Heat wave!

What is with this heat wave in the North East? I left the deep south - friends in Louisiana and family in South Florida - with several reasons, but one being my hatred for absurdly hot weather. Sticky, hot, humid days and I have a troubled past and while we try to be civil with each other, it's best when we avoid each other at all costs.

This week of temperatures 90 and above (Tuesday and Wednesday reached 100+) could go away. Move South. Stay closer to the Caribbean where at least it's beautiful. We actually just had our lawn landscaped and I felt terrible for those workers stuck outside all day. They did a fantastic job, but how horrible! As for me, I've tried to avoid going outdoors, minus Monday's 2.5+ mile parade in Rhode Island (still 90) and a job tomorrow afternoon outside.

We had similar heat like this (plus more humidity) on our June trip to WDW, though. While it was miserably hot, we were enjoying the most magical place on earth so we made it work. How do you do that with babies? We had a few simple tricks that kept us going.

Before we arrived, Mellie and I purchased clip on fans for our strollers. Not quite sure how effective they really were, but they definitely gave the babies a little breeze. Melissa also "invested" in those nice $2 hand fans for all of the adults. Surprisingly, they really helped. Though I don't plan to visit again during the hottest months (until I forget), I'll be investing in a few more of these to keep us cool.

Adam and I are snobs - we like our water nice and cold. Instead of bringing a lot of water in the parks with us, we usually started the outings with a bottle each and then bought cold water while we were there. Maybe that's not worth $3.50, but in scorching heat, we'll bite. I personally love drinking soda to quench my thirst, but Adam kept me in line and I only had soda when we were back at the resort using our refillable mugs (purchased at the resort cafeteria.. it's a souvenier and is also used for as much soda one can consume during the stay). That helped us stay hydrated. We also brought a sippy cup for Noah and let him have water sporatically in between feedings. And, to our surprise, he never really complained about being hot or tired on the trip (unusual for Noah), so maybe all of our tricks worked.

Our second plan to stay cool was a nice afternoon nap. I really like having Noah on a nap schedule, and while daycare doesn't always allow it to be as routine as I'd prefer, we even tried during our vacation to let him have at least one good nap per day. Usually, right after an early lunch, we would head back to our hotels for family nap time. This way, we all avoided the hottest part of the day, the most dangerous sun rays, and relaxed. Also, it helped us avoid the absurd daily thunderstorms. I know Florida's daily shower. This was definitely not it.

Even for our future trips (next one in January), we will probably try to continue the afternoon nap-in-bed. We all could use it to keep us going strong!

Stay cool :)
~Jenn