Growing Family

Travelling with Kids

We've been travelling with kids since Small Sun's adoption was finalized at 7 months old. I am pretty sure his first trip to Holland was around one year old, but we flew to California and then took a road trip long before that.

It seems that many families are daunted when it comes to flying with kids for the first time. Being in a dual-national marriage, travelling with kids has always been a given, and we've learned how to do it well over time.

Our kids are now 3, 5, and 7* and I am feeling very comfortable with travelling together at this point. My only concern for tomorrow is that Finch is sick with a fever and headcold, but we're armed with panadol, the thermometer, and lots of things to make him comfortable, so it is the best we can do!

Success in flying with kids comes down to TWO things - snacks, and activities. I try to have plenty of both. Here are some tips, and a peak at our preparations the night before a big trip.

I try to keep things mostly healthy, but add in some special things as well. Individual packets are bad on the environment, but more likely to make it through security. I have rarely had trouble bringing packaged food and even drinks through security when travelling long distances with children. The U.S. is more strict than anywhere else I've been.

The lollies are for takeoff and landing, and meltdown emergencies. All is fair up in the air!

I am so glad my kids are finally big enough to listen to chapter books! We're reading The Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe, as well as Jip and Janneke. UNO, Snap, and some matching games are good, as well as a little car building kit and modeling clay (that might not make it through security, we'll see). Playdoh, bluetak, plasticine, and clay are all great for long trips! 

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 Books have to be lightweight, and time consuming. I've packed a variety of activity books, finding books (spot things, and Where's Waldo are great), small info-rich books (about cars, insects, etc), and a felt picture book.

 

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 When travelling, ziploc baggies are your best friend! I fill sandwich sized bags with a variety of toys and I control when they come out. Here I have two bags of lego, vehicles, and ocean animals. Successful travelling is all about staying ahead of the meltdown or boredom which can quickly lead to a meltdown with tired, disoriented kids.

I've also brought dinosaurs as my kids have been watching The Land Before Time and acting it out every day. Lastly, jump ropes. The big kids have been jumping at school and it is a great way to burn off some energy in the airport without running all over the place.

Each child's bag also has pajamas, and spare socks and undies. We carry their toothbrushes.

For our kids, the most exciting thing is PRESENTS! I started the tradition of going to the dollar store and buying a bunch of little odds and ends. Little notebooks, pencils, plastic animals or toys, basically things that you won't mind them losing on the plane. Again, staying ahead of the meltdown, any time I can see trouble brewing I whip out PRESENTS! The kids all get the same thing, and the wrapping just takes up more time. Stickers, gum, yoyos, whatever! They've already been asking me "do we get plane presents mom?" They love it.

We try to communicate clearly ahead of time, which plane rides will be awake rides, and which will be sleep rides. Tomorrow we will have a nine hour flight (awake! games! food!), a 6ish hour layover (dinner, pjs, sleeping on the airport floor with their special cuddlies), and then a 13 hour flight (sleep). Knowing when they can play, and when they are expected to sleep helps them actually do that on the plane.

So there you have it. We're packed and ready to go!

My last nugget of wisdom - if your flight is longer than six hours, don't wear mascara, it's never worth it!

*For travelling with babies, my biggest recommendation is to reserve the bassinet seat! It took me years to find out that there are special bassinet seats on the plane. Literally, the most important thing when travelling long distances with a baby! Also for babies, nursing/bottle feeding, or giving a pacifier at take off and landing will do so much to help the pressure on the baby's ear drums as the altitude changes.

In my opinion, the months when your child wants to crawl everywhere or start walking and exploring, and can't yet understand that they have to stay in the seat is the hardest. That season might be a couple months or a year and you can try to avoid travelling during that time if you child is really challenging to keep in one place!

 

Crock Pot Post

We're leaving for Holland in five days. There's a lot on my mind. Sometimes I think I am a little bit crazy, and then I read some other expat blogs and realize I'm pretty normal.

Every time we are going overseas I'm wondering "should we move? Maybe we should check out some neighborhoods and schools? It wouldn't hurt to get an idea of the housing market."

I LOVE Australia with all of my heart. So much so that I am applying to become a citizen. I would love to stay here and eat limes off of my tree and carrots from my garden forever.

I really miss my family and there are some things happening close to home that make me want to be there.

When The Captain and I married, I knew that one of us would always be far from family. That is just the reality of marrying someone from far away. I also knew that would be a challenge since we are both very close to our families, but I loved him enough to say yes to a great long life together anyway.

So lately my mind is spinning the possibilities, the locations, the time frames, the logistics. I am a planner so my mind is trying to find the perfect solution to the the puzzle of family on three continents and a myriad of time zones.

With this preoccupied brain I am trying to take care of the daily logistics of getting ready for an overseas trip. 

I've bought the presents, and the snacks for the airplane, I've checked the weather and confirmed that yes, the summer in Holland has the same weather as the winter here, the dog is booked to be groomed before being left with the house sitter, one last day to bond with the new boy we'll be caring for is scheduled, the end of term activities and teacher interviews are lined up, and I've got a hair appointment to spruce up my do before we go.

Unfortunately we've got sick kiddies at the house. Finch has learned to say diarrea, and Small Sun can tell me when he has a fever. Our bedroom is looking like a mini hospital with ailing children sleeping on pallets around our bed. Sleep has been interrupted and disturbed. Please, please, let them be well before we get on the plane for the 28ish hours of travel time to get us to our final destination!

You can see the problem right there, can't you? 28 hours to get to family...

When we come back, little B, the boy we'll be caring for, will come to join our family. I've been busy transforming our old office into a sweet little room for him. Also, The Captain's mother will follow us from Holland to stay for a bit. By the time things settle in and we find our feet again, we'll be hitting August!

So, there's a bit of this and a bit of that. Everything has been thrown in my brain and left to simmer!

 

 

More Sunshine, Please

It seems appropriate to post these photos now, as we have had epic amounts of rain for the last few days. Despite yesterday being a public holiday, we stayed at home with the heaters on, playing chess, watching movies, and relaxing, letting the kids carry out some wild dinosaur-inspired play. 

Here is what we did last weekend, when it was not raining like the great flood!

First of all, I borrowed a laser level from a friend. This was amazing!!! If I ever do stripes again (and I will, I love them!), I would do them this way.

I also bought "Edge-loc" tape. It worked much better than other tapes I have tried in the past.

Of course it wouldn't be fun if there wasn't some drama. Fortunately, the only evidence left of this spill is the photo that Small Sun took for me.

I taped some Xs to keep track of where I was painting and where I was not.

The finished product. I love it. My own personal circus!

I extended one stripe all the way to the right, running right under the stairs. I have a reading nook set up in this little cubby, with a crib mattress, pillows, and baskets of books. I love to come down the stairs to find one of my kiddos curled up there.

Then I extended a second stripe left, over my sewing cupboard and the wall that holds my sewing machine desk.

The stripe keeps going right down the hallway to the boys' room.

Putting a crazy bright stripe on the wall has completely transformed this room from being a dark throw-away space to being a place I want to be. Playing with the stripes also carries a lot of movement through the room from when you come down the stairs, straight down the other shallow stairs to the boys' space.

I used Taubman's "Resplendant" and love the color in day or night.

Doing this project took ALL day long, due to my need for precision (ahem). I say that my personality lies in the intersection of creativity and perfectionism/OCD. My body of work is small and I am usually dissatisfied with what I do, but amazingly, all the prep and planning and measuring and taping payed off and I am really happy with this paint job! Setting the room up and styling it will take more time and $$$, but all in good time!

 

Welcome, Winter

Today, June 1st, heralds the First Day of Winter Down Under. You might be drinking a cold beer in the shower after mowing the lawn, or cleaning off the barbeque for the season, or running out to buy sprinklers for the kids to play in, but we are doing very different things. 

We are drinking tea. Lots of tea.

Every Aussie home has a benchtop (countertop) electric kettle. I think they are standard issue when they stamp your visa at the airport. We keep the sugar bowl full, and milk at the ready. I go for a large mug of earl grey, but we have a whole cupboard of tea. 

Aussies take their tea seriously and there is a whole body of tea language. I take my tea sweet and white, if you must know. I once had a tradesman working at my house who sent the tea back two times before coming into the kitchen to sugar/milk it to his specific preferences. True story. 

We are pulling out the footy pjs, buying new flannels, and thermals and putting extra doonas (duvets) on the beds.

I've heard lots of Aussies talk about putting the flannel sheets on the bed, but we sleep European style - with a bottom sheet and a duvet on top, with a duvet cover, and no top sheet. I'm thinking about making some flannel duvet covers to get in on that cozy experience.

As soon as my oven is fixed (I could write a very negative post about a certain appliance repair company who has been "fixing" my broken oven for two months now...) we will be baking quick breads, muffins, casseroles, and roasts.

Currently we are enjoying adventures in slow cooker/crock pot cooking, and I am super excited about my Freecycle vintage crock pot! Some recipes have been more successful than others, but it is just so fantastic to come home from a really long and busy day where there is no time to cook, to a hot and hearty meal. Please send me your favorite crock pot recipes!

Creamy cauliflower soup tasted better than it looked...okay, maybe not. Strike that one off the list.

We're still enjoying afternoon highs around 20C (68F), but things are starting to cool down. We've got the heater on low downstairs to keep the place from getting really chilly (double brick and lots of glass can act like a giant cooler...which is good...in the summer). 

We're starting to layer up and in the evenings I'm pulling out my favorite vintage New Zealand wool blankets to cuddle up and watch tv, with my knock-off Ugg boots, and thermal underwear. 

What do you do when the weather turns cold? I want to celebrate the changes instead of moan about the chill. After all, I can look at pictures from my friends in Michigan's UP and that shuts me right up!