Traveling to Europe with a Baby

This year for Christmas we were brave VERY brave to travel overseas with our 13 month old.  I thought I would share our experience and how we tried to conquer jet lag. Notice I said tried. 

Side note: One very important thing to remember when booking your ticket over seas is that you need to call the airline after you book online and add your lap child.  You have to PAY 10% of your ticket cost when traveling with a lap child over seas.  And NO this doesn't mean they get a meal too.  

Jet Lag

One very smart thing that we did on the way over was to book our flight right at the time Little Grumpenkemper goes to bed every night.  This worked out pretty well in our favor.  He slept most of the flight over.  One thing that we wished we had known about and didn't was that the fairly large planes have bassinets that you can use if you are in a bulk head seat.  We took advantage of this on the way home.  The bassinet just hooks into the wall and you don't have to deal with a baby on your lap.  Our little one slept for 3 hrs of the 8 hr flight in the bassinet.  So nice!!!  It cost you a little more to get the bulkhead seat but its not bad and well worth it.  Once the little one is up they have room to sit and play at your feet.  

We arrived in Paris and my husband and I stayed awake it was 7 am Paris time.  The baby actually stayed awake too with lots of new things to look at.  We thought oh yeah we got this!  There is no way he will stay awake tonight if he has been up all day.  WRONG!  He woke up at midnight after 2 hrs of sleep and was awake until 5 am.  Not fun!!! 

After two nights in a row like this I got on Google.  I was sure I would find the cure.  I just found a million other parents just like us with no answers.  The only helpful thing we found to do was to make him wake up and eat when we ate and to eat as nutritiously as possible.  Eventually he slept 13 hrs one night.  We were so excited and thankful for the sleep.  Unfortunately it didn't last.  After a good nights sleep he was back at it wanting to wake up for the day at 2 am.  Crawling off the bed and wanting to play.  

The good news is he finally got consistent but it wasn't until about day 6 and we left on day 10.  So if you are planning on taking your child just make sure you plan to lose out on sleep.  We were fortunately so excited about our trip we were able to push through everyday on adrenaline.  

The Stroller

One other thing we found challenging and yet a saving grace at the same time was the stroller.  The challenge was fitting into small cafes' with a big stroller.  Almost 95% of places to dine are very small.  At night we found it easier to park the stroller at the hotel and just carry him in the Ergo and not go terribly far.  We wished that we would have brought our bike lock then we could have locked it up outside.  

Elevators can also be hard to navigate in Europe.  They tend to be very tiny.  There were a few times that the three of us and the stroller could not fit in the elevator in one trip.  They are also hard to locate a lot of the time in places like the subway.  

We traveled with our Bob.  Such a great stroller, its so easy to push around.  You don't feel like you have done a marathon after a day of travel.  But I strongly advise traveling with a weather protector over any stroller.  Its shields the baby from the rain while at the same time keeping them shielded from the wind and cold weather in the winter.  The little one was so cozy behind his.  It made us a little jealous at times.

The best thing about having a stroller was that a lot of times we were moved to the head of the line.  One example is the Louvre.  We were taken out of the extremely long entrance line and told to go right in through the exit.  We were more than happy to go right in and not hang out in the cold.  There were several times that this happened to us.  

Food for Baby

A word of wisdom is to make sure you have snacks and drink for baby on the plane and for the hotel.  Its not easy to get food for the little on a plane so make sure you bring a few different varieties.   In the hotel make sure you snacks for a baby that wants to wake up at 2 in the morning and thinks its time for breakfast.  It won't be easy to find a market open at that time of night.  

If you are well prepared for your trip then you will be just fine.  Just expect to be flexible and it will be much more relaxing.

Holiday Recipes

I'm not sure about you but I have Never liked stuffing.  I always put a little on my plate because Thanksgiving isn't Thanksgiving without stuffing.  Well, this year my sister in-law made a stuffing that I just couldn't get enough of.  It was so different and so delicious from anything I have ever had.  It is a Whole Foods Recipe.  Click on the link and serve it and other great recipes up for Christmas. 

Apple Sausage and Sage Sour Dough Stuffing

Makes about 12 cups, 12 to 14 servings, or enough to stuff a turkey up to 1

This rich, full-flavored stuffing is a show stealer, whether stuffed in a turkey or baked on its own. For a vegetarian version, use vegetable broth instead of chicken broth and substitute vegetarian sausage or a few cups sautéed shiitake mushrooms for the meat sausage.

Ingredients

1 loaf sourdough hearth bread, cut into 1/2-inch cubes (about 11 cups)
1 tablespoon expeller-pressed canola oil
3/4 pound fresh mild pork or chicken sausage, bulk or removed from casings
4 Braeburn, Gala or other apples, cored and diced
3 ribs celery, thinly sliced
1 large onion, diced
2 tablespoons unsalted butter
2 1/2 cups low-sodium chicken broth
1/3 cup chopped fresh sage leaves
3/4 teaspoon fine sea salt
1/2 teaspoon freshly ground pepper

Method

Preheat oven to 300°F. Spread bread cubes out on two baking sheets and bake until dried but not browned, about 15 minutes. Transfer to a large bowl.

Meanwhile, in a large skillet, heat oil over medium-high heat. Add sausage and cook, breaking up chunks with a spoon, until browned, about 6 minutes. Add apples, celery, onion and butter and cook, stirring occasionally, until apple and vegetables are softened, 8 to 10 minutes more. Add to the bread. Stir in broth, sage, salt and pepper.

If using to stuff a turkey, cool completely before stuffing. If baking separately, heat oven to 350°F; bake in a buttered casserole dish until lightly browned and crisp on top, 50 to 60 minutes.

Dr. Suess 1st Birthday

The milestone has come and gone...the 1st birthday.  So bitter sweet.  My baby may be growing up but it is so much fun to watch.  He is changing everyday.  To celebrate I went all out Suess!  Everything was homemade by either myself or someone else with the exception of the cake and cupcakes which were provided by a local bakery.  

 Here is the Birthday Boy himself.  For his outfit I appliqued a one made out of the Dr. Suess Frabric I got to make his birthday banner.  On the back I placed a picture of the cat in the hat. 

 To make his sweet little hat I traced a cardboard party hat onto the Suess Fabric then stitched a seam down the middle and hot glued the fabric over the cardboard hat.  The red fuzzy balls I just picked up at my local Michaels.  

 These are the Adult Party favors that were handed out to the guest.  These were a lot of fun to make.  I bought the jumbo size marsh mellows and covered them red on the bottom blue on the top with melted candy melts (from Michaels).  I put blue sprinkles on top for a little sparkle.  They were supposed to be like Thing 1 and Thing 2.  The white circle was a white candy melt that I just briefly placed on the heat to melt just enough to stick to the red.  I then used food coloring pens to right on the circle.

On the back of the card was a Suess quote and thank you from Miles.  Everything was printed off of my home computer. 

The kids party favor was a packet of homemade soap in the shape of a Red Fish and Blue Fish.  A quote from One Fish, Two Fish, Red Fish, Blue Fish was on the back.  The soap smelled like watermelon and blueberry.  I purchased these from Mommy's Little Critters.  She has a ton of shapes and scents to choose from.  

This is the one of the banners I sewed for the party.  The Miles banner made out of the polka dot Suess Fabric.  I also placed Thing 1 and Thing 2 on the mantle chasing the fish bowl.  Again these were printed on my home computer and just glued to scrap construction paper that I had.  

This is the happy birthday banner that I appliqued and sewed out of the Dr. Suess Material.  

Guest were asked to take a favor and write a special message to the birthday boy in Dr. Suess Happy Birthday to you.  

The main beverage was Pink Yink Ink Drink (pink lemonade).  Each food item had a sign stating what it was, a picture from that particular book, and a quote as well from the book.  

The smash cake and cupcakes were purchased from Fiddle Cakes here in Nashville.  They were incredibly delicious.  Yum, Yum, YUM!!!!  I purchased a variety of flavors and icings.  

The food table.  Green Eggs were served (deviled eggs with food coloring), cheeseburger sliders, Truffula Fruits (fruit salad) from the Lorax, Poodles Eating Noodles (Pesto Pasta Salad) from Fox in Socks.  Yertles Turtles (Chocolate Turtles) from Yertle the Turtle and Other Stories.  

 The turtles were super easy and VERY good.  You lay out pretzels on a cookie sheet place Rollo Chocolate candies on top place in the oven at 350 for 2 to 3 minutes.  Pull them out of the oven and place a Pecan on top pushing down.  You have to eat at lease one hot.  This very easy treat has such a nice balance of salty and sweet.

For the Green Eggs just make your deviled eggs as you usually would and had green food coloring.

WHAT A FUN DAY WE HAD
!!!!!!!!!!!