Baseline

We are still in the process of getting back to normal life here in our house. Recovering from the jet lag of coming back from California is difficult as we all seem to have a harder time dealing with west to east time changes. I've had a hard time waking up so I can go to work. I love my job, but even that can't keep my body from complaining in the morning. It also doesn't help that Maya hasn't been sleeping very well the past couple nights, a typical aftermath of vacationing. One problem that we have found with traveling is that Maya gets use to sleeping in bed with us because we usually have one large bed in our hotel room that is big enough for all three of us. With all the extra room, Maya loves take the opportunity to sleep in between us the entire vacation rather than sleeping on a roll away bed or her blow up bed. I think it is because it makes her feel safe and secure in a strange place.

The drawback of this is that when we come home she still wants to sleep with us. Now, I don't mind the occasional "There is a big storm and I'm scared" sleeping in bed with us, but, to be honest, she beats us up at night and we prefer for her to sleep in her own bed. There is nothing worse than getting hit in the head with a little foot in the middle of the night because your child has decided that sleeping horizontally across the bed is the most comfortable position. She doesn't know she's doing it, but we sure do!

It usually takes about 3 to 5 days for all of us to get back to normal in terms of sleep depending on how long we have been gone and how different the time was. Sometimes Maya is out of sorts for longer (especially when it comes to wanting to sleep with us) but we just do our best to stick to our normal routines and make her go to bed and wake up when she is suppose to. Getting back to feeling like working after a long vacation...now that is another thing all together!

Flying Solo

I'm so very tired at the moment, but who needs sleep when you can post a blog about not getting any sleep?! Our day started at the bright and early hour of 4 a.m. Maya and I both woke up, albeit slowly, and got dressed. At around 4:20 we headed downstairs to the hotel lobby to catch the shuttle to the hotel. Maya was actually quite chipper and it helped to wake me up. We both gave Josh a big hug and Maya told Josh that she was going to be a grown up for me in the airport. With one last wave to Josh as we pulled away, we were suddenly on our way home.

Maya did in fact act like a grown up at the airport and behaved wonderfully the whole time. She waited patiently by my side as I got us checked in and then she did what she could to help get through security. She listened to what I asked of her and was happy and cheerful the whole time. The walk from security to our gate was actually quite long but that was ok because Maya got to ride on Trixie the whole way. She really does love zooming through the airport terminals (she especially likes it when it's me pulling because I walk fast). We made it to our gate and Maya promptly began telling the people across from us all about how she rode on Pirates of the Carribean and how it said "Dead men tell no talessssss!" Once we got on the plane, Maya sat in her seat and happily looked out the window until we took off. After we were in the air, she played with her new Tinkerbell toy for a little bit and then, thankfully, slept the ENTIRE way back home. Josh was so glad to hear that she had been such a big girl for me on our first flight alone together. We're looking forward to having Josh home on Tuesday but for now Maya and I are just laying around the house recovering from our long day.

Thanks to all of you who have followed along on our trip! I do hope you've enjoyed reading my first foray into travel blogging. Be sure to continue checking back because the fun here doesn't end when our trip does. I'm hoping to do weekly updates (or even more often than that) with more information about traveling with your kids in general and maybe even some helpful survival tips for all you parents out there heading off into the world with your little ones.

I'm going to head off for a nap now.

Final Hours

Well, Maya and I have reached the end of our vacation. In just a few hours, we will wake up in California for the last time and will take a shuttle to LAX to catch a 6 am flight back to Washington, DC. We've had a wonderful time, though, and I really feel like we got to do pretty much everything you can possibly do while visiting here.

We spent our last day driving around Hollywood and Beverly Hills. First we drove down Rodeo Drive just to gawk at all the ridiculously expensive stores. It was a much smaller area than I was expecting so I was a little disappointed. I'm sure the shops would have been fun to walk around in but, with wares that probably cost as much as the computer I'm writing on, I decided it would be best not to visit them with a three year old in tow. Next, we decided to try to find Griffith Park where the famous Hollywood sign is. We got a little lost trying to find it and then when we finally found it we couldn't even go there because of the threat of wildfires. Eventually, we drove around until we found a good spot to snap some photos and got to see some of the ENORMOUS houses on the way. I think Maya was still quite a bit tired from yesterday because she slept through pretty much all of our time in the car today (though, admittedly, I took a cat nap as well).

After that, we visited Grumman's Chinese Theater and walked along the Walk of Fame some. We even happened upon Walt Disney's star, which I thought was very fitting after yesterday. I got to have my picture taken next to the foot and hand prints of the cast of Harry Potter (Oh no, I've outed myself as a Potter fan!) and saw the prints of many other Hollywood legends. I was a little put off by some of the weird people hanging about the theater, so I made sure to hold Maya tight. There were quite a few unsavory looking types milling about and that coupled with the many, many people there really kind of freaked both Josh and me out. We took our pictures and then made our way back to the car pretty quickly.

Sadly, because we are leaving so early, we had to say our goodbyes to Robin. It was great getting to see him though and we are already looking forward to our next trip with him at New Years. Josh is staying behind for two more days so he can see the Anaheim Angels play so hopefully all will go well in the airport in the morning as it will just be me and Maya. I can only hope that she will just sleep on the plane but, knowing my luck, she'll want me to read stories and play dolls with her. I'm getting tired already.

Dreams Do Come True

I'm so sore and tired right now, but for good reason: We went to Disneyland yesterday! At first Maya wasn't very interested in doing or seeing anything and I was afraid she was going be that way the whole day. Every ride or character we saw, she just wanted to sit in her stroller and sucked her thumb. We finally convinced her to go get her picture taken with Winnie the Pooh. After she got that hug from Winnie, she totally changed her outlook and was so excited about everything. Everything we mentioned, she wanted to do. We went on so many rides, a couple of them twice, and walked all over the park. We also saw two or three of the 3-D movies, which seem to be a favorite of Josh.

Maya's favorite ride was It's A Small World but her favorite thing all day was the lunch we had at Ariel's Grotto (which is actually in the California Adventure Park just adjacent to Disneyland). We found out about this special lunch they have there where you go and eat while all of the princesses walk around and stop by your table. Maya got to see Ariel, Sleeping Beauty, Cinderella, Belle, and even got to meet Cinderlla's Fairy Godmother! She was so excited she could barely sit long enough to eat her food. All of the princesses were very nice, even as Maya subjected them to her long drawn out story of how she lost her last blankie at a baseball game.

We stayed long enough to see some of the fireworks being set off and Sleeping Beauty's castle lit up at night time. Maya was very excited to see Tinkerbell flying all around during the show as it seems that Tinkerbell is now her favorite character. By the time we left, Josh and I could barely move but it didn't matter because Maya had an awesome time there. As she went to sleep last night she lovingly clutched her new Tinkerbell doll in her arms and I'm sure dreamed about princesses and fairies as she slept. Proof to me that dreams really do come true.

The Late Show

Unfortunately, we've been so busy the past few days that I've not had much access to the internet. This would be why I'm just now getting around to blogging for both today and yesterday (yesterday's is below). We had a full day today and I'm pretty tired. Maya is blessedly sleeping now but earlier, she had skipped right over bed time and went straight to crazy time. I thought I was going to have to peel her off the ceiling there for a moment. At one point, she was pretending that the room service menu was a storybook about a lost chinchilla. Good grief!

We woke up a little late today and packed up our suitcases because we were checking out of our resort and driving up to Los Angeles for the last few days of our trip. After we checked out, we went to the San Diego Wild Animal Park which is an open animal reserve for African wild animals. Maya celebrated being only a few hundred feet from them by sleeping though the entire tour. Even though Maya missed out on most of the park, Josh and I both agreed that this park was more fun than the zoo just because of the proximity to the animals. It was pretty amazing to be that close. After tour visit with the animals, we headed up to L.A. for a soccer match and then on to the hotel (I could write a whole other blog about my love for soccer) (and no I don't like soccer because of David Beckham) . The hotel's parking lot was forever away and actually part of LAX's parking so I was happy to have Trixie on hand to help me get from the car to the hotel with Maya. Maya seemed to enjoy the fact that we were going so much faster than Josh and Robin. Now, Im going to go get some sleep before our big day tomorrow at Disney. I'm on my way Prince Charming!

Halftime

Maya and I have reached the half-way point of our trip. First on the agenda, after a swim in the pool, was the Birch Aquarium, which is part of the Scripps Oceanographic Institute. While it was small, it had some really nice exhibits and Maya had a great time looking at all the jellyfish (her favorite marine creature thanks to Spongebob Squarepants).

After the aquarium, we headed down to Belmont Park in the Mission District. Belmont Park was an old time seashore carnival area. They had an old wooden roller coaster, carnival rides like the tilt-a-whirl, and a few kids rides. Maya's favorite ride was the antique carousel. Once we all had wobbly legs from riding the rides and walking around the beach front, we had dinner in the Gaslamp District of San Diego. Since Robin speaks fluent Spanish, and we were eating at a latin restaurant, I thought I would embarrass myself by speaking Spanish, with an emphasis on embarrass. Despite subjecting everyone to my horrible foreign language skills, a good time was had by all and I think Maya may have actually learned some Spanish (though, not from me)!

Water Babies

Today seemed to be all about water. We woke up early and Robin, Maya, and I all headed down to the pool. The resort doesn't have a children's pool which made me a little apprehensive since Maya is still in the process of learning how to swim. She totally showed me who was boss, though, when she swam like a pro (with a little help from some hot pink floaties on her arms). By the time we left she was jumping in with no help and even swimming out to the deep end with no one holding her. I was so proud of my little fish!

After our watery morning, we headed out to La Jolla (pronounced la hoya) for a little California sea lion watching from the special sea lion watching pier. Maya thought they were cute, but she thought the waves breaking on the rocks were much more interesting. She and I had a great time just watching the waves crash against the coastline, trying to guess if the next one would be big enough to get us with sea spray. Once we had had our fill of the beautiful La Jolla coast, we hopped on down to Coronado for a great dinner at the Hotel del Coronado, made a quick trip to see the Mexican-American border crossing, and then finished up the day with another swim! I'm waterlogged!

Lions and Tigers and Bears, Oh My!

Today we put on our walking shoes and headed out to the world famous San Diego Zoo. Our friend Robin, who is in America on holiday, flew down to San Diego from San Francisco to join us on our trip. After we picked him up, we made our way to the animal kingdom!

Maya squealed with glee at anything remotely looking like a deer. No matter what it was, if it had four legs, horns, and brown hair it's name was Bambi. At one point she actually looked at a giraffe and said, "Mommy, look! Bambi's neck grew and grew and now it's really long!" (I'm shaking my head as we speak at that one). We also got to see quite possibly one of the cutest images in the world: a live video feed of a mother panda caring for it's 17 day old cub from the inside of the panda den. Everyone say "Awwwwww!" We did notice, though, that the zoo is really into pigs. I think they had at least 7 different species from the pig family. I'm guessing that someone there really likes Charlotte's Web. All in all, the zoo was great and one of the best I've ever been to. It was well worth all the walking.

Neat Freak

One habit that I've picked up during our travels is organization. I'm not exactly "Suzy Homemaker" when we're at home so, for me, to make an effort to keep things super organized is a bit of a departure. However, it's something that I've found is necessary to keep things from getting lost. As all parents know, the loss of a child's special toy can make life pretty unbearable.

When it comes to Maya's toys and books, I've discovered that good ol' Trixie is actually helpful in this process in that she can actually double as a toy box when we aren't on the go. Not only is it a central place where I can tell Maya to put her toys when she's done, but if you have a list of what's in there you can easily look to make sure nothing's missing. I just keep it open in a corner of the room and put softer, lighter things like stuffed animals on the left side and heavier things like books and games on the right. It makes keeping the room clean easier and really helps to keep things from getting left behind. Believe me, doing a daily toy check is a lot easier than telling your child that their favorite book or toy is under a bed hundreds, or even thousands, of miles away. I've been there and its not pretty.

Would You Like Some Cheese With Your Whine?

When traveling with a child, you really learn the meaning of give and take. There will be whining, defiance, retaliation, and maybe even some tears. In the end though, the experiences you have while on vacation usually far outweigh any protesting you will listen to. Today was one of those days where everything we did was met with Maya's dragging feet and announcements of how she didn't want to do anything we wanted to do.

Today's schedule was pretty easy...on paper. The only thing we had planned was seeing the San Diego Padres baseball team play. Now, granted, Maya has been saying a lot lately that she doesn't like going to baseball games (much to Josh's disappointment). When she whined with every step of the three block walk from the car to the stadium, however, I knew we were in for a trying time. She ran off, she didn't listen when I told her to stop doing [insert bad behavior], and one time even squished what seemed to be half a bottle of sunscreen on her arms (yay for liking sunblock though!).

Despite her protesting and somewhat bad behavior, she really did like the game. She got a baseball shaped backpack (a giveaway for the kids today), she got to play in the sandbox the Padres have in the outfield bleacher area, and she seemed to enjoy telling her really bad knock knock jokes to the people sitting behind us. Her favorite item of the day, though, was her Padres temporary tattoo. She thought she was pretty hot stuff after I put that on her and made sure she showed it to everyone who made eye contact with her. The infamous whine wasn't gone for long though. Once she found out that it would probably come off when she took her bath, she declared that she just wouldn't take any more baths. *sigh* I'm really looking forward to bath time tonight.

It's the Little Things

So, Legoland was great! I played with Lego blocks a lot when I was a kid so, for me, it was so much fun to go to a whole park where everything was Lego. I think Maya had a good time as well. She really enjoyed riding the fairy tale boat ride with all kinds of fairy tale characters built out of Legos. For Josh and I, the highlight of the park was, of course, Miniland where Lego's master builders had built scale replicas of landmarks and cityscapes from around the world out of hundreds of thousands of Legos. The detail really was pretty incredible.

There was a giant model of the Taj Mahal that was just beautiful (Josh went to India earlier this year so we're always excited when we see anything to do with India) while the replica of Mount Rushmore wins points for "Best Cheap Joke" by having George Washington getting his ear cleaned with a giant Lego Q-Tip. The cities of Washington, New York, San Francisco and New Orleans were recreated there but the best of them all was Las Vegas. Las Vegas is pretty comical in real life anyway, but to see it made out of all those tiny little plastic blocks was even better. Later, Josh busted out with some impressive "Toss the Ball in the Cup" skills and scored Maya not one but TWO Legoland teddy bears which she promptly adopted as her "babies." Sadly, there was no 7 foot tall Darth Vader to be found.

Up, Up, and Away

We made it to California! Getting in last night was a little rough. After a long night on Thursday thanks to a summer storm that gave both Maya and our dog Indiana the willies, coupled with a long day yesterday, we were pretty exhausted when we got in. We landed in San Diego at 8 pm, which is really 11 for us with the time difference. I think we got to bed somewhere around 11 (2 am our own time. OUCH!). Maya had a few moments when she decided she was too good to listen to me in the airports, but for the most part she was great. She's old enough now that she can scoot Trixie around on her own and actually play with it more as a toy in itself than just a bag. When we were in the ticketing line, she was pretending that Trixie was a pony (completely with neighing) and that the tow strap was her reins. Too cute!

The plane ride was a lot of fun due to the "surprise" I had hidden in Trixie for the trip. Earlier this week I had gone to the book store looking for something to get with a gift card I had been given. Just for fun I went to the kids section and I found the best book, a Disney Princesses vinyl sticker dress up book. Each page has a different Disney princess on it and there are 8 sheets of reusable vinyl stickers of things like gowns, gloves, crowns, etc. It was GREAT at keeping her entertained on the flight and made the five hours go by fast. I had to be the sticker master since I didn't want her to loose any but over all, she loved it (actually, I did too which is why I bought it). We had a good time putting all kinds of ridiculous things on Raja, Princess Jasmine's tiger.

Today we're off to Legoland. Yay!

Pack It In

Well, we leave tomorrow for California which can mean only one thing. Today is “packing day.” I’m sure most people would probably be horrified to look upon the innards of my packed suitcase because I tend to pack very light for both me and Maya. This habit also extends to the toys, snacks, and other things in our carry on luggage.

Now, obviously, every child is different and everyone’s comfort level is different but I see so many people who pack what seems to be their child’s entire room for a trip. Really, in the end, you don’t need all that stuff. I find that it works well to simply pack a few toys that are both compact and can be used in different ways. Things like felt dolls with felt dress up outfits that can be rolled up (or maybe a piece of green felt with a road painted on it and little cars for boys), reusable sticker books, card games, etc. all work well to keep kids entertained while not taking up a lot of room. I’ve also found that things as simple as an airplane blanket are every bit as entertaining as any toy you might bring with you.

I usually help Maya pack Trixie with a few toys and books, snacks to last through the plane trip, and a change of clothes (always an essential). Maya loves to pack her own bag and it allows her to participate in getting ready for the trip and gets her excited about it too. Once we’re packed she knows that we’re about to be off to someplace fun and interesting. I’m personally looking forward to Legoland because, really, who doesn’t love a 7 foot tall statue of Darth Vader made out of tiny plastic blocks.

Oh the Places You'll Go

Hello, and welcome to Once Upon a Trunki! This blog is meant to serve as a place where parents of young children can come to find out what life is really like while traveling with a little one. My name is Miranda. I’m an American living outside of Washington, DC and I’m the mother of a four year old red headed ball of energy named Maya and the wife of seven years to my husband Josh.

Now, I know what you’re thinking: “This is just another fake blog written by someone sitting behind a desk at some nameless marketing firm in some big city.” If I weren’t writing this myself, I would think the same thing, but I promise on my passport that that’s not the case here. Everything you read on this blog is a true account of my life as a parent traveling the world with my family. All of the photography you will see here will be taken by Josh who, as luck has it, is great with a camera. While the people at Trunki did approach me about writing this blog, I am neither paid for writing it nor does Trunki have any input into its contents. This fact was important to all of us because we all feel that the most important message to get across in this venture is not how great the Trunki is (though, to me, it is in fact a great thing) but how great, and how important, traveling with your child is.

Still don’t believe I’m real? Here’s is the truth. Josh and I both work full time outside of the home while Maya goes to day care. I clean my own house, cook my own dinners, mow my own lawn and run my own errands. I love to read books, watch movies, crochet blankets and keep Maya entertained by doing things like putting stickers on my face and wearing tutu’s while pretending to be in a ballet. In our spare time, and with our spare money, we travel to wherever looks like an interesting place to go…which would be everywhere.

At the end of this week I will be traveling cross country to San Diego and Los Angeles, California. We’ve dubbed it the “Maya Trip” because we will be going to so many kid friendly parks and attractions like the San Diego Zoo, Legoland, and, of course, Disneyland. Maya, in true little girl fashion, has already started asking me how many princesses she’s going to meet and whether or not the zoo will have any cute furry animals, namely chinchillas. I will be updating the blog daily with pictures and accounts of the day’s activities. We also have several trips scheduled in the coming months, so be sure to check back here for more tales of our adventures. And they are all tales, mind you, because they all happened “Once Upon a Trunki.” (I just had to do that!)