Travels with Baby

You might remember my post from late March when I lamented knowing what to pack for our first trip with baby.

Well...we basically ended up taking everything but the kitchen sink. My poor husband...I was in charge of baby, baby carriage/car seat, baby bag, purse, and 1 other bag. He schlepped the rest.

Today, as I'm traveling for work all by my itty bitty self, I'm left thinking about how we will do things differently in our next trip, which will be later this month or early June. Here is some of what I learned:

• I don't need 2 outfits for every day of the trip. There are washing machines even in Pennsylvania.
• I don't need to take enough food/juice for the entire trip. I need enough to travel with, and the rest can be bought/made there. That alone ought to save LOTS of room.
• I don't need enough bottles and spoons and bowls for a week. Texas isn't the only state with running water.
• I don't need 20 different baby toys. Baby doesn't notice if she has to play with the same, say, 4-5 toys over and over again.

I'm hoping to eliminate at least one carry-on and one checked bag for our next trip...and then when we go camping in Idaho in July, I hope to make do with just 2 checked bags and 2 carry-ons.

What travel-with-baby tips have you learned along the way that you'd like to share?

Baby Travels...Baby Steps

I travel a lot - both for work and pleasure. I was out of state, on average, twice a month in 2008. I didn't even go anywhere the last 4 months, between the end of my pregnancy and my maternity leave, and my travels still average to two trips per month.

My husband is no stranger to traveling, either. Both within the state and heading elsewhere, he's often driving or flying somewhere himself.

What I'm trying to say, here, is that we're both very much used to packing up and heading out.

On Friday, we're flying out (at 0-dark-30, by the way!) to Pennsylvania, where we'll visit with my mother for the next ten days. (An example from my travel schedule - we fly back to Texas on the 13th and I get on another plane to SJC for the day on the 14th.) We're good at packing; we're good at planning; we're great at traveling.

But preparing to take the kiddo away for 10 days is seriously wrecking my brain.

My first packing list included EVERY item of baby stuff that in my house.

Which is a lot.

Including stuff she's already outgrown.

Ok, that's an exaggeration, but you get my point!

My second packing list feels way too short, but still includes EVERY bottle we own, and enough toys and blankets to start an orphanage.

I'm not sure if it's the prospect of traveling with the baby that has me stressed, or if it's the fact that we're going to be gone for so darn long.

But I'm struggling, here!

How did you prepare for your kiddo's first big trip? I'd love to hear ideas from other moms!

Travelin' Mom

Traveling for business when you have a baby back home isn't the easiest proposition in the world, is it? Typically, I travel on Tuesdays, once or twice a month, and am only gone for the day - not even overnight. It's a long day, granted, totaling around 15 or 16 hours away from home, but since Tuesday is one of my husband's days off, he's home with the baby.

Not this week!

This week, Funny Daddy had an important meeting that he had to attend in Knoxville, Tennessee on Tuesday. And...that made Frazzled Mom even more...frazzled...because she had an important meeting to attend in San Jose, California. Which meant that both of us had to leave Spoiled Baby for about 15 hours. Yikes!

Luckily, my husband's aunt stepped in and took over baby duty for the day. Since she cares for her grandson, also, it was a great opportunity for Spoiled Baby to spend time with her cousin, who is only a year older than she is. And what a great day they had! Apparently, there was lots of cuddles and Spoiled Baby even inspired her cousin's first words - a derivative of her name!

By some miracle, our flights left and came back around the same time, so Funny Daddy and I were able to drive to the airport and back together. When we went to pick up Spoiled Baby, she and her cousin were both cuddled together on the rocking chair with his aunt, watching Mickey Mouse. All looked tired...but happy.

And we were all happy to get home, and go curl up in bed as a family to enjoy the snuggle time we'd missed out on during the day. Long day...long travel...but glad to be back home!

How to you handle traveling when you have kiddos back home?

O, Canada!

I make one little comment in a Manic Monday...hahaha! :-)

I referenced Canada as likely the next country we'll travel to, because of it's close proximity to where my mother-in-law lives.

For clarity (since Canada is, uh, rather large) for my Canadian bloggy friends, here's a better frame of reference of where we would be or visit:

1. My mother-in-law is in Port Hill, ID. The Canadian border city in this area is called Creston, which is in British Columbia. Cute little town.
2. My sister-in-law and niece and nephew are in Lethbridge, Alberta, which is south of Calgary, also getting pretty close to the U.S. border with Montana. My hubby was just up there visiting at the start of this month before bringing our niece for her July-long visit and will be back up there in August to take our nephew camping for a few days. This'll make the list for a visit, I'm sure, so we can show off New Baby when she gets here at some point. Yahoo for non-rev flying! :-)

Hubby also has cousins in Kelowna, B.C., on the other side of the family. I think that about covers our Canadian connections! :-)

Without having any actual plans, I would predict a trip to the Pacific northwest sometime late spring/early summer to introduce New Baby to the family/friends that are in Washington, Idaho, and potentially western Canada. We'll see!!! Hope that helps!! :-)

Didja Miss Me?

Ye Gods - when I last posted, it was just past halfway through the month. Now...it's month's end. YEESH!

What the heck have I been doing???

Well...as I let you know in my Thursday Thirteen on June 19th, I was off to California that day, to participate in all-day meetings on the 20th. The meetings, by the way, were awesome. Well worth the stress of a last minute trip that just happened to butt up to a personal trip.

I got home just after 1 AM on the 21st - Saturday. I headed to bed quickly and was back up at 4 AM to check in for our flight to Philadelphia (non-revvers have to check in 4 hours prior to flight time) and then showered to get myself awake. After dumping my bag from my CA trip and hurriedly repacking for PA, we were ready to go to the airport.

My husband had spent Friday working on the flooring project in our upstairs bedrooms, and I'm not sure who was more tired that Saturday morning - me, with two 3+ hour flights within the prior 36 hours, or him, with many hours spent on his knees, laying and nailing and such.

We arrived in PA and spent much of Saturday afternoon visiting with relatives, before getting to my mom's house in time for a late dinner that evening. The next few days - we actually extended our trip by a day - were spent packing things from her house to ship down to our own (thank God for FedEx and having a discount with them as an airline employee - we shipped 330 pounds o'stuff!) and working on home improvement projects for her around the house.

While up there, I got to spend time each day with my Dad at the nursing home. I usually went around mealtimes, so I could feed him, giving me up close and personal time and giving the aide a break. On the last day, he actually responded with one-word answers to direct questions - yes, no, maybe, etc. The day before, he responded to my husband several times with nods or by trying to reach for something from the table. It's not much, I guess, but it's better than nothing! Had we been able to stay two days longer, we would have been able to share his 75th birthday with him, but we had to head back to Texas. I tacked my card to him up next to his bed so he could hopefully see it and shared a treat of yogurt with him one night after dinner. On his actual birthday, Mom took him down a chocolate milkshake and called from her cell phone so he could at least hear my voice. It breaks my heart to see him in his current condition - a condition I know will last the rest of his life, however long that may be - but I was so glad to get to spend time with him while there.

We got back to our own home just after 9 AM on Thursday, June 26th and I banged through a quick shower before heading to may office, where the rest of my day was consumed by meetings. Mind you, I'd been up since 8 AM (eastern) the prior day! We'd spent all of Wednesday trying to solve a plumbing issue, and by the time we got done after midnight, there was only time to turn around and pack quickly before leaving for the airport just after 2 AM to make a 6 AM flight. (Philadelphia is 2 hours from my mom's house and we still had to return our rental.)

On Friday, I had another full day of work (passed my second review successfully on my major project - yay!!!) and then came home to change before heading back out to see the Philadelphia Phillies play the Texas Rangers. Yep - went by myself. I suspect no one would actually enjoy my company while I'm rooting on the Phils. They lost - boo - but it was a great game.

Yesterday was swiftly filled with several shopping trips for gifts, household stuff, and computer stuff, and then stops at one friend's pool party and another friend's baby shower.

And that brings us to today!

So now you know where I've been the past 11 days - how about you? Anything exciting going on in the blogosphere? Are you frustrated with me, yet, that I haven't actually announced my much-hurrahed BIG NEWS?

Never fear. I have a couple posts to get done this afternoon that'll help pay the bills and then...yes, ladies and gentlemen, it's true...I will have my BIG NEWS ANNOUNCEMENT up for first thing tomorrow morning. It's actually partially pre-written already!

Stay tuned...

Our 1-Day Vacation to KY

I promised you ages and ages ago that I'd posted a blip about our wild and crazy 1-day getaway to Louisville, KY. As always, life got the best of me, and I never got that post up! So...at long last...here we go with our photojournal!

On Saturday, May 31st, Chris and I voluntarily set our alarm clock for 5 AM and sprang out of bed to shower before heading to the airport with nothing more than my purse and his wallet. Oh - and our boarding passes, of course!

After a short ride on a little American Eagle jet, we landed in Louisville, Kentucky - home to FAR more than just bluegrass!



We collected our rental car and using "Lola", our GPS, we browsed local attractions to determine where to head. We got as far as Walgreen's.

Ok, I was hungry, so we stopped in and loaded up on snacks for the day. The locals were...less than helpful. They suggested that we go to the mall when we asked about attractions. Um, no.

Hopping back in the car, "Lola" directed us down to the waterfront of the Ohio River, which separates Kentucky from Indiana. PRETTY!



Don't we look like we're having fun? We walked around the park for about an hour and a half.



While we were there, we watched a reeeeeeeeeaaaaaaaalllllly long train make it's way into KY from IN.



After wandering and walking and sitting for awhile to enjoy a nice little swing in the trees, we headed off towards downtown, stopping along the way to capture this funny sign:



Look! We stopped to pose again! We put the IN in Indiana, which is to our backs.



I distract easily, and we had to pause before moving on. De Plane! De Plane!



As we continued to amble our way downtown, we came across the Belle of Louisville, which takes passengers out into the river for meals and parties. What a neat ship!





Our journey took us to the beginning of Fourth Street, where we caught the Trolley, to take us down to the restaurant and shopping area.



Like tourist areas in many towns, we were immediately greeted with...



We resumed our walking journey (I think we covered about 5 miles, total, that day) and visited cute stores along the way...before coming to the local Visitors Center, where Chris got up close and personal with the Colonel.



We were in Louisville, not Cincinnati, but I had to think about Ron White when we passed by Skyline Chili.



After lunch, we headed back down to the waterfront, making our way slowly back to the rental car. More bridges! More Belle!




We got back in our car and went off in search of more sights to see. Shortly, we came across Louisville Slugger field - pretty neat!




Intrigued, we went off in search of the Louisville Slugger Factory.




Since we were right on the board, we decided to hop (ok, drive) over the river to visit the Indiana towns of Jeffersonville and Clarksville.




We turned down the road paralleling the river, and quickly came upon the CUTEST little ice cream shop around - so of course, we stopped and enjoyed!



We wanted down to the Indiana side of the Ohio waterfront, mindful of signs that warned us to run quickly if a loud horn sounded. Looking at the dam on the river, we understood that the water would probably beat us back to the road if that ever actually happened.




We retreated to a park down the road and snapped a picture of the Louisville skyline - both with and without ourselves as models.




We jumped back into the car and headed back across the river to Kentucky.



After consulting with "Lola", we headed to the most famous horse racing track in America - wish Dad could have been with us to see!



We weren't willing to pay $10 just to pull in the parking lot, so we instead captured one more picture (hey, I like my company!) and headed off to our next destination.



Apparently, Thomas Edison once lived in Louisville, KY. For like six minutes. But, by God, there's a house dedicated to him there.




Our time in Louisville dwindled swiftly and we headed back to the airport for our flight home. Alas - we were offered First Class. Why is that a bad thing? Well, as an employee, I and my companions have to be in business dress to ride up front. Our nomadic day had dictated jeans and sneaks instead of khakis and loafers...so we gave up our premium seats (luckily, a pair of soldiers got them) and road back in steerage class.

Faced with going home or enjoying one last meal out, we headed into Fort Worth once we were back in Texas, where I got to treat Chris to his first trip to Joe Garcia's, a most excellent Mexican restaurant/bar near the Stockyards. After a 45-minute wait for a table (tiring after a long day spent walking) and a scrumptious meal, we finally called it a night.



What a fun mini-vacation! Hope you enjoyed following along!

Where in the World is...

Did you ever play Carmen Sandiego, and have to trek all over the map finding crooks in exotic places? Sometimes, where you didn't know where to go next, did you just pick at random?

That's what we did this weekend!

Chris unexpectedly had two days off from work (he was at the limit of vacation/comp time he could store and so it was a use it or lose it situation) so we found ourselves at loose ends. Although there is plenty of work still to be done in the house and perhaps we could have even spent the day weeding our backyard (which is now the plan for the rest of today...), we decided to be wild and adventurous and make different plans instead.

What did we do, you ask?

We went to Kentucky!

Nope, I'm not kidding! We took a look at AA flights and found a city where we could easily non-rev for the day. And Louisville was the winner!

This is just the intro post...a great big grand post is coming soon so you can explore the photojournal of our day away!

Wi-Fi Takes Off

(Post Transferred from my formerly stand-alone blog, Tiffany Takes On.)

American Airlines* recently announced that it would partner with AirCell to provide in-flight Wi-Fi to passengers on transcontinental flights beginning in 2008.

To be honest, I think that this is a move that’s been a long time in the coming and that will thrill passengers on all of the selected 767 flights. Quite frankly, however, I am surprised with the testing of in-flight Wi-Fi before a solution has been found or introduced for in-flight cellular capabilities.

You’ll notice that most planes no longer have any kind of phone on board. Simply put, Verizon was charging way to much money per minute to make the use of these devices practical or affordable.

It’s surprising to me that a deal would be reached to provide in-flight Wi-Fi when in-flight cellular service would seem to be almost as much in demand – if not even more desirable – and just as necessary to conduct business and personal matters while in transit.

Having said that, I am very excited to see the coming of in-flight Wi-Fi. I have often been on a plane and wished that I could sync up my email, search Google, or find driving directions to use at my final destination. I think this is a great move by American Airlines that will keep the company at the forefront of innovation.

Read more: American Airlines' In-Flight Wi-Fi to Debut in 2008

Take Care,

Tiffany

*Yes, I work for American Airlines as an HR Analyst. No, I am not writing this post because I work for American Airlines; I am writing this post because I believe it is newsworthy and I have an opinion to offer. Yes, American Airlines is the best carrier around and you should choose it to fulfill all of your travel and cargo needs. No, I didn't write this post simply to shamelessly plug my own Associated Content article on the same topic, but you should definitely go read it anyways!
(No Comments Transferred; original posting date 11/12/07, 12:00 AM.)