Brooklyn Bridge

Posted on May 1, 2009

Tabby’s visit…

Posted on April 6, 2009

Just the highlights folks, that’s all I have energy for these days.

MANHATTAN!

PLEASE TOUCH MUSEUM, PHILLY.

STATUE OF LIBERTY

CRAYOLA FACTORY, EASTON, PA

I had an absolute BLAST hosting my neice.  But, I have to admit, I am very very tired.  And I will be very happy not to spend a whole lot of time in a car any time soon!

Enter: Tabby!

Posted on March 29, 2009

My niece, Tabitha, flew in last night at 11:00 pm. Her flight was uneventful, and I was told she was well behaved. We had a couple of hitches getting home. The first, she INSISTED she had a HUGE red suitcase. She described it to me in detail, and pointed to a suitcase the same size as hers. We waited for twenty minutes until all the baggage was gone, and then went to find out what happened to her suitcase. Turns out, her suitcase was not red, but brown. And it was the size of a carry on. Lesson 1: Ask mommy to describe suitcase. CHECK!

Second, I was listening to her describe her flight instead of following the signs to the highway. We took a oh-so-minor detour home and didn’t get home until 1:00 am. No worries, she slept through most of the drive. Luckily, I did not.

Then, Chloe woke up at 5:30. John was nice enough to get up with Chloe and I got a couple extra hours of sleep.

Today we went to the American Museum of Natural History. It was the perfect day for it, since it was cloudy and rainy in New York. The girls had a great time, and much knowledge was acquired.

See the Gallery for more pictures.

International Travel with Children, the Good, the Bad, and The Ugly.

Posted on January 25, 2009

Just kidding, it wasn’t that bad.

There are a few tips that I would share:

1)  Renting the Villa was one of the best things we could have done.  It gave us a temporary “home” where we could try to develop and maintain a consistent schedule so that she didn’t feel overwhelmed by all the other new experiences we were throwing her into.  She did a lot better when we were at the Villa or when we were at Becky and Roberts house in Germany, then when we were staying in the hotels in Florence and Genoa.  In the Villa, we could also do one day in Rome, then take one day easy, then do another day in Rome, that sort of thing.  So we were able to give her some down time where she could get decent sleep and just be a kid.  Plus, we could put her to bed, then hang out with our friends without worrying about leaving her alone in a hotel room.  It worked out really, really well.

2)  Become familiar with the local grocery store.  We had to replenish the snacks we brought with us much sooner than we thought because Chloe refused to eat the food at the restaurants.  Plus, the other positive with the villa, we had a kitchen.  So, we were able to make Chloe fish sticks, chicken nuggets, and french fries.  Not the healthiest of meal choices, but the child survived on breakfast bars, crackers and popcorn.  The occasional Chicken nugget was a necessity!  In addition to that, we didn’t bring enough pull-ups because we were planning on only having her sleep in them.  When she gave up on potty training, we had to replenish our supply of those, too.  (Having a kitchen also saved us a lot of money when it came to eating out.  We only ate out a few times for lunch and dinner in Rome.  We had breakfast EVERY day at the villa, and ate in most nights.  Luckily, we had some really good cooks with us, so it was a pleasure to hang out at night, eat good food, drink good beer and wine, and relax.  Plus, nobody had to drive home!)

3)  Bring lots of small books and toys.  Chloe’s favorites were little plastic animals.  Just be aware that there is a strong likelihood you will lose one or two of whatever you bring, so don’t bring anything valuable.  We had these with us all the time, so Chloe could play on the train, in a restaurant, or even in the museums, when she got bored with the “statues”.

4)  Don’t worry about sleeping arrangements.  I was extremely concerned and so we brought a camping air mattress with us for Chloe to sleep on.  (It rolled up REALLY small so we could easily fit it in our luggage.)  We only used it when we were at Becky and Robert’s house.  The villa had a pack and play, and it was easy to find a hotel room with two beds (one a single.)  We just rolled up a blanket and tucked it up under her sheets so she wouldn’t roll out of bed.  It worked fine, and she slept well.

5)  Take advantage of technology.  I have an IPOD tv adaptor, so we could plug Chloe’s movies in where ever there was a TV.  It came in handy when we were trying to prepare food, or eat (since she refused to eat with us.)  I know, electronic babysitter, yadda yadda yadda.  Sometimes you just gotta do what ya gotta do.  And she had no trouble accepting that when we got home, her TV use was limited again.  Plus, a video ipod comes in handy when you have to fly for 8-10 hours and your child refuses to sleep on a plane!

6)  I wish we had done this one:  Don’t try to keep your child happy all the time.  I think for the first week or so, we tried to keep her happy because we felt kind of guilty about dragging her around through all of these adult experiences.  Well, she just got increasingly demanding and then unbelievably whiny when she didn’t get her way.  I honestly think if we would have stuck to our normal discipline expectations, that wouldn’t have happened.  So, we learned from our mistake.  Luckily, she never really got THAT bad (I mean, she’s two, so you have to make some allowances for behavior) and she again seemed to return to normal when we got home and back to our routine.

All in all, it worked out very well, and we all had a good time.

When we ask Chloe what she saw in Italy/Germany, she say, “Castles, statues, and towers.”  I will be curious if any of it sticks, although I expect that she won’t remember this trip.  I do plan to take our photos and put them into a photobook, so we can go back and look at them.  I think she will probably remember the trip through the photos and our stories, so I will try and take advantage of that.

HOME! At last.

Posted on January 11, 2009

Yes, we are home.

We had one of the best airplane flights I have ever been on, they had “video on demand” with a bunch of kids movies.  Chloe was happy, I was happy, John watched a Lord of the Rings Marathon, so he was happy.  The only thing that could have made it a better flight was if the food actually tasted life food, instead of dirt.

Our plan to beat jet lag:

1)  Chloe didn’t sleep on the plane but slept when we got home, which we will call a “nap” even though for us it was 10:00pm.

2)  We wake her up just long enough to have dinner, play with her toys for a bit, then into the bath and  back to bed, which will get her in bed around 7:30 pm New Jersey time.  (Trust me, she is as tired as we are, she asked to go take a bath after only being up for 15 minutes.)

3)  I will NOT ALLOW her to get up super early.  That’s it, putting my foot down, no early rising for me!

Tomorrow, she goes back to school, and we have to start over with potty training.  (Okay, so not OVER, she used the potty’s in Italy, but they freaked her out a little, so we lost some of her consistency, and in the end we all just kid of gave up.)

Back to the daily grind.  It will feel weird, Chloe and I haven’t been really home since Thanksgiving.  I wonder if we’ll remember what it means to NOT travel?

Oh, and John’s working on the pictures.  We have a ton, so its going to take awhile to get them uploaded.

Oh, internets, how I have missed you so!

Posted on January 6, 2009

I am sitting on the floor (a heated floor to be exact) at Becky and Robert’s house in Bad Wimpfen, Germany, remembering the ease and beauty of the all powerful internets.  Without you, I have not been able to tell my story.  And oh, what a glorious story I have to tell!  Travel’s to a far off land, where we met new and strange peoples who speak not our language, and do not understand the dietary needs of a two year old.  (Okay okay, so what she perceives as her dietary needs, which I am pretty sure does NOT mean eating popcorn every day for lunch and dinner!)

We start our glorious adventure on Christmas Day, in the Newark airport.  From there we travel to Penna in Teverina, Italy…Where a beautiful villa in a tiny town awaits.  In this fabulous villa (aka:  big fancy house in the country) we finally rest our heads (for 8 hours during the middle of the day, damn you JET LAG.)  The night is spent trying to convince the two year old that 2am is NOT a good time to play.  It takes until 7am for her to believe me.  Then the Clan of the Erickson’s slept until 11, while the rest of our illustrious party explored the surrounding villages.

Becky, the remaining traveler from the far off land of Germany, stayed behind to help us forage for food the the strange and confusing market.  (IE:  We went grocery shopping for something ANYTHING Chloe might eat.)  After returning the spoils to the villa, we also explored the nearby town of Orte.  Pictures shall be posted when time allows.

Then there was the attempt at sleep.

The following day, we went into Rome, Italy.  And it was COLD and RAINY and yet, still AWESOME.  Because I said it before and I will say it again, ‘WE’RE IN FREAKIN’ ROME PEOPLE!”

And there will be pictures.  Oh, will there be pictures!

After several more days of enjoying the villa, and taking advantage of the 45 minutes train ride into Rome, we lost some of our travelers to the responsibility of the daily grind.  They will be missed, but the show must go on.

Then there was an uneventful road trip to Florence, Italy.  Where much art was appreciated, much gelato, pizza, wine, and pasta was consumed.  And towers, and Duomos were conquered.  (yeah, John can tell you all kinds of stories of carrying a two year old up 456 stairs!)

After one and a half days, and two nights, of serious touring, the youngest member of our party started to protest.  (aka:  She threw a fit in the Uffizi museum after we waited in line for two hours to get in.  Mommy and Daddy were none to pleased.)  We decided that life was easier at a homestead, where everything, induding the child, was easier to control.

So, we made a tiny detour over to Pisa, to see an infamous tower that refuses to fall over.  Then drove to a seedy and scary town called Genoa, Italy.  Sleep recovered our energies, and we traveled on through the mountainous and snowy terrain of Switzerland (Becky kept telling us there were mountains.  All we could see were miles and miles of snow) to Bad Wimpfen, Germany.

And this is where we pause our tale, for now.  I promise, there will be more.  It will include many stories of whoa and triumph, checklists of how to do international travel with a toddler, and many many pictures.  And probably some photo slide shows.

We have four days left to tour Germany, and then one day of travel.

Let us all hope that we don’t freeze our little toochies off.

Cause, let’s face:  IT’S FREAKIN’ COLD HERE PEOPLE!