Sofia, the world traveler

Well hey there!  How are you?  I sure did miss you!

We're back from our magical Hawaiian vacation and boy do I have stories!  We got back Tuesday afternoon and the time change was mighty rough on my poor baby who didn't fall sleep until one in the morning.  That meant I was awake for waaaay longer than 24 hours, making me feel like a drunk zombie all day today (technically yesterday since it's after midnight.)  


So let's get on with the storytelling and the pictures!  We took over 500 pictures (not an exaggeration) and not a one does this place justice.  Hawaii is magic y'all!


But let's start at the start:  Flying for eight hours with a toddler.  This is how it went down.


..............

I approached flying with a 14 month old as a military operation.  There would be no room for error, there would be no second chances, nothing can be left behind.  This is not a drill, people.  I gave Drew his instructions:  There will be no magazines.  The iPad is strictly for the baby's use.  We will eat in shifts.  You must be available to hold her at a moment's notice.  All bathroom trips must be cleared with me prior to leaving your seat.  You will not sleep unless the child sleeps and you will wake up the second she does.  We will keep her quiet and occupied at all costs.  I repeat, this is not a drill.

We got a taste of what the flight might be like when we took Sofia to her first baseball game a few weeks ago. 

Kristin's hubby got tickets from his work so we made it a family day.

wearing red, white and blue for the Rangers

smiling so hard because we had so much fun that day

However, Sofia wouldn't sit still to save her life.  She wanted to get up, she wanted down.  She wanted to get on my lap, she wanted to stand on the ground.  She wanted to go from my lap to Drew's lap - she wanted to watch the game, she wanted to nap on Drew's shoulder.  She wanted to play with Dagny, she wanted to crouch on the nasty ground and eat fallen peanuts.  I looked over at Drew and said, "This is how it's going to be on the plane.  Get ready."

I scoured the internet and blogs for tips on traveling with a toddler and heeded them all:  Buy toys they've never seen before.  Stuff their little bellies with snacks.  Make it through the flight by any means necessary.  We had a 3 hour flight from Dallas to LA and a 5 and a half hour one from LA to Lihue.  That's a long ass time but I was ready.

There is only one good thing about all Drew's travel:  He has approximately twelve billion frequent flier miles, rental car points and hotel credits, which is how we flew from Dallas to Lihue in first class for twenty bucks.  Holla!  

Of course, I didn't miss the eye rolls and uncomfortable shifting in the seats of the people around us.  I knew they were thinking Oh great, a baby in first class. This is going to be fun.  But I was prepared and I was going to keep her quiet and chill if it was the last thing I did.  Rule #1:

Buy toys they've never seen before.  I packed two carry-on bags.  I bought a straw bag that was my purse/diaper bag, and my mom bag was the designated toy/snack bag and I stuffed that thing like it was my job.  Both stayed on the floor under the seats for easy access.

Sofia loves pressing buttons and I went on the hunt for small things with buttons for the flight.  I hit the jackpot with the remote control.  That kept her occupied for a good amount of time and even though it played music, it wasn't too loud on the plane.

One of my mom friends took her one year old to Hawaii in January and swore by these gel stickers.  She gave me an extra sheet and these were the first things I busted out when we took off.  I stuck them on the window and Sofia loved them!  She loved taking them off and handing them to me so I could put them back on the window.  We did that for a good long time but I only had one sheet of stickers so I rationed those bitches out so they would last.  Plus, they're gummy and once she figured out you could stretch them, she ripped them into little pieces.  You best believe I stuck the pieces on the window - if it kept her occupied we were going to use that shit up! 

Stickers on the wall, snacks in the fist; so far so good

hanging with Daddy

Praise the baby Jesus, she fell asleep!

In my internet scouring, I begrudgingly consulted MODG.  I say begrudgingly because I've emailed her a couple of times and she never responded and that hurt my feelings.  That's the cardinal rule in blogging:  You may not be able to respond to comments but you always always respond to emails.  She lives in Pennsylvania, actually not far from where we're going to live and I emailed her to ask for tips and advice because we're somewhat alike.  Except I respond to emails.  And I'm not mean to my readers (unless you're mean to me first.)  But she's entertaining and I keep going back so what are you gonna do.

Anyway, she just traveled with her toddler and I read her post on her travel tips and I begrudgingly followed her advice and also bought a doodler for the baby.  She recommended the big one, but when I went to Target to buy it, that damn thing was huge!  There was no way I was going to have room for it, so I bought the smaller one and it worked just fine.  

The smaller size makes it a handy toy when we went out to eat

because Sofia is in the 'take two bites and throw the rest of the food

on the floor' phase.  It's super fun.

We scribbled on it and erased and scribbled some more.  I also bought a travel size Etch a Sketch because along with pushing buttons, Sofia likes to turn knobs so I thought that might be fun too.  Bingo!  She was turning knobs like a pro but had the most fun shaking the crap out of it.

I may have had more fun with this than she did because I had one

when I was a kid.    

I also brought her turtle for the flight home so she'd have something new to play with, but I didn't end up needing it because she slept the whole way home.  Both flights!  I was so proud of my baby, until I realized that it meant that she would be awake the rest of the day (see 1am bedtime.  But hey, at least she did all the screaming and crying in the privacy of our own home.) 

She played with this for about five minutes before conking out.

The one thing that wasn't as big a hit were the bandaids.  I pulled one out and she was like, And?  What am I supposed to do with this?  I opened one, put it on her hand and she was like, this is it?  Where's my remote?  Bring me snacks, woman!  Which brings me to rule #2.

Stuff their bellies.  I brought tons of snacks for the flight and it was a lifesaver.  The child loves veggie sticks and I bought an entire bag and she chowed on those nearly the whole time.  I also brought pouches because she just started eating those.  She's newly interested in them and they are a godsend for snacks on the run.  Babies R Us had them on sale 10 for $10 so I grabbed a bunch and we were in business.  She also likes to try and screw the cap on so we spent time doing that too.  I also brought organic popcorn, dried cranberries and almonds, Cheerios, string cheese, baby carrots and chunks of a chicken breast that I cooked before we left.  I put everything in ziploc bags that I gave to her to figure out how to open because the name of the game is make time pass while keeping her quiet.  She had a good ol time trying to open the bags and get the food out - score another one for Mom!

Oh!  Here's a cool tip:  You can bring pretty much any kind of liquid or food on the plane if you say it's for your baby.  The pouches are more than 3 ounces but it's totally fine because it's for the baby.  I totally brought a couple of cans of Hawaiian juice on the plane coming home and was like 'it's for my baby.'  Then I sure did drink them myself!  Also, if your baby drinks milk, stop at Starbucks before you get on the plane.  If you smile pretty and ask nicely, they'll fill your sippy cup for free with whole milk for the flight, because they usually only have 2% on the plane.  Of course, I did that and Sofia didn't drink a drop on either flight.  Oh well, I tried.

Another bonus for getting through the flight is that we're still nursing.  We nursed a ton.  She also slept for a good chunk of the flights after nursing and I was even able to close my eyes for a little bit, only to startle awake because I was so paranoid about her rolling off the seat and busting her head.  At any rate, I am so happy to say that we made it through all of our flights with nary a meltdown! (I don't say nary in real life, but it felt right here.  Go with it.)  Coming home was tricky and I thought I was done for, but I popped a boob in her mouth every time she startled and she hardly made a peep.

When we landed in Lihue, people actually came up to us at baggage claim to tell us how impressed they were with my baby!  One lady even said that she was worried when she saw us get on, but was pleasantly surprised that Sofia did so well.  My chest was all puffed up because I have such a savvy traveler!

So far, Sofia has been to Key West (in utero but I'm counting it), Rio and now Kauai!  She's such a blessed little girl and I'm so thankful that Drew made it possible for such wonderful trips.

We arrived in Kauai around noon, which was about 6pm Dallas time.  It worked out perfectly because 2pm and 8pm were both times to sleep so we kept her awake with the hopes that we could seamlessly transition.  Of course, she wasn't having it so we went ahead and played, checking out our room.

My amazing hubby got us upgraded to a corner suite, which meant we had two full walls

of windows with working sliding glass doors.  We kept them closed and locked at all

times and when we went out there, we always had hands on the baby.

NBD, there's a dining table in our hotel room.

checking out the view

And oh yeah, the view!  My dinky-ass camera can't even begin to capture the breathtaking beauty that is Hawaii but I sure tried. 

This is the view from the balcony off the living area.

I got such a kick out of telling my parents and friends and anyone who would

listen that we had a living area!

Our bedroom had sliding glass doors too and we left them open at night 

to hear the ocean.  There is nothing better than falling asleep to the ocean.

Speaking of the ocean, Sofia slept through the night every single night we were there.  Do you have any idea how major that is?!  Because of that alone, it was a real vacation for me.  I haven't slept so much since before she was born and it was a beautiful thing.

But, she wasn't interested in sleeping when we first arrived, and can you blame her? We were in Hawaii, man!  So we put our swimsuits on and headed down to the pool.  I was really excited because I found the cutest straw cowboy hat for her and I was determined to get a picture wearing her hat and sunglasses and after a million tries, we got it!

She wore the sunglasses for about ten seconds, the hat for about fifteen.

The sunglasses were already gone and 

the hat got thrown into the pool shortly after this shot.

The brim got droopy once the hat got wet, but I could 

care less because she looked aDORable!

After a little pool time, we came back up to change for dinner.  We ate at Duke's and it was yummy!  I had a giant burger and Drew had their pulled pork sandwich and I'm a bad blogger because I didn't take a picture of it, but I sure got a picture of our drinks!  Of course, Sofia was enamored with the tiny umbrellas but I was too paranoid about her poking her eye out with it so we tried to distract her with nearly everything else.

Because a pen isn't dangerous at all.

#parentingfail

After dinner, we explored the grounds and it was all gorgeous.

Everything was so lush and green and I have no idea what they did

to the grass but it was unbelievably soft and springy!

I wanted a family picture but the sun was at the wrong angle and

we have total squinty faces.

still deciding what to make of the sand

We all crashed out around 7pm, Sofia in the pack n play in the living room(!) and us in our bedroom.  I fully expected her to wake up a billion times so when she didn't wake up until 8 the next morning, I was ready to dance naked in the street!  I don't know what it was:  the quilted sheet we got for the pack n play, being zonked from the flight, swimming for a few hours or having the ocean outside but we have been desperately trying to recreate it here at home because those ten nights of uninterrupted sleep was a little slice of Heaven!  It felt like a cruel cruel joke when I put her down last night and she popped up screaming less than an hour later.  Of course, as I type this, she's been asleep for three hours so here's hoping she's adjusting.  Poor baby.

But, back to vacation:  We had a successful first day!  We made it through the flight, the hotel was beyond amazing and we were on vacation as a family!  It was all good!

Until the unthinkable happened.

Oh yeah, I'm doing it.  I'm leaving you hanging.  Hate me all you want but I promise it's good.  Now we just have to pray to the nap gods that Sofia will take a nice long one later today so I can finish my story!