Lessons Learned: Traveling with small kids

If you’re a parent you’ve probably learned by now that vacationing with kids is really not a vacation at all. As someone who loves to travel, I was delusional thinking about traveling with Emma before she turned 2. I wanted to take advantage of not paying for her plane ticket. It turns out, I didn't really want to travel. When we did, it was rough and it has taken me almost 3 years to finally get excited about planning a trip. The best part is that I'm happy to pay for her seat. Flights with a lap baby are terrible mostly because economy seats are tiny and we both got hot from having her on top of me the whole time. I still seat her on my lap for short periods of  time but we have room to move with the additional seat. She likes to seat by the window and look out when we take off and land.

I recommend taking a small backpack full of toys,  snacks, crayons, and coloring books. Download a lot of kid friendly Apps that don’t require Internet. Take her favorite toys, but try to only use on the plane the ones that you can wash. Emma loves books and I always try to bring several ones for the trip and hide a few for the flights back. 

One time, she decided to go #2 in a flight from Atlanta to Oklahoma City. Since this was a smaller airplane, they didn't have a changing table in the bathrooms. I had to get creative and change her standing on the toilet seat and hoping that nothing will get out of the diaper. At she she was old enough to stand up. I would want to do this on the bathroom floor. Try to pack extra clothes; not just one set of extra clothes because you will need more than that. We have lots of souvenir PJs for this reason. 

There is always an "adventure" happening when traveling with kids. Flying is never easy, there is so much to pack and check-in (car seat, stroller, bags, food, diapers) that is easy to forget something. You can read about my adventure traveling alone with Emma when she was 15 months here. I always forget something: my charged iPad at home, or the diaper bag in the car to notice only when we got to security, bringing pants for me for 10 days in Colombia, or the stroller at home. We have been lucky and everything works out at the end, but it's stressful while is happening. 

Now that she is older, it is easier to travel and have a normal flight. Plus there are no bottles to sterilize. However, the problem is the food. If it is possible, I try to spend time cooking for her so that the food tastes the same as it does at home. She ate so many apples in Ecuador that she now hates apples. Our last challenge was in Mexico. She didn't want to eat! not even bananas! She is picky and I know it, but the resort where we stayed had many options that she would normally like. She just didn't want to eat. We had some snacks from home and eventually ran out. She drank milk like a new-born. She didn't even want cake for breakfast!!! I never take her to McDonald's, but when I saw one in town I got her a chicken nuggets happy meal and she DEVOURED it. I don't know what is it about that place that kids like it so much.  

We just came back from Washington DC and it went so well that we are traveling again on January 1st. This time it will be just Emma and me going to Charlotte to visit a great friend and meet her baby. She loves airplanes and she now drinks something for her ears instead of using the pacifier. I'm only waiting for her to be potty trained. Traveling is not the same as it was before. We have to take it slower and let her play or go hiking with her on my back. However, we still enjoy it and for us is more than enough when we go to bed before 9:00 PM. 

Salento Part 2 & Valle del Cocora, Colombia

Last year, during thanksgiving week, we went to Colombia. It was Emma's first trip to my home country and my first one in over 3 years. We went to the coffee region for 2 days and I fell in love with my country even more. One of the most popular places in the region is a little town called Salento. You can read about our trip and where we stayed here. The town is beautiful and it is close to a place called Valle del Cocora (Cocora Valley). I always wanted to go and see the wax (cold weather) palms. We went to the town mirador (lookout) the first day and to the Cocora Valley the second day. 

Emma was very good during the whole trip. She didn't want to walk more than 5 minutes and she wanted to be carried ONLY by her mom. I did what every mom would do: take her on my back with the ergo baby. At the time Emma was 31 pounds!!!! The 2,400 meter altitude is OK; except when you are going uphill with a toddler on your back. After a long recovery from a broken leg just a year ago, I felt really proud of myself.  

These are some of my favorite pictures from the mirador in Salento:

We hired a tour guide and he took us to the most wonderful walk. You can rent horses or just walk. We decided to walk to the river and back. We were supposed to go to the palm forest, but I was exhausted from carrying Emma after a long walk and that mean really going up the mountain. We will return when she can walk alone!! These are some of my favorite pictures from the Cocora Valley:

If you ever have a chance to visit the Colombian mountains don't miss these places. The pictures don't really show how beautiful everything is. I can't wait to return to this beautiful place! 

Update 2015, Part 2

I completely forgot about this blog for months!!! The last post was in February!! I got really busy with work and just forgot about writing. I'm happy to say that I finally feel more like myself again. The first year after having Emma I was physically and mentally exhausted. Now I can have some time for ME and that really feels good. I meant to share all the pictures from our family trips. I will upload them slowly.

Emma got very sick several times after starting day care in January. We were at the pediatrician at least once a month. I got her viruses while taking care of her, which resulted in having bronchitis 3 times in 5 months. Kids recover quicker than us. I was sleep deprived during this time because of my sick kid or thanks to my endless cough. Let's just say that we had enough antibiotics this year.

I traveled a lot for work in March and April. In those months I went 3 times to Pennsylvania, once to DC, and one time to the Middle East. I saw snow for the first time in February!! I was extremely busy until May and normal busy after that. I now have to work 3 times a week at another office that is 60 miles away from home. I always wanted to travel for work except that I want to fly not drive.

We took Emma to Disney in May. I never thought that a 2 year old could enjoy it so much, but she did! She keeps asking me to go back and remembers a lot of details. We are going to take her again for her 3rd birthday in January. I used my AA miles to book 3 plane tickets for a family vacation. We spent 5 nights at an all inclusive in Playa del Carmen, Mexico in September. We didn't have internet those days. It was difficult at the beginning, but after the second day I was happy to disconnect. The only problem was to locate Andre if we went different ways for a little bit. We hired a local photographer to take some family pictures. I'm still waiting for the photos. I can't wait to see them!!

I'm failing my goal of visiting one new country every year. Since I am not adding a new country to my list, I started counting Emma's. If it's new for her, I'm happy!! Mexico was her 5th country and she behaves so well on airplanes that people congratulate us all the time. Emma loves to travel and she asks me all the time to go on vacation again. She also gets excited when we drive by the airport thinking we are going somewhere. She still hates long car rides (just like me). We don't have any plans to travel before the end of the year. However, I'm always looking for great deals or low mile tickets.

I will share some of the travel pictures from Colombia, Ecuador, Orlando, Qatar, and Mexico in the next few weeks.