Two day getaway

Last week David and I snuck away for two days......

Ok, who am I kidding? When you have kids you can't really "sneak" anywhere, but we did manage to plan a two day getaway at a cute little beach place that we snagged with a 50% off Groupon-type deal. After almost six weeks of passing around various flu bugs, colds and infections within our family, it was great to get some down time, relax and recharge.

We dropped the kids off at Grandma's house on Tuesday morning and checked in to our little beach chalet that afternoon. It was a great place we'd been to before and we like it because you get your own little apartment with a fully equipped kitchen, a sitting room, two bathrooms and a loft style bedroom upstairs. It was kind of funny when I walked upstairs and saw a single bed and crib in addition to the double bed. It was already set up for our family, so I had a constant reminder of my kiddos. :) 

We didn't have anything planned except to rest and veg. We watched lots of TV shows, read books, played games and slept! I had all the food mostly prepped before hand and we enjoyed leisurely and late meals - something which never happens with kids! Here are a few shots from our trip:

Berty Ocas Apart Hotel - Bertioga, SP
(Only 45 minutes from our house!)

The entrance to our Chalet.

On the way to the beach armed with chairs and a big umbrella

A short walk to the beach.

Almost there...

Aaaaaaah.

Relaxing and reading. Can't remember the last time I had
more than 10 minutes to read a real book! 

Not all fun and games - this is the traffic I had to contend
with after picking up the kids from Grandma's house.

So there you have it - we really enjoyed our time away and the kids had fun at Grandma's house. We are planning one more trip to the beach with the kids next week. Should be fun!

Multi-tasking Driver

You hope not to hear these two words in the same sentence.

After all, we did learn that to be a good driver you have to be a focused driver - checking your speed, keeping a safe distance from the car in front of you, using your peripheral vision and the side mirrors, being conscious of your blind spots, and of course, following all the traffic laws. 

So what happens when you have two toddlers safely buckled in the back seat who need attention and you are the only adult in the car?

Here are some things I have accomplished while driving:

- taken off shoes/socks,

- retrieved toys/books/sippy cups/bottles from the floor of the car, 

- adjusted floppy heads of sleeping children,

- fed the kids (and myself) snacks and drinks, 

- removed sunshades from the back windows,

- found, cleaned and replaced missing pacifiers,

- pacified the baby with hand/fingers when there is no pacifier to be found,
- kept children from hitting/pushing/kicking each other, 

- sung endless rounds of "Old MacDonald"
- fished in the glove compartment for a CD to listen to after "Old MacDonald" got really old,
- made phone calls and sent text messages (oops)  

I was thinking of all these things as I was driving into São Paulo this morning with Lucas. I am sure some mothers out there can think of other things they've had to do to keep themselves sane while driving! Since Lucas has started on a round of antibiotics, they have to be given at specific times. So while I was planning to arrive in São Paulo in time for his meds, this morning we got stuck in traffic and I fed him his doctored up yogurt (thankfully I had packed it with a spoon in case this situation arose) while we stopped and started our way down the jam packed highway. 

Of course, we all know the best way to travel with kids...

Why I try to schedule all trips over 1 hour at nap time. 

Traveling with Tots

I love traveling, and especially, flying, at least I used to....now I have two kids to fly with and it's definitely not as much fun as it used to be. Of course, all the hassle associated with flying and security doesn't help either! We just made a cross-continental flight from Sao Paulo to Calgary, through Chicago.

After we had checked in and gotten rid of our checked luggage we still had a stroller, car seat, diaper bag, purse, David's carry on, Lucas' backpack - oh yeah, and the two kids as well. It was quite a feat to get ourselves moving through the airport, and I was devastated to find out we had to dismantle the car seat from the stroller, remove Elena from her sling and Lucas from the stroller, collapse the stroller, and put the whole lot through the scanner (not the babies :)). Then, of course, Lucas was free to run - and run he did! Let's just say we were very glad to get onto the plane and strap Lucas into his seat! Since we were able to board early, Lucas and David had a chance to get into the cockpit to meet the pilot (doesn't happen very much anymore!)

It was a very long flight to Chicago - Lucas didn't stay strapped into his seat for very long - he would much rather be roaming about the airplane and saying hello to everyone who wasn't sleeping on the overnight flight. We had decided to wait until everyone else de-planed before we even started getting our stuff - we had a long enough layover that we could take our time. Thankfully we got through customs and immigration very easily and went through the whole security process again with only a little fuss over the can of coke I had leftover from the previous flight and Lucas' obviously suspicious looking sippy cup which had to be tested before we were allowed to keep it. Once we were in the right terminal and departure hall for our next flight we got some breakfast and let Lucas run around for a while. Eventually he crashed and slept on the seats by our gate for a while. David and I were very thankful for a small respite!

Unfortunately, that respite meant that Lucas was awake and energized for the whole of the three hour flight from Chicago to Calgary. Now we know why some parents want to drug their kids on planes!

One other thing I love about flying is my Flight Log Book. This is a tradition in our family that my dad started for all of us kids. We each have a Flight Log Book and on every flight, we get the pilot to sign our book with the flight details - mine goes back all the way to 1988 and logs over 240 flights and almost 300,000 nautical miles. It's always fun to see the reaction from the pilots when they see my book.

Now Lucas has his own book, and Elena will get one soon so they can start logging their own flights. Even with all of the craziness of trying to keep a toddler occupied for hours on end and caring for an infant at the same time, I still love the hustle and bustle of the airports and how we can be transported across the world.

Of course, it may be some time before we attempt another long-haul flight with two young ones :)