Ready To Travel

March 11, 2019 /
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Recently one of our EI specialists asked me how I manage to do the things that I do with three toddlers in tow, working with so many families who feel they can barely leave the house with one. And honestly I kind of laughed because having three has made me more organized than I ever was in my entire life. It’s also made me realize that I just have to leave the house with all three in order to do basics like survive. I was never this organized in my “old life” I was the girl up until 3 am before the trip trying to pack, remembering those last minute things on my way out the door, even planning half our wedding details the weekend before! Maybe its like nesting when you’re pregnant – I can’t explain it, but suddenly I’m getting ready. I’ve got plans and I (mostly) have things sorted out ahead of time! Maybe it’s simply because I have to be, there is no plan B when you’ve got three bored or tired toddlers at your heels. So for this week I thought I would walk you through the process for our upcoming trip and show you through all the details as I go along.

The first step is getting the kids excited!

Two year olds have no real concept of time so once we tell them about a trip or something they want to do, they are ready to go. But avoiding it and just throwing them into a new environment isn’t great either. Instead we prep them for big changes in their routine by telling them about our plans, reading through appropriate stories and getting them excited. For this trip we did a countdown (so that my son would stop waking up ready to hit the beach) I wrote out the number of days until we left and each day we put a sticker over the last number (kind of like an advent calendar) and count how many days left until our vacation!

We also read a few stories to get us ready for this particular trip! First we read our beach book Llama Llama Sand and Sun – this is where we are going and what we’ll be doing on our trip, we also found an adorable Curious George book where he travels to the beach on an airplane – just like us so we added this to our repertoire a few weeks before we left. Each time we read it we talk through all the things we’ll see and do and some of the things we won’t. Then we bring out our homemade social story. If you’ve never used one before I think they are fantastic for toddlers in any big situation. We used pictures and a short story to talk about all the steps of going on an airplane especially those that might be hard like waiting in line, giving up our toys at security or staying in our seats!

Next up is packing!

Packing Clothes:

This part was made a little easier by the fact that we are going somewhere with a completely different climate so many of the things my kids are needing at home are not what they’ll need on vacation. Thus less laundry to do and less stressing about what they’d wear before we left if we packed it. The real challenge was what we had that would still fit them as they’ve been growing constantly!

About 10 days before our trip we started trying on their stuff and making a big pile of things that fit for each kid. Then I figured out what pjs and bathing suits they would bring again making a pile of each for each kid. Doing it by kid and category tends to help me ensure I don’t do things like bring 5 bathing suits that fit one and only 1 that fit the other.

About a week/ 7 days before before I figured out a few outfits for each of them that would be packed in our suitcase and an outfit for each of them that would be carried on the plane in a ziploc bag in case of a diaper accident. I also set aside two outfits one for the plane ride down and one for the ride home. One of these would be packed and one left out for the day we left so there was no running around the house at the last minute.

About 5 days before I pack any shoes that they might be bringing but not wearing on the trip. In this case our flip flops which we wouldn’t need in the foot of snow outside, but would want at the beach!

Once all that is done I pack any extras like socks, hair ties, diapers, sweatshirts. And sunscreen! For some reason that’s always one of the late things on my list but important to figure out ahead of time in case I need to make a run to the store. Nothing worse than a burnt baby!

Then the day of or day before of course is toiletries – soap, toothbrush, hair brush. They are kids so they don’t need much!

Packing for the Plane:

I like to set aside their toys for the plane about 5-7 days before we leave. This makes them a little fresh since they haven’t played with them and all that much more exciting!

We also have a couple of these tiny books (if you can’t tell from the picture each one is about the size of my palm) that we’ll bring that they can read on the plane and each adult is bringing one (light) bedtime favorite. We try not to weigh ourselves down with too many books but still have some that they’ll enjoy to keep them busy. For this trip they’ll each have a little toddler backpack with their own few toys/loveys.

About 2-3 days ahead we started to pack our backpacks. The adults will each have one with their child’s change of clothes, diapers (extras in case of delays), wipes, and the kids new headphones – in case of complete meltdowns. At this point we’ve downloaded a couple episodes of some fun looking kids shows onto our phones/ipads. We’ve also got our travel letters/documents for the kids ready to go and in a backpack.

The night before we add their empty water cups (to be filled after we get through security restrictions), snacks and our personal stuff like wallets, chargers etc.

The day of we grab our bedtime friends – special blankies, stuffed animals and pacifiers that we’ll need for the trip. We also pack their pillow cases into our checked bag to give them the feel of home and help them sleep in a new place.

And of course once we get to the airport we’ve got to get all their car seats packed up in our awesome carseat backpack! Luckily they are still small enough we can squeeze three seats in one bag, but next time we travel I think we’ll finally need two.

Interspersed in all these days of course is the rare minute I find to try on my own bathing suits, figure out my toiletries and pack myself, but I do try to follow at least a similar pattern so that everyone’s _____ (insert item category here) is good to go at the same time. It happens when it happens – obviously in this house the kids are the most important part!

If you’re more interested in how we survive at the airport/on the plane be sure the check out my article from last year (when they were such babies!) on Flying with Three under Two.

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