Wednesday 30 January 2008

Planning a holiday

Planning a holiday is like a military operation nowadays. Because we are visiting my sis in law ALL of my OH family have rung up with 'can you take ...?' recently. They have been a bit flabergasted at my response of 'no'. They seem to think that as we are taking a 'small person' who will have the same baggage allowance as us that THERE WILL BE LOTS OF ROOM. I don't need to tell you that they either don't have children or it was a long time ago that they did :-)

Because of the stopovers we will be taking 4 flights each of around 12 hours with a gap of at least 3 days in between. Part of the journey will be with British Airways and part with Quantas - this is the start of the problem - we have more baggage allowance with BA and also more hand luggage but the rules haven't been relaxed with Quantas. So although it appears that we have more luggage allowance, we don't, unless we dump half our stuff en route.

These same relatives have been buying cute little outfits for DS to wear on his trip - we have about 30 pairs of shorts for a 21 day trip - and will expect photos! Once you factor in all the suncream, swimming equipment and nappies for bedtime and swimming in the pool I don't think there is going to be much room for carrying things too heavy to post. Not to mention that we will also be carrying the buggy.

With only 4 days to go I'm starting to worry about the flight - not just keeping a 3 year old entertained for so long (his Christmas presents of a Fisher Price FP3 player and a LeapPad Leapster should help) but I keep having nightmares about the toilets. You see after months of struggle our DS is toilet trained and can go without a nappy in the day time but airline toilets are scary for an adult - or it was for me en route to New York when the lights went out and I couldn't get out - let alone a child! The last time we flew with him he was 15 months and hated being changed in the toilets because of the noise. I'm terrified it will undo all our hard work.
We've already decided to take the dummy - the last vestige of babyhood that we've managed to confine to bedtimes but haven't quite gotten rid of yet - for the sheer sake of a quiet life (and I don't think the other passengers would appreciate the tantrums that usually occur when he is denied it).

At the moment he is really excited because he is going to see his auntie and nursery have said that he can take their mascot (a stuffed lion) on the trip (oh great another thing to worry about losing!) with us.

So my next post maybe from our first stop off proclaiming that we're never going on a plane again and are staying there for the duration!

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

gosh you are brave!!

I loathe flying longhaul with small children (mine or those belonging to other people).

But don't bother taking any stuff you can buy when you are there. I always travel really light even with children - it makes it an adventure and there is very little that you cannot manage without. My children always share clothes etc on holidays - there's no way I could carry enough for them all to have separate things. But yes, plenty of inflight entertainment is crucial.

Oh dear - poor you. I do not envy you at all!