Disneyland: best places to nurse your baby

Before I let you in on my top 5 favorite places to nurse at Disneyland, I need to state that because of Disneyland I was able to conquer my fear of N.I.P-- Nursing in Public. Let me Explain.

We took Goofy to Disneyland when he was 12 weeks old. Call us crazy but I think this was our way of celebrating the fact that we survived the fourth trimester. Up to that point anytime we went out we would time it so that it minimized the amount of public feedings I would have to do. This meant a) really short outings (have you seen how often a newborn eats???) or b) feeding in the car, fitting room or eeep even a public bathroom!

Well, all that changed when we were at the land of the mouse. You see, I was not about to spend our trip hiding somewhere trying to feed the baby. So, armed with my nursing cover, I decided to feed him whenever he was hungry, without going to great lengths to find a bathroom or some other dark corner. My fears and anxieties were further lifted when I observed a European mama (I could tell by her accent)  in line at Buzz light year  pick up her hungry baby and proceed to nurse, without a cover or blanket, or anything. I was astonished! I know, it is probably a European thing, but it just made me laugh at myself. At that point I decided my fears were silly and I vowed never to feed my baby in a bathroom ever again. I figured, as long as I was covered up, and my hubs didn't mind, then I would feed my baby wherever he wanted to eat.

So yes, back to the point of this post. I have nursed my oldest son when he was a baby and my 2 current babies, Chip and Dale, all over Disneyland. My Top 5 favorite places to nurse in Disneyland:

Mama Made It: Baby Ponchos for Disney

Our last trip to Disneyland was in January, in the middle of winter. Since we were expecting to see at least one night show during the trip I wanted the babies to be warm and did not want the hassle of falling blankets while walking (because you know that after a day in the stroller the last thing a baby wants is to be in the stroller at the end of the day!). I found a poncho tutorial from the Make and Takes blog and knew it would be perfect for our trip. I raided my fabric stash (thank you fleece that was on sale at Joann's during Black Friday 2011) and got to work. I preferred the no-fringe version for my boys and added the Mickey applique to give it some Disney magic. The project was so easy that I was able to complete both ponchos over the course of 2 nap times which is a huge accomplishment!

When the boys wore them around Disneyland they were bundles of cuteness and a hit with random folks. 

Dale, with his Mickey Poncho at Disneyland, complete with ears.

Twins and a Toddler: Shopping configurations

Someday when my boys are all grown we will go to the store and not need two carts. They will walk next to one cart and we can get in and out of the store relatively painlessly.

These days however we know that there is no such thing as popping into the store really quick with twin babies and a toddler.

As infants, it would take, oh almost an hour to do a Target run to grab some diapers and a few household items. Ideally we would try to keep the babies at home to minimize the chaos that is required in getting out of the house

 But even mama needs to get out of the house and see the light of day sometimes.

So what does it take to go shopping in the store? I know when my babies are grown up we will laugh at these days, but  we have settled onto various configurations for our shopping needs.

Simple moments to treasure...

I <3 babywearing my almost 3 year old 'baby'.

Mama Made It: felt food! chips and sandwich

Felt food has gotten popular around the internet lately and with an almost 3 year old who loves to pretend to cook I don't know why I did not jumped on the bandwagon earlier. Here is my first project. It only took one nap to finish.. I was inspired by the ever popular brown bag lunch tutorial on Skip to My Lou but scaled it down into a 1 nap project instead of a 2-3 nap project (yes, I think of my crafty time in terms of nap; one nap lasting approximately one hour). It would have been faster if I was brave enough to dust off my sewing machine but I did not.

So, I made a bag of tortilla chips (Goofy called them Doritos!) and a PB & J sandwich (with grey PB because I ran out of brown felt).  And just like his daddy, Goofy wanted to make a chip sandwich, because, you know that's the only way to eat a sandwich.

Twins and a Toddler- Getting into the Car

My twin boys are 9 months old and we have almost survived our first year as a family of five. Looking back its easy to take for granted how we have all adjusted and grown together as a family. Take for example the simple act of getting everyone ready and into the car to go somewhere, such as the Dr's office. As infants,  the process would typically be as follows:

Mama Made it: Crinkle ball for baby

During one of many diaper changes, I observed that my baby boys love to play with the plastic wipes pouch because of the crinkle sound that it makes. This got my mind rolling to make a crinkly toy for my babies. I grabbed a couple items lying around the house: