Traveling with a Tornado

Tiny Tornado took her first true international trip last week. She has been to Canada a few times but that doesn't really count because it is closer to Canada that to the nearest big town. On this trip though she got her first passport stamp. We were a little anxious about the trip and prepared ourselves for very long flights with a 16 months old wild child. After a long, cold, windy winter though nothing was going to keep us from a week of sun, sand and a pool. 

Our first night we stayed in a hotel so we could catch our crack of dawn flight. Tornado's favorite part of that hotel was definitely the metal horse sculptures on the walls. She saw them and spent 10 minutes just saying neigh, neigh, neigh while pointing at them. Then when she woke up at 4 in the morning to leave she talked to them again while getting ready. They were the greatest distraction from anything else going on around us. 

We had learned from our last trip that it was easiest to have her in her car seat ont he plane and that went amazing!! She slept for the first flight and then played, read and was generally amazing for the second flight. We did let her watch one episode of Mickey Mouse but that was mostly to get us through taxiing and off the plane. Then came the highlight of her life thus far. 

Tornado is a water baby. If she wasn't before this trip she is now. Most of the battles on this trip were over the fact that her parents thought she needed a daily nap and she thought she should be playing in the pool. The first 3 days the only time she cried was because we took her back to the room and wouldn't open the door for her. She just knew that there were people out there to play with her and adore her. The sand and the beach weren't quite the draw that the pool was. She didn't like the sand getting everywhere and the waves were a little intense for her but she still didn't want to leave them. 

The other guests were amazing thank goodness. We are parents to a very opinionated, independent tornado with little fear. Our evenings were spent following her around the plaza from table to table. She loves to smile and talk to people. She also loves to show them her belly button much to her parents' chagrin (we are working on that). Tornado decided one time to visit the band and after we stopped her the singer took her up on stage and danced and sang while holding her. She loved it and waved and smiled at the crowd. Between the people, pool, fountains, and stairs I don't think that she could have asked for a better vacation. 

Finally after 5 days of sun and sand; she was exhausted. The last morning she did not want to play in the pool, she just wanted to sit on the stairs and relax. She took a nap on the way to the airport that was about an hour. Just long enough to give her some energy but not long enough for her to be truly rested.  The next flight was just over 3 hours and was probably the longest stretch of crabbiness we have had from her. We pulled out every trick that we had and survived the flight. The man in front of her was able to nap so she couldn't have been as loud as she seemed. It was the one time that she was allowed to watch 4 episodes of Bubble Guppies in a row with Mickey Mouse added on. We made it through that trial and then she fell sound asleep for the entire last flight. It took a couple days at home before she was well rested and back to her normal happy self. 

The main thing we learned from this trip was just to trust ourselves and our little girl. She is really a happy baby and as long as we let her get some rest she will survive and so will we. The worst that will happen is that she will be fussy on a plane and we can handle that. The best thing is I know that the next flight she takes I get to stay home and she will be traveling with her dad by herself to visit a very important friend. That might be a very interesting trip!!