How to get to Sesame Street

We decided to go for it and take the boys to Sesame Place yesterday. We were a little bit apprehensive about The Boy's physical well-being. He wasn't great about keeping his food or drink down at home...but since this was likely the last good counts day for awhile, we didn't want to waste it. We brought a few changes of clothes, the Clorox wipes, his SPF outfit (which is actually a swimsuit!) and whatever else you normally bring when you travel with little tiny kids.

We arrived at the park after 3, meaning that we paid the "twilight" price. This is the best thing to do when your kids are under 4 or so. Under 2 is free, so only Musical Daddy and I had to purchase tickets. We got an orange armband for The Boy, meaning that we didn't need to wait in line for anything. They are very kind to families with medical issues. Someone asked us about it, and my response was, "you really don't want an armband." I'd rather wait in line than "earn" the armband but we are dealt certain cards. Anyhow, there wasn't much that required waiting in line that we actually did, but it's good to know that the option is open for us, not to have to worry about it.

The Boy seems overwhelmed, but in a good way, at seeing his favorite "people" brought to life. He got a photo with Grover, Elmo, and Abby. Daddy got kisses from Elmo, as did Tiny Guy

The Boy rode on the carousel at the beginning and near the end of the visit, once with each of us. We would have all gone, and one of us would have sat on the bench with Tiny Guy, but we had to take pictures!

One of the highlights of the visit was the "Elmo's World" show. They took the format of "Elmo's World" from the end of Sesame Street and brought it to life, complete with Mr. Noodle's nephew Mr. Noodle. It had basically the same segments and was about the same length of time. In addition to being able to sit right up front for the show, Tiny Guy was the baby in the "Elmo will ask a baby" bit, and he even got the question right! The question was "How do you pretend to be a fish?" and he was making those motions with his mouth because he was hungry. Silly little man. The Boy was transfixed by the whole thing--Elmo's World is real??!???!!!

There were letters and numbers everywhere, of course.

We talked to a Jewish family that we saw, just to make conversation, and of course to ask them to daven (pray) for The Boy. Turns out, they are on their way home to Chicago and will be stopping in Pittsburgh today, so I told them to call my mom and ask for help finding food.

The parade was fantastic at the end of the evening. The Boy was interested in everything going on and even started dancing to the music, on his own. Of course, all of the major Muppet characters were there.

Tiny Guy was mostly too young to appreciate any of this, although he was interested in the stage lights during the Elmo's World show. He was fed several times during the trip. Fortunately, he is already getting faster at nursing, and I am getting more comfortable with him, so it was not such a big deal to just sit at the nearest bench and feed without any issue. I am discovering that part of his problem in being "fussy" is actually my problem and it will have to work itself out. For those in the know, it is called an overactive letdown and he just gulps too fast to try to get at all the milk. This happens less often if he is eating really frequently but he seems to want to space out his feedings a bit more (thank goodness for small favors) and more often than not only wants to take one side at a time. Most of the time at the park when I'd sit down to feed Tiny Guy, Daddy would have something fun to do with The Boy. Two of their meetings with characters (Grover and Zoe) coincided with Tiny Guy's need to feed.

The Boy also spent about 20 minutes in the gift shop at the end just looking at stuff.

I don't think that we'll get a chance to go back again this summer, but next summer, we'll have to plan several outings around "good counts" days. It's not incredibly far for us to get to Sesame Place and might be a nice meet-up spot as well.

Last night wasn't so great for The Boy--he woke up about as often as Tiny Guy did, clearly in some kind of pain. He got some Tylenol and perhaps felt better. This morning, he was up without any issue, ate a mini-bagel and drank some milk (people milk) and went off to the center. Seems like BP might be trending low and potassium might be high, because of the pains, so I held off on the Vasotec this morning. Don't know if The Boy needs blood or platelets today. I'm actually guessing that he doesn't need either but will need one or both on Monday. I am also really hoping that he stays reasonably healthy for this weekend, because my parents are coming to visit and I'd really like them to have fun with the kids.

I'm adjusting to having "kids" although it's a major change. It is true that going from having 1 to having 2 is the most difficult, at least from my perspective. Particularly considering that kid #1 is still a baby himself. I need to accept that while I am going to do my best to keep them both happy, occasionally one of them will have to wait for things, and it really depends on who needs what more.

Musical Daddy's birthday is today. He's very young for his age. He is getting some presents today, and some presents tomorrow.