Have Passport Will Travel...

It’s that time of year again when I pull the suitcases out of storage, dust off my handy dandy packing list and stock up on malaria pills. That’s right I’m heading to Ghana.

Ghana or bust for the Malone family! I haven’t been in two years, Hubster hasn’t been in about 4 and this will be baby girl’s first visit. So you can imagine the flurry of madness for updates vaccinations and malaria pills, of which I have no idea how I will convince little one to take. She is already distrustful of yogurt as I hid another crushed medication in there once. You should see her face as she sniffs it and gives me the side eye.

For me the trip home is always filled with anticipation of seeing friends and family, anticipation of soaking up the heat and the anticipation of eating myself stupid. You really can’t eat too many plantains. But this is the first trip to Ghana for baby, so not only do I have to think of the usual things like reminding DH to get his malaria pills, figure out how many suitcases we’ll be traveling with and making sure to get everything on my mother’s to buy list, but I also have to plan strategically for the baby.

When my husband and I travel together we have rules. I handle all the paperwork, passports, visas, itineraries, cash, etc. And he gets us where we’re going. That means, when he says the museum is this way, I follow, even when I know the museum is in the other direction. It's an exercise in biting my tongue bloody let me tell you. We learned the hard way, though, so them's the rules. This is the thing that saves our sanity. But it’s a whole new ballgame with the baby. Who’s on diaper duty? Who’s on entertainment duty? Who’s on tantrum and time out duty?

I recently traveled with little one by myself to London. And she was pretty awesome, but holy exhaustion doesn’t even begin to cover it. No breaks. Being trapped in my plane seat when they put her in the baby cot. Whoever invented this baby cot was crazy. In essence you end up trapped on the inside seat unable to get out because they’ve blocked any exit with the cot. Good thing I do not have a small bladder. But I will say that TSA were surprisingly helpful at the airport. And aside from my daughter's penchant for wanting to shove every leaf in Hyde Park in her mouth, we had a blast.

And worst of all that means no writing for the majority of this trip. We’re packing as light as possible so trusty laptop will stay home. Besides chasing the baby, hanging with friends, and eating myself stupid, what in the world will I do with all my time?

Any of you have tips on long haul flights with the kiddos?