Animal Kingdom lodge is obviously closest, but seeing as you'll only go back and forth one time, and it'll only be a bit longer to the moderates, I'd go with a moderate for the $$$ savings. Now, if you plan to hang out any at the hotel at night, go to dinner, have drinks, go to the pool...etc then I'd do Animal Kingdom lodge as they have more of a real lobby. The moderates have a pool, and probably a food court and a smaller check in lobby. Animal Kingdom has a couple of sit down restaurants and a bar. It's more of a big lobby/main house. Basically, I'd decide how long I was going to be able to spend enjoying the actual hotel. By the way, Animal Kingdom closest the eraliest of all the parks. Sometime around sunset I think. I think another great idea is, stay at the moderates, and go visit Downtown Disney at night for the shops, and restaurants. Ghirardelli's is great for desserts!

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Mo & Carlos

~God's Blessings~

Thanks everyone.

She goes in tomorrow to have the dressings changed and the drain removed from her procedure yesterday.

She sees her first oncologist next week to discuss what stage the cancer is, what further testing needs to be done to see about spread, etc. and to discuss treatment options. So, on to another waiting game.

I'm hoping that what they removed was all there is, and with a little radiation to err on the side of caution, she'll be fine in a few months. That's my best case scenario right now, and the only scenario I will entertain until her "cancer guys" as she calls them, tell me otherwise!



I feel very optimistic after my rock-bottom yesterday. I actually woke up feeling lighter almost, and I think that if I keep my faith in God then everything will turn out as He planned.


Today is Juan and my 5th wedding anniversary. This weekend I think we'll order chinese food, rent movies, and take the kids to chuck e. cheese or something else fun as a family to celebrate. We've come so far in 5 years and I want all of us together to acknowledge it, the kids and us!

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Mo, thanks for the advice! Is it coincidence that I am snacking on a Ghirrardelli Peppermint Bark Square as I type? So yummy.

I think the pg side of me likes the idea that the animal kingdom closes early. It might give me a chance to lay down and recoup before doing things in the evening. Am I totally crazy for going to Disney (even for a short time) while pregnant??

Amy, I think that your weekend sounds like a great way to celebrate your anniversary. I'll be thinking about your mom and praying for your best case scenario.

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Jaime...Mom to Braiden


Born 2/2/2005
4 lb. 13 oz
17 3/4 inches long

Amy, your last post brought tears! Often times, God allows us to hit bottom but he's always there waiting for us to run to him. Hang in there!

Jaime, it's great to "see" you. Can you believe we are in the third trimester?!? Were you amazed at how much more quickly it is going this time? I actually have to stop and think when people ask how far along I am, and I hear you on not taking a belly pic yet!! Not looking too cute this time so not really wanting to take one either!!!

Andy, I think it was you that asked about the med. I'm still doing the Unisom thing. Today, I was really desperate (rough night with Sam getting the stomach flu from Jack), so I took a Zofran. I don't know what's going on with your daughter. I've been asking myself the same question with regards to what my response should be on certain issues. Sam has developed this extreme fear of bears which always seem to be lurking in darkness. Sometimes, I'm not sure if he is using it as a ploy. For instance, he will ask to sleep with his door open and the hall light on because he's scared of bears but I don't know if he is throwing in the bears thing to get what he wants or if he is genuinely afraid. They do know how to manipulate us, but if he is genuinely afraid, I don't want to punish him for it! (BTW, he does sleep with the door open now!)

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Mel

John & Melissa (Married July 2001)

Amy - sorry I never made it on to tell you had sorry I am. You mom will be in my continued prayers. I hope your best case scenario is the case.

I have a friend with colon cancer (only 40 years old and female, so very rare) and that was her case. Only a small amount that was successfully removed during surgery and 3 months of chemo treatments and the doctors are VERY optimistic that she'll be in remission forever.

And a great big Happy Anniversary!

Your weekend sounds like a wonderful celebration! Heck, with small kids, honestly who needs more? While I appreciate a nice romantic date, I've never thought that was the only option. Simple can be just as lovely.

Andy - I'd say it's both -- a little regression/getting used to Tyler, but MOSTLY a phase. It's still awfully young to be fully potty trained, even for a girl. I seriously wouldn't even try to mess with that now. Just put her in diapers and go with it. Whatever the cause, it's for attention. Pushing to get her potty trained again may only make it worse. Both Zach & Gabe went from being 100% pt'd back to not. Zach several times and Gabe just recently. He was only 100% pt'd from about Thanksgiving til Christmas. 2008 seems to be a year to see how many diapers a day he can go through! He'll even ask for a diaper right after he pees on the potty. I don't get it.

The rest of it is definitely a phase. Or possibly even just a game, depending on her frame of mind. Both my boys have gone thru the "feed me" stage. Especially when it's a food that isn't their favorite, but isn't something they totally dislike. I've had to shovel Gabe's veggies into his mouth several times in the last month. I can tell it's a game with him and I don't care. As long as he gets the veggies and I 'win', kwim?

This too shall pass.

Jaime - have a wonderful time at Disney. Part of me is jealous........part of me is so glad it's you and not me! (j/k) I can't wait to take my kids, but I just can't fathom spending the money when I'd waste 1/2 of every day trying to get the kids to take a decent nap. I can't believe you're at the 3rd trimester. Dang, everything flies when I get so little time on the computer.

Mo - glad you're feeling better.

Knock on wood (really hard), Mikayla sleep great the last 2 nights. I guess writing, venting & complaining about it was the trick. The last 2 nights she went down peacefully just a little after 9, woke up around 3 (and quickly going back to sleep), and wanted to nurse about 5, and going back to sleep til 7:30ish.

This I can handle.

Well, maybe handle it once I finally get out of my fog. For some reason getting a little sleep after getting none actually does me more harm than good for a couple of days. I feel like an unorganized freak today. DH was out of town last night, but my mom stayed the night since I had a coffee date with the girls last night. She hung around today so I could get caught up on some stuff (well mainly because Zach said he wanted to go to her house and play with her and neither of us could see any point in me loosing an hour of driving time going back & forth between our houses so much).

Well it's been a dead loss day. It took an hour and a half of coxing Mikayla to take a 15 minute nap. And the boys have been insanely rude, hyper, ornery, tired, hungry and everything else in the book. I'm positive it's in reaction to Daddy not being home last night. It seems to be a trend anytime he's not here for bedtime. I need to go pay Zach's dentist bill (he's out of network on our insurance which gives us a major co-pay, but we go to him anyway since he is wonderful with kids), and I can't find the freaking bill. I've spent an hour looking for it right where I KNOW I left it. Can you say tired? Maybe last night should have for not coffee!

The good news is DH's trip got cut short. Today's meeting got out at 10am, when DH thought it would go til 9 or so tonight. So he's already headed back. So I don't get to go it alone tonight. AND Grey's is new tonight!

I'm apologizing now if nothing I just wrote makes any sense. I'm too tired to take advantage of the edit feature.

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Cyndi
Mommy to

Zach 5/20/03


Gabe 4/26/05


Mikki 1/22/07

Ok, for a second there I thought my posts were disappearing but I responded to your update Amy, on the private board. I continue to pray.

Regression is common and not fun as you well know. Tucker acted out before Carsen got here. He was very emotional and all over the place. He got aggressive a couple of times with his classmates.

Mo - Glad you haven't gotten worse. I hope it stays that way.

Mel - Tucker used to sleep w/ the door closed and no light. Now he sleeps with the door open and a night light (though it finally burned out and I haven't replaced it yet).

DH and I are tackling our 2008 budget tonight. Oh, Tucker said the funniest thing to DH the other day... Apparently there was a fly in the car and he said, "There's a fly, Daddy. A small fly, more like a gnat."

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Candes, Tucker's comment literally made me lol.

Amy, have a wonderful time celebrating your anniversary. I think it's great that you want to spend the day doing things as a family. I am thinking about you and your mom every day.

Thanks girls for the advice/support in regards to Becca. It's just so strange to me to listen to my little girl who's mantra has always been "I can do it myself" become so helpless...The whining I kind of expected, but the wanting to be a baby, I did not. I talked to a g/f of mine last night who has three kiddos and whose oldest is 6 and she says that about every 6 months her kids change in some way and she finds herself asking, "what happened?" And then after a few months of whatever behavior, her cherubs come back and then 6 months later, it all starts up again. She has the nicest, most polite and well behaved children I have ever seen, but I still hope she is wrong.

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Andy

Amy- I will be praying for you. I'm not really sure what religion your family is, but when I go to church I will light a candle for your mom and say some prayers. I will offer up the mass for her health. Hang in there. And Congrats on 5 years!!!

Melissa- Wow. I'm so sorry you are still dealing with the m/s. I hope you feel better really soon.

Jaime- Nope. You're not crazy at all. I've been to Disney, as you'd expect, in all three trimesters of pregnancy. You're going at a great time because it won't be hot. Just drink water. Take short breaks. Lift your feet up at night. If you get really exhausted, you can rent one of those little scooter things. The good thing about Animal Kingdom is that it's fairly small compared to say, Epcot. There are always a lot of preggos there with their kids. I guess a lot of parents want their older kids to go now, before they can't go because of the infant. You'll have a great time! Of course, no roller coasters or bumpy rides! BTW...there's a new sort of Pan Asian restaurant there. I think it's called "Yak and Yeti" in Asia that is pretty good considering how bad food is in Disney. I know it sounds weird but the fried green bean appetizer is delicious! Try it if you go there. Also, if you want more fast food type, a lot of people like the flame tree BBQ place. People rave about the ribs. They're a dry rub, and I like wet rubs, but a lot of people love it. Oh, and don't forget to take advantage of the Baby Care center. It's amazing how few people know it exists. They're great. They have these huge padded changing tables with disposable liners. They have several high chairs. They have a big bottled water jug for mixing any formula or for you to refill your water bottle. They have microwaves to heat up food. They have nursing rooms for those who need them, they have a TV with cartoons to keep the little ones enetertained if they need a break. Plus, they sell just about every baby essential you might need if you forget it. Diapers, formula, baby food, medicines...etc Oh, and they usually have really clean bathrooms for yourself. Definitely use the baby center!

Melissa- Alex used to sleep with the door closed, in pitch blackness. Now she says she's scared of monsters, so she wants a night light, but wnats the door closed.

I'm actually ignoring my kids so I can finally post. They have been "playing together" for a couple weeks now and it is so cute and actually lets me get the dishes washed. William will crawl after Bella or just on his own decide he wants to play in her room and he'll crawl by himself in there and play for a good 20 min. He loves to pull everything out of her toy kitchen and bang the pots and food together. So cute.
I do need to post a new pic of him but I keep waiting for a cute one of Bella and Will together and it just hasn't happened.
My hubby was out of town all week and I'm so ready for some sleep. I got about 5 broken up hours last night. Sara - your night schedule sounds like ours!

Andy - Bella has been acting very similar for awhile now although now she has whole days where she is a pure pleasure and then the next day she'll sit in time out or get all of her "fun stuff" taken away. We've really tried to crack down on the whining/disobeying. If she doesn't do what we ask the first time we ask then immediately she loses her princess shoes or dress or jewelry, etc... She also does the "feed me" and for a bit we complied a little but now if she doesn't feed herself in a normal amount of time then we put the food away. She has gone to bed with very little food before. Two nights ago we were having the food argument b/c I hate it when she doesn't eat but I also hate it when I end up pleading with her or playing too many games and so I said "I've had it. You eat for the next 10 minutes and then the food goes away and if you don't eat your costume goes away, too." She said "mama, you're mean". Um, I felt terrible.
She also some new fears and like the rest of you, we don't know how seriously to take them or where they came from. I am trying to really watch what she is exposed to because I feel she is much more aware of things she sees and they come back to her in the wee hours.

Amy - Happy Anniversary!! I hope this weekend can give you some restoration and rejuvenation. Like I said on the private board, you are in my prayers.

MO - Take care of yourself and good luck with the rest of the sick crew. I hope they get better soon!

I had a question for you all but I forgot it. I hope everyone has a great weekend!

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Frenchie - I like your style. Tucker keeps getting up from the table to walk around or play w/ his brother. I hate the games to get him to eat. I think I'll start picking up the plate and excuses him from the table w/ no dessert. I'm going to buy a timer for several situations.

I just found two more teeth trying to make their way down in Carsen's mouth. Last night was specatular. I was up several times between 12 and 3... or was it 4am? I finally gave him a 4oz bottle and tylenol.

I hope everyone has a good week end. Todd and I are taking a 1/2 day off next week to take Tucker to see "The Pirates Who Don't do Anything," a Veggie Tale movie. It'll be great personal time for him.

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Happy Friday ladies!

I have a question about pumping? When did you start pumping? I can't remember, for the life of me, when I started with Keegan. I would like to get a small stash in the freezer (not that I need it for any particular reason), but I don't want to start pumping too soon. I know my supply is not established yet. I don't want to trick my body into thinking it needs to produce more than I really need. I have a big enough problem with leaking like a faucet, I don't need to make the problem worse. When do you think I should start pumping?

Totally, OT, but we are really excited for the big playoff game tomorrow! Go Seahawks!!!

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Angela

Mommy to Keegan Jude & Truitt James

I pumped right away with J and produced way too much.


I pumped at 6 weeks with Lily, which worked better for us.

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Angela, I have no idea when I started pumping. I hate the thing, so it was probably as late as I could muster. That being said, I am still, 9 months into this, a leaky faucet. Ty slept in this morning by about an hour and I woke up soaking wet. Rebecca came into bed with us in the morning and saw my nightshirt and asked if Tyler had spit up.

It should be a good weekend for football, for sure! I can't wait!

Frenchie, we don't play the food game either. I refuse to get into a power struggle. If she eats, fine, if not, that's fine too. I can't tell you how many meals Rebecca literally hasn't eaten a thing, even before this thing of wanting to be fed came up. I ask her how her (fill in the blank) tastes to get her back on track to eat, but if she doesn't, so be it. And she hardly ever outlasts us as far as wanting to stay at the table. When we are done, including feeding Tyler, unless she is seriously still eating, I just clean everything up at once.

I guess the regression shouldn't have shocked me, but to have it happen so late, it did. It's good to know though that some of your kiddos are going through this stuff too. I guess it just means that Rebecca is normal, a pain some days , but normal nonetheless.

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Andy

I'm glad to hear that Braiden is a normal toddler when it comes to eating. Andy, like Rebecca I couldn't even tell you how many meals he hasn't eater...or eaten just a few bites. I just tell myself that he's healthy and active, and therefore I refuse to worry about it!

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Jaime...Mom to Braiden


Born 2/2/2005
4 lb. 13 oz
17 3/4 inches long

Angela, I started pumping early with Hayden (a few days old, to give my bbs a chance to heal) and later with Bryce (2 months or so). I didn't have over or under supply issues either time. I have read, though, that your milk changes as your baby grows. So milk from when he is 6 weeks old won't have the same nutritional balance as milk when he is 3 months old. So don't pump more than you can use within a month.

Bryce seems to be competing for the title of Fussiest Baby. He is a strong contender today. He has been getting congested at night and not able to sleep well unless he is propped up in my arms. I tried propping the crib mattress and he rolls to the bottom! So I have been holding him a lot at night and not sleeping much the last couple days. No more teeth, just a lot of teething. Ughhhhh.

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Angela- I started pumping a couple of days after each birth, but I knew I needed a good stash because I was going back to work. With Alex I leaked for about 4 months, with Nick for maybe 2 months, if that. I pump just once a day, firts thing in the morning. maybe you can start off pumping just every couple of days.

HELP!!!!! What do I do about biting? Alex didn't get teeth until later, and she maybe bit me once or twice lightly and that was it. This week Nick is biting me all the time. It doesn't help that he's really sick. Fever, coughing, congested and doesn't want to eat. Maybe it's that I'm putting him to the breast when he's not hungry? He;s real sick, so I've resorted to giving him EBM and he'll maybe take a couple of ounces and that's about it. Then he just wants to chew on stuff, me included. In the last couple of days I've been able to feed him maybe twice successfully. I'm so worried this is the end of bfing for us. I can't handle the biting. His little teeth are like little razors. He bites me so hard and won't let go. I have to pry his mouth open. It's very painful. Plus, I have no patience. Everyone is still sick, and I've gotten much worse. Of course I still have to help take care of everyone when all I want is to curl up under 100 covers and sleep. Could you all pray for us? This has been a rough week. Alex and Nick still are both running fevers when we stop the medicine. If it's not better tomorrow I'm going back to the doc. Alex has lost 4 pounds! She doesn't want to eat either.

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Mo & Carlos

~God's Blessings~

Mo! Ty was biting a ton last week and I was going insane. It got to the point where I was nervous to put him on and every time he slowed down, I'd panic and yank him off for fear that he was going to bite. This week, he's been a lot better and maybe only bit me once. That being said, if I'm not watching, he'll grab my fingers or my knees or whatever when we are playing and chomp down. Honestly, I think this is part of the boy-girl difference. Ty is so much more aggressive than Rebecca ever was. Anyway, hopefully it'll be a short phase with Nick and is only happening because he's so sick.

Is he still a paci baby? Maybe offer that and then if he doesn't want it, you'll have a better idea of whether or not he is hungry. Keep pumping so when he's better, you'll be able to go back to normal and hang in there! I hope you are all better soon!

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Andy