How To Travel With a One Year Old

We took our first vacation with "Kaitlin the Toddler" last week and boy did I learn some lessons. Some were good lessons and some were bad. I'm here to share a few with you in hope that you can (as always) learn from my mistakes. The last time we flew with Kaitlin was back in December, when she was barely seven months old and not even crawling. I won't say the flights were impeccable, but they sure were easier since she couldn't move independently. Now that we have a squirmy, walking (running), knows-what-she-wants toddler, flying is a whole new ball game.

1. Pack a few, well thought-out, key toys - I knew that we were going to have to bring some toys with us but I didn't want to have to check another bag with just toys in it. Luckily, the items that Kaitlin is most interested in at the moment are fairly small. I grabbed a few wood blocks (for her to stack and throw), a couple of water/bath toys and a couple of animals from her Little People Noah's Ark. I put them in a plastic toy case (that she happens to LOVE to play with, for some strange reason) and hid them from her a few days before the trip. The same goes with books. I chose a couple of key favorites that wouldn't get me in trouble with the luggage scale and hid them in my suitcase a few days before the trip. That way when I pulled each item out during our trip she was super excited to see and play with them.

*These Indestructibles books are PERFECT for traveling as they are super thin and weigh virtually nothing!*

2. Buy a couple of new toys - New, or at least new-to-your-baby, toys can be super exciting (ie attention grabbing) for little ones this age. I bought two new toys and introduced one on the flight to Jackson Hole, and saved the other one for the flight home. The first toy was a "grab-and-go" set from Michaels which included crayons, a coloring book and stickers. Turns out Kaitlin is too young for the coloring part (she just wanted to put the crayons in her mouth) but she had a grand old time with the stickers (which, also, ended up in her mouth). She was even mildly amused by watching me color. The second new toy I bought was this Melissa and Doug Reusable Sticker set. I had heard through the grape vine that reusable stickers (vinyl stickers) were highly entertaining to toddlers and boy were they ever! This kept Kaitlin busy and entertained for over an hour, which in toddler-time is virtually a lifetime. Amazing!! My only complaint is that it's quite large. I wish they made one that was half as big. Luckily my husband and I were sitting together, otherwise our neighbor would have had vinyl farm animals all over her seat. I'm on the hunt for a smaller version of this - if you know of one please let me know! And by the way - please don't feel like you have to spend a bunch of money buying new crap for your kid. If your friends with kids the same age have some different toys than what you have, and are willing to trade or let you borrow for the length of your vacation, this is just as good! Even better really since you won't have to spend any dough.

3. Utilize the in-flight entertainment - And remember, what may not be interesting to you might be SUPER EXCITING to your toddler. We let Kaitlin play with the safety manual, SkyMall and airline magazines during all four of our flights (I know...I still need another drink just thinking about it) and they kept her very entertained. And shockingly enough, the most entertaining toy was an empty beverage cup and three napkins that I crumpled into balls. She played with it for nearly a half hour taking the napkins out and putting them back in. Again - a half an hour in toddle-time is pretty much a whole year, so - SCORE! And of course, if your flight has personal TVs stick a pair of headphones on your baby and let them watch a cartoon! Who knows if they will keep the headphones on, but they are likely to watch the cartoon. We didn't have individual TVs on our flights (ahem, UNITED, ahem) but I am definitely going to do this when I fly jetBlue next month. We don't normally let Kaitlin watch tv, but on a special occasion (wait, special for who??) a few minutes of TV won't hurt your kid and just might save your sanity.

4. Take advantage of the kindness of strangers - I was pleasantly surprised at how nice people were about Kaitlin's behavior during our trip. I am not one to be overly apologetic to strangers about my kid - she is, for the most part, well behaved but yes she does throw tantrums, especially when she hasn't slept in 8 hours. She is 14 months old, what do you expect? But I do feel bad when she is shrieking in someone else's ear. I nearly kissed a guy sitting in the row behind us when he started playing peek-a-boo with Kaitlin during one of our descents. She had been getting particularly fussy and then all of a sudden she started laughing and smiling. When I thanked him he said, "Don't worry about it! I have kids of my own, I know how it is." And much to my surprise we heard this over and over again throughout our trip. Another family let Kaitlin blatantly watch their Duck Tales movie over their shoulders (and subsequently drool and laugh in their ears). They didn't say one word to us, though it should be noted that their youngest (maybe 3 years old?) was throwing an EPIC tantrum during much of the flight.  Maybe we got lucky. It seemed like all of our seat-mates and surrounding passengers have or had kids/grandkids and were so gracious about interacting with Kaitlin (or at least not complaining about her). And I should be giving Kaitlin some credit too - even though we had a couple of meltdowns she was a great traveler and was super smiley to everyone she met.

5. Bring supplies, lots and lots of supplies - this also holds true for traveling with an infant, but make sure you are OVER prepared with diapers, wipes and food. I packed 10 diapers for Kaitlin in my carry-on and thought that it was excessive. She ended up using 8 of those diapers by the time we made it to our hotel. Suddenly 10 didn't seem so crazy. I brought 2 packs of wipes, medicine, a change of clothes (for her) and a TON of food and snacks. I'm not saying that you should pack everything but the kitchen sink (ok, I kind of am) but definitely over-pack on certain items that you know you won't be able to buy inside the terminal (diapers, wipes, certain snacks/food, etc). You might not end up needing them, but it's pretty much a guarantee that if you don't over-pack them then you'll definitely wish you had. Some snacks and food that got us through the trip include peanut butter sandwiches, bananas and endless amounts of cheerios!

6. Fly during nap awake whenever you can - I have heard many times that it is best to fly during your child's nap time. That way they will be tired and are more likely to fall asleep during your flight. I have also heard that you should fly during their awake time so that they aren't cranky and overtired. Here's the thing - your kid either sleeps during a flight or they don't. Just like your kid either sleeps in the car or they don't. In the end, it doesn't really matter when you fly (or drive) because they will either sleep (if that's the kind of baby that they are) or not (if that's the kind of baby that they are). My child will.not.sleep unless she is in her crib. Trust me, four flights and endless hours in a car during a week long vacation and I can tell you she slept exactly 30 minutes (in the car) during ALL forms of transportation. The girl just won't sleep unless she is in a crib or pack-n-play. And unless you are flying on a private jet (and if you are - Hi! Do you want to be friends?) you likely have to be at the airport 2+ hours before your flight anyway, which combined with actual flight time pretty much guarantees that you will be traveling - at some point - during an inconvenient time. My advice - get the best flight for your needs and then just grin and bear it. Travel days will probably suck. Have a strong cocktail waiting for you at the end of your journey and then focus on the FUN you're going to have on your vacation!

Do you have any tips or tricks on how to travel with your one year old or toddler? I would LOVE to hear them! Leave a comment below so we can all share and *hopefully* find some success!

Many of you might have noticed that I left off using an iPhone or iPad to keep your toddler entertained, which is pretty much the easiest no brainer solution to traveling with a toddler. I only mention tactics that worked for us and we don't let Kaitlin use either of these at the moment. The only thing I will let her do on my iPhone is look at photos (she LOVES to look at pictures of herself). We almost bit the bullet for the trip home and were going to buy some toddler apps and cartoons for the iPad, but Kaitlin proved she couldn't be trusted just yet. I was letting her go through pictures on my phone and when it was time to put it away she threw an EPIC tantrum. We knew there was no way we would be able to let her play with the iPad without her going nuts when we tried to take it away. We decided it was better to suffer without the iPad than to create a monster. And I'm not saying that your kid is a monster if you use an iPad or tablet with them. Many kids do just fine playing a game or two and then calling it quits. You are the lucky ones as that is not my child ;) 

Notes on Baby Led Weaning (BLW)

Now that we have been doing "real solids" (aka baby led weaning or BLW) for a few months there are a lot of things I have learned. And, in my usual Tracy fashion, of course I have to share with you all (some might say I am a chronic over-sharer). Also, I have had a lot of questions from family and friends about baby led weaning, and I hope these thoughts/tips might help someone else some day.

First off I just want to clarify - baby led weaning is really nothing special. I think its a pretty fancy name for just giving babies table foods instead of purees. Most doctors recommend starting table foods with babies around nine months, so we just got a bit of a head start. So for anyone that has a baby who is 9+ months you are probably learning very similar things. Ok, with that out of the way, here we go...

1. Trust your kid - giving Kaitlin mostly solid foods has taught me, in many ways, to trust her. Trust her? She's not even a year old! What is there to trust her about? Well, it turns out quite a bit. My little squirrel puts A LOT of food in her mouth. C'mon, you've seen her cheeks, she can fit a lot in there. At first I was super concerned about how much she was putting in there. I would try and fish some of the food out, which only made matters worse - she would cough and gag and the food would end up being pushed further back in her mouth. Also, babies choke and cough A LOT. Their gag reflex is super far forward in their mouth/throat, especially compared to an adults. It's like that for a reason, so that they don't choke. Every cough does not mean that they are choking. At first every time she coughed I would tense up and hover right over her asking if she was ok. Again, it didn't make things any better. After much practice, I have learned to trust her and the food she puts in her mouth. I realized that she was actually using the excessive amount of food in her mouth to help break it down (she mashes it together with her tongue and cheeks and the next thing I know she's swallowed it). And all that coughing? Sometimes she's coughing to get a reaction out of me - surprise! To a seven month old making a coughing noise is REALLY exciting and fun. What a hoot. I still watch over her like a hawk and don't leave her alone with food just in case something does happen, but I have learned to relax and trust her more when she's eating.

2. Food needs to be really, really soft - Once Kaitlin got the hang of eating solid foods I had a field day. I was giving her everything under the sun. And then I started noticing that she wasn't really eating that much. Sure, she would chew and play with the food, but I found most of it on the floor or in the pocket of her bib. Even tried and true favorites weren't being ingested. At first I thought it was a phase, then I thought it was because she was eating too much formula and wasn't hungry enough. Finally I realized that her food wasn't soft enough. I was so excited that she was eating "adult foods" that I stopped cooking them as long, so they were more firm and harder for her to eat. It wasn't that she didn't want to eat it's just that she couldn't. I was cooking food for my taste rather than hers. Once I started cooking foods to her taste - soft enough for you to mush it between your fingers - her appetite magically returned.

*I know the whole premise of BLW is to feed your babies the same foods that you and your family eat. And that's true, but you have to make sure it is adapted for babies. Making sure foods are soft enough for them to eat also makes sure that they won't choke on anything too firm. And remember - you have a full set of teeth, they don't*

3. Its OK to give them baby food at the same time - Around the same time that Kaitlin stopped eating as much as she usually did (see above) I panicked and started giving her pureed baby food. I wanted to make sure she was still getting some solids in her tummy -  not to mention that she is crawling and climbing like a maniac and burning a lot of calories. At first I actually felt like a failure - sounds extreme but it's true. I guess it's like any parenting "goal" - you start off with the best of intentions and when it doesn't work out perfectly you get disappointed. But as I started giving her pureed baby food I actually found that she started eating even more solids than she used to - which was great. I usually keep a few pureed vegetables on hand in case she isn't eating as much or if a new food is a bust (let's just say it took eight tries to actually get her to eat broccoli rather than throw it on the floor). Back when I was only giving her purees I had such a hard time of it because she always wanted to grab and play with the spoon. But since her hands are already occupied with solid food I can easily swoop in there with a bit of puree and she gobbles it up. And I don't limit it to pureed baby food - now that she can have dairy I also do it with yogurt, which she LOVES, and have even done it with hummus.

4. Try spice - One thing that I keep reading over and over again is that you should offer your baby a wide variety of foods with different tastes, textures and smells, so that they don't become picky eaters. Once I know that Kaitlin likes a certain food (say oatmeal or hummus for example) I like to mix it up and add variation by adding some spice. Now I add cinnamon to her oatmeal, paprika to her hummus and pepper to her chicken - just as a few examples. I'm not adding crazy amounts of chili powder or curry sauce but just enough to kick it up a notch and turn an otherwise boring food into something fun!

5. Don't force it - Let's face it, some days are awesome, some days are not so awesome. As frustrating as it is when I fix a meal for Kaitlin and all she does is throw it around the room and mush it into her highchair, I have stopped trying to "force" her to eat. It's not fun for her and it's not fun for me. I don't want to create a negative connotation with eating either. So if she's having an off meal/day and not wanting to eat that much I try not to force it. I think this is a tip I am going to have to pull out as she gets older and busier and less willing to eat. Gotta love those toddle years, right?

6. Keep it interesting, but keep favorites on hand for difficult days - As I mentioned in #4 there is a big emphasis on feeding your baby new and exciting foods. I try to mix things up for Kaitlin as often as I can. I even buy foods that I would never think to eat myself, such as papaya. One thing I have to keep in mind is that it can take up to ten times for a baby/child to start eating a new food. She isn't going to like and eat every new thing that I put on her plate, even if it's as simple as pasta. I like to keep some of her tried and true favorites on hand for days when the new food on the block doesn't make the cut. I always make sure to have ripe bananas at the ready and a big tub of oatmeal in the cupboard.

7. Water can help - Kaitlin LOVES to drink. Long gone are the days (thank you lord) when I had to struggle to get her to finish her bottle. Especially now that she is so active she loves to have little sips of water in between meals. I started giving her water at meal time to help to her swallow and digest the food. Many babies don't need any additional fluids besides their normal feedings of formula/breast milk. But I find that it helps Kaitlin get down that mouth full of hamburger that she has managed to pack in there. A lot of times her cheeks will be exploding with food and I'll offer her some water. The next thing I know she has drank half of her sippy cup and all of the food is gone and she's ready for more. Without the water she would sit there and struggle to get all the food down for another ten minutes.

8. Food doesn't have to be fresh - Frozen foods might just become your best friend. The reason I like frozen foods for babies is because when they defrost they are usually pretty mushy. Frozen broccoli and butternut squash are favorites of mine because I can quickly heat some up for Kaitlin, without having to prep and cook the entire vegetable. Berries not in season where you are? Defrost some strawberries or blueberries and there you go! Often times these foods are frozen during their peak season so vitamins and minerals are locked in. Nowadays you can get almost any fruit or vegetable in the frozen food section and find an organic version as well - bonus! I can't tell you how many times I have had fruit and veggies go bad waiting for Kaitlin to eat them - remember she only eats a couple of TABLESPOONS at a time. I will also prepare a full recipe of hamburgers, meatballs, pancakes, etc and freeze all the extras. That way I can pull out one or two at a time and quickly reheat them for her meal. The more time I can save while still giving my baby wholesome, nutritional and organic foods, the better.

9. It has encouraged me to eat more healthy and whole foods - There are a lot of foods that I want to feed Kaitlin that would be so easy to just pick up at the store and give to her. Since she can't have salt and I am trying to keep as many chemicals out of her food as I can, I have learned to take the hard route to preparing her food - ie making it myself. I have started making sauces and dips at home. I try and cook dinners without added salt so she can have leftovers the next day. I'm making soups and stews more often. I am buying organic red meat and chicken (as often as I can), as well as fruits and vegetables. I know - it sound expensive, right? Especially when you add in all those organic items. But it in the end I haven't found it THAT much more expensive. Turns out, when you cut out all (ok, ok - most) of the other stuff you end up saving a lot of money. I have even started making my own hummus at home. That way I know exactly what is going into her little, growing body and for once I know exactly what's going into mine.

I tried coming up with a final, tenth tip but just couldn't do it. And besides, this post is long enough already don't you think?!

Do you have any tips for feeding your baby/toddler whole foods? I'd love some new recipes and tips for after Kaitlin's first year!

Watch Me Grow - Thirty Six Weeks

Week 36 brought more and more crawling. She finally seems to like crawling, realizing that she can get pretty far by doing it. She learned how to stand up under the bar stools in our kitchen which is both exciting and terrifying for her. She is just a hair taller than the space underneath them so she has to bend over a little which frustrates her. When she stands up there she goes back and forth between smiling and crying - it's pretty entertaining actually. She also proved to us, yet again, that the best toys are often ones that cost nothing. Just like she finds endless amusement tearing up old magazines and catalogues, she found great joy in pushing around an empty boy of diapers. Suddenly the two "walker" toys that we have are gathering dust in the corner. The box will eventually disintegrate because of all the drool that falls on it, so I know that her actual toys will get used again, but for now it's her new favorite toy. 

I was surprised that I managed to get a photo of her laying down this week, but it is so blurry it kind of makes my eyes hurt. One of these days you're going to see a photo of her laying down with my foot on her tummy to hold her in place :) She ate lots of new foods last week - including a pork chop! It was great for her, she could hold the bone and gnaw on the meat attached. She LOVED it. She is also currently obsessed with nectarines, super ripe and super sweet. She can eat almost a whole nectarine by herself, which is a lot considering she doesn't usually ingest that much food when she's eating. I am still shocked that she hasn't had any new teeth come in...the drool is flowing like a river after a storm, chewing on her teeth is at an all time high and she's even been a bit cranky (which isn't like her normal, smiley self!) - hopefully it/they break through soon to give her some relief.

Let's talk food...pregnancy food

The number one question I get asked when I tell people that I am pregnant is "How have you been feeling??" - and for good reason. Most people associate the first trimester with sickness, crazy food cravings, lack of energy and other wacky things your body is going through. The first twelve weeks or so can be a roller coaster (to say the least). I was very fortunate not to be sick during my first trimester, but I did have a few weeks that were plagued with nausea.

And being nauseous makes it very hard to eat.  Which I had to do every two hours (almost on the button) or else I felt even more nauseous.

Are you feeling a little green with all this talk of nausea??

Sorry, I'll stop soon.

So, how did I get through it and what have I been eating during the last ten weeks? (I didn't start feeling sick until around week six. But once it started it was in full effect)