traveling

[same_sky]

I sorta have an obsessive personality in some ways. When I am focused on something, it becomes a Big Deal and it colors everything else I am doing and then I want to write about it even though I think people probably wish I would just settle down and not make such a Big Deal over everything. Like, pregnancy--every twinge was analyzed and catalogued. Buying a house--tedious details on room dimensions and floor plans. Right now, it's our trip to Sweden, and it's an especially easy one to obsess over because a) I have never flown with a child before b) I have never flown with my niece before, and she has never flown anywhere and c) everyone is super excited, as it's been five years and we are SO thrilled to be taking Whitley with us and also do you have any idea when our last vacation was? FOREVER AGO, that's how long. So I feel like a dork writing about this all the time because clearly I am thinking about it all the time and most of my friends online are worldly travelers who don't seem to put much time and energy into planning and organizing their trips. But I LIKE planning and I LIKE organizing and I don't really have all that much to plan and organize in my real life, and you know what? LiveJournal is so dead that I figure that another post from me about how I make one measly trip into a Big Hairy Deal (Again) has gotta be better than nothing.

I hope. :)

I am slowly working my way through some of the things I had on my mind. I have really been wrestling with the car seat on the plane idea. I love the idea of taking it for reasons of added safety and psychological encouragement (she is accustomed to sitting in her seat, after all) and potential comfort for her. I DETEST the idea of schlepping it through airports, trying to install it on a tiny airplane seat and then finally sitting next to it for eight hours. M's parents have procured a seat for us to use while there so we don't need to have it then. Anyway, I finally decided to bite the bullet and buy the CARES harness. (kids fly safe.) It seems like it has good reviews and packing something that weighs one pound is much more attractive than packing a car seat. It's expensive, though.. $74.95 (will work out to $67 after cashback from bing.) You can rent them on eBay for $14, plus return shipping, so I was considering that, but then I decided to just buy the thing and then sell it on eBay when we get back. They seem to be selling for around sixty bucks, shipping included. I figure it'll be cheaper that way and easier than trying to make sure I return a rental item immediately upon our return. Anyone use one before? Or are you all more responsible than me and bring the car seat?

We went to lunch with some friends a couple of weeks ago. I used to work with her and we hadn't seen each other lately. Anyway, her husband is something of a geek (in a positive way!) and we talked about a potential theoretical purchase of a PSP for traveling. We weren't actually going to buy one, but that is what was recommended to M at a game store since it can play games AND movies, and that struck us as being a lovely idea. He thought it was a fairly terrible idea because they're apparently much more fragile than the game store clerk let on, but since he didn't use his much anymore, he offered to let us borrow it. I sent him a message yesterday and asked when it'd be okay to pick it up, and he replied and said that... they had just bought a 9" portable DVD player with a 7.5 hour battery life and wouldn't we rather take that instead? YES PLEASE. Actually, I argued that we wouldn't want to borrow something that they had JUST bought, but they are awesome and so we went this afternoon to pick it up. We have a portable DVD player, and it's really great for the weekend trips to my parents. (That's a 1.5 hour car ride.) We bought it for her first birthday, though, and we have used the heck out of it... mainly at home in the kitchen, but it's traveled a bit too. Anyway, the battery doesn't hold a charge at ALL anymore, so we had no expectation of bringing one. But, a battery that lasts that long--and of course it won't literally last that full amount of time but I also don't intend for her to need it on that long either--will be a totally useful addition to our flight, I think. Yay! And, I am not as excited about this as M is because to me, it just sounds like work, but they also gave M the sound system/speakers they just replaced.

I also finished my niece's travel guide. Want to see how much of a dork I am? Whitley's Travel Guide, as lovingly prepared by her favorite aunt. I know it was overkill, but it's exactly what I'm talking about. I NEED to plan and organize, and in Whitley's case... I also need to make sure she has as smooth a packing experience as possible since we're not going to be there to help her... and yes, I would like this to be one of those magical experiences she will always remember and I want that to start with her knowing that we're as excited about her coming with us as she is. It means so much to me to be able to do this for (and with!) my brother's baby girl. :)

So, yeah, I am dreading the flights and apprehensive about how it will go, but tentatively I am feeling relatively confident that it will turn out alright. I have things for her to do. I have been telling her about sleeping on the plane. I have been thinking of snacks and foods and clothing. I think she'll be fine. Truth is, M and I are giant wusses about this sort of thing. There's one of her and three of us, after all! :) Of course, once I get there and look around and take a deep breath, I will remember, again, that... oh yeah. this trip isn't for me. haha. I'll have plenty of fun though. I always do. :)

Comments

[blue-eyed-girl.livejournal.com]

Hey, there's nothing wrong with obsessive! :D

I just read through the whole travel guide, believe it or not (it's a slow day here, okay? ha!), and I love how thorough it is! I have one tiny thing to point out, though -- on the dialing international bit, after you dial 46, you leave off the 0. The 0 is just to signal long distance within the country, I guess.

I forget when you're leaving -- soon, right?

[same-sky.livejournal.com]

Two weeks. :)

I'll try to fix that phone number thing, though I am not so sure it will even be used. Apparently her mom is taking her brother and sister (not my nephew/niece) on a cruise while Whitley is gone. :/ So, they won't even be home half the time.

[reebert.livejournal.com]

Is it terrible that I was just planning to let Sean use the seatbelt on the plane?... I'm taking his carseat because we don't have one on the other side, but I never considered having him sit in it on the plane. Only because I won't carry it and him around during layovers. haha If Robert had been travelling with us maybe I would have given it some thought. I didn't even know they made special airplane seatbelts for children.

I too read through your entire travel guide. I'm not proud of that. hahaha

[carrieb.livejournal.com]

It isn't terrible. Erik has never had anything but the plain ol' seat belt. Or maybe I am just terrible. Ha!

The one thing I had for Erik at Sean's age was a harness/leash for the airports. My biggest safety concern was that he would run away from me. Heck, that still is one of my biggest safety concerns.

[reebert.livejournal.com]

Yes, I have totally thought of having a leash for Sean during our travel. That's my biggest fear too.

[grain-damaged.livejournal.com]

Oh I'm in the terrible camp too - poor Sof, just a seatbelt for her too on the plane. ::ooops::

[same-sky.livejournal.com]

Not terrible! :)

[same-sky.livejournal.com]

No, it's not terrible. :) I assumed we wouldn't bring the car seat and then I saw it mentioned somewhere for safety reasons and then thought we wouldn't be able to bring E's anyway since she's not really a baby anymore, but apparently any child 18 or under can be in an approved car seat. So, I had no inclination to bring it after M's parents found one we could use, except then I read the following link, written by a flight attendant, that made it seem like a good idea. (REALLY long but I found it really helpful because wow, talk about thorough on the subject of flying with children! It took me like three days to get through the whole thing.)

http://flyingwithchildren1.blogspot.com/

...but I still couldn't stand the thought of taking the thing. :) We'll see how useful this is but it sounds like a good idea anyway!

[reebert.livejournal.com]

Ohh, thanks for the link!

[same-sky.livejournal.com]

You're welcome! Isn't it an awesome page? :)

[carrieb.livejournal.com]

What a great auntie, you are! I wish someone would have taken the time to do all that for me when I was a young traveler.

I like reading about your obsessions.

I have never taken a car seat or used any sort of restraining devices on the plane with Erik. Well, we did take the car seat a couple of times but we checked it.

It really does suck to travel with a young kid, but it will be over and you'll be there and forget about how bad it sucks until you have to do it again. And with that DVD player things shouldn't be as bad. Plus there are three of you! I think that will make a big difference since you guys will get to trade off kid duty a lot.

[same-sky.livejournal.com]

Thanks. :) I am really hoping that it won't turn out too terribly. And, at least it will be over in a day! (With any luck at all... haha.)

[grain-damaged.livejournal.com]

It'll all turn out fine!! You're too funny with the travel guide (I liked the misc. part about naked lady postcards - lol) but I think it's great for someone who's never flown anywhere before. She should be prepared just fine then. =)

Oh and having flown across country with a small peanut, I can agree with your OMGYAY! on the portable DVD player. What great friends.

[same-sky.livejournal.com]

I had never flown before I went to see M for the first time, when he still lived there. He flew a LOT at the time, so I remember having him go through a lot of specific details about what the whole process was going to be like one day and it was SO helpful for me to have some forewarning. I hope this helps her as well, or at least gives her something to help with building anticipation.. not that she needs any more anticipation built, because I think she just might explode from excitement as it is. :)

[courtesy.livejournal.com]

Ha, that is so cool!

"travelingest" - cute! :)

[same-sky.livejournal.com]

Thanks. :)

You saw yourself mentioned! haha. :)

[helloheather.livejournal.com]

For what it's worth, I like reading your obsessions. I sort of think of it like...if you were part of my group of friends here in town, then whenever I saw you, I'd ask for an update on the things I knew were going on in your life. Like, "Hey, K, how's your travel prep going?" or whatever. I would so totally ask those things in person. So I absolutely enjoy reading about them here. See?

For instance, I read the whole travel guide, just for fun!

Just for the sake of conversation, I have flown (shorter trips...circa three hours, no layovers or flight changes) with Nathan, with his car seat. We brought it because we thought he'd nap better in it, since he was so used to napping in the car. But I've always had Rob to help lug things.

[same-sky.livejournal.com]

I would totally love to be part of your circle of friends there. ;)

I would have both M and Whitley to help with the car seat so that part is not as scary to me as it would be if I was alone (though it still sounds kind of awful.) But.. I am glad that someone else used one for any reason because I was about to feel like a weirdo. ;)

I totally told Whitley your travel advice about dreamy boys with lots of kissing being an unlikely scenario. She laughed. I'm sure she still thinks dreamy boys would make it all much better though. :)

[e11en.livejournal.com]

I have done both, with and without the car seat. When Anders was 2 (and very little, remember I think he was only just 21 pounds or something) we took the seat because we needed it for our rental car. We gate checked them on the first flight (Ingrid had her booster - the seat only part) to make sure they stayed with us and didn't get lost someplace. Anders was NOT happy about sitting on the regular airplane seat on the first flight and I wound up having to have him on my lap. He had only turned two the day before and he was so tiny that no one thought anything of it, but for the remainder of our flights on that trip (one more connection and then the two to get back home), I put it on the seat and he was much more comfortable. If I hadn't been bringing it along for the car at the other end, though, I never would have bothered. Hauling it around the airports was a major PITA.

This last trip we didn't bring any car seats. Anders was fine and had no trouble sleeping. I would think Evie is much closer to Anders's current size than his 2-year old size so I think your harness is a good idea.

[same-sky.livejournal.com]

You're always so helpful. :) E is about 40 pounds and 40 inches now.. how's Anders doing? It cracks me up that they're so close to the same size. I'm sure she would be fine without the harness, too, but I am paranoid and also, I think it might help encourage her to stay in her seat more. ;)

Oh, and I was thinking of Anders the other day because Evelyn has gotten it into her head that after her next birthday, she'll be going to kindergarten, and she keeps telling me that. So at least you just have a few months to listen to it. I have two years! :)

By the way, google leads me to believe that I need Evie's birth certificate and then M's naturalization certificate, our marriage certificate and both of our passports to apply for a coordination number, assuming they will let us apply in Sweden, since we might as well give it a try while we're there. Does that sound about right, like what you had assembled (minus the naturalization part)? I mean, don't put any effort into looking it up, just from memory, does it seem like the right stuff to bring just in case? And is this something that would take a long time to process or will they do it immediately so that you have time to apply for a passport? You might not know because it didn't work out for you, but was your intent to do the passport too while you were there? It'd be LOVELY to get all this done and avoid multiple trips to freaking Ohio.

[e11en.livejournal.com]

Anders is probably still his same 34 pounds and just about 42 1/2 inches, so a little taller and a little lighter. She is going to be the biggest kid in her class by a good bit when she gets to kindergarten unless she slows down a little there! I was relieved to see that Anders was not the smallest, closer to average really, at least among the boys.

As for the coordination number, we had Anders's birth certificate, all of our passports, but didn't bother with the marriage certificate as the people we were hoping would take care of this whole business are the ones who would give it to us anyway (since we were married there). I guess since you guys got married here you should bring it along just in case. I don't know what they need his naturalization certificate for but we don't have one of those either.

We had hoped that giving him a number was a matter of entering the info into the computer and having it spit out a number on the spot, which would have allowed us to do the passport (though probably not get it back) while we were there. That's what the people at the honorary consulate led us to believe was possible. They said to tell the passport people to send it to the NY Consulate for pick-up. How long will you all be there for?

[same-sky.livejournal.com]

We're staying for two weeks and their site says that passports should be ready in about a week, so if that's true, we can at LEAST get M's done. Of course, it'll be the middle of summer. I so hope they'll do this. I guess it's just a pipe dream but it can't hurt to try. :)

I'm not sure what they need his naturalization certificate for... it said that or his residence permit. Maybe to see that he's living somewhere else legally? Though why they'd care about that to issue his child a number is beyond me. It was on their site though. And yeah, we got married here. That thing about getting married in Sweden and making everything so much easier? They told M when he talked to them that that we couldn't do that, so here it was. Worked out just as well though. :)