Conversations with Myself

Hello Friends,

I am still in SA.  Who can possibly keep up with blogging when she has nieces and nephews to take out for ice cream, siblings to chat the night away with, friends to meet for drinks, spending lazy days chilling-catching up with my mom and driving her around?.  Surely not me, ha! I normally don’t see my family as much as I would like.  So when I get times like these, I treasure and make the most of it.  There is only one person missing here, my hubby!.  I miss him so much it hurts.  *Deep breath*.  Ok, lets get on to the reason why I pulled out the laptop to write.

This time when I took a plane with Muli I was so surprised at how much she has grown.  Girlfriend can entertain herself for hours.  I was not expecting to have a quite time and sit watching her play.  I was armed with techniques that I use to keep her calm when flying.  To my surprise, I did not need to use most of the tricks.

 

This made me think of the effort I put recently to keep her entertained during our road trip to Europe.  It hits me hard when I think that  soon I might not need to put such effort to entertain her on a road trip because she is growing like weed.

I want to remember all this when she a big girl.  Let me tell you about Muli’s travelling stories and then end by sharing some tricks that I use to keep her occupied during long hours of road trips.

Muli has been travelling since she was 4 months.  I remember taking a plane with her from Cape Town to Johannesburg at 4 months.  I hired a car in Johannesburg and we drove 4.5 hours to Mafikeng, just the two of us.  She travelled her longest journey by car with me and Cullo at 7 months. The journey was 14hours from Cape Town to Mafikeng,  since then we have travelled that route with her so many times.

At 31 months she took her first International flight.  The flight was 11 hours.  It was the two of us.  That was when we were coming to France.  She travelled with me  in January this year to South Africa and back to France again.

 

Also our 9 hours drive to Italy and 15 hours drive back to France in December last year.  We are continuing to take vacations with her that involves long drives.  But the question is how do we manage to do this with a 3 years old.

I am no expert in the subject of travelling with toddlers neither do I use sophisticated methods to keep her calm.  I will tell you what works for us and you can adjust it to suit your child and his personality.  We do not use any medications to sedate the child.  Here are some tips that Google never told you about.

• When she was three months I registered for a baby massage course with Baby gym.  You can check them out here.  They give teachings on proper baby massages, areas that need stimulation in a child and much more.  So a night before we leave for a long travel I give Muli a full baby gym massage.  She sleeps longer and wake up very calm and relaxed. 
• When preparing for the journey I buy a baby rhyme CD and I memorise two or three songs.  Then I teach her the songs over and over before we travel without listening to CD.  The girl loves singing.  I will not start playing the CD in the car up until she start to feel restless.  You can Imagine her excitement when she hear the songs she can recognise in a cd player.  Often she sing herself to sleep.
• She always has her normal toys and stuffed animals with her at the back seat.  I like to buy two or so cheap note books for her.  I do not pull out a notebook until I see boredom written all over her face.  I use real pen not crayon.  Those makes her feel like she is messing on mommy’s diary and actually using mommy’s pen.  These will entertain her for hours.
• I carefully do a search for her favourite Apps and download something familiar but different from her normal favourite.   I even add total new Apps.  I am sure Google told you about this one, hey?. 
• I charge my tablet fully and keep it off for tantrum times.  She likes my phone, then when she gets bored she asks for Daddy’s phone then when she has played with both she start tantrums.  Then I pull out a tablet.  A hide tablet from her few days prior to our journey.  So it becomes like a treat during the drive and she will play with it for a very long time.
• When all methods have been exhausted mommy join her at the back seat.  I do not sit with her up until I have exhausted all the entertainment ideas.   At the back we are going to learn a very new song from our new CD.  We repeat it over and over.
• When we get to the destination I give her a full warm bath and do baby gym massages.  You see, baby gym massages have saved me times of tantrums.   And its the best rewarding investment I have made baby-wise.  After the massage she falls into deep sleep and we can have time together with Cullo.  In the morning we are greeted by a fully recovered child ready to rock the whole day exploring new vicinity.

With all these in place we comfortably take exotic vacations with a guarantee of a calm kiddo.  Muli has become a part of us, we include her in our plans for vacations.  We have never ever had to think of leaving her behind on our adventures.  With all the vacations under her belt, it is becoming so easy to travel with her. 

Take care,
Nez