Category Archives: Travel

Life Abroad / Personal / Travel

A Travel Mishap

May 4, 2018

I’ve posted before about some of the low points of our travels (both Prim and Lark have puked on a plane now, and sometimes when you’re traveling you just straight lose your patience), but our Bordeaux trip started with a complication of a different kind.

Traveling to Bordeaux we did something we very rarely do — we flew in the evening. Our flight was at 6:30pm and landed around 8pm, which is after the girls’ usual bedtime. Usually we opt to pay a little more to fly in the morning or midday so the girls won’t be overtired while on the plane, but this flight was significantly more affordable than other flights at more convenient times so I decided to chance it.  Even though the timing wasn’t ideal, I assumed we would power through the flight, get our luggage, catch a cab, and get the girls into bed immediately upon arriving at the house.

Everything went relatively smoothly on the flight and we made it through passport control in record time. We arrived at our home exchange house at 8:45pm and went and knocked on the door of the neighbor who supposedly was holding the keys for us. I had texted the neighbor on our way from the airport to let the him know that we were on our way, and prior to that we had received a text from the family we were exchanging with saying that the neighbor was waiting for us with the keys.

But then, there was no answer.

And no answer.

And no answer.

We knocked, we texted, we called — nothing. We attempted to contact the family we were exchanging with, but by unfortunate coincidence their flight had taken off from the airport just as we had arrived at their house, meaning they were out of contact until 10:15pm, at least.

We waited and waited and waited, and after an hour we finally just picked up our luggage and our very tired children and headed to the closest place that was open — McDonald’s. Lark fell asleep in the carrier, Prim watched videos on KC’s phone in a tired daze, and I stress ate french fries while we waited for the family’s plane to land.

Finally at 10:30pm, we simultaneously heard from the family and the neighbor with the keys. Apparently we had been given the wrong address — the one for the neighbor on the right side rather than the left — and for some reason the neighbor hadn’t checked his phone in almost two hours. It was all very inconvenient (and led to a very fun bedtime meltdown by one Lark Adelaide), but we survived.

So yes, while it would be fun to just post pretty pictures of all the amazing parts of our European adventures, it’s not the whole truth. Sometimes these things happen — planes get delayed, luggage gets lost, and miscommunications add up to one big headache. We made it through that (very annoying) first night relatively unscathed, and luckily the rest of our trip was amazing. But make no mistake — despite how it all might look on here or on Instagram, it’s not all easy.

Family Fun / Life Abroad / Travel

Our Trip to Sweden

April 9, 2018

We recently returned from a trip to Stockholm and I finally got our photos organized from the trip, so I figured it was time for a post! We spent five nights there, staying at a house outside the city in the suburb of Saltjö-Boo. This was another home exchange for us — our sixth (though we have actually hosted home exchange guests seven times now because one of our exchanges is a non-simultaneous exchange) and it was extra fun because KC’s sister happened to be on spring break and flew out from California to join us! Taking pictures with a 1 year old and almost-3 year old is a real dream.

In case you can’t tell from the number of layers we’re wearing in these pictures, it was pretty darn cold during our stay. The high was generally in the low-30s (around 0°C), but with the wind chill it regularly felt like low-20s. We are fairly well-equipped for cold weather now (hi down jacket, iloveyou) but I suspect that exploring Stockholm in the summer might be a tiny bit more enjoyable. We had a good time exploring the city, but this was not our most successful trip, by far. Things kind of went south on our way to Stockholm when we discovered that Lark had a stomach bug which resulted in her puking in the Uber going to the airport, at Schiphol while we were waiting in line to check our bags, on the plane while landing, and in our rental car. I have perfected my puking-baby positioning skills after the numerous stomach bugs/car sickness episodes, so I am proud to say that I managed to “redirect” or catch all the vomit during the six (yep, SIX) separate episodes, aside from when we were on the plane, because the landing was especially bumpy. This meant that Lark was not only melting down because she was puking (in front of everyone on the plane!) but she also barfed all over me and on Prim in the process, which of course resulted in Prim flipping out for a moment as well.

Basically that landing was us looking like every parent’s worst nightmare. Covered in puke with two screaming children. What a dream!Really just killing it at this whole “motherhood” thing, guys. Of course after Lark was sick the first day, Prim got it — puking and a fever of 103.1 on Easter Sunday. Luckily KC, Lark and KC’s sister were able to go out and explore a bit while I was home on sick duty. Happy Easter! With a puke bucket. To make matters worse, while hauling Easter baskets down the slippery wooden stairs the night before (stupidly, in wool socks) I managed to fall down about 6 stairs, bruising myself fairly well in the process.

But honestly, with the number of trips we have taken and still have planned, it’s not surprising that at least one of them would be less than ideal. And really, KC and I have been so tired from the insanity of the holidays, busy season, our trip to California and prepping for our move back to the states, it was nice to have some down time where we just hung out together and did nothing.So lest you think we have nothing but amazing trips with these wonderfully-behaved, well-traveled children of ours, let me assure you that it doesn’t all go according to plan. That picture above is from our flight back to Amsterdam, when 20 minutes prior to landing Lark decided that she was just OVER IT and had a full-blown, category 5 meltdown (yes, even nursing beyond a year doesn’t solve all meltdowns at this age! Yayyy…)

Hoo, well… We’ve had better trips, guys. For sure. But we’re off to Bordeaux next week! No rest for us, apparently, haha. At least Bordeaux will have ALL THE WINE to temper those tough moments. That really makes parenting on vacation infinitely more palatable. It was real, Stockholm. I’ll give you that.

Baby / Toddler / Travel

Traveling with Kids: Tackling Jet Lag

March 27, 2018

If you’ve ever changed time zones with kiddos, you know that jet lag can really make you re-think travel with little ones. I have now tackled the 9 hour time difference between California and Amsterdam nine times with kids (NINE TIMES. Can you ever say that without thinking of Ferris Bueller’s Day Off? Definitely not.)

Getting kids over jet lag is not an exact science by any means, but my kids tend to sleep through the night by night four when we’ve changed time zones, thanks in part to a few tried-and-true tricks. After beating the jet lag beast these nine times, here’s what works for us:

  1. One direction tends to be more difficult than the other. For us, the jet lag is always worse coming back to Amsterdam from California. In California the girls have trouble sleeping past 6am, which while annoying, is something we can deal with when they go to bed at 7:30pm without issue and sleep all night. Coming back to Amsterdam, they tend to be awake for hours in the middle of the night — TORTURE.
  2. Try to stick to their schedule as much as possible. The girls are on a strict schedule at home — nap at noon, bedtime at 7:30pm — so whenever we land, we treat the rest of the day like it’s a normal day for them. If it’s 9:30am when the plane touches down, we do everything we can to keep them up until naptime at noon and then bedtime at 7:30pm.
  3. Don’t extend naptime for the first week (or at least until they’re sleeping their normal amount at night without waking up). Jet lag inevitably makes you want to sleep and sleep hard in the middle of the day. If your kids normally nap during the day, keep them on their regular nap schedule, but expect that you’ll have to wake them up at their “normal” wake up time. For my kids, this means that they don’t get to nap for longer than 2 hours until they’re sleeping through the night consistently. That said, expect to do a little tinkering with their schedule at first. On the first night we were back in Amsterdam, the girls were up from 11pm to 3am, which was just pure insanity. I knew they wouldn’t be up at their normal time the next morning and I was so exhausted that I opted to let them sleep in (I finally woke them up at 11am!) Because they slept so late, I decided to skip naps to try and tire them out for bedtime, which actually did work, as they were only up for an hour and a half the next night and not nearly as crazy. Which leads to the next point…
  4. Expect to be up in the night and/or up early for the day. In California the girls would wake up around 4 or 5am and I would work to get them back to bed until their normal wake up time around 7am. A few mornings though, I just gave up and we have started the day at 5am. If they wake in the night and are clearly not going to be going back to sleep soon, I will stay in their room with the lights really low and will read them stories before nursing Lark and trying to get them back down (I basically do most of our bedtime routine until they seem like they might be getting tired again). Prim is old enough to understand that “it’s nighttime, you need to be sleeping,” so I try to repeat this to her at various points. When I put her to bed I’ll tell her “If you wake up and it’s dark outside, you need to be quiet and go back to sleep. Sometimes it’s completely wishful thinking that she’ll follow this, but I’m still hopeful that the message might get through.
  5. Sometimes kids need to cry. I know this is controversial, but I believe that it’s ok for kids to cry a bit. This means that if they’re up in the middle of the night and I have been in with them for an hour and a half and done everything I can to get them back to sleep, they may just need to tire themselves out on their own. Some crying I think is actually healthy for kids. Children aren’t equipped to manage their emotions the way adults are, and crying is actually a good outlet for any stress or frustration they might be feeling. During our trip to California I knew that both Prim and Lark were simultaneously having a great time seeing family but also feeling stressed out and a little overwhelmed by the trip. Lark didn’t understand why we weren’t at home and why KC wasn’t there (he was working in Dublin for the first 2.5 weeks we were in California) and Prim understood we were there visiting family, but was clearly missing home and didn’t understand a lot of the American norms. (She kept telling me, “I miss my Amsterdam” and asking “Why we have to take the car? Where’s our bikes?”) Tantrums happened, as did some crying at night, but it was something we worked through. It’s important to explain feelings to your kids when they are having a hard time (I made sure to verbalize all of those big feelings to Prim and Lark at different points during the day), but I felt like it was also important to let them have their feelings and work out their frustration. It’s ok for them to feel frustrated and have some “negative” feelings — they’re human. Let them cry a little, it will all be ok.
  6. Don’t feed the animals. One of the things I’ll hear about parents doing with their jet lagged kids is feeding them when they’re up in the middle of the night. If you have a baby who’s nursing, I think that’s fine, but if it’s a toddler, I’m a firm believer in making them wait until morning for their meal. Maybe you think I’m being mean on this one, but I honestly think that one of the reasons my kids tend to get through their jet lag relatively quickly is because they stick to a strict meal schedule when we’re in a new time zone. Food and mealtimes are tied to circadian rhythms, so it’s important to try and get kids onto the new schedule as soon as possible to help them get good sleep at night.
  7. Get some sun! In addition to food, sun helps your body register that it’s daytime and reset your internal clock; so get your kids out in the sun as much as possible during that first week.
  8. Recreate your bedtime routine from home, as much as you can. At home in Amsterdam, Prim and Lark share a room, so whenever we travel we make sure that they share a room as well. While this sometimes makes jet lag feel infinitely harder since they often wake each other up, ultimately it ends up working out (if they were in different rooms, I don’t know how I would have tackled putting them both back to bed in the middle of the night while KC was traveling). We also stick to our regular routine, no matter where we are — the girls take a bath, put on jammies, we read two stories and then I nurse Lark while I sing a song to Prim. We also travel with their sound machine and any special lovey that they sleep with to try and make the new situation feel like home as much as we can.
  9. If you’re traveling with a newborn, rejoice! The easiest experience I ever had with jet lag was when I traveled to California with just Lark when she was 3 months old. She was still up intermittently during the night and I was still in the mode of sleeping for short stretches whenever I could grab an hour or two. I let her take the lead on setting her own bedtime (she wanted to go to bed every night at 6pm) and rolled with whenever she wanted to nap. My sleep schedule was already so out of whack from having just had a baby that I had zero jet lag on either end, which is way out of character for me (we have been back in Amsterdam for over a week now and I’m still struggling to fully get onto European time). So really, if you have a newborn — count yourself lucky! (Because even though they’re a lot of work otherwise, they sure are portable and easy to fly with at that age!)
  10. This too shall pass. Jet lag can feel impossible at times with kids, but like everything else, you will get through it. I dealt with the jet lag solo on both ends this time because KC was working when we flew out to California and then he headed to Austria on a ski trip after just one night at home. By the third night I felt like tearing my hair out because I was so tired and the kids were being monsters at 1am, but like a miracle, they slept through the night on night four — so yes, it does end.

The sleep-related items we use for travel:

Travel crib
Travel bed rail
Sound machine
Travel night light
Lark’s all season sleep sack (she still fits the 0-6 month size)
Lark’s lovey
Prim’s lovey

Baby / Toddler / Travel

Traveling with Kids: Packing for the Plane

March 26, 2018

Now that we’ve taken a lot of flights with the kids (Prim has been on a total of 24 flights, Lark has been on 20) and traveled internationally with them to 9 and 8 different countries, respectively, I have figured out a few things about packing for long flights.

Every child is different, so your child’s needs are going to differ a little (or maybe a lot) from my kiddos, but when I was trying to research how to travel internationally with a one-year-old before we moved to Amsterdam, I found it really helpful to read about how other parents approached long-haul flights with their little ones.

So here’s what I do:

First, traveling with kids inevitably means that you have to pack a certain amount of stuff. We ALWAYS end up checking at least one bag, so we have embraced the idea of checking as many essential items as we can right up front. This often means that we’re checking the stroller up front, rather than at the gate, along with a big suitcase (I always pack just one big bag with everything for me and the girls together) and our travel crib, if we need it for our trip.

For our most recent trip to California, I checked one big suitcase, our travel stroller, and an infant carseat I was planning to leave in California. Like I mentioned in this post, some parents opt to bring a carseat onto the plane for their child, and if you’re child is very comfortable in a carseat, this is a great option. However, if you’re child isn’t wild about the carseat, or you’re not sure they’re going to love sitting in it for many hours on end, my advice is to check it or leave it at home. Having a carseat onboard that you’re child doesn’t want to sit in is SUPER ANNOYING because it takes up an entire seat and makes it basically unusable. (We made this mistake when we initially flew to Amsterdam with Prim. Never again.)

Anyway, let’s get to the real point of this post: carry-ons! Packing a carry-on when you’re traveling with little kids is tricky because you want to be prepared, but you don’t want to be dealing with five tons of luggage in addition to dealing with one or more kids. The rule of thumb I follow is: if I can check it ahead of time, I do. I don’t want to carry on anything I don’t need during the flight because it just makes life harder. For short flights I carry on one backpack with everything I need for myself and the girls, for longer flights (like the 10+ hour one to California) I carry on two backpacks (I use the Fjallraven Kanken and the Ayacucho Fast 45). I pack two small backpacks — one for each of the girls — inside of my larger backpack (the Ayacucho), so I’m still only carrying on two bags, both of which can fit under the seat. Also, since I don’t have to worry about securing overhead luggage space, this frees us up to board the plane at the very end, giving the kids extra time to move around and get their wiggles out in the airport before being cooped up in a tiny airplane seat. (Most flights let families board first, which is awesome if you’re traveling with an immobile baby, but if you’re traveling with toddlers, boarding right at the start just means your kiddos will be contained to a small seat for even longer.)

Carrying on two small bags makes maneuvering through the airport much easier (corralling multiple kids + luggage can be a nightmare). If I’m traveling solo, I’ll usually opt to hold onto the stroller until the gate, so I can keep both kids and my backpack(s) contained more easily. If I’m traveling with another adult though, I check the stroller ahead of time and Prim will walk while I carry Lark. (I always have my carrier for Lark while navigating the airport, as it’s much easier to have my hands free).

Ok, onto the packing list. I’ll list out what I packed for our last long flight (Amsterdam to California and back), as I honestly don’t bring too much for shorter flights. Diapers, wipes, iPad + headphones, some snacks, and Prim’s backpack with some goodies inside it usually does the trick for flights under 5 hours.

Carry-on packing list for 10+ hour flight with a 1 year old and almost 3 year old

Backpack #1 (this one)

Wet bag with full pack of wipes, 6 diapers, and small changing pad
iPad(s)
Snacks (I fill these containers with different small crackers, etc. and bring easy to transport items like bagels with cream cheese, sliced apples, and M&Ms for bribery)
Medicine corralled in a quart Ziploc bag (Children’s ibuprofen, Children’s Benadryl, Children’s acetaminophen, Children’s Dramamine)
Sleepsack for Lark if it’s a partial night flight
Headphones for me
Extra battery pack + charging cord(s)
My phone, wallet, keys, all passports, boarding passes
A couple extra Ziploc bags (for soiled clothing or the unfortunate upset stomach. They also work great as mid-flight garbage bags)

*Keeping the tablet(s)/iPads in the same backpack as the medicine, passports and boarding passes makes breezing through security much easier. I can take out the electronics and liquids in one go for the security check, instead of rifling through multiple bags. I do not carry on any other liquids besides the medicine, and generally carry on the small-sized bottles (4oz or less) to try and avoid additional security checks.

Backpack #2 (this one)

Extra outfits for kids (2 each)
Inflatable footrest (x2) with pump
Water bottles for kids (empty — fill after security to avoid headaches)
Backpacks for both kids (see below)

Kids Backpacks (I would get them these if money were no object)
each kid has their own backpack and contains the following:

Headphones
Travel MagnaDoodle
Window Clings
Stickers
Small pad of paper + mini colored pencils
Other small toys (random cheap things we never have at home like little plastic figurines and cars, small containers, etc.)
Small loveys (Lark has this one and Prim has this one)
Prim’s little baby
Small Jellycats (we have the lion, lamb and bunny)

If you’re traveling with a child soon, I hope that this is at least a little helpful. And honestly, one of the most important things to remember when you’re traveling with little ones is that no matter how well you packed and prepared, they’re probably going to make some noise and you both might have some tough moments during the flight, but just remember the mantra I repeat to myself during every mid-flight meltdown: YOU’RE NEVER GOING TO SEE ANY OF THESE PEOPLE EVER AGAIN.

Happy travels!

Baby / Motherhood / Toddler / Travel

Coming to America + an amazing travel find

February 26, 2018

Hello hello! I think I mentioned in an earlier post that we had a trip to California planned — and that’s where we are right now. The girls and I flew out last Monday and KC will be joining us in a couple weeks once his busy season at work has ended.

The flight went ok. My parents were on the same flight but weren’t in the same row as us or anything, so while I did have some help, I did the bulk of the work myself. I would have said it was a very successful flight, but about an hour and a half before we landed Prim ended up throwing up, which kind of disrupted things a bit. (She’s been on some antibiotics that upset her stomach occasionally — poor thing.) Lark also had a giant meltdown as we were landing, but honestly, with babies this age it’s kind of to be expected on a flight that long. We had all been up since 6am Amsterdam time and by the time we were landing it was 9pm over there and Lark had slept a total of about 40 minutes broken into two naps on the flight, so she was just done.

One of the things I have learned after taking so many flights with kiddos is that some stuff you have to just let go of. I used to stress out about any noise my kids made and would be wracked with guilt if one of them was having a meltdown. Now I go into long flights knowing that the kids will make some noise and that they may have a meltdown at the very end after I have tried everything in my power to keep them quiet. Honestly, it’s par for the course and the people sitting nearby will survive. This is not to say that I don’t try to keep my kids quiet on the plane — I work my butt off to keep the kids calm and entertained (seriously, next time you’re annoyed that you’re on a flight with young children, know that their parents are way more stressed and worried about flying with them than you are. TRUST ME.) It’s more that I’ve come to accept the realities of flying with young children. Sometimes there’s noise, sometimes there’s a meltdown, and when you’re really unlucky, sometimes there’s puke.

Anyway, onto an amazing travel find! Lark is at the age that I think is most difficult to travel with. She’s mobile but not walking and doesn’t have good spacial awareness yet, so she wants to move around in her seat but doesn’t comprehend that leaning headfirst into the legroom area is a pretty bad idea. Also, if you’ve traveled with very young children you probably know about the special hell that is them dropping or throwing toys into the foot space and then having to contort yourself to try and retrieve them.

We had a seat for Lark on the plane, and while some parents opt to carry on a carseat for children this age, I knew that would never work for Lark. She is hardly ever in a carseat to begin with (we have no car in Amsterdam) and she absolutely hates being in the car in general anyway. If you’ve been reading the blog for awhile, you might remember that we brought the carseat on the plane when we moved to Amsterdam when Prim was almost exactly the same age Lark is now. After that flight I was firmly in the camp of NEVER bringing a carseat onboard. So if your kiddo loves the carseat — cool, more power to you. If they don’t love the carseat or you’re not positive it’s the best option for your little one — I’ve got something for you!

I came across this while trying to figure out a solution to the problem of flying with a crawler, but just couldn’t justify the price tag, even for 10 hours of sanity. I thought that there may be another cheaper option on Amazon and ended up doing a deep-dive into the world of inflatable footrests. They all have different dimensions, price tags and reviews, and so after literally drawing out the dimensions of like six different options, I ultimately landed on this one and purchased two — one for Lark and one for Prim. (I mean, look at that photo of Prim up there — all that wasted space where her feet are!)

I tested one of them out at our apartment first, inflating it myself, and it was doable — it took maybe a minute, taking it slow so that I wouldn’t pass out from all the deep breathing. However, I knew I would be packing Prim’s travel bed rail for our trip as well (we bring it everywhere with us — totally recommend!) which has a small hand pump, and so packed the pump in my carry-on (you can see it in the photo above — it’s that orange thing). This was such a smart move, as blowing both of these up at 35,000 feet would have been annoying, and because they fit so snugly in the foot space between the seats, it would be difficult to shove them into place after they were fully inflated. With the pump I was able to inflate them to about 90% and then put them into place and finish inflating them, so they fit tightly between the seats.

I covered the two seats and footrests with the airplane blankets we were given, which made things not only cozier, but much easier to clean up. If you’ve flown on a long flight with young kids you know that the seats often look like you’ve murdered a few sleeves of Saltines by the time you land, so I totally recommend the blanket trick. The blankets were also my saving grace when Prim threw up, because I just bundled up the blanket she was sitting on and handed it over to the flight attendant and ended up with a completely clean seat afterwards.

The footrests give the girls way more space to move around and even makes it so they could lay down if they wanted to (as though they would ever voluntarily go to sleep on a flight though — haha! Uggghhhh.)

If you’re going on a long-haul flight with a kiddo I can’t recommend this footrest enough. It folds up small so it’s not a hassle to pack it in a carry-on, and it inflates and deflates quickly. I stuffed a couple of the complimentary pillows into any open crevice next to the footrests so there was literally nowhere that toys could fall and get lost, which saved both my back and my sanity on the 10+ hour flight.

I’ll try to do another post about what I brought on the plane for traveling with the girls since I now feel like I’ve traveled enough to pack pretty strategically, and knowing what and how much to pack is one of the most daunting parts of traveling with kids, I think. (Because you can totally get into the headspace of thinking that you need bring anything and everything when you travel with kids — I totally get it.)

If you have any questions about traveling with kids in the meantime, feel free to leave a comment and I’ll respond as soon as I can!