Top Two Tuesday

Today's Top Two is TIPS

1. My first tip has to deal with traveling with a baby. We live 11 hrs away from our families so we travel quite a bit and we have been doing it with Jasper since he was 6 weeks old. We also spent almost 7 months in Sweden last year so traveling to get there and back- and all of the traveling we did while we are there has helped us figure what to do and what not to do.

While traveling in the car we always make sure to bring a lot of toys, books, way more snacks/formula/juice etc. than you think you will need. When we drive we usually have one of us sit in the back w Jasper to keep him entertained. But last week I made the trip by myself so I wasn't able to sit in the back and entertain him, but a portable DVD player did the trick for me now that he is older.

Flying in my opinion is the most difficult way to travel with a child. On our 9 hr flight from Chicago to Stockholm Jasper was kind of a mess. He wasn't able to sleep AT ALL so we had to take turns walking him up and down the isle (when I say take turns, I mean Drew had to do it since I am a horrible flyer) and there isn't much else you can do when your child refuses to sit still. Main thing- bring an extra pair of clothes for everyone in your carry on! On our flight from Chicago to Des Moines last summer the air went out! ANd it was seriously probably 90 degrees in there and everyone was SOAKED in sweat. Jasper seriously smelled like throw up afterwards, so Im SO glad we had extra changes of clothes for All of us or it would have made for a long car ride home.

Train travel (at least in Europe) is a breeze with a child. At least our son. THey have special places to put your large prams and there were usually seats right next to that area, so we would keep him strapped in facing a window and he would be happy for hours. It's when he is NOT strapped in that is the problem (like on an airplane) When he would get bored we would walk up and down the train, go to the food card, or find new seats for a while. And he always made friends on the train- everyone always loved him! We went by train all through Sweden, weekend trips to Stockholm, and to Norway while there so we became experts at train travel.

And we even traveled by ship to finland. And on this trip we could have left everything except for a bottle of milk and his pram for entertainment because there were So many places to go on the ship that we didn't need a single toy or book to entertain him.

Tip number 2 deals with kids clothes buying. I have a major shopping habit thats starting to become dangerous. But what I have been doing lately is buying a size up for Jasper than the size he is in, so when the clothes are brand new they are Slightly big- and then they fit a lot longer! I thought this would maybe save me money so I wouldn't buy him more clothes- well SO didnt happen, but it does mean he has even more options!!(Both the bedrooms at our apartment are master size closets- you could seriously fit a bed in there- and his is completely full except for one shelf that his father gets) so this kid is NOT lacking in close. But if you hold up a 3T and a 4T shirt, at least in boys, there is Maybe 1/3 of an inch different at the bottom, so not much difference at all so I'd rather buy the next size up. It works for us!

Can't wait to read all the other tips.