Traveling with an up-and-coming toddler

To say traveling with a small child is challenging could be an understatement. I can see why once babies start moving around (i.e. crawling quickly, walking, etc.) parents stay close to home. 

I think we are in the midst of the really difficult travel stage right now. I thought it was challenging before to fly with Crosby over her first year, but actually it seems fairly easy in hindsight. (always the way right??). For goodness sake, Crosby took 20 flights in her first year of life! Although by no means were we pros at traveling with an infant, but it was manageable.

We decided to travel to Barcelona at the beginning of May over the first Bank Holiday weekend for a short break. Barcelona been on our "list" of places we have wanted to see within Europe and so we decided we would go this year. My sister Carrie came over from the US for a visit to see us in early May so we decided it would be fun for all of us to go together to Barcelona for a long weekend. Perhaps after Carrie's time with us in Barcelona she is rethinking ever vacationing with us again for now though! 

The pros to the travel for this trip were: The flight was fairly short and it was direct. Plus we flew out of our local airport (20 minutes away) rather than having to drive to London first. The con of flying now is that Crosby has no desire to stay still or seated for that matter. She was 14 1/2 months old for this trip. She wanted to see everyone and everything that was going on. And she has a short attention span like most up-and-coming toddlers, so watching a DVD or ipad was not of much interest for more than about 5 minutes at a time. Additionally, she does not nap well outside of her crib so there was no nap on this travel day. This combination of such toddler-isms created one very crabby and slightly unhappy travel companion for our flight! I have known it is difficult to entertain a small child as I am with her every day, but this flight brought new challenges in hopes of occupying her. 

Standing on Dad's lap was fun for a while, but we were trying to be mindful of those passengers seated in front of us, so we didn't let Crosby stay there very long. 

Once up in the air, I pulled out the ipad and we tried to take self portraits with silly faces. As you can see, Crosby did not find this very amusing....

We tried x-ray vision photos for something different.

And the halo effect which didn't seem to phase her.

Double time! Two Moms and Crosby in a strange form too.

Meanwhile across the aisle, Aunt Carrie caught up on some zz's since Crosby wouldn't stay on her lap for very long. 

On the flight home, more self portraits, this time Crosby playing peek-a-boo with my iphone cover. Anything to keep her occupied....because of course the myriad of toys I had stuffed in my carry on bag were of no interest to her...

So, once we survived the flight and arrived in Barcelona we were looking forward to exploring the city. We made some changes on this trip from how we had been traveling pre-child. First, we rented an apartment. Finding multi-bedroom hotel rooms or suites with separate sleeping areas is really quite costly and since hotel rooms within Europe tend to be small to begin with, an apartment is a nice option. My only [small] complaint about an apartment or flat is that they tend to be self-catering and I end up having to fix breakfast. When on vacation, I do enjoy a break from cooking for everyone but at this point, having space to relax after Crosby goes to sleep or when she takes a nap is more important, especially for short breaks. We ended up renting a fantastic apartment in a very nice area of Barcelona so that worked out quite well. We all had space to spread out and most importantly Crosby had her space to sleep so the three of us didn't have to tip-toe around her crib for the evening after she went to bed. 

The other change we made was we rather quickly abandoned public transport to and from the airport. Although we may have initially tried to take public transport, hauling our suitcases, a stroller, a tired child, and three adults did not gel with the train as the best way of transport. So, we opted for a taxi and after a bit of traffic, the nice driver dropped us right around the corner from our apartment. 

Having not taken a holiday with Crosby since our trip back to the US at Christmas time, we have not traveled with her since she has been onto full solid meals three times a day. There are pros and cons to both sides of the milk only vs. food spectrum when traveling with a child but it is nice to be able to just hand her an apple slice or a cracker instead of having to stop and feed her along the way as we did before when she was not eating solid foods. 

Interestingly enough, we would always ask the restaurant if it were ok to bring a child in with us and they always happily welcomed Crosby into the restaurant but only a few restaurants actually had high chairs available! 

Luckily we packed our small collapsible high chair to bring along with us on this trip and we used it at almost every restaurant along the trip. Another item I had packed and gladly used along the way was a stash of Ella's Kitchen vegetable packets. Since we were unsure about how many vegetables and fruits we might be able to find at every meal, I packed a supply of the packets for Crosby to eat daily and they were perfect. 

Another note about traveling with a small child in Spain. Timing was an issue. Many restaurants do not open until 8 or 9 pm for dinner and that is well past Crosby's bed time, let alone her dinner time! We could not wait that long each evening to feed her. So we went the tapas route most nights. We went to a tapas bar, had lots of small plates and then later on in the evening we had snacks if were still hungry, that we had purchased from the local grocery store and kept in our kitchen at the apartment. This type of dining was a noticeable change in how we used to do our vacations but it worked alright for this trip. 

And then there was the element of sightseeing within the city. First, getting around the city was a bit of a challenge. We had a small child in a stroller and Barcelona, although modern in some ways, is old. Europe is old for that matter. Public transport is not stroller friendly. Therefore, we climbed a lot of stairs where one adult would hold the baby, and the other adult would carry the stroller. Our arms were tired after doing this multiple times each day up and down stairwells. 

Scott was able to manage sometimes on his own...

 And then sometimes Aunt Carrie was there to help too...and I carried extra bags. 

 But then as any time wore on, Crosby would wiggle her way out of her stroller straps, basically proclaiming she no longer wanted to sit in the stroller. Scott would carry her around the streets of Barcelona over his shoulder! 

We wanted Crosby to stay in her stroller as we walked into the main area of Parc Guell and she wanted none of it! Actually, this type of outburst happened quite a few times over the weekend....she would start to get very upset and then in true tantrum style, would yank her hair bow out of her hair and throw it out of the pram. 

I would notice about 5 minutes too late that her hair bow was gone. Luckily while at Parc Guell I retraced my steps and found the bow along the dirt path! It felt like I was doing a lot of back tracking to ensure we had everything with us at all times.

So, the moral of this trip was quickly realized....city breaks with an up-and-coming toddler are not going to be our cup of tea for the moment. It's a tough lesson learned since Scott & I have enjoyed a LOT of traveling since moving abroad. We suspect a pool/beach/more relaxed type holiday will be our speed for a bit. The next trip on our books will be a week in France doing just as described - a week by the pool relaxing and perhaps some very small and quick market trips in nearby towns.  We want to be able to still take advantage of having Europe on our doorstep but we know our days of exploring as we used to are gone for the moment. Perhaps when Crosby is a bit older such city breaks will be more enjoyable for all involved, but for right now they are not fun for her and consequently they are not enjoyable for us either! Travel in general just seems tough with a young one at this age so we are hopeful that with a different speed of a holiday we will still be able to get away to someplace new, relax and enjoy time together as a family. 

2010: The Year Recapped

Originally, 2010 was going to be the year we were scheduled to move back home....since we are ringing in the New Year here in jolly old England, that plan wasn't the one which came to fruition. That said, we could not be more pleased to still be here in England and when looking back at the year, it has been a very good year for us. Now with 2010 coming to a close, I wish I had properly kept track of more facts and figures related this past year, but I will keep better notes for next year! Recounting the major bits of 2010 include:

Travels. More stamps on our passports. Scott's passport actually filled up this year! Our travels included trips to 10 countries on 4 continents - Europe, Africa, Asia, and North America. A few countries were visited more than once (I have counted England in there since we did a few long weekends and exploring in our own back yard).

In January, we woke up on New Year's Day in Rome. We left my family members after a nice Italian holiday and returned back to England.

In February, we traveled to Morocco where we stayed in Marrakesh and also visited the nearby Atlas Mountains.

In April, we visited Istanbul, Turkey - one of our most favorite trips we have taken in our time abroad.

In April, we ate schnitzel larger than our head in Vienna, Austria.

And then next we went exploring Budapest, Hungary, where we experienced the traditional Hungarian Baths and a night at the Opera.

In June, we traveled with Scott's parents on a 3-city, whistle-stop tour of Germany. We saw Hamburg, the Berlin wall, and of course drank many steins of local beer in Munich (paired with one too many sausages!).

In July, Scott traveled to the northern land with some friends and they drank their way through the fine scotch of Scotland and golfed some of the world's best courses up there.

In August, we headed towards the sun to see Portugal. We explored Cascais and Lisbon.

October took us north again....to Edinburgh, Scotland, with some friends for a long weekend.

In November, we took our first Eurostar trip and went back to Paris (our 2nd and 3rd times there). We will probably always find more reasons to go back because the city is just that great.

The additional trips we took included three trips each back to the US (two together, and one each alone) - Scott in the spring, both of us in August, I went back in September, and then both of us went back together again in November.

London seemed to be our favorite weekend and/or day trip destination here in England, although I did not track how many train tickets and trips into the city we made in 2010. My guesstimate would be somewhere between 20-24 trips...the city never looses its appeal to either of us.

VISITORS. We welcomed friends and family into our home over here and were thrilled to have such good friends make the journey to see us in England.

In March, Shawna visited.

May - June brought Cris & Craig for a visit.

In July, we hosted Chris, Chad and Andy.

In October, Amy visited.

In December, Sarah visited and the travel gods just didn't want her to leave....so she stayed an extra 5 days!

Change. Each year brings more. Part of this year was spent wondering where the year would end - would we still be in England or would we be returning home? The verdict was England for a while longer. With that news came a new job with the same company, and a promotion for Scott. A good change and one that may keep us here through 2011, possibly into 2012.

Meanwhile, I have spent 7 1/2 months out of this year with physical changes by expanding. A strange statement to think about, but it has been happening for a while now....and with a good purpose....

By mid-September, I was already measuring some growth....

And by the end of November, I was really starting to show signs of expansion and weight gain....all because of:

This little baby who will be debuting (hopefully) in early February 2011! Although this photo is slightly ET-ish, I think it is pretty amazing that we can see the baby's features and face from an ultrasound. We cannot wait to welcome this baby into our family and hope he or she arrives as healthy as can be.

We have been fortunate and blessed in 2010 in so many ways. We look forward to more adventures in 2011, and most importantly hope that we can learn to be good parents to our little one.

Happy New Year!

Scott does Scotland

Scott had a break from life with me and took a "mancation" (as I have been fondly calling it) with some good friends of his from the US. They all initially all flew in from various parts of the US to meet in Scotland to do some manly things - namely drink lots of scotch and play golf.....

Scott in front of a large display of MaCallan scotch. A favorite of his.

The whole gang - Chris, Chad, Scott and Andy in front of the The Glenlivet distillery.

Sampling the goods inside....

I can only imagine the shenanigans that went along with all of this scotch drinking.....

Scott along the beach in northern Scotland.

A hike in the highlands of Scotland.

Scott and Chad discover Scotland's largest slug. Glad I wasn't there to witness this one!

Hamburg

Our first stop during our week long German holiday was Hamburg. We arrived into the city without a problem but once we were at the main train station, we waited for quite some time in anticipation of catching a bus to the part of town where our hotel was located. After a while, we realized no buses were stopping at our bus stop and then we figured out that the bus route was not in progress that day due to a street festival taking place between the train station and the location of our hotel! We ended up wheeling all of our luggage the few miles down the road (and through the entire street festival!) to our hotel....

After we deposited our luggage at our hotel, we went back to enjoy the street festival.

The festival included pretzels as big as our heads!

And of course great Germany "street" food for snacking...

The mushrooms caught our eye...

As well as the sausages - of course the first of MANY to come...

So, we dug into the mushrooms covered in aioli sauce. A pretty tasty snack for the travelers who had just arrived!

Cris, Craig, and Scott perched on a table enjoying our street food snacks.

After a snack, we went out exploring Hamburg. It was a neat city with water in the main part of town, making it quite picturesque.

A main street in the central town area - located on the "Inner Alster".

The Hamburg Rathaus - the impressive city hall or town hall - which is the seat of government of Hamburg.

My handsome husband outside the Rathaus area, in the main city centre.

We enjoyed dinner outside on this dock, a nice little restaurant on the Lake Binnenalster.

We passed a nice sunset on our walk home that evening back to the hotel.

Cris, Craig, and Scott (sporting the pink Vera bag yet again!) at the Hamburg Central Train Station as we were waiting to leave for our train to Berlin.

!

The impressive central station in Hamburg. The German train stations are really top notch!