by BottleMom
Since there's a billion pictures of Legoland online, I played my "lazy card" and just Google Image searched this one rather than uploaded my own.
My wonderful friend Carrie hooked us up last night with some tickets to Legoland. Having had a relatively “blah” Saturday with Baby Boy at the Discovery Science Center courtesy of their “Free Saturdays if you flash your BoA bank card”, we were stoked to get a chance to do something a bit more fun with him.
In case it’s not already clear from this blog, Baby Boy is quite a challenge. Going out and doing stuff with him isn’t just full of the regular toddler issues, but we also have to cater to his sensory issues, feeding delays, and developmental delays.
I Googled some tips from other people who have taken their autistic kids to Legoland to get some input on what to expect.
This was our first real theme park visit with Baby Boy, so I’ll share our experience with anyone who has never been to a theme park with a toddler, let alone one who has random issues.
Of course it’s all about planning and packing ahead. Because I’m ultra paranoid about sh*t getting stolen, I wrapped a bike lock around my stroller so that in the event there were any rides that were Baby Boy-friendly, we could all go on them without someone having to stand back and guard the stroller. VERY glad that I did this. If you want your Bugaboo or BOB stroller stolen, be my guest. There’s a whole ring of thieves who do it at Disneyland, I assume the same occurs at other theme parks. Legoland has great stroller parking areas, you’re not just plopping your stroller in front of a ride and walking off. They have actual designated stroller parking areas, most of them in little fenced off sections that are made of metal bars which work perfectly with the bike lock.
I also downloaded the Legoland app for my phone, but you might as well skip that. It was useless.
Legoland is pretty cool with you bringing in your own food despite what their signs say. So we had a cooler filled with a sippy cup of milk, an extra “package” of milk, a grilled cheese sandwich I had made for Baby Boy to eat on the drive down (he consumed at best what would be the equivalent of one bit for an adult with a small mouth), some ice packs, 3 water bottles, an extra empty sippy cup (the plan was to have him drink some formula before forcing him to take a nap, but you can’t reuse a cup that’s had formula in it after awhile), and some baby puree pouches.
While San Diego is cold in the morning, it gets hot ultra fast. In our case we just left our jackets in the car and suffered until it got warm, but that doesn’t fly for toddlers. I always carry a spare outfit for him in my diaper bag so I knew that midway through the morning we could just change him into something lighter as the day wore on. We went there with him wearing jeans, a longsleeve shirt and a jacket…we left with him just wearing jeans and a tshirt (we would have put shorts on him but I was worried in the Duplo area he would scrape up his knees).
I also made sure I had one of my swaddle blankets and some clips, which I normally keep in my stroller basket anyway. This was for naptime, the swaddle blanket is lightweight enough to keep things cool while blocking out the world and the clips keep the blanket attached to the stroller canopy.
As you can see by how much we packed, an umbrella stroller is a no-go. Not only did we need it to hold all of our crap, but also because Baby Boy gets uncomfortable pretty quickly so we wanted him to be as comfy as possible for the sake of our eardrums and blood pressure.
Sunblock: goes without saying. Bring that in the stroller too because it’ll wear off quickly, the San Diego sun gets brutal pretty fast, and you don’t want to be stuck buying $10 sunblock for a teenie blob a the Lego Drugstore. If they had a drugstore.
As I do with any outing, I only use 12-hour diapers. You don’t want to take a fussy kid in and out of a stroller to change a diaper every other hour. We went through 3 diapers between 9am and 4pm. As any parent can attest to, you also never know when or where you’ll have a chance to change a diaper. I had to change one on the big grassy area in front of the Lego Las Vegas strip.
So how did he do?
Well in the morning he was pretty mellow so we actually took him on a ride, some Fairy Tale boat ride that just cruises along a water path while you ooohh and ahhh over fairy tale characters made of Lego. Rides in general are a bad scene with Baby Boy because you can’t just get off and since he’s so squirmy, that’s pretty dangerous if he’s wiggling around and tries to get off. But the boats on this one actually have a pretty high wall from the very bottom so as long as your kid is standing/crawling where your feet are and not where you’re sitting, it was pretty safe. Any time he started to whine, we would pull the ol’ “oohhh look! what’s that?” and point to some random Lego creature.
After that we wandered around. Legoland is part water park which I knew in advance would be a bit of a “danger” (kids with autism and/or sensory issues aren’t fans of getting kind of wet). One water area had swings on the outskirt of the water section so we put Baby Boy in one because he gets his vestibular sense on when he’s in one. He was liking it so much that my husband told me to go on a ride in the meantime. Which I did. Felt a little weird to go on my own but by the end of the day I had gone on 3 rides by myself since my husband hates rides.Which is funny…I loathe theme parks but love rides. He loves theme parks, hates rides.
At this point we knew we had to tucker out Baby Boy or we would have no chance in hell of him passing out in his stroller. This was kind of a gamble, at his age he rarely just passes out in a stroller and when he does, it’s somewhere quiet like the mall. We walked him around the Legoland section where they recreate famous cities and Star Wars scenes out of Lego.
Somewhere that morning we managed to feed him by plopping him in front of a ride so he could be somewhat distracted. Those food pouches are usually high in fruit = highly acidic = high chance of Baby Boy vomiting it all up. This is also why a good stroller comes in handy, he wiggles and fights too much in an umbrella stroller. Because our motherload stroller had a tray, we were able to make sure he was snacking by putting graham crackers and goldfish in the tray for him to have regular access. It’s at times like that where I’m so over all the feeding stuff, I really wish I could stop relying on purees so much when we go out. Actually I wish I could stop relying on purees, period.
When we wanted to have him nap we clipped the Aiden & Anais swaddleblanket to the canopy visor doodad. Which then prompted Baby Boy to have a complete mother huge tantrum. It was either have him nap or go straight home. Having him not nap wasn’t an option because the level of crankiness that would eventually set in wouldn’t have made it a fun trip at all and thus defeat the purpose. My husband had to push the stroller because hearing Baby Boy reach that level of hysterical tantrum where his face gets red and blotchy makes my skin crawl and I sweat like a pig. Mothers aren’t supposed to hear their babies that upset. Eventually after 20 mins of freaking out, he kind of became comatose. And then he passed out.
When he fell asleep I lowered the seat to a full recline (briefly waking him up, causing a mini crying session that could only be solved by walking with the stroller really fast to lull him back to sleep). Then I went on 2 whole rides. One was particularly nerve-wracking but knowing that my husband will never take our kid(s) on rollercoasters, I feel like I need to stay on my a-game so that I won’t be a wimp when the time comes to take a kid on a ride.
A little over an hour later Baby Boy woke up in a surprisingly good mood. He didn’t eat the second food pouch I brought but he snacked sufficiently on graham crackers, goldfish, and yogurt melts. I cannot tell you the variety of snacks I brought: Cheerios, graham crackers, goldfish, yogurt melts, teething biscuits, and lord knows what else.
Next up was to take Baby Boy to this big sandbox-like area. Baby Boy’s sensory issues in the past have made it so that he loathes touching sand, walking in sand, and playing in parks that have sand. This time however he not only did he go in, but he actually touched the sand a bunch of times and spent a good half hour just walking around in it. I do recommend for people to hover over their toddlers because older kids are a-holes who will shovel and dump sand around without looking, thus resulting in your kid being covered in sand.
Oh an absolute necessity: antiseptic hand wipes. Typically baby wipes and hand sanitizer are all you would carry in a diaper bag but I also carry antiseptic hand wipes and they were big time needed for this place. You need something that’ll sterilize and wipe clean all at the same time. Toddlers put their hands in their mouths all the time. While I’m okay with him getting dirty, I’m not going to spend an entire day without wiping his hands a few times. If my hands feel gross, then I make sure his hands are cleaned too.
After being quite pleased with the sand pit, the final step was to take him for some playtime in the Duplo park section. It was like a massive park with a bunch of play structures with some Duplo toys tossed in. Baby Boy was like a kid on speed. He was in toddler heaven. The ground was made of that cushy cork stuff so he could fall without hurting himself. He was running around like a madman. I can’t remember the last time I saw him race around like that. We had to have been there for at least an hour. This is probably where Legoland shines if you have a toddler because they divide it up into 3 sections, progressing from Infant to Older Toddler.
Eventually I started to worry that Baby Boy was overexerting himself in the heat because he hadn’t consumed that much liquid. Plus I hate the parking lot dance when an event comes to a close. At this point he had gotten a hold of a Duplo toy car and refused to put it down. Which resulted in the motherload of all tantrums, the kind where I’m sure people thought we were kidnapping him as we dragged him out of the park.
But that’s fine by me, I’d much rather he cry because he has to leave rather than cry because he has to stay somewhere.
Back to the autism thing…
Over by some of the water areas they have these massive pods with built-in blowdryers in them. They’re family-sized, all-over blowdryers. They’re $5 to use. I don’t know how loud they are but for anyone whose kid is sensory-seeking and loves fans blowing on them (like Baby Boy, he looooooooves my blow dryer) that would be a decent option, especially if they loathe getting wet. However the downside is that if it were really loud, that could turn off other kids who are especially sensitive in the auditory category.
There’s also enough secluded areas between sections where you could take a kid who is getting overwhelmed and needs to be calmed down. For me I feel like that’s really important because if your kid is having a meltdown, it’s hard to calm them down when there’s chaos and screaming kids all around you.
So in summary: Legoland. Two very enthusiastic thumbs up. If you have a toddler, bring everything but the kitchen sink because trust me, you’ll need it.
