Tips for traveling with a baby

My 13 month old has been on 50+ flights ranging from 29 minutes (glorious) to 14 hours. We are traveling pros. We go somewhere at least once a month.

Here's what I've learned:

Travel with More Than You Need

Carry a backpack and pack two extra shorts, two extra shirts, a ton of extra diapers and start with a new thing of wipes. 

Travel with Snacks

I always pack Puffs (my go to snack on the go!), wheat thins, fruit that I've already cut up to bite size pieces (blueberries are my fav because no cutting is needed), Cheerios, graham crackers, and an empty cup. You can carry as much milk, water, juice, purées and liquids (if it's for the baby) through security. I always pack a snack for me and Bryan too in case we get a case of the Hangries.

Travel with transportation 

For the longest time (12 months), the moby was my go to method for transporting Bradley. He's now not interested in being strapped down, so we use a cheap umbrella stroller. If it breaks, it's ok. It's been on many flights and dinged a bunch but still works. Don't take your nice stroller.

Dress your kid at bedtime

Most of our flights back easy require a layover which means if we want to arrive before dinner, we need to fly out around 6AM. Yuck. So we dress Bradley in an outfit (shirt, shorts) so all we have to do is grab him and put him right into the car. (Pack the car first, then get baby.)

Let the kid go wild at the gate

Run. Walk. Crawl. Stretch. Explore. All that activity: get it out!! 

Suck on takeoff

Bring a pacifier, a bottle, a cup, a boob, whatever for takeoff.

Bring quiet toys

We have a special stash of airplane toys. No noises but lots of flaps, levers, spinners, etc. We pack 2 books (always his plane book plus the current fav), a figurine (The Count), a car, a ball (we have so many so if it rolls away were ok) and his lovie blanket with extra pacifiers. 

Take care of mom and dad

I always make sure to drive through somewhere on the way to te airport for coffee and Dr. Pepper. At the airport, we normally hit the Starbucks or magazine stand. Little splurges can take away some of the chaos and stress of traveling with a baby.

Well, there you have it! Did I forget anything??

Fly me out of this place

Life is moving at warp speed.

I blink and it's two weeks later. Where has the time gone?

When I returned from my work trip to Canada, I went straight to work for a six hour day without lunch. I took a quick break to nurse, but I forgot to eat. The next day I worked a nine hour day and left in the middle of the night for South Carolina.

We saw Bryan's family -and his mom who is battling as hard as she can against the cancer. We got to see her at the cancer center, and I can't imagine how wonderful it was to hold her grandson after hours of chemotherapy. We shared our fat baby with her all weekend, and I think she felt like she had reason to fight. She kept calling Bradley "Grandma's baby" and I will forever remember Bradley as "Grandma's baby."

We landed Monday night and without time to grocery shop, do laundry, unpack, clean house, it was morning and we both went to work leaving Bradley with the nanny apologizing as we rushed out the door for the state of the house and lack of snacks. Today was a whirlwind with Bryan doing a phone interview (please lord, get us out of here) while Bradley napped, and I worked like crazy catching up on everything and doing extra to make the rest of the week run smoothly.

Tonight, I have to choose from the cleanest clothes we have and re-pack for another trip where we'll leave at 4am to catch our flight to Orlando for my sister's wedding/family reunion. My uncle who I never see (haven't in four years) is flying in with his two kids, and all the family will be there. Everyone wants to see Bradley, of course, and if there's anything I learned from my trip to South Carolina is that he is most definitely Bryan's son: the quieter, smaller the group, the better. Anytime we were in a large group or in a noisy place, he freaked out. Anytime we were alone in a house in a quiet living room, he was laughing and smiling.

And if you know my family, you know we're louuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuud. And they will all want to hold him. I'm going to have to hope for the best.

My boss is pretty upset with all my travel, but I truly can't help it. I couldn't miss seeing Bryan's mom and I couldn't miss my sister's wedding - I'm the freaking maid of honor. (I refuse to say matron!) But I've trained the new staff person, and I'm available by phone and email all weekend long.

Can someone say a prayer or send good vibes for us as we try to survive our third trip in less than two weeks? And see a million family? And as I try to successfully breastfeed in a bridesmaid dress?

I need a vacation. A REAL one, where I sit in pajamas and read and sleep in and do nothing. That's Thanksgiving. If I can get to next Wednesday, I'll be the happiest lady around.

Don't blink. #drwho

 

Work Trip Post Baby: return trip thoughts

I'm in LA in one of the country's busiest airports laying on three chairs at my gate to board my flight to Houston, then one more one hour delay before I'm on my way to Tulsa to my awesome husband and my fat baby.

So how was the trip?

The short version: great!

The long (blog) version:
I entered the airport on Sunday after Bryan and Bradley dropped me off and the walk to the ticket counter almost made me cry. But I didn't.

I arrived in Vancouver at 9:30 and my Chinese counterpart took me to hot pot to discuss our agreement, new policy and catch up. I was exhausted from travel, but it was great to jump straight into work. I didn't get to my hotel until 1am (3am Oklahoma time), and I put on pjs, thought about tv and instead passed out.

Day 1: the day began with a business breakfast, a tour of the campus, a meeting with marketing, a meeting with admissions, pump break, tour of other locations, meeting with directors, lunch at sushi place (I think I ate an entire tuna fish!), back to head office for meetings with admissions and recruiters, then a pump break.

We had thirty minutes to shop before dinner, so I hit baby Tommy Hilfiger and got the CUTEST polo onesies - one f which he's gonna wear for his pro photos. Then we ran over to dinner which was so delicious: red Thai curry chicken and veggies with rice and naan bread. Dinner was informal business but a lot of relationship building - my favorite part of these trips.

I declined an opportunity to eat "Vancouvers best cheesecake" so I could get my first night of sleep without Bradley and with more than five hours. I slept from 10-5am. It was incredible.

Day 2: woke for a business breakfast at a French bakery. Oh. My. Gawd. This was the best meal I've ever eaten (pics on my nice camera). Monsieur Benedict: ham, gruyere cheese, poached egg, roasted tomato butter on focaccia bread with fresh fruit. To die for!! An then of course, chocolate croissants! They were so good we ordered 15 for the meetings that day!

So we went to the other partners head office where I ran my first important meeting. It was surreal to step out of body and look down at myself discussing policy, demanding changes and standing firm on what my boss and I decided last week. As I sat in my tiny black dress and 4 inch heels, I thought, this is the me I love! This is the career woman I want to be!

So that meeting went for three hours. A lot of debate, but in the end, the recommendations and changes I needed to see were accepted and I think it's going to help everyone. I'm so pleased with myself - and I can't wait to tell my boss! Can you say bonus?

So then I trained the agents and admin staff about NSU and admissions. And then we went for lunch...at 2:30pm. It was delicious, of course, and it was over at 3:45. My flight left at 6, ao I had just enough time to pack the gifts from our partners and pump before I had to go.

I barely made it to the gate on time because of us customs and because I needed a cookie. But I did.

And now I'm laying in LA. I haven't thought much about my family because I've been so busy (and doing what I love), but now I'm ready to be in Bryan's arms and to have my little fat dude in my arms. Just a few more hours!

Monday Mind Dump and Goodbye to My First Car

Today is the first day back from spring break, the glorious week off in the middle of the semester, the most wonderful surprise paid vacation mandated by the President. It's lovely.

We had the most awesome vacation. We went to Dallas and bought up the whole town. I'll post pictures of the nursery (that's right! we have stuff now!) and all the most adorable things I bought for our baby. We ate delicious food, saw a movie in a giant fancy theatre and bought way too much stuff. Like literally, we had to return some things because they didn't fit in the car.

Then we went to Chicago. It was even better than last year. We saw incredible shows, workshopped with two of my favorite "friend" instructors, blew the students' minds, ate delicious food, bought some adorable pants for my boy and slept very little. Because comedy doesn't sleep, y'all.

Oh, and we lost my car.

Yeah. My car that I learned to drive in, that I had high school makeouts in, that got hit after a high school party, that I drove around Winter Springs in, that I left at home when I went to Clemson until my parents gave it back to me my senior year, the car that I furiously drove to the DSI theater when I was late but was the only one with the key to let the staff in, the car that I drove to NYC for a spring break, the car that moved me to Philly, the car that drove us to improv in the city, the car that drove me to Oklahoma, the car that I loved: IS GONE. It's in some po-dunk town in Illinois.

Bryan was driving it when all of a sudden it started overheating and smoking. The coolant was gone, and we pulled over to re-fill. We got maybe 30 minutes when smoke came stronger and darker. We emptied the car and put passengers in my car and let Bryan drive it alone. After 10 miles of driving only 30mph, it started smoking black smoke. It's gone. To fix it would be more than $3,000. Had it been in Oklahoma or had we not had 8 people waiting on us or had it not been the day before classes resumed, we may have chosen differently. But alas, it wasn't. It was all of that.

So we said goodbye. I'm so sad. In honor of my Elantra, here's pictures where she was doing her best work:

February Snowstorm

the move to Oklahoma, June 2010

Philly Snow fight with Ben & Adrienne, December 2009

The car we drove away for our honeymoon!

Driving to Florida for our first Christmas together, before the wedding - December 2008

Spring break to NYC - March 2008

Scavenger hunt - Clemson, March 2008

Clemson snow - February 2008

My car has been there for a lot. Five states and eleven years. It's hard to say goodbye, but I think we did the right thing. For now, we have just one car. The brand new car we bought in December. So we're a one car family. I'll take it as a hint that we should be spending more time together.

We work at the same place, so it's not weird to carpool. And our town is super small, so even if I have to run an errand, it won't take me long to get the car back to Bryan. And now we won't need that extra car seat for the baby...



China Update

China was incredible! I've been back a full week, and after I snuggled with Bryan, ate tons of American food and peed in my Western toilet, I am back into my American life.

Here's what I did (with pictures!):

I took 2 fourteen hour flights. I tried both the window and the aisle seats, and I am 100% pro-aisle.

On my first night, I ate donkey, chicken neck, thousand year old egg and a bunch of things I didn't recognize and was too embarassed to take pictures as I had just met most of the dinner guests.

I booked my hotel based on a recommendation from our partner. When I arrived, I showed the guy my address, and he said, "No, no, this is not the right hotel." And then he proceeded to call my hotel, cancel my reservation and then book me at another hotel. Okay, then.

My only morning alone: I walked around the Beijing University of Technology campus to see what a Chinese university looked like. I was impressed. Nice buildings, cool students and interactive classes. This class built chairs out of cardboard and sat in them to prove to their teacher that it worked. This picture shows the fail of the class.

On my second day, the VP took me to lunch at a place where he ordered the Fresh Bacteria Pot. I tried to explain to him that I couldn't eat this as I'm pregnant and I'm sure my doctor would KILL me if I ate fresh bacteria. He argued and said I must try it! I explained that we do not eat Fresh Bacteria in the States, and he said, of course you do. He started pointing at several items on the menu and saying bacteria.

Clearly. After a few more pointing and saying Bacteria, I realized he meant mushrooms. I then explained that mushrooms are fungus, and fungus is not the same as bacteria. Translation fail.

Cici is the President's Assistant, and Toby was kind enough to assign her to me for the week I was in town. More than an assistant, Cici was my tour guide, bargain master, confidant and friend. She took me to the Silk Market, the Great Wall, the Forbidden City, my hotel, the office, the Exhibition Center, restaurants, everywhere and anywhere I wanted to go. She was incredible!

She took me to her favorite local diner. This would be the equivalent of our greasy spoon. People sat and talked and drank endless amounts of tea. We ordered a typical dinner (stewed pork with spicy egg and peppers) and talked about the upcoming events and all the great deals she got me at the Silk Market. Her best deal: getting the seller of fake Ray Bans sunglasses to go from 420 down to 35. Love that girl!

My absolute favorite dish of the week was the Peking Duck. And I had it at the best restaurant for duck. Apparently, you can get duck everywhere, but this place is the best. And it was seriously the most delicious food I've ever had. The skin was so crispy and oily and the meat was so tender and delicious and oily. I dipped the skin in raw sugar and ate it (like the locals) and it melted in my mouth. So delicious!

I spent Saturday and Sunday working the Education Exhibition Fair from 9-4pm with a break for lunch (duck with VPS one day, fast food with the interns the other). I love my job! I talked about opportunities to study in the US at NSU, how to apply, how we make decisions and where the heck Oklahoma is. I met many students, talked to several parents and helped many with the admissions process. I think I was also one of two Americans representing American schools, so we were very popular. Next time, I'll get some more prominent blonde highlights.

On the last day of the fair, the billionaire took us all out to dinner at a very fancy, very expensive restaurant. We talked about business, visas, the fair, my school, my boss, America, Canada, China, gun laws, babies, massages, pastries, air travel and everything else. I really enjoyed sitting with these high powered executives and sharing my (young) opinions on the topics. One day, I hope to be a director of admissions or international programs or university marketing or something like it. This is absolutely the industry that I'm passionate about and I enjoyed all of the business talk.

We have chosen to partner with a great partner. The billionaire is the President and Chairman of the company, and as we spoke, I was impressed with how many of the details he was aware of in his company. He knew commission rates, application numbers, rental rates in addition to big picture stuff like where the company wants to grow and recruit. And he was so nice! When he learned that I liked a dish, he'd move it next to me and be sure I had the last of whatever it was.

I climbed the Great Wall. It was breath-taking. It was probably the most incredible landscape I've ever seen.

I was impressed with the length, the height, the stability, the history, the people and the beauty.

We also went shopping. I saw live scorpions for sale (to eat).

Gorgeous street food that I did not eat, but I really enjoyed looking and taking pictures.

From scorpions to the Emperial Restaurant at the Behai Gardens: I dined at the Emperor's old dining room on a dinner that was typical for an emperor. For most dinners, the cost is 20-30 RMB. For this dinner, for two people, the total was 990 RMB. It was delicious and the experience was incredible.

I ate with another VP who had the best story. When he was young, there was trouble in China, and he was separated from his parents and sister. His parents went to a work camp, his sister went to an orphanage and he went to a camp for young boys where they worked, lived in caves and stole food for meals. Later, they released everyone and gave all youth at college age an entrance exam. Only the top 1% were granted admission to university. He was one of them. He also was present at the Tiamen Square "riot" and did not want to talk about it. He's lived in Canada and all over China. Now, he lives in Beijing with his wife.

The only food that was really awful was this: jellyfish. I had to try it, and when I chewed it, it was like thick rubber, like gum that was very thick and dense. It did not change consistency no matter how hard or how long I chewed. I couldn't break it into pieces with my chopsticks, so I put an entire tentacle into my mouth. It was long and it filled my whole mouth. I chewed and nothing happened, so I just swallowed. And it went down in one long string. It was definitely the most awful eating experience that I experienced. Thankfully, after one try, he did not encourage me to try another piece.

Then we took my little pregnant self to the Forbidden City (on my last day in Beijing). It was incredible. It literally is a city! I thought it was a building or two. NO! It is a city with 9,999 rooms, several (like 30) pagodas which have been preserved and a hospital and basically dorms for all the concubines. Some of the buildings have been transformed to miniature museums. I visited the clock museum. It was huge.

My last meal was at the North Korean restaurant run by the North Korean restaurant. It was delicious. And very different than my Chinese meals. The waitresses were beautiful.


OBSERVATIONS:
Service industry workers like waiters, bus boys, cab drivers, doormen, etc do not get acknowledged. I said thank you (in Chinese) and almost always got shocked looks from others that I was with.

Soup is very expensive and very fancy. Only rich order soup as most of them include tasteless medicine. I was not aware of this until my return.

There is no toilet paper. Not even in nice restaurants. The billionaire had the secretary run to buy me tissues on my first day. Also, the toilets are a lot like showers:

There are no homeless! For a city of 20 million people, I never saw any homeless people. Cici did not understand when I asked. "People that have no homes?"

The pollution was really bad. Rivers and lakes around the city were FILLED with trash. The whole city was gray and dirty. Cici said the air is very bad.

It is not customary to tip. Prices are what they are. Even the cabs. Which by the way never felt sketchy. All of the taxis are the same, and they all had the same meters which all functioned the same. There was no feeling of, "uh oh, I'm being ripped off."


All in all, I had a wonderful time. I was able to recruit, re-establish our connection to our partners, learn some new techniques from the other recruiter and experience Chinese culture. The sights were incredible. The food was delicious. The trip was amazing. I'd go back again in a heartbeat!

I'm on my way to China!

Follow my real-time adventures here.

Last fall, I took a trip to Vietnam and like last time, I'm ready for this trip.

I'm packed. I'm prepared. I'm excited.

I'll be busy with recruiting at one of China's biggest college fairs. I'll be special since most American universities ask a Chinese alumni to man their booth, and I imagine my white skin and blonde hair will bring the students to the yard the booth.

I'll be trying all sorts of delicious food including Peking duck, hot pot, lo mein and Chinese fried donuts. And I'll have a special trip to a North Korean restaurant run by North Korea with waitresses hand-selected and trained by the government.

I'll be sightseeing the classics: Great Wall, Forbidden City, Silk Market.

I'll be meeting and training our partner's office staff. I'll be meeting with a Chinese billionaire!

I'll be busy, and hopefully, I can pack as much Chinese adventure into my week in Beijing as possible. I am already looking at a very full itinerary, but I can't imagine it any other way.

Blogger, Gmail and Facebook will all be blocked in China, so the next time you hear from me here will be upon my return in one full week.

Lazy Weekend

We had one of those awesome weekends where we had nothing planned, nothing to accomplish and nothing about which to stress.

Friday we did the comedy show on campus. It was really fabulous, and the audience raved about it on facebook and all weekend in person.

Saturday, I woke up early (at 10am) and started re-organizing all the bathroom drawers and cabinets. When Bryan woke, we started thinking about how to change the office to the baby's room and how to move the computer into my room/closet. We had a friend come over and movo the couch from my room to the garage, move the sweet dresser I re-painted for myself to the baby's room and move the desk to my room/closet. It's starting to feel pretty real that we're having a baby what with the new baby room (which only has a dresser right now).

We decided to take to the big city of Tulsa for a relaxing day of window-shopping and public hand-holding around the mall. Turns out, I needed to buy gifts for our partners in China. What do you buy a Chinese billionaire?

I settled on dark chocolate truffles. Manly, fancy without being lame.

I also needed a gift for my Canadian counterpart, another smart, beautiful recruiter. She got me a bracelet when we met in the U.S. a month ago. So I will return the favor and give her this bracelet from Fossil:

Of course, I saw many awesome things that I wanted (and needed) for my trip abroad in two days.

This gorgeous Fossil bag that will fit my iPad, files, itinerary, snacks and everything else for the plane and my daytrips in China.

This super cute maternity dress from Target.

Snacks for the plane/hotel in case I'm unable to eat something or don't like the options.

new pair of Toms (my old ones stink! literally!) and these are corduroy, so they'll keep my feet warm for the cold days of walking about the city sight-seeing. Also, they'll be perfect for my feet (which are bound to swell) on the plane.

We ended our lovely trip with a delicious dinner at Chiptole and drove home. We went to a party where I drank (root) beer, we played some fun games including one where we had to do the Hokey Pokey and hung out with good friends.

Sunday, we did absolutely nothing. It was glorious! We slept in until noon, ate Cap'n Crunch for breakfast while watching SNL (man, that Li Lo is terrible). We played video games and ate pizza. We took a mid-day nap. We watched Netflix and had Taco Bell for dinner. We stayed up until midnight talking and joking and being stupid. It was exactly what I needed.

The whole baby coming thing is crazy because we'll do things like Sunday and it will make me realize we might not be able to do that for a long time after the baby is here. Maybe he'll be a chill baby. Maybe she'll love sleeping in and watching tv and playing games, but that's probably several years down the road. I'm really cherishing these last few months as a family of two, doing what we want and being as lazy as possible.