For those who read my blog regularly, you have probably figured out that if I go for almost a week without blogging, I am probably traveling. And that was the case this time. Bryan & I finally made our first family vacation with both of the girls & Sophie got her first stamp in her passport! We took Sadie to Providenciales, which is an island in Turks & Caicos when she was 4 months old. Now that we are pro travelers with a child, we bumped it up & took Sophie to the exact same place when she was 2 months old! Actually, it was more of a business trip, but since we brought the girls, we definitely made a vacation out of it :)
Obviously I took a ton of pictures but since there are so many, I am going to break it up into several posts. The first being about traveling with an infant & a toddler - whew, Just saying it is exhausting!
First off, it took a lot of luggage:
We were gone for a week, so we had 4 suitcases, 4 carry on bags, 1 double stroller & a car seat:
We actually came home with a lot less. I had gotten the routine down with Sadie, but there's so much more to bring with an infant. I had a couple of cans of formula, all of the bottles, the items to clean the bottles, TONS of diapers, wipes, pull ups, burp cloths, our infant carrier, etc. And we stayed at a condo with a kitchen so I brought a lot of food. I brought enough food to provide breakfast every morning, a few lunches & a lot of snacks. As you can see, Sadie even brought her own backpack which we had stuffed with snacks, books, crayons, stickers & her dvd player. This was the first time we actually paid for her to have a seat on the airplane:
We have traveled a lot with her, but she could fly in our laps for free until she turned 2. The good news is that she did so much better having her own space, so if you can afford it, I totally recommend it. The bad news - we had to pay for her :( We let her sit by the window so she spent a lot of time doing this:
or this:
I was a little nervous because she has always had her pacifier when we travel which has helped pop her ears while we ascended & descended. This time, I made sure that she had a snack to help solve that problem. I usually don't do snacks with her so she thought this was an awesome treat! Granted, I had to think of a plain snack that would last a long time & I wouldn't mind if she had a bunch, so she had dry cereal one time & animal crackers the next. Luckily it worked & she had no problems at all! On the way there, we had a lay over in Miami so it was a quick flight to Florida & then we had time for a quick lunch at the airport before we switched planes. I think this also helped since she wasn't stuck on one plane for too long.
Sophie was also a trooper:
This was her first flight & she handled it like a pro! Granted, it was easier with her because I could give her a bottle when we ascended & descended so she had no problems with her ears & the rest of the time she mostly slept. Which allowed me time to read a magazine & watch a movie :) And remember, at this age, they fly free. Even better!
I have blogged about traveling with Sadie in the past, but we did discover something new this time. We have always traveled with a car seat & I have an awesome car seat cover that we use when we check it in with our luggage. Since Sophie is so little, we needed to bring it to the gate with us while she sat in it inside the double stroller, so we had to gate check both of them at the airplane. No problem - we carried the car seat cover inside the terminal with us & used it when we checked it in at the gate, but I was worried about our brand new double stroller. After a little shopping, I found a cover for it also! If you ever plan on traveling by plane, I recommend getting both. The bag might get a little banged up, but both our car seat & stroller still look like new.
On the way home, our flight situation was a little different. They have the smallest & most busiest airport I have ever been to & luckily we remembered that from last time. And since it is an international flight, you have to get there 2 hours early. Not fun when you are traveling with children :( We lucked out & found a place to sit where we could unload all of our baggage & immediately Sadie found a friend:
Her friend was actually born the exact same day as Sadie! Once she got bored playing with her, we bribed Sadie with other goodies that I had stashed in her backpack, such as a sucker - her favorite!
And sweet little Sophie just slept right through all of the commotion until it was time to board the plane:
It's kind of fun when you fly into small island like this because their airports are so small, you have to load & unload right on the tarmac. I think it's technically illegal to take pictures out here & all of the flight crew is always yelling at you to put up your phones, but I was sneaky this time & had my phone ready to go:
I'm not going to lie, this flight was a littler harder than the first for Sadie. From our experience, she tends to travel easier in the morning. I know I have mentioned this before, but she is not a social sleeper, so she NEVER sleeps on airplanes. We didn't fly out until late that afternoon so by that time she was ready for a nap, but did not get one. She was still good on the flight, just a little fussier this time. And we had a direct flight this time, so 4 hours as opposed to two 2 hour flights was harder. And it was during dinner but we did not get served. Cheap airlines. Luckily I still had snacks left so she had a healthy dinner of peanut butter crackers & dried apples:
Another side note - we did learn something new this time traveling with her. I had brought her sippy cup with the straw on it when we originally flew & the pressure from the flight made her milk come out the top of the straw the entire flight & made a mess. You will notice that I learned my lesson & we brought her a regular sippy cup on the way home & we had no problems. These are the things I like to share because I wish someone would have told me!
And my final picture is priceless:
I told you my girl has never been a social sleeper. She doesn't sleep on the plane, in the car, at school, in her stroller, hardly ever. She is a phenomenal sleeper, as long as she is in her crib at home. The girl is like her mother & doesn't want to miss a thing! So, by the time we made it home from the airport at 10:00 Saturday night, she couldn't fight it anymore. Poor thing!
Come back in the next day or two when I post the fun pictures of Sadie & Sophie at the beach.
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