Travel logistics with a toddler

Recently, our family traveled to Mexico for a week.  In another post, I'll show pictures and tell all the fun things we did.  In this post, I'll highlight our gear and travel decisions made with a toddler, since the original plan for this blog was about life with a baby/child.

Mexico is the third country that Rachel has been to, and her first non-English-speaking country with a different cultural feel.  I also believe it's the first time in a long time flying an airline other than Southwest, who are awesome to fly with when it comes to kids/babies/families.  What to take?  What to eat?  Will she sleep?  Will the plane ride be ok?  Will she eat enough?  Will she go potty there?  Will she accidentally drink tap water or get sick somehow?

CAR SEAT
We took our own car seat, and we also checked it with our luggage rather than having her sit in it on the plane.  We haven't actually tried that option yet, but we don't think she would like being strapped into her car seat on the plane.  Maybe if we had a 3-4 hour flight that included nap time or overnight from place A to B... but so far it seems like too much hassle to take it through the airport and security.  It is recommended that you don't check car seats so they don't get bumped around and it's safer to have Rachel on the plane in her car seat... but we think it's more work.

United airlines, by the way, allowed us each to have a bag free and allowed one extra checked piece of luggage for free for children's gear.  So we flew there with 2 bags, one stroller, and one car seat checked with no issues.

POTTY
Rachel did a great job of using the potty while traveling around airports/planes, exploring in Mexico, and at our condo.  We didn't take anything special - just extra clothes and wipes wherever we went.  Overall, we have been really happy with potty training and Mexico was not exception.

SLEEPING
We elected not to take our travel crib with us.  At home, Rachel had been sleeping on the floor on one blanket with other blankets on top.  She's big enough to climb out of her travel crib now, unless we zip her top closed.  So we didn't bring anything except 2 blankets from home.  The first 2 nights, she was up a few times and had trouble getting to sleep most nights for a little while.  She woke between 3:30am-5:30am every day we were there.  Thankfully, we were able to snuggle quietly with her for a little bit before handing her off to Grandma so they could visit in the early morning while we slept a little longer (Thank you Grandma!!!).  We wondered if having the crib might have been better... but who knows?  She napped in her carseat, in the ergo carrier, on her blanket on the floor, and on our bed at different times.  Interestingly, she also tended to nap a short morning nap many mornings as well as an afternoon nap, probably because she was so tired from waking so early.

SUN and SAND
We took 2 swimsuits, 2 'sun suits', sunscreen, sunglasses, swim diapers, and sun hats.  Rachel did ok wearing sunscreen, but the sun suits made way less sunscreen necessary compared to regular swimsuits, and we were happy to have them.  She did not do well wearing sun hats or sunglasses consistently.  She also managed to accumulate a LOT of sand on her every time we went out, and we showered frequently to rinse off everything.

STROLLER
We debated about taking a stroller or not.  Because I'm pregnant, and because Rachel is becoming less of a fan of her carrier, we decided to take the stroller.  It was tricky on cobblestones and Rachel doesn't love being in it, but it was helpful.  We even took it to the Coba ruins, which was a challenge to push but we were glad to have it because we walked a lot there.  We took our black graco 'regular' stroller.  It is a hand-me-down to begin with and getting worn out, but it served us well.  We checked it as regular luggage also on the way there, and gate checked it on the way back because we had a long layover and a longer day (so we thought Rachel might sleep in it in the Houston airport).  It did well as checked luggage (better than our Chariot fared previously).

CARRIER
We took the Ergo carrier and used it some, but Rachel fights it unless she is really tired now and always wants to be held without the carrier ('just carry me plain').  Still, we love this carrier and love that it packs small and can go front or back.  I can still use it quite well at 26 weeks pregnant, which is great, because our hiking backpack is not very comfortable anymore.

EATING
Was no issue at all.  We found lots of stuff for Rachel.

So, all went well, and we wouldn't have done anything differently.  This was a good prep for future, bigger travels that we are trying to plan for next winter.

Stay tuned for pictures and videos of the Mexican trip.