Flying with Toddlers

Sleepy toddler = uncomfortable mommy!

We are back home! AHHH, it is always good to be back but this freezing weather is not quite the fall I was hoping to return to. Saturday night we flew into Newark airport and with some kind of amazing LUCK on our side we were allowed to land. The pilot kept reminding us that 54 flights in the air had just been diverted to Baltimore because of the storm. That would have been exhausting with 2 toddlers!

If you have flown with toddlers, you already know that it is NOT easy. Harper is just 2 months shy of 3 yrs old and Rexford is 17 months. My husband & I flew with Harper several times when she was 2-4 months old and THAT was easy! She would sleep for hours at a time and nothing seemed to disturb her.

A few things I did to prepare for the flights with toddlers:

I packed 2 sticker activity books for Harper to play with on the airplane. I get them from Costco and they are THE.BEST.THINGS.EVER! They are around $7.50 each and entertain her hours upon hours! Harper sat & played her Dora sticker book the entire airplane ride out to the Bahamas (3 hrs)..she never even asked for anything else! On the way back to the US she played with another sticker book, and then fell asleep.

(you can see her little feet hanging out beside me!)…

Rexford was NOT excited to sit still for so long. The only thing to really occupy him was eating! Good thing that I packed LOTS of snacks. Plain/7 grain crackers are my favorite for the kids because they are not sticky or cheesy which means cleaner hands & cleaner clothes.
Rex had a hard time getting comfortable on the airplane. He was a lap child so my husband and I took turns during his outbursts. On the way back home he was soooo exhausted and fussy and the only thing that calmed him down eventually was the big cheese/meat/fruit plate that they served on the airplane. After eating for 20 minutes he fell asleep on my lap with a cracker half eaten in his mouth.

Rex is a big/HEAVY boy as you can see & once he fell asleep I was stuck in a super uncomfortable position, careful not to move & desperate to keep him sleeping as long as possible!

Overall the flight travel was OK, and I would definitely do a 3 hour trip again (but not longer than this until Rex gets a little older!)

13 Week Belly Picture

Hi Spearmint baby,
I am currently 17 weeks pregnant with my 4th. Here is a picture from 13 weeks.

Thanks,
Rachael Olson
www.myolsonfamily.blogspot.com

are you EXPECTING?

send a photo/s of yourself (and your BUMP) to Spearmintbaby@gmail.com

feel free to include wks pregnant, boy or girl, 1st/2nd/3rd baby, cravings, and/or something interesting about your pregnancy. we all enjoy reading fun pregnancy details!! if you have a blog, etsy store, or website we would love to give you some link love!

photo of the day

Tripp happily posing in his froggy halloween costume. Ribbet Ribbet!
Jessica

do you have a photo you would like featured for “Photo of the Day?”
please email it to spearmintbaby@gmail.com (subject: Photo of the Day)

Last night on Paradise Island

Why do vacations have to end? Tomorrow morning we head back… or so we think. The NJ/NY area is supposed to be getting 1-2 inches of snow!

Get the Look: Vintage Modern Nursery

clockwise from top left: early bird pendant lamp, behr dew drop paint, window shade fabric, lion painting, fabric bin, wooden stool, mid-century lamp, flor carpet tiles, giraffe pull toy, modern bookshelf, pendleton blanket, giraffe wallpaper silhouette, sheepskin rug, striped chair

Days & Nights at Atlantis

We’ve been doing lots of swimming & LOTS of walking. There are all kinds of marine animals to see here…fish, sharks, turtles, starfish…my husband even saw a barracuda while snorkling this afternoon.

We’ve kept our night time meals really simple… A long walk to a cafe or pizza place and then we prefer to grab a table outside on the harbor. Fancy, indoor meals don’t work well with Rex. At 17 months old he has about a 3 minute attention span to sit inside a restaurant.

It is cool at night in October and feels so refreshing after a day of sunshine. The kids love to walk along the harbourside boutiques and check out all of the yachts!

Fun Products for Feeding Your Toddler

It served us well, but Violet is quickly becoming too old for her high chair and tray. She loves to sit on the ‘big girl chairs’ at the table and eat from a plate with utensils. (Utensils, people – where did my little baby go?!) I’ve been on the hunt for some proper dinnerware and seating for our little lady (okay, she still likes to prop her feet up on the table while she’s eating, but ya know). Here are a few fun products that have made my short list:

clockwise from top left: food face dinner plate, skip hop mate, boon saucer, emmo home puzzle tray, cooshee booster seat

Admittedly, she may have to be a little older to use the food face dinner plate, seeing as how it’s ceramic and all and sometimes Violet still likes to, oops! hurl her plate full force drop things on the floor, but I couldn’t resist adding it.

What are your favorite products for little eaters? I’d love some suggestions!

Nursery Paint Colors

Someone wonderful got me a subscription for House Beautiful magazine recently and I get so excited each time I see a new issue in the mail. In the latest issue, there is an article about paint colors that look beautiful in every light. I had an idea of the direction I wanted to go for paint colors in the nursery, but this article came at the perfect time to solidify two great possibilities.

One thing I wanted to keep in mine while choosing paint colors was that they should go well with the rest of the house. Remember our living/dining room color? It’s a dark purple. Our entryway is now a light gray and our kitchen and hallway will be the same color. Our master bedroom is staying white, due to the paneling, and my husband can’t stand painting another room, so our office will stay sage green. I remember when we were looking at houses to buy and there was one with a PINK room, a BLUE room, and a YELLOW room. Each one screamed it’s designated color and the whole effect was a bit nauseating. I’m hoping to avoid that same vibe, but I still want to have fun decorating.

For a girl, I wanted something with a peachy-pink hue, but I didn’t want it too girly. This is one color that was featured in the House Beautiful article and I really love it. It looks a bit different in the magazine, so I hope the name is correct!