mommapalooza

london calling

Dear Madeline,

Your dad and I are quite happy that you had fun on our winter holiday in London. I have some fabulous memories of you chatting with the hotel staff, being brave with the best Father Christmas ever at Harrod's, sitting like a grown-up on the Underground, and excitedly  applauding at the end of the Christmas pantomime we went to see.

My grievance is with the souvenir that you brought home with you - time zone confusion. The nights where you don't fall asleep until four in morning are excruciating to your dad and I. We realize that four in the morning here occurs at a perfectly acceptable bedtime in the UK, but have I mentioned that it's FOUR IN THE MORNING here in Bangkok? Your dad has to leave for work a mere two-and-a-half hours later!

What I don't understand is why you're perfectly happy to follow your usual bedtime routine at 7:30 in the evening. You have a bath, brush your teeth, get into your jammies, and then we read your bedtime stories. And you do fall asleep, for an hour or two. A nap, I guess you'd say ...

Anyway, I'm sure that I've mentioned all of this to you, groggily and not nearly as cordially, in the wee hours of the morning, but I thought that I might get quicker corrective action if I put it in writing. Please, please, please, no more sleepless nights!

Love,

Your Mom (who falls behind in everything when she falls behind in sleep)

always a mover and a shaker

Madeline, as nearly always, is being a trouper. She was pretty terrific on the flight over to Bangkok, and it was a long one, too. We flew from Edmonton to Denver to LA to Singapore to Bangkok. I lost track of how many hours it was. I gave her an exemption from the “you must sit in your carseat” rule for the flight from LA to Singapore, as we were flying in the business class cabin (courtesy of Chris’s company) and she’d need to use her tray to enjoy the yummy stuff that Singapore Airlines feeds it’s youngest passengers, let alone recline her seat into a bed for sleeping. Madeline did really well without the carseat, staying seated and belted in. She was pretty mesmerized by the in-flight entertainment system and watched “Meet the Robinsons” at least three times. Kicking myself though – I brought the portable DVD player with me, but neglected to bring the power cord that also charges the battery. Ugh.

Now that we’re here, she’s adjusting. It took her three days to sleep in to a decent hour (and by that, I mean until after 6 am). Behaviourally, she’s quite a bit more whiney and needy than usual, but I know that it’s unfair if I get frustrated with her.

... a home by any other name ...

I have to admit that I'm tired of all of this traveling with Madeline, though she's a good little air passenger and I've vowed not to let it stress me all out anymore.  The 3.5 hour time difference between here and Alberta is what wears us out, I think. Chris and I seemed to have assumed that she'd adjust her internal clock right away, but instead she was getting up for the day at 4:30 am local time (which is a respectable 8 am in Newfoundland). She was eating at the wrong times of day. Heck, we were eating dinner after her normal bedtime.  That helps me to understand why she preferred throwing green beans and doing laps around the house instead of sitting in her chair and enjoying her meal. And she was, of course, going to bed much later than normal. I remember wishing that she'd be her normal self and being really frustrated with her behaviour, fearing that no one would recognize that she was acting out of exhaustation, instead of merely acting like a miniature caveperson. I imagine that Madeline was similarly frustrated with me. It's a tough situation, no? Anyway, it was good to come home.

It's weird to think that we'll be moving again next month. This place in St. John's will have been "Home" for over a year, and as much as I am looking forward to having a house of my own again, it feels really strange to leave this one. This is the first place that Madeline has named "Home", and she's grown-up in so many ways here.  I'm doubtful that she remembers much about our real house, but I think that she'll have a happy reunion with her red wagon. 

I'm kicking myself for not marking Madeline's height on the kitchen doorframe before we left Calgary. It would have been a treat to measure how much she's grown in the year that we've been away.

little miss westjet

Madeline and I arrived home again (home is still St. John's) from yet another trip to Edmonton. This trip represented my third and fourth time taking Madeline on an airplane solo, right across the country. I've decided that it's really not the big deal that I thought it was. The hardest part was the three-hour layover that we had in Toronto, because Pearson International is a sucky airport if you're too young to pass the time away in Starbucks. Madeline and I walked though all of the Gates AXX, BXX, and CXX, and we could not find a single children's area. Not even a tiny lego table. The funnest part of the layover for Madeline was the family washroom, where she spent ten minutes splashing in the sink.

I've gotten better at packing our carry-on bag. This time, I only took:

• crayons
• a ziplock full of sheets of stickers
• a hardcover composition book for stickers and drawing in
• three softcover picture books
• a travel-sized DoodlePro
• a couple of Phidal sticker books (fairies and Winnie the Pooh)
• extra diapers, wipes, and a change of clothes
• portable DVD with three Pixar films (useful for the layover in Toronto)
• a few packs of raisins, a container of Cheerios, and a couple string cheeses, in a ziplock bag

which is good because my backpack doesn't hold much!  The most popular items were the crayons, the stickers, and the little DoodlePro.

On our flight between Edmonton and Toronto yesterday, we were seated in Row 16, and the seats in front of us were occupied by another solo-traveling mom and two toddlers, and in front of her, another solo-traveling mom with a toddler and an infant. Madeline was the only one in a carseat, and each of the three flight attendants came by and said that they were glad that I had Madeline in the carseat for the flight. She was the most content toddler on the plane, and seeing the other one and two year-olds wiggle, wander, and squirm made me feel better about my choice to use the Marathon on airplanes, even if hauling it through airports cramps my usual jet-setting style. I should have bought a set of the GoGo Kidz wheels a year ago ...

Madeline seems to have mastered the names of the buy-on-board snacks that the flight attendants sell on WestJet flights. Yesterday, when I said that I was going to buy one of their yummy turkey-and-swiss sandwiches for us to share, she said, "and Pringles and Twizzlers!" I wonder if she even knew what those things are?

no rest for the weary (travellers included)

I believe that we were finishing up with breakfast yesterday when Chris directed my attention to the nifty article Hotel sleepovers take creativity in the Telegram. I read this article about travelling with young children with interest; it was timely because we had rented a heritage house in Burin for a weekend (Canadian) Thanksgiving holiday, and I had become really reluctant to stay in hotels with Madeline because she insists on going to be at the same time as we do - whether that's 10pm (cramps her style) or 7pm (cramps ours).

We thought that we had dodged that particular bullet with our current accomodations - Madeline had an entire room all to herself in the heritage home. We brought her night-night light and her little CD player for her night-night lullabies. Neither of us expected her to wake up at 2:30 in the morning on Saturday, and refuse to go back to sleep. She wanted to go downstairs and play and read. I feel like I wasted an hour with my futile attempted to coax her back into a slumber.  Downstairs, she was happy and w-i-d-e a-w-a-k-e. Neither of those words described Chris and I as we each took a wee-hour shift. 

I began to wonder if the summer of crappy sleeping she'd experienced wasn't so much caused by sleeping in different surroundings (our room when we had guests, my parents' house) but by the trusty Pack 'n Play. She's somewhere between 35-36" in height, and the PnP height limit is 35", so it's getting kind of cramped for her even when she does sleep curled up in a ball.  Who knows? Worried about a repeat performance in the pre-dawn hours on Sunday, Chris and I agreed that we'd go home early instead of subjecting the three of us to three nights of crappy sleep. Sure enough, Madeline met the day at 3am. I hung out with her solo until Chris was up for the day (and well-rested enough for the 3.5 drive home). I'm posting this from our rental house in St. John's, where I think I shall retire early tonight.

three cheers

Yesterday, as Madeline and I recovered from our flight across Canada, the FAA issued this news release. Would I have left Madeline's carseat in St. John's and bought one of the new child aviation restraints for the flight? In a heartbeat, yes! Toting that little restraint through the airports would be so much less cumbersome, especially for solo-parent travel,  and I would have just picked up an inexpensive carseat for Madeline to use in Edmonton, like the Scenara.  I didn't notice anything about this new restraint on the Transport Canada website, so I don't know if this product will be approved for use on domestic flights. Then again, I'm not sure that it has to be. The rules around using any sort of safety restraint for babies and toddlers on planes are rather loose. The CARES device utilizes the regular adult airplane seatbelt, and flight crews just want everyone (except unrestrained projectile lap babies) buckled in, right?

This Friday's links:

• the Television & Toddlers post at Partners in Parenting. It's often easier to get Madeline dressed to take Chris to work if her attention is focused on Arthur, and I will admit that she's a fan of Poko (but who wouldn't be?), but I'm always wondering if it's really really horrible that Madeline sees a bit of television on any given day. I found this post to be thoughtful and it provided more information on the research done on this topic than anything else I've read!
• Picture This appears in my Friday links for the second time. The image accompanying the post On Overload just makes me laugh out loud!

a tale of two flights

Flight 1:

On Westjet, between Toronto and Edmonton. Madeline hadn't slept nearly enough during our Toronto holiday with Chris, but she was happy to discover that cartoons and children's programming were on all the time on her in-flight seat-back television. She particularly liked The Wiggles and The Backyardigans, grooving in her carseat while they were on. She also gave the in-flight snack of Oreos a thumbs-up. Managed to drink her water from a regular cup really well. It was actually me who spilled water all over her *blush*. A member of the flight crew carried her carseat onto the plane for me, leaving me to merely wrangle the toddler and the diaper bag. The flight was about three hours, and I was very happy with how content Madeline was the entire time. Another Westjet employee owner (as they say in the ads) carried her carseat for me again, all the way from the jetway into the airport!  There was also no problem getting her a box of juice to have for her ears during take-off. The wee little bathroom frightened her - she kept pointing to the door while we were in it saying "go plane!" anxiously, so I think she thought we'd actually left the plane!

Flight 2:

On Westjet again, this time from Edmonton to Calgary for a change of planes, then from Calgary to St. John's, with stops in Toronto and Halifax. Well, Madeline was super sleep-deprived this time, despite my efforts to get her to nap and into bed early. She fussed/howled/screamed in her carseat while the plane sat on the runway. I was disgruntled, having to have toted Madeline, the diaper bag, and the carseat down the aisle of the aircraft myself every single time, which meant getting stuck because of my cargo, and also progressing at the pace of a snail with Madeline the Explorer.  We were on a plane for the entire day, pretty much, and went though several packages of cookies and lots of stickers. The television wasn't that interesting until we were on the Halifax - St. John's leg - just over an hour in length. Madeline did sleep for about forty minutes on the way to Toronto, and for most of the Toronto - Halifax leg.

I would definitely choose to fly with Westjet over Air Canada for all of my future domestic air travel needs, but I was surprised that no one asked me if I needed any help on my return journey. Despite being overtired and cranky, I think that Madeline did alright on the trip. Spending nearly twelve hours in transit on any one day is a lot for anyone, not just two year-olds! I'd take her on a 3-hour flight on my own twice a week with no hesitation. The carseat was super-easy to install, though I did end up twisting the belt stalk on one side in lieu of requesting a seat-belt extender to get it to buckle on the side of the seat, instead of in the middle (where I would not be able to unbuckle it). And those cheap airline headphones were worth at least two hours of amusement for my little travelling companion - very much worth the $1 investment!

flying the friendly skies

If you're reading this, it means that Chris, Madeline, and are on board a plane en route to Toronto for the weekend. Hopefully we got to the airport in time and were able to be seated in the same row. If we have to be split up, I would volunteer to stay with Chris :) Hopefully I managed to get Madeline's carseat installed well enough on the plane - the info I got from the Baby Bargains forums suggest that for a forward-facing install, I first ought to try to get a seatbelt extender. Then I raise the armrest, recline the seat, buckle the carseat in, and then move the plane's seatback into an upright position. If I wasn't able to get a seatbelt extender, I will have twisted the seatbelt one-half turn before buckling it up. This is supposed to make the buckle open away from the carseat, which I've read is the key to getting the seat out without injuring one's hands in the process. Hopefully Madeline won't kick the back of the seat in front of her too much, but I understand that it's also unavoidable with little legs like hers. Hopefully the flight attendants were willing to fill Madeline's cup with some water or milk before the takeoff so that she has something to swallow to relieve any pressure in her ears. Hopefully Madeline will be amused with all of the stickers and art supplies that I stocked our carry-on bag with. I'd rather not turn her seat-back tv to the cartoon channel, but I'm glad it's there at the same time.

Onto my links for the week:

These two posts at Motherhood Uncensored came along just when I needed them: How Long Does It Take for You to Think Like a Parent? and I Guess This Is Supposed to Be a Thankless Job. Both of these resonated with me - this week ended with a few struggles/challenges for me.

The new post at Ask Moxie asks about useful books on parenting.  I agree, certainly about her take on the whole Babywise thing and also about the Baby Whisperer. I didn't think that I could feel nagged by a book until I read the Baby Whisperer one. I even read the sequel on toddlers just to make sure that I wasn't imagining things!

madeline takes toronto

Plans are being hatched for Madeline and I to take our much-anticipated trip home to Edmonton later in August. Chris is planning on coming as far as Toronto with us, and we'll spend a day or two there exploring. We're on the hunt for a good place to stay. Our first thought was to check into the Four Seasons, as we stayed at one in Sydney courtesy of travel reward points and were impressed because they supplied a one-day stash of diapers for Madeline and offered a strollers for rent. Alas, the Four Season hotel might be child-friendly, but we're not millionaires. So we're looking elsewhere for accomodations.  Chris was poking around the 'net and discovered the Delta Chelsea, which he's quite optimistic about. There's a wading pool, a stroller or wagon rental, and a "creative centre" for children. I imagine that the creative centre is intended for kids older than Madeline, but it's nice to find another hotel where an effort is made to ensure that younger guests enjoy their stay. It's still not "budget", but maybe there are more out there like it!

road trip

This past weekend, Madeline and I toured around Newfoundland, obstensively to see an iceberg (which had floated away by the time we got there, alas). I always feel a little bad for Madeline when we go on road trips - it's got to be tough to be stuck in a carseat for hours at a time when it's clearly more fun to be playing and running around. This time she was quite a little trouper about all of the travel - she drew with her crayons (she's usually good about not trying to eat the Crayola Twistables), watched a bit of Monsters, Inc. and Finding Nemo, napped, and drank a lot of milk from her purple cup (the yellow cup just wouldn't do!).  She was also happy when we'd make a pitstop and she could get out of her carseat and run around

The other tough part of travel involves bedtime. The word "hotel" strikes fear into my heart - it's hard to convince Madeline that it's bedtime when I expect her to sleep when I'm still hanging out in the same room. I can't blame her - at home, I say goodnight and disappear out the door, so it must be kind of confusing to have me still hanging around. The first night, she popped back up in her Pack n Play twice, calling for me, even though I was curled up in my bed, pretending to sleep. The second night went smoother.  I think that we both were more exhausted than the day before!

Speaking of hotel rooms,  why don't they all come with a little refridgerator? It would have made having chilled milk for Madeline a bit easier ...

The fun discovery from our little holiday was how happy Madeline is to sit in a highchair at a restaurant if her beverage comes with a little umbrella :)