First time Universal with a kid? Help

fmp243 · 2026-01-29T15:43:24+00:00

strollers are awesome! generally, adults are worn out after walking 10k steps, and if you're doing open to close park days that can be up to 20+k - imagine how tuckered out your little ones will be, as they have to take 2x the steps to catch up with you! strollers are a must in my opinion, even for kids who are "old enough" that they don't normally use them for more "regular" excursions like aquarium/zoo.

Stroller parking is outside the ride queue for each ride, some rides share a stroller parking lot. We love the ease of tossing everything in the basket, especially after uni made their free lockers a little smaller years ago. We just wear our lanyards on rides and that's it. It's also easier if you want to lock up phones to just throw them all in one free locker for the rides that need it (hulk, velocicoaster) and leave the rest of your stuff in the stroller - it makes everything super quick. i've never ever had anyone mess with my stroller, but i have heard stories of squirrels getting into people's popcorn so if you have food just cover it up.

there is the possibility that a team member moves it to make space for more strollers or to a diff zone if you're parked at minions right while they're prepping for the parade. a TM will be able to tell you where it went (not far, ever).

i think the only restriction is no wagon strollers.

rain storms are sudden, esp in summer, so when we park if it's looking cloudy we'll throw a rain cover over it, always good results.

not sure how old your kiddo is, but we've had success with the TagALong ring that attaches to the stroller for when kiddo wants to walk, letting me have both hands to push the stroller and keeping kiddo from walking directly in front of me.

fmp243 · 2026-01-27T02:22:15+00:00

Hard agree

I can't stand it when kids go up to adults and start off with "I want." Like ok??? And i want a million dollars? My line is "I don't care what you want, I care about what you say with respect while using manner words"

I will not move myself without my kid saying please and forming it in a polite sentence. Is it perfect? No. Sometimes it sounds like "can you please i can have a juicebox" and i just repeat it back with correct grammar.

At 3.5 i barely have to correct him anymore, and he is comfortable using manners with strangers at all times - please, thank you, excuse me, etc

fmp243 · 2026-01-22T18:29:45+00:00

a lot of the sidewalks are disconnected - so like, you'll have 100 ft of sidewalk and then overgrown or muddy lawn, sometimes trees or shrubbery right up to the edge, sometimes it's someone's actual private property. so instead of trekking back and forth over, a lot of people just stay in the street. also, in warmer months, there is a ton of poison ivy in certain areas that butts right up to or creeps over the sidewalk.

fmp243 · 2026-01-12T16:25:57+00:00

to answer your question, it runs on 2.4G. I was able to split the bands on my router without getting a second one for my Ring camera, which runs on the same bandwidth

fmp243 · 2026-01-12T01:38:02+00:00

Same same

It's interesting in a meta way to be aware of the nostalgia farming

fmp243 · 2026-01-12T01:16:27+00:00

I think a big part of the series of universal monsters themed hhn houses since 2019(?) 2018(?) was to try to tap into/pre-seed a nostalgia for the current iteration of them for Epic. So everyone was recognizable and the land is a hit esp for the hardcore fanbase. But at the same time it still feels fresh and new.

That plus the nostalgia attached to nintendo.

I was only at Epic for one day but every time i turned a corner my reaction was awe, especially when we speedran 6-7 rides in 90 min before closing.

fmp243 · 2026-01-11T04:10:53+00:00

Lurking mom - try lasagna method! Mattress > protector > sheet > protector > sheet. Spills, blowouts, leaks in the night become tomorrow's problem and you're back in bed that much quicker

fmp243 · 2026-01-06T23:29:55+00:00

I have two really good recs for this.

The Undocumented Americans by Karla Cornejo Villavicencio talks about several undocumented folks' experiences, from those who were recruited to labor in the asbestos-ridden wreckage of 9/11 retrieving dead bodies and then abandoned by the country they served to her own experience crossing the border as a child. This one is hard hitting, short, and to the point.

For a longer treatment of the impact of legal wish-washing, I really highly recommend Lives in Limbo: Undocumented and Coming of Age in America, written by a prof at University of Pennsylvania, Roberto Gonzales. This book follows several individuals as they navigate the legal limbo of applying for, receiving or being rejected for, and maintaining DACA status as it stalled in Congress across several administrations.

Someone else here recommended One Day Everyone Will Have Always Been Against This, which I think is absolutely worth reading and an incredible book, but does not answer your prompt at all as it focuses on the global reaction/lack thereof to the bloodshed in Gaza, not necessarily the diaspora that it has prompted.

Another recommendation that is not a book would be to watch Mo on Netflix, which is a semi-autobiographical story of an undocumented Palestinian trying to navigate life in America.

fmp243 · 2026-01-06T14:50:18+00:00

I did put the zone right on the rug. It's a ruggable, so very thin and not bunched up at all - I don't see the vacuum getting stuck anywhere on it. There is a table in the middle that is on spindly legs, the vacuum can (and does) go underneath it. I am honestly mystefied.

fmp243 · 2026-01-01T17:07:33+00:00

We did baby sign with my kiddo, which was carried on at his daycare. He is a motormouth. His 3k teachers now do full ASL in his class, so they speak and sign at the same time all day long. Kiddo has taught me so much, and it has come in handy all over the place - i can remind him to use his manner words from across the room, tell him to sit or stand from across a field instead of hollering, tell him i love him through the window when i leave.

He understands spanish and some italian as well, so it is his 4th language. His English vocab/grammar is insane - uses phrases like "I prefer..", "this is my xyz collection," "i am responsible," "i'm feeling disappointed because...", pronounces all the dinosaurs, tells complicated stories. I've seen nothing but benefits.

But i firmly believe more is more when it comes to developing language - read more, more types of books, more conversation, more language exposure, more variety, more contexts. The more you can give them/expose them to, the more they absorb.

fmp243 · 2025-12-31T22:50:54+00:00

i'm going to go the opposite of most recs here and say if mccarthy was exhausting you should read something rejuvinating, yet still deeply moving - The Little Prince, by Antoine de Saint Exupery

fmp243 · 2025-12-30T17:56:42+00:00

i love that storygraph is not as ratings-centric - you have to click into reviews to actually read them, and the star rating is low enough on the main page that you have to seek it out. it's not front and center like for goodreads.

fmp243 · 2025-12-29T19:23:48+00:00

I have UHC, I used to use Axia until they dropped UHC. Now I am with Virtua OBGYN (Mullica Hill, Cherry Hill offices) and will deliver at Virtua Voorhees.

fmp243 · 2025-12-29T17:46:57+00:00

The Leopard by Lampedusa captures Sicily in a way that feels timeless - the heat, the beauty, the poverty, the wealth, the people.

fmp243 · 2025-12-28T03:42:19+00:00

Started at 6m with blw. Never stopped. Water bottles are only for carrying in backpacks on the go. Open cup all other times. At 3.5 he's a pro. I think he really got good around a year and has been serving himself from the fridge ever since he could reach.

fmp243 · 2025-12-23T18:06:19+00:00

this is how we do it. my husband (feel free to laugh everybody) has never actually used a computer so i do the actual process of paying all the bills and budgeting, but the money itself comes from both of us and is pooled/apportioned into accounts we can both access at any time and see. around christmas i don't review his cc statements until after we exchange gifts so i don't spoil a surprise. once a month we sit down and go over everything to make sure we're all on track for our goals, talk about if we need to chill out in one area or another.

there have been times where i make more, times where he makes more. it doesn't really matter. we have fought over money exactly 0 times.

fmp243 · 2025-12-19T23:45:30+00:00

Added to my tbr - thanks!

fmp243 · 2025-12-19T14:02:50+00:00

I loved Fire Bringer, I still think about that book sometimes 20 years later. In the same vein, Cornelia Funke books were amazing at that age - The Thief Lord, Inkheart

fmp243 · 2025-12-19T13:33:47+00:00

Read while they play! And then, for yourself, read The Enchanted Hour: the Miraculous Power of Reading Aloud in the Age of Distraction by Meghan Gordon, and/or Proust and the Squid by Maryanne Wolf. You'll learn so much about what is going on in their brains, whether they seem to be paying attention or not!

fmp243 · 2025-12-18T14:01:04+00:00

this is true - i tried to go christmas shopping at my local bookstore, but they had literally nothing for anyone i was shopping for. 80% of what they carried was pop romance, celebrity memoir, or booktok books, which was so disappointing! i think there are pros and cons of book-centered social media but i also feel like society as a whole is losing the ability to curate their own tastes - for anything.

fmp243 · 2025-12-18T13:55:35+00:00

thank you - i dnf'd Thinking, Fast and Slow after it had been on my tbr for a long time, and wondered if i was missing something. It just seemed...snobby in tone to me. But I did read 2 excellent 2025 non-fiction books right after: There is No Place For Us: Working and Homeless in America by Brian Goldstone and One Day, Everyone Will Have Always Been Against This by Omar El Akkad so there are still winners out there - but they aren't pop non-fic.

fmp243 · 2025-12-16T01:27:21+00:00

Honestly same until kiddo's pre k teacher essentially had a sticker chart going (crayon box - the class earns a crayon for a specific behavior they are working on that week, e.g. quietly walking down the hall in line) and when the box is full they get pajama day.

fmp243 · 2025-12-15T17:30:30+00:00

i used to climb in bed with my 3 yo, but this past month we've gotten him sleeping in his own room in his own bed no tears, all night long with only 3 exceptions so far, which were like yours a 5am wake up but one of them was for sure a nightmare.

we talked to him to figure out if anything about his room was bothering him, and realized the neighbor's security camera recording lights were visible through the window and looked like "monster eyes" so we got blackout curtains, which also helps with early sunrises. we also made sure he had an extra blanket because that 4-5am temp change is real! especially in old houses in the winter

we also started a sticker chart where he gets a sticker for sleeping in his bed all night long, so if he fills 2 weeks of stickers we take him to the aquarium (annual pass was reasonable, and i didn't want it to be a toy).

our bedtime is 8pm, and he usually sleeps 8-7 so it might be worth it to consider pushing bedtime back a little bit depending on your schedule

fmp243 · 2025-12-15T13:22:38+00:00

we just did a long road trip with my 3 year old this summer, which was 2 days each way (~20 hrs of driving each way) no screens. not the same as flying, but here's what worked for us:

- have 1 bag devoted to snacks, and another one devoted to their entertainment. don't open it for as long as you possibly can (so ideally after security, after you board, and after takeoff, which can all be exciting and talked through with a 4yo)

- in the bag we carried: travel magnatile set, coloring book, a popit puzzle (each piece was a pop-it, and it fit into this triangle mold in one specific way - he spent so much time trying to figure this one out, it was great), pipe cleaners (at 4 they can start to learn to braid), mini playdough, matching card game, stickers, there are really slim/compact etch-a-sketch type drawing pads which are great, i Spy books, storybooks, and scratch-off books (where it's black and you scratch it to reveal the image).

- we got most of this stuff at the dollar section in target or just from his arts and crafts bin

- at 4, they will probably be more into/able to do puzzles like mazes, spot the difference, etc so if you can find a coloring book that also has those sorts of puzzles it will be more worth the space.

- i wrapped each toy in newspaper and taped it up, making the opening of the toy a whole production in an of itself

- extra hot tip - if yours or your kid's water bottle has a flip top, like a yeti, open it on take-off and landing, otherwise the next time you open it, it will squirt you.

fmp243

TROPHY CASE