he’s a traveller..

so i haven’t written in a while. It was hard for me to really believe my friends who had kids when they’d say ‘oh sorry i don’t have time’ or ‘it slipped my mind’.. but trust you me, now i can honestly say i believe it because i am right in that situation (it’s a bit crazy and overwhelming just how fast time goes by and just how much you unintentionally forget)

but back to the post…

you know what one of my first childhood memories is? my mom traveling with me, via car, going from the highlands of Ecuador to see my grandparents in the ‘middle’ region of the country and me puking my guts out… yes ma’am, that’s one of my very first memories, fun right?

i was the kind of kid who’d get extremely car sick; what’s more, i just had to think about the thought of going in a car and i’d be sick already. i bet you are thinking lol, how funny, but it’s not, not for a kid with a very strict and short fuse mother.. but i digress.

our kiddo is great while traveling (thus far, and hard knock on wood)… this past trip was third trip in less than two years, not bad, not bad.. hopefully he’ll get to see a lot more places than us.

i’m not going to pretend the entirety of the trip was flawless, of course not, kids are not in their environment, they are very restricted and not necessarily free to explore around which is a challenge once they are mobile (as is the case for our kiddo.)

last year he wasn’t yet crawling around when we went down to Cancun and then to Ecuador, so his anxious moments were much much easier to manage while he was strap to one of us in his carrier. this time around he’s full on mobile, so his pacifier and ipad were our best allies. this is the one time when i was very lenient about screen time and i just allowed him to watch his beloved Paw Patrol, because i’d rather him starring at the screen for an hr than listening to him scream and whine because he can’t walk around exploring (call me a bad mom if you must.)

i think that as with most things planning and preparing are key (and it doens’t hurt having someone else with you to tag team it.) i can honestly say it’s going to be a long time before i attempt another solo trip with the kiddo; when he was smaller again it was different as things are easier to manage in some respect, but until then we’ll keep bringing mamma along 🙂 and snacks, and toys, and ipads, and books…

and i say he’s a traveller because this kid did not get a single mosquito bite while on any of these trips… you know the horror stories you hear or read about the kids getting the runs, or reactions to insect bites, or refusing food, or not been able to sleep somewhere else… so far nothing… and i do say so far with a big weary smile on because i also know how quickly things turn around.

but until then we’ll try and take a couple more trips, visit a few more places, see a few more people… because as the old saying goes: We travel not to escape life, but for life not to escape us.

until next post….