Travelling with a little one.... part 2

A couple of weeks ago I started a list of tips on travelling with little ones. I also realize that I said the next blog would be a continuation of the list, but life happens and I got distracted (sadly, it happens a lot). Ironically though, this is sort of related to this set of tips...

I only have a few tips on what to do during the trip.

1. Plan and research BEFORE you leave. There should be no one standing there going 'okay, what do you want to do now...' or even worse 'I'm BORED!' These complains should be restricted to weekends at home.
   
   
   With this wonderful world at your fingertips, literally (what did I do before Google?!?!), do a quick search of your destination, and highlight some places where you would like to visit. This is a great activity to do with the kids too, and it might get them excited for the trip.
   Also note where these fun activities and places are relative to where you are staying... i.e. if everything is far away, maybe it is worth considering renting a car, or be prepared to take transit.

       Finally, there are lots of sites that list activities for specific age groups.

2. Now that you have plan, be prepared to throw your plan and schedule out the window. I think I may have mentioned this in one of my previous posts; I am a obsessive planner. Sometimes, I think I must had been a train conductor in my past life, because I like things to happen on schedule (okay, my schedule). I learned on this trip that staying on schedule is both difficult, and frankly, not fun.

It was probably my fault for trying to pack way too many activities into this vacation. We had a limited amount of time, and I wanted to see as much as possible. So instead of enjoying myself and allowing others to enjoy themselves, I found I was always rushing people (okay mainly my little girl) to the next thing on the list.

Children will mess with your schedule. I do not think young children understand the concept of time at all. They seem to have their own funny little internal clocks, and decide on things like: 'today, I am going to take 2 hours to eat my lunch,' and 'I need to use the bathroom for the fiftieth time'. It is impossible to plan a day around interruptions like that.

Also, over planning and obsessively sticking to a schedule will prevent you from doing spontaneous things. So, the two hour lunch prevented the afternoon museum visit. Maybe we can go shopping instead (maybe I will treat myself to something nice because of my distress over the scheduling crisis...), and hope that we can do the museum another day... I guess what I am saying is just breathe if things do not go as planned, who knows, it may turn out to be more fun. (And one day, I will actually follow my own advice).

3. Decide on what to do about your normal routines before the trip. Speaking of scheduling... since my little one was old enough to eat solid foods, lunch was at noon, nap at 1:30, dinner was at six and she should be in bed by 8:30.
   On vacation, we decided that schedule was almost impossible to meet, so we just winged it. I am lucky, my kid is pretty flexible, and she is four now, so she no longer has an afternoon nap, (though she still occasionally needs one).

You should decide prior to the trip (do no really want to argue about this during the trip) whether you want to maintain their daily routines, or just say screw it, for a couple of days. Granted, you must also be prepared to deal with the consequences after if you choose this route; it took us about a week to get her back to going to bed early again.

You can also try to maintain their daily routines. We did that for our first vacation when she was very little. Meal times were pretty much the same, give or take 30 min, and everyday we went back to our hotel room, and we all took a little nap before going out to play again. Though we spent more time in a hotel room than I would like, I was willing to live with it because my husband and I decided that our daughter was still very little, and needed both a little rest and the consistency.

And once again, be willing to change depending on how your child behaves. Like, if my child started acting like she was possessed after missing a nap or two (she is like that sometimes)... you can bet that I would have said screw shopping, we are going back to the hotel for quiet time.

I guess what I am trying to say is plan, be prepared, but also be flexible. AND don't be like me... take time to breathe and to just enjoy this special time together. At least take a moment before rushing off for the next thing.

I am sure I will be adding to this list as I travel more, and I really hope for the opportunity to travel more with my family. I also hope that my little one will remember these trips fondly, like I remember my childhood trips with my parents (we will just pretend the fights never happened...).

Gotta go dream about my next trip.

I would love to hear about your vacation tips.

Pictures courtesy of: Dragan Rusov  and  Jean Scheijen

Travelling with a little one

My family, including my in-laws, recently took a short weekend trip out of town.

So you might be thinking that I am a very lucky girl to go on so many trips (see this post and this one ), but the truth is, I usually blog post trip, but as I so rarely blog, it just seems like I go on a lot of trips. Still, I admit I am lucky to have the opportunity to go on these trips.

The trip was fun! The weather was not great, but it did not dampen anyone's spirit even if it literally soaked us one day. I consider any trip that does not result in me wanting to kill my travelling companions a great trip (my family usually had one major blow-up per family trip – I think it was because we were just not use to being together, in such close quarters, for such an extended period of time).

However, this post is not about the trip, but some lessons I have learned about I thought I will take this travelling with a small child:

Part one – from home until the plane.

1. It is okay to over pack (for the kids), but do not go nuts. I am a huge believer in being prepared, maybe it is reminiscent of my old girl guide days, but I have a tendency to pack for all four seasons. I have learned to restrain myself to packing for only three seasons by packing clothes that can be layered. I know over stuffing your luggage can be very expensive these days, but children clothes really do not weigh that much, so pack a couple (NOT DOUBLE) extra outfits and definitely extra underwear, and socks. Even if the kids are toilet trained, you never know if they will get themselves soaked or really dirty – my child has yet to meet a puddle that she does not like. Also, the one and only time I did not over pack, it SNOWED, in late APRIL!

Having said this, keep in mind that for the most part you should be able to buy what you forgot or do not have enough of at the destination. Also, if you are planning to buy a souvenir t-shirt anyways, maybe pack one less than.

2. Bring entertainment, and be prepared to make/be entertainment. You never know if the plane will be delayed (we were stuck at the airport for TEN hours, and were down to our last diaper), or if the weather really sucks, you may be stuck in your hotel room. I like open-ended toys, so it has the potential to keep my kid occupy for a bit longer. I bring things like play-doh, a notebook, things to draw with, a doll or dolls. Once, between the stuff we had and the stuff we found at the hotel, we could had set up a pretend restaurant and store in the hotel room (take out containers from the restaurant, plastic cutlery and cups etc...). We also usually go and buy her some little (and cheap) new toy for the plane. I find anything new will usually keep a child occupied for 15 minutes.

3. Electronic devices are sometimes our best friends. I found my iPad a great source of distraction. For one thing, it weighs next to nothing, and I can load a whole bunch of children stories onto it, along with games, and movies. We packed books once, and they weighed a lot, so we could only bring about three. No one wants to listen or read the same three books for a week, now we have dozens of books on my iPad, and the machine can even read them to her. I am not too thrilled about letting my kid play with my electronic gadgets all the time, but hey, it keeps her happy waiting for and during the time on the plane, so I am willing to live with that.

4. On the plane, sometimes you may have to throw some rules out the window. At home we have a pretty strict television watching time limit, however, on the plane, we allow her to watch all the television she wants (assuming we were lucky enough to get one of the planes with the little personal television systems). Yes, I admit I let my child watch almost three continuous hours of television on a flight to Florida. I figure there are very limited amount of activities she can do on the plane, it is not like I can ask them to stop the plane so I can take her to the park for a run, and I am not really comfortable letting her play in the aisles; it seems like the attendants are always serving something or collecting something and I am sure the other passengers might appreciate not seeing an excited kid play like a monkey in the cabin. Sometimes, in these situations a little bending of the rules is probably good. Like, so what if we give her an extra piece of candy if it can help keep her distracted from her ears hurting during take off and landings, or that she gets an extra cup of juice because it makes her feel this is extra special, and keeps her hydrated in the very dry cabin.

Do you have any tips?

Next post will probably be about what I learned during the trip.

I have become a walking Disney ad....

My sort of first review…

Recently, I have discovered that I have become a walking advertisement for Disney. I never thought this was going to happen, but there I was, spewing the wonders that is a Disney Cruise.

Maybe I am still experiencing some sort of post-vacation bliss (unlike my last vacation). However, you would think this blissfulness would have ended after doing three loads of laundry, discovering that I have to cleanup after myself (and the family); purchasing and preparing my own food; and finding out that there is no room service button on my phone…

I guess this is why I really enjoyed this cruise; I actually felt like I had a vacation!

Sure the ship was gorgeous, the weather was great, the shows were spectacular, and the food was yummy (a little too yummy, as I found out that I did not need to use a belt by the end of the week…). But most importantly, unlike our last vacation, we were able to have time away from our child. It was nice to spend some time alone with my husband, even if it was just sitting on deck to read a book together.

This vacation, after learning my lesson from our previous one, I wanted a set of grandparents to come with us. But it turned out I did not need free babysitting after all (I am still glad they came). The price of the cruise included a children program (for those three and older, and toilet trained). And my child LOVED the program. Given the option between hanging out with her folks or going to the ‘club’, she picked the ‘club’ every time. I am not sure if I should be happy or offended about this…

I really have to hand it to Disney for the effort they put in to make children happy, which in turn makes parents happy. Their children program was great, my little one got to spend time with kids her age, make crafts, watch movies, dance with Snow White, read to by Belle, and play with all sort of other characters! For parents, the program is very flexible; we can drop her off for five minutes or for the entire day, as the club is open until midnight on most nights (but we never did). AND you can leave the ship! So the night that we docked until 1am at Key West, the grown ups left the ship and went out for a drink!

As much as I love her, and want to spend time with my child, I need a little bit of time away from her to recharge my own batteries. So this vacation allowed us to spend time together as a family, and be able to do our own thing. I think this is the recipe for a great vacation, at least for this family.

And yes, the Disney cruise was loud, but what do you expect with a boat full of small and excitable children, and the lineups to see the characters were long, though I heard it is still much better than the line up at the parks, and it is a bit pricier than some other cruises, but this cruise pass the ultimate test:

When asked if she would like to go another Disney Cruise, my daughter said “OF COURSE” with a big giant smile.

Now if only I can win the lottery to pay for the next one…

after the vacation

Ahhh…. Family vacations… Am I the only person who routinely thinks that I need a vacation after my vacation? Do not get me wrong, I had a great time last week going to Mexico with my family; BUT it was exhausting! To try and get as much ‘fun’ time in, I do not think we once slept past 8! (And I found out that the breakfast buffet line grows exponentially after 9am)

No matter how much fun family vacations are, I think they can be very stressful. I think, we (or maybe just me) might have reached our limit of ‘together time’. I mean at home, we have our own lives, husband goes to work, kid is in school, and I can have some alone time each day to gather my thoughts, or at least regain some sanity. On vacation, we were together ALL THE TIME – from morning till night, and through the night, since we were in the same hotel room! As much as I love my child, sometimes I just need a little break from her (and the husband). I am sure they feel the same way about me.

So, as I was thinking up ways to escape my family, I noticed that many people were travelling in groups – there were a lot of three-generation families travelling together. Yep there they were; baby, mommy/daddy, and grandma and grandpa.

I have to admit that once I became a teen, I no longer wished to travel with my folks (still wanted them to pay for everything though), but now that I have a kid, I really really want my parents, and/or my in-laws, to come on vacation with me. I wonder if this is becoming a trend, after all, there is nothing quite like dependable, FREE babysitting. I think this is a win-win situation. The grandparents get to spend some fun time with the kids, and the parents get to have a VACATION! So, despite the fact that my dad still treats me like I am five, I am all for him coming with me the next time.