really want something sweet to snack on. An apple, while sweet, does not sound exciting.

Day 4: I fought off the chocolate cravings yesterday! Go me! I’ll celebrate by…baking some eggs.

Day 5: If I have to eat another salad…wait, Chipotle is mostly real food, right?

Day 6: Uh-oh, we’re out of dried fruit and nut mix. Everybody panic! Costco run, stat!

Day 7: I’m barely sleeping at night, and yet I’m feeling OK during the day. That’s odd. Hey, pass the almonds, would ya?

There’s no way I can tell you that it’s been a breeze. If you don’t like to cook from scratch, it can be difficult to find enough food to eat on this plan. We’ve had dinners of grilled chicken and veggies, chicken tikka masala with rice, and grass-fed organic steak one lucky night. Hard boiled eggs (baked, actually – the Pinterest idea really works!) and nuts have been good protein for lunches. Fresh and dried fruit help curb my sweets cravings. Carrots with hummus is a great snack.

These? Are awesome.

But I am getting a little tired of the same foods mixed up and rearranged over and over. And it’s not cheap, either. We buy a lot of our food from Costco, which does help in price, but our food bill has increased over the past week. Nuts are expensive. I’m looking forward to summer when we can count on farmer’s markets for local fruits and veggies.

Overall, I have to admit that I’m feeling pretty good. It’s easier to wake up in the morning, even when I stay up late working. I’m not feeling the wild energy swings throughout the day. (I do still feel the mid-afternoon slump, which is usually when I reach for the coffee or tea.)

At first I was worried that eating calorie-dense, higher-fat foods would result in gaining weight. Instead, I’m finding my hunger isn’t as strong as it used to be. I don’t even feel like eating large meals now – I prefer to graze throughout the day.

Best of all? I’m down two pounds, and more importantly, my belly looks slimmer.

I’m really proud of myself for sticking to this so far. Yes, it’s been only a week and a half, but that can feel like a long time when it comes to food. I’d like to keep to this strict level of eating clean for at least another week, then gradually expand my diet again, still trying to keep limits on the sugar and processed junk.

Next up is to get back to working out regularly. Yesterday I laced up my new running shoes and broke them in for a 30 minute run/walk (mostly walk, really). I wasn’t excited to work out, and I felt like my heart was going to break out of my chest and run away afterward, but I did it. My dayglo shoes probably played a part to get me moving:

Blinded by the light!

I’m hoping this will all become habit so we can be a healthier family. Aaron is eating the same foods with me, and is far ahead of me in getting back into running. And our ultimate success of the week: Cordy and Mira will both eat grilled chicken and broccoli now.

Anyone else trying to make any healthy changes right now? Please share how it’s going for you, or what you’re planning to do!

The post My Goal To Be Healthier: Week 1 Results appeared first on A Mommy Story.

When I was ready to re-enable the custom domain on my old blog, so that anyone searching for any posts there would automatically be redirected to the new site, Google decided that it no longer believed that the domain was mine.

This red text plagued me all weekend.

Hours of trying all of their help docs to change custom fields in my DNS manager and repeated attempts to verify the domain and set it up, and nothing changed. I re-set the nameservers back, tried everything out there in source guides, and Google refused to verify the custom domain again.

(If you are non-techie and don’t follow a thing I’ve said so far, I’ll cut to the chase: I only made things worse.)

I finally gave up and decided I’d just post a “hey, I’ve moved” style post on the old blog and continue forward with everything here. I changed it all back…and then the www. version of my site decided it didn’t want to work. And Feedburner refused to switch my feed for me. I’m still working on these issues.

I no longer feel as mighty about making the switch on my own.

But here it is. I finally (FINALLY!) made the jump to WordPress. And it’s still very much a work-in-progress, so please excuse the changes you’ll continue seeing over the next few weeks. I’m not totally happy with the look (I never am, let’s be honest) and there are still some layout changes I need to figure out how to do.

So, what do you think?

The post Ta-Da! The New Site! appeared first on A Mommy Story.

That week off of school is always a wild time for us. Cordy thrives on schedule and routine, and even if I did put a routine in place for the week, it wouldn’t be enough since it wouldn’t be the same routine she’s used to with school. So she’s generally either cranky and super-sensitive, or she’s zoned out playing games on the computer. (Which I allow more than usual, because it keeps her calm.)

Mira, on the other hand, wants nothing more than someone to play with her. I sometimes laugh (so I don’t cry) at how we had two daughters who could be such opposites: Mira wants companionship and begs Cordy to play with her, while Cordy wants nothing more than to be left alone and not bothered by her little sister. Whether they are playing together or not playing together, someone is always unhappy.

You can see how this scene plays out over a week of being home from school. However, I’m becoming a very good mediator, so I guess there’s some good to come out of it.

I decided (thanks to a coworker’s brilliant suggestion) to let them eat ALL of their Easter candy on Monday. Yes, all of it. I even threw in some leftover Halloween candy, too. They were also given unlimited TV and computer time. In exchange for this, they were agreeing to let me work with as few interruptions as possible, and to not fight with each other.

I’m somewhat stunned to report that it worked rather well. You’d think two kids with that much sugar running through their bloodstreams would be difficult to handle, but they were surprisingly pleasant and the day went better than expected. Bonus: nearly all of the candy is gone from the house. Double bonus: at one point Mira asked me, “It’s still OK to eat some healthy foods today, right mama? I’m tired of candy – can I have a banana?” WIN.

My mom came to the rescue on Tuesday and part of Wednesday, taking the kids to my aunt’s house so I could get more work done.

Aaron wasn’t working on Thursday, so he was primarily in charge of entertaining the kids. I did join in on a lunchtime trip to Chuck E. Cheese that day before I sent them out of the house to work in peace and quiet.

Friday was the hardest. Aaron was at work, I was home with the kids, and they had officially hit a wall with spring break. The novelty of no school had worn off and they were bored. For Cordy, this means she wants to retreat into her electronic devices as much as possible and avoid all human contact, especially contact with her sister. For Mira, being bored translates into being hungry ALL of the time and a need to bother Cordy. We were reaching Mom Annoyance Threat Level Red very quickly.

Our salvation came in the form of a UPS delivery man with a package. My new Keurig arrived (purchased to replace my dead one) and it was sent in a large box. As I pulled it out, Mira walked into the kitchen and noticed the big empty box. “Wow, that box is big!” she exclaimed. “Look! I can fit in it!”

I nodded as I was rushing to set up my new caffeine provider. I looked back at her just as a moment of inspiration crossed her mind. “Mommy? Can I have this box? It can be my spaceship!”

Her idea took flight in my own brain. “Why yes, Mira, that’s a great idea. You should go grab your markers and decorate the box so it looks like a real spaceship!”

She fell out of the box, scrambling to get her markers before I changed my mind about letting her use them. Returning to the kitchen with the whole pack, she set to work drawing stars and planets and different shapes all over the box.

Cordy even became interested and asked if she could join in. The two of them spent an hour making it look just right, while I sipped my first cup of coffee from my new Keurig. (It was a very, very happy hour for all of us.) The next hour was spent playing in the box while I worked.

I’ve never seen them work together so well and have so much fun with something as simple as a box. Why have we spent all this money on toys and games when all I needed was some cardboard?

To sum up: candy and a cardboard box were the most successful distractions of spring break. Take note, parents! Apparently the simple things in life really are the best.

Still, even with finding some success, I shed no tears in loading them onto the school bus again this morning. We all need our usual routine.

The post The Secret to Spring Break: Candy and Cardboard appeared first on A Mommy Story.

Now that the week is nearly over, I hear our weather is supposed to warm up to real Spring temperatures. If it holds through the weekend, I might get the chance to throw open the windows to let the first fresh air of 2013 into our house.

Our house has been stuffy for the past few months. With a dog, cats, four humans and carpeting, it’s easy for the air in our house to seem stale and dusty. I’ve given up on dusting for the moment, honestly. The last time I dusted (using a product that traps dust), everything had a new, light coat of dust on it within two days.

Of course, I can’t ignore the dust. We’re an entire family of allergy sufferers – even the dog and one cat have allergies! It’s just exhausting to try to keep up with making our air better to breathe. Dusting and vacuuming regularly help, but getting all of the dust and allergens out of the air requires a transplant of fresh air.

I love that first day of opening the windows, too. Feeling the cool, fresh air fill the house is exhilarating. Sounds silly, I know, but after having dry, recycled air pushed around the house all Winter, I’m ready for a change of air. I’ll often dust and vacuum that day, too, hoping the fresh air will carry some of the airborne pollutants out a window with it.  This is also the time for us to clean out the furnace filter.

Opening the windows and forcing some new air in here will be a good temporary solution for us, but it only lasts so long. As soon as Summer is here, the windows are often shut to keep out the heat, and in the fall (Aaron’s worst allergy season), our goal is to keep the outside air OUT of the house to keep his ragweed allergies to a minimum.

We used to have an air purifier, and with kids and more pets now, I think it’s time to get another one. They’re not nearly as expensive and huge as they used to be, and they’re a lot more efficient than the ones of 5-10 years ago. They also aren’t as loud as my old one, which sounded like a cross between a fan on high and a jet engine. (Thank goodness.)

Best Buy is having a sale on their air purifiers, with something for everyone, from small rooms to whole-house. I’ve got my eye on this one for the downstairs. It’s small enough to not take up a lot of space, it has a washable filter, and it’s energy efficient. All I hope is that it’ll keep the air a little cleaner and let me dust a little less often.

If you’re also trying to keep the dust and allergens under control, you might want to check out this 20% off coupon they passed along for me to share with all of you. (Note: I’m using the coupon as well!)

Disclosure: The reviewer has been compensated in the form of a Best Buy Gift Card and/or received the product/service at a reduced price or for free.

The post Spring Cleaning: Time To Let In The Fresh Air! appeared first on A Mommy Story.

Wait…no, it doesn’t.

I always gain a little weight between Halloween and the end of Winter. I enjoy the holiday eating, and I’m not as active during the cold season. I don’t mind a few pounds of gain, but seven is on the upper end of my comfort zone.

Hibernation season is over now, and it’s time to get back on track.

I’m choosing to start by restructuring my food, which is easy considering all of the junk we’ve been eating lately. Step one is getting all of the bad stuff out of the house. Since I don’t want to throw it all out, that means this week is eat all the food week.  And OH we have a lot of it.

Once it’s all gone, we’re switching to a diet of real food. Fruits, vegetables, nuts, beans, lean meats and limited grains. It’s not quite paleo, since we can’t give up dairy and beans, but limiting our grains should be easy. Aaron is gluten-free already, so his grains are already limited. The goal is to limit processed foods to less than 20% of our diet. Baby steps, folks.

And we’re slowly detoxing from diet soda. I have a hard time giving up my diet soda, but I know it’s for the best because of all of the chemical junk in soda. At the moment we’re not buying soda to keep in the house and only drinking it when we eat out. This has left me with some massive caffeine headaches, partially because our Keurig machine has decided it’s coffee brewing days are done. I broke down and ordered another one, but it won’t be here until the end of the week.

Eating better isn’t just about losing weight. My children also have fallen into some poor eating habits. Mira used to eat apple slices and bananas almost daily, but now she holds out and begs for processed snack crackers instead. (Cordy still eats apple slices all the time. She has a limited list of fruits she’ll eat, but at least she’ll eat some.) It’s up to us to set the right example to get them back on track, too. If there’s less junk food in the house, there’s less unhealthy options for meal and snack time for all of us.

Plus? It’s all about giving myself the best chance to live a long, long time. I lost all of the weight to begin with because I didn’t want to be unhealthy around my kids. Now that I’m a few years older, it’s not just about being unhealthy around them, it’s about living long enough to see grandchildren someday. (Which I want to be a LOOOOONG way off, just to be clear!)

I’m a lot smaller now, but my insides still aren’t so healthy. I’m lousy at full-life adjustments, so it’s about baby steps and making tune-ups to my habits, and now it’s time to tune-up my diet again.

What are your best eating natural tips? I’ll be stalking all of your Pinterest boards for easy recipes this week.

The post It’s Time For A Diet Tune-Up appeared first on A Mommy Story.

There are some April 1 jokes that I know and expect now, and because I expect them I can laugh and enjoy the joke. I always expect Google to release some wild new feature that is completely impossible to do at this time. (Today’s Google Nose is pretty funny.)

I also usually expect my favorite online geek store, ThinkGeek, to send out an email showcasing some amazing new products that really don’t exist. And they delivered again this year. I was especially fond of the Batman family car decal set:

The Play-Doh 3D Printer was also brilliant.

However, one prank this morning left me nearly in a panic. As I settled into my morning routine, I glanced down at the clock in my computer’s taskbar to see what time it was, then briefly continued checking my email for a few seconds before the realization hit my brain: it was 9am!!

(In the morning it takes my brain a few extra seconds for processing.)

I was stunned it was already that late in the morning. Wasn’t it just 7:50am when I was in the kitchen making breakfast? How did I lose an hour of time? I frantically started re-arranging the day’s schedule in my head, trying to make up for the lost hour.

I turned around to check the clock behind me and realized it showed it was 8am. Now I had a dilemma – which was the right time? Did Aaron change the clock in the living room to play a joke on me? (Unlikely, he knows about my strong dislike for pranks.)

Grabbing my iPhone, I silently hoped it would settle the issue and not provide an entirely different time. It matched the clock: 8am. And since it had been with me since my alarm went off, there was no way it was tampered with. My computer had changed its clock to set the time forward an hour on its own. The time was correct last night, when it confirmed it was too late and I needed to shut the computer down and go to bed.

Having my time changed on my computer was NOT funny at all. A quick search of Twitter showed I wasn’t alone in the mysterious April 1 time change. Others have had their systems set forward an hour as well.

I haven’t figured out the cause yet, but I’m blaming Windows 8, just because it seems like the most likely choice. I’ve heard it didn’t change for some Window 8 users, but others did see their clocks advance by one hour.

Operating systems should not be allowed to participate in April Fool’s Day pranks. Internet services like Google, sure, but not your own computer. What’s next? Hiding your My Pictures folder for April 1 so you think all of your photos have vanished?

I’m not laughing.

The post It’s Not Funny If It Makes Me Panic appeared first on A Mommy Story.

Mira: What do you think the Easter bunny looks like?

Cordy: I think he looks like a white bunny with white sparkles all around him.

Mira: I think he’s bigger than a regular bunny. Like as big as a grown up.

Cordy: NO! He’s a normal sized white bunny with white sparkles all around him!

Mira: But when we’ve seen the Easter bunny he’s always looked bigger.

Cordy: Maybe he can change size so he’s big enough for pictures?

Mira: Or maybe the Easter bunny is just a person in a suit.

—–
I was a little stunned by Mira’s flat statement. Had she really figured it all out at only five years old?

I can’t remember when exactly I stopped believing in Santa and the Easter bunny. I think I was older than five, but I’m not sure. It’s partially blurry to me because there was a period of time when I knew they weren’t real but never told anyone I knew it for fear that I would stop getting Easter baskets and presents from Santa. Why give up a good thing, right?

Mira seemed to believe in Santa this last Christmas, but there have been plenty of clues that she is starting to wise up to the ways of the world. I blame this partially on Aaron’s involvement in a charity organization where he dresses up as a superhero to visit sick children or support charity events.

At these events, kids genuinely believe he’s Superman. Mira, however, knows that the man in the costume is really her dad. It took awhile for us to teach Mira not to spoil it for everyone by telling each kid who lit up at seeing one of their favorite superheroes, “It’s really just my daddy in a costume.”

So now she looks at any person in costume and wonders if they’re the real thing or just someone pretending to be that character.

Even at Disney World last month, she occasionally struggled to force that doubt from her mind. During most character visits, she suspended any disbelief and fully fell into the magic of seeing her favorite Disney stars.

But there were moments that caught us by surprise. Just after meeting Stitch in Tomorrowland, she wondered how he was out on the street when he was also across the way appearing in his ride. “Maybe his ride is taking a break right now?” we suggested.

Mira frowned. “Or maybe they just have more than one Stitch.”

Later that day, we were rushing to meet the princesses near the entrance to Main Street before we then ran to the other end of Main Street for dinner at the castle.

We were hoping to meet Rapunzel, although Cinderella and Sleeping Beauty were also part of the meet-and-greet. Mira and Cordy still happily met with Cinderella and Sleeping Beauty, even knowing we’d see them at dinner in less than an hour.

As Mira gave Cinderella a hug, I told her, “You’ll see her again in just a little bit at dinner.”

“She’ll be at the castle, too?” Mira looked puzzled.

“Yes, she will,” I responded. “She’ll have to hurry like we will so she can get there in time.”

Mira thought for a moment, then motioned for me to lean down so she could quietly tell me something. I bent down closer to her and she said, “Or maybe they have another person playing Cinderella in the castle, too.”

She’s in on the secret. But at the same time, she doesn’t seem to care. Mira still hugged Cinderella at the castle and acted like she was the only Cinderella there could ever be.

In some ways I’m sad that she’s figuring it all out. I wanted her to believe there was magic in the world for just a little longer. But she’s too clever for that and insists on figuring out every mystery.

I’m not ready for my little one to grow up.

The post She’s Too Clever For Childhood Illusions appeared first on A Mommy Story.

Then after bleaching the ends, you comb out the tangled mess before applying the color. It’s not comfortable, but the first time I didn’t find it too awful. The whole process took about four hours, including an all over color on the top 3/4 of my hair, too.

So when I felt my hair was drab last week and needed a lift, I made an early morning appointment for another ombre color. I decided to go with the darker brown on top again, but thought red sounded fun for the ends of my hair.

This time wasn’t as smooth, though. I had the all over color and a color correction, although the stylist chose to do the all-over color on the ends. That part alone took over three hours – longer than I had planned. Then the backcombing began – I worried that maybe she was a little bit too overzealous with teasing my hair, as I quickly had hair that looked like I had electrocuted myself.

It took longer than normal to bleach out the ends, because she had just applied the top color to my hair, including the ends. It was now mid-afternoon. I was tired and hungry and really wished it was all over.

When it was time to rinse out the lightener, the worst part of the process started: combing out the tangled mess that was my hair. She really did go too far in backcombing my hair – it was locked into a giant knotted ball. It took one hour, two stylists – one working on each side of my head – and a bucket of conditioner to get my hair combed out. One hour of tugging and pulling and yanking and sharp pain and holding back tears. Near the end of it I was shaking from the pain. (I have a tender head, too, which doesn’t help.)

At that point I had been there for over six hours and wanted to go home. But I still had to get the color on my ends. I slumped in the chair, exhausted from the ordeal and hoping this would all be worth it.

Eight and a half hours after I first sat down in the chair, my hair was done. I have to admit, it looks really good. I love the ombre look – it’s subtle while at the same time being a bold, fun choice.

It looked even better after I had it styled this weekend:

I hated the process to get hair that looks this awesome, but I have to admit I love the finished look.

I also took notes on how my hair was styled this weekend, too, so I can try to create my own gorgeous curls at home. This BlogHer TV video below shows one way to do it, creating Selena Gomez inspired body and soft curls with a wide curling iron, a comb and some hairspray.  What do you think – does it look easy enough for an amateur like me to do at home?

It looks simple enough, although the backcombing has me a little scared after what I went through last week. I may have nightmares about teasing my hair for years to come.

(PS – BlogHer and Olay are giving away $100 or more with this video – if you watch and answer the question at the end of the clip, you could be a winner!)

The post The Things I Do For Awesome Hair appeared first on A Mommy Story.