High Maintenance Mom

It's that time of year again! I know we have posted about traveling with kids before but I am asked about it a lot and thought it was relevant with just a week until Thanksgiving. Traveling can be so much fun but add energy filled kids, traffic and long lines and it can be (as I like to say) like a root canal with no novocaine. I think after all of these years of flying to and from my in laws twice a year I have it down to a science. With my organization & packing skills and my husbands flying expertise, we seem to make these trips relatively unscathed....

Out of desperation and fear of shear boredom, I recently traveled alone to my in laws with my toddler while my husband was on business. I was ready for the challenge and put my organizational skills to work. I starting surfing the web to find information and helpful hints but there was little to be found. I asked friends and though out scenarios. In the end, it was confidence and pre planning that made the trip a complete success. Don’t get me wrong, I am not thrilled about doing it again but now I know I can do it. Here is what I suggest:

We returned last weekend from a nine day driving and camping trip to Utah. It was much better than I expected and I have about 1000 pictures. It turns out that driving is much easier for us than flying. When we drive, we can stop every two or three hours to get out and do something. Plus we can carry all the kids' favorite items like blankets, books, pens, dinosaurs, etc. And there are generally interesting things to watch out the window. B just added, "and we can stop wherever we want. If we're in an airplane then we need a parachute to stop..." It also helped that we went to an bunch of amazing places where the kids could run around...

I'm in Hawaii for work and sitting in the observation tower looking over Kilauea. It's a beautiful sight. I don't have an internet connection in the park housing where I am staying so I'm not able to write as much as I would like. I will be posting the winners from the past giveaway and announcing our next giveaway with TOTE-a-TOT soon. Before I run to dinner, I wanted to show off my beautiful Flat Stanley. I heard about Flat Stanley on a flight in February when I helped take a picture for the niece of a flight attendant (the flight attendant was also quite good at Suduko)...

I've been traveling for work a lot in the past few months and have been trying to find a way to eat the same types of food I eat at home. Taking food on the plane and then going to a supermarket when I land has been working well for my past three trips. Because I eat every two to three hours and I try not to eat refined flour or sugar, having my own food during workshops is important...

Let’s face it; traveling by air with a small child is a hassle. Getting through the airport, a nightmare. There’s so much to take with you-—the carry-on, the stroller, the diaper bag, your child’s car seat, and your child!

As parents who’ve been there, we finally got tired enough of the headaches of air travel with our small kids to do something about it! So, we conceived, patented, and produced a revolutionary new product for traveling families.

I thought it would be fun to start a list of fun places to visit with kids. tld mentioned a few in her reply "Happy New Year" and I thought we could put them all in one place so when we travel, we can check them out. We love to visit children's museums, natural history museums, zoos, and science museums. Below are a few favorites from recent trips.

• Eric Carle Museum of Picture Book Art - Amherst, MA. The exhibits are kid-friendly and provide an excellent introduction to art museums. There is a studio for participating in projects and a library with more than 2500 picture books. The store is one of my favorites and includes books, cards, posters, and other exciting picture book-related toys, games and apparel (we love the logo and bought tshirts for the kids in addition to cards, books, etc.).

We returned from our adventure back east just in time to put the children into bed before the west coast welcomed 2006. Since then we've been unpacking and readjusting to life at home. We were glad we returned a few days before going back to work/school so the kids could play with their toys and get a little bored. The highlights of our trip, other than seeing our families, included sledding/playing in the snow, seeing lots of fossils, going to the beach, and visiting children's museums.

I recently went to an out of state conference, and traveled with my son. When I made reservations for a car I could request an infant seat, so I thought, ah I'll have so much stuff and I'm travelling alone, why not. Luckily, my officemate suggested I bring mine, based on her previous experience, so I did. When I arrived at the rental counter the clerk said 'I see you requested an infant seat, we don't even offer those.' I thought, huh, well why was it a pull down option? Can you imagine getting there and then having to find someone to go to a store and buy you a seat? Ludicrous.

I spent four days away from my family for a work trip and loved it. It's the longest I've been away since Little Grab was born and I was concerned before leaving - would the three boys be okay, would I be okay, would the house survive? ...