Watching the Airplanes
The train was near capacity as we shuffled aboard, stroller in tow.
I temporarily lost sight of Winnie as she and the baby slipped into the last possible seat to exclamations of “Ka-wa-ii!” (‘Cute’, in Japanese.) Everywhere we went the reaction was much the same, everybody wanting to touch his cheeks and exchange smiles.
But this time, something was different.
As the train left the station, the smiles were replaced with awkward sideways glances. That was the moment when GCCjr’s face glowed red as he filled his diaper with all that is unholy in this world.
30 minutes later everybody was more than happy to exit the train. So kawaii.
Last night we returned from 9 days / 8 nights around Kyoto, Japan, in our first travel experience with a 5 month old baby. While it was definitely a different travel experience, we can proclaim this experiment a roaring success!
Things started off great with the taxi ride to the airport. This was the first time GCCjr had worn shoes, or even socks for that matter, so he spent the ride trying to figure out what happened to his toes.
He was really excited watching the airplanes while we waited to board, and even slept for most of the flight.
Happy for his 1st flight
Once we got to Japan we kept our ambitions in check, limiting our excursions in distance and duration. We left the hotel later in the morning and returned earlier in the evening, and kept to a feeding and nap schedule as much as possible.
But sometimes nap time and dinner time coincided and we had to improvise.
Nap time or Dinner time?
Except for the taxi ride to and from the Taipei airport, we relied solely on public transit and walking. Japan has an incredibly extensive train system that makes this far more convenient than driving.
Train Travel is the Best!
Waiting for the Bus in Kyoto
Since the day he came home, Jr has thrived on being upright and interacting with the world. He wants to be up on a shoulder with his head held high or trying to stand on his own two feet. I won’t be surprised if he skips crawling altogether.
He was thrilled to be out exploring the world and meeting new people.
What a View! Osaka, Japan
The Gates of Fushimi Inari, Kyoto
Of course not everything was to his liking. Or to the liking of his fellow train passengers.
Osaka Castle? Not a Fan
It seems everywhere you go now there are televisions and animated displays. We do our best to avoid them as GCCjr is attracted to them like a moth to a flame. So this is what happens when you bring him to Osaka’s “Time Square”
All the Screens!
To balance the sensory overload we spent more time with nature.
Bamboo Forest Walk – Kyoto
What the…. ? Nara Deer Park
In his whole life there are only two times he has fallen asleep on his own, and both were on this trip. We were wondering if when we returned to Taipei, if he would show signs that he recognized “home.” But there was nothing obvious, he seems content just being close to Mom and Dad.
I think we did very well for our first time traveling with a baby. There is only one thing we are considering changing, the use of a stroller.
I’m now convinced that baby strollers are nothing more than glorified shopping carts. At best we might get 30 – 60 minutes of happy stroller time per day, which comes at the price of pushing an empty stroller everywhere and hunting down elevators instead of using stairs or escalators. Based on all of the parents we saw pushing empty strollers while carrying their kid, we aren’t the only ones to discover this.
Baby wearing seems to be where it is at. Further experimentation is warranted.
The experiment will continue in Thailand. We’ve booked 1-way tickets to Chiang Mai for November, further destinations unknown.
Picnic at Osaka Castle Park
Have You Traveled with Small Children?
I enjoying reading your blog very much. Gccjr is growing up so fast. Keep me posted on wearable baby gear as mountains are due this December.
Babies and mountains sound like a great combo. I’m not very familiar with wearable baby gear, we are using an used ERGObaby Carrier
that we got from a friend. I thing GCCjr would prefer a model that allows him to face outward
ErgoBaby has a front-facing one as well now. Those ErgoBaby carriers are AMAZING, though. Ours was used through two children. I hiked with a 4-year old on my back up a 50º rock scramble ( btw: not the best idea ). She fell asleep and the load on my legs was tolerable. It still is 100% fully functional. Seriously, they’re comfortable for you, comfortable for the baby/toddler and portable.
Beco also has one which I’ve heard good things about. Avoid Baby Bjorn like the plague!
The ONLY good thing about strollers is that you don’t NEED to carry all the other stuff. It’s nice to be able to off-load the diaper bag, groceries or other random thing that you bought.
But yes. those super expensive strollers are a waste of money for all the the most avid runners.
We’ve traveled with a baby and now toddlers. Traveling with just one baby was pretty good – after our first trip where we learned that yes, a baby can explode his way through 5 diapers and 3 outfits in less than 6 hours. Traveling with two toddlers – not fun. We limit ourselves to travel within a car drive distance – but even that is not going well as neither child will nap in the car…
5 diapers in 6 hours… ouch.
A few people have told us that having a car is great to get babies to sleep, but it sounds like that isn’t universal
We travelled over the mountains on our way to the coast with our two young girls (2 and 4 at the time). That was when we found out that they got car sick on windy roads! What was supposed to be a few hours in the car turned into about six hours, with multiple vomiting stops. The car didn’t smell too good by the time we got there!
I have some not so fond memories of my sister vomiting in the car on vacation. I even remember the smell…. Ughh
Your son is so so cute! We are going to travel with our twins next May. They will be 2 years old then so I imagine it will be epic haha.
Double the fun! Thanks Cat!
Wow! Looks like you guys rocked it with the addition of a kid. Traveling with kids teaches great patience and flexibility. We’ve juggled vomiting kids while riding a bus on the mountain roads between Guanajuato and San Miguel. Fortunately it was 1st class with a bathroom. :) It’s been a while since we’ve had an unholy mess in diapers but that’s what extra changes of clothes, empty grocery bags, baby wipes and hand sanitizer are for.
We realized the same thing about a stroller. It’s mostly inconvenient and only occasionally helps out while traveling. Ours always napped pretty well in a stroller but most of the time the kiddos were being held or walking on their own and the unoccupied parent (or sibling in our case) had to push an empty stroller. At least we could ditch the day pack in the stroller…
We skipped the stroller completely on our Mexico trip since it was all by bus and plane (no car). Space was at a premium and a stroller was more of a liability than an asset. Granted, that’s with a 3 year old that walks a lot (like 2-4 miles/day typically). We did fine with the occasional shoulder carry and sometimes ice cream dangling like a carrot from a stick prodding the little soldier on home even when exhausted.
We also took a break from big trips until the kids were around 2 years old. That’s the sweet spot where they are independent enough to give parents a little break.
Enjoy your time in Chang Mai! I’m looking forward to trip updates from the new location.
Your use of ice cream to motivate your 3 year old sounds like my use of curry crackers to motivate my wife on our honey moon hiking trip :)
I loved this post! We started traveling with our kids when they were months old as well and haven’t looked back! They are now 4 and 6 and have been to 13 countries and still counting! Thanks for showing others that it can be done! While they may not remember some of their experiences when they are young, there is so much to be learned by exposure to other cultures… Can’t wait to hear all about Thailand!
13 countries! Nice!
Yeah I hear he won’t remember much of his first few years, but immersion in other cultures will be an ongoing theme of his life so might as well get started early
This post made me giggle! And couldn’t have been more timely as I’m taking my first flight with our six month old in less than a week. I plan on checking her stroller and wearing her so good to hear that seemed preferable!
Enjoy your trip! Where are you going?
My husband Alan and I are planning to start a family soon and we love to travel. You guys give me hope that this is possible! Annoys the crap out of me when everyone around us keeps telling us to forget about going anywhere once you have a child. Looking forward to more posts!
People have told us the same. As with most things, we ignore them, which has the bonus of also annoying the crap out of them ;)
Love the photos of GCCjr seeing the sights. Reminds me of “Flat Stanley” minus the flat.
In my travels with infants and toddlers, I found the world considerably more tolerant, even adoring, of a father traveling with children than they are of a mother. For the one and only time in my life I found I was a total chick magnet when I took a solo trip from Canada to Denmark with my 18 month old son and his four year old brother.
Looking forward to hearing about Chang Mai – it is up there on the top of my list of next travel destinations.
I think babies work even better than puppies
We consider ourselves travel veterans.
This summer we traveled from Texas to San Francisco/ Hawaii/ Denver over a 3 week span with 4 kids- 18month old twins 3yr/6 yr. With 1 child it is manageable but becomes more of a challenge the more children you have. The benefit of a stroller is the ability to use it as a cart to carry your luggage- We now prefer paying extra for non-stop flights over flights with a layover because boarding the plane is usually the worst part when you have kids.
Airport delays are hardest when you have a 6-8hr flight- we had a 4 hr delay at the Honolulu airport and our 10PM arrival time turned to 2AM- at least the kids were asleep after 10PM so didn’t really affect them. It was really hard because we had another flight the next morning and had to be back at the airport by 10AM to catch our 2hr flight to Denver,,,
We have a BOB jogging stroller that we use for traveling because it is very durable- You should look into getting a mommy hook to hang bags off the handle. With 4 kids we need at least one stroller to make things manageable. We also bring empty water bottles and fill them up once we get past security.
Car seats- can be checked in- much cheaper to bring your own than rent.
When we travel at vacation rentals we usually end up providing our own cribs. We end up buying pack n play playpens at target or Walmart to use as a crib and return it when we are finished. We put extra towels /sheets in the bottom to make sure we return it in the same condition we bought it…
Good luck traveling to Chang Mai- We loved it there!
How about buying/bringing used baby gear and passing it along at the end of your trip? The baby consignment store near me always has two or three pack ‘n plays in good condition, plus CL and Freecycle seem to have plenty to choose from.
How happy would you be to buy gear thinking it was new only to discover that it was actually used? The stores you name are not in the equipment rental business and the method you are suggesting is just not cool, IMHO. Please don’t do that to another parent. There are better ways that you can find with minimal effort.
It is terrible that you buy a pack n play and then return it to the store at the end of your trip. Can you not see how unethical this is? How would it be if everyone did this sort of thing? How about donating it to an organization that can use it instead? Geez, this is NOT the way to do things.
Been traveling full-time with our baby since she was five months old. She is now 16 months old and has spent time in Thailand, the UK, Spain, Australia, Indonesia and Malaysia. In Penang, Malaysia right now.
Five months old is a pretty great age for traveling. Mostly because they are still happy to be either carried, worn or in the stroller all the time. Unfortunately it gets tougher once your little darling is a confident walker and gets upset if they are not periodically allowed to spend 20-40 minutes running around looking for interesting new things to bash their head on. They don’t care where you are or how impractical or dangerous it is, put me down now!!
We might need to get GCCjr a helmet
Wow, what a great experience for your kiddo. We are headed to Thailand in November, and might work out way down the peninsula towards Singapore… not sure yet
I have not, but glad it’s been a roaring success. Can’t wait to learn more about traveling +1 through your expense reports.
I haven’t crunched the #s yet, but if anything I think we spend less with the little guy in tow
Looks like a fun trip! Baby wearing is convenient. We did it as long as possible to avoid the stroller having to follow us everywhere. Eventually they get too big and the stroller comes in handy. Also, strollers are good when it is hot outside to avoid sweating so much under the wrap/carrier.
Taiwan is pretty hot, which was our main motivation for getting a stroller in the first place. Even with the heat though our little guy prefers the harness
We have two kids and honestly the stroller usually just holds the baby items! However, some of it is personal preference. My husband would rather use the stroller and I the baby carrier. Things really get tricky when they start moving all over and being held isn’t what they want. Looks like you guys have it down, though!!
We have the opposite preference. Winnie is lean and svelte, so carrying a 9 kg baby around is basically a workout for her whereas I don’t really notice. The kiddo prefers the harness over the stroller as well… but that could change tomorrow
We’ll still bring the stroller with us to Thailand and see how it goes
We have traveled with our 10 month old and I cannot recommend a carrier enough. It’s just so much easier to navigate the busy world when you have your little baby on your chest. Plus, a BABYBJORN Baby Carrier
or ERGObaby Original Carrier
are both easy to pack and store when you’re not using them.
We never go on trips without our Ergo! It’s probably the single best baby-related item we’ve purchased thus far. They’re expensive, but well worth it.
I have heard good things about the Ergo. I’d recommend avoiding the Bjorn because it doesn’t put the kid’s legs/hips in a healthy and ergonomic position. You want their knees at least as high as their bum and facing inward for the most natural and comfortable position.
We use a simpler baby wearing wrap but I completely agree with you that it has been the best and most important baby * thing * we have.
I think traveling with one baby/toddler is very do-able. It gets harder with 2 young kids. We’ve never traveled with our kids due to health issues. However, even on short excursions, I think baby wearing (with one) can be easier than pushing a stroller. Cute baby!
Strollers can definitely be extra baggage at times. I think with a young baby, you could get away with it. As they get older and heavier, nap time and fun time in the stoller can be easier than trying to carry them in a backpack or harness.
Airports are definitely hard and car rentals with car seats are outrageous. I am looking forward to our next trip with a soon to be 2 year old and a 3+ year old where we don’t need to take a stroller!
What do car rental companies charge for a safety seat?
The only way we can get the kiddo to sleep in the stroller is to wear him until he falls asleep, and then quickly transfer him to the stroller before he notices. We have about a 50% success rate on that move
Glad to see the first trip was a success! My wife and I are the Brady Bunch we have 6 kids both of us 3 each from previous marriages. However we started way earlier in life and now they’re all but 2 grown and gone. The last 2 we have about 4 yrs left before they jump out of the nest on their own.
Some of the best memories were traveling when they were young and some of the toughest too! Hahaha But fun. We are looking forward to the grand kids in the future when we are FI. I’m happy you get to enjoy it every day and not have to work and miss out on so much what an awesome thing to be grateful for!
My grandparents had 6 kids, 16 grand kids, and GCCjr is the 23rd great-grandkid. I don’t know how you or they did it, one little beast is exhausting enough haha
Sometimes I think about those words exactly “I don’t know how you or they did it,”….to be honest I am just as amazed that we made it as you are! I mean what the hell were we thinking! Hahaha
Travelling (especially internationally) with toddlers is a lot of work, but also leads to some great memories down the road. The good news – it gets easier the older they get. Still, I miss those child-free days of actually reading placards in their entirety, sipping on coffee while people watching, long uninterrupted conversations…
I’ve already forgotten what it is like to sip coffee and have a conversation haha
That’s why we need to have a second kid, so they can play with each other and give Mom and Dad a break ;)
I know you are saying this somewhat jokingly but it’s actually a pretty good strategy. My 3 and 5 year old really started playing well together where I can actually get a whole 30 minutes to myself once in a while!!
We have downsized and changed our vacation/travel style with kids but still managed to get about 25-30 days in this year. We also got them skiing and some of my friends are like “then your stuck on the bunny hills all day” I’m like where would I rather be than teaching my daughter my favorite past time.
Anyway you can do whatever you want with kids, just different and occasionally more patience!
You are right, ditch the stroller! My husband and I travel quite a bit with our 4 kiddos and used hiking backpacks.
Which hiking backpacks do you like? (See 1st comment from ncmilano above)
Note that you can also just buy a plain old wrap like the Rhapsody Breeze and wear them on your back like you would with a backpack carrier. Difference is that it is more flexible because you can carry the baby on your front now and your back when older AND you don’t have to store a bulky backpack, just a long piece of cloth.
This is not me, but the technique is the same. We’ve used this successfully for hiking or just doing household chores.
5 mo old is perfect age to travel, they are not that heavy and you wear them all day log :). i have two kids 1 and almost 4 yo. We are planning to visit my family in Indonesia with a stop over in Japan for a few days. I need strollers because my older one refuse to walk in crowded place. Is elevator common and easy to find in Japan subway station. If not, is taking a cab affordable?
The Kyoto and Osaka subway systems were quite good as far as elevators go. We didn’t take any taxis, but past experience in Japan says they are expensive
What a sweetie! Haha! It is amazing that someone so small can produce so much stink! I am really enjoying reading about your travels. Hope that we will be retiring in 5-10 years to travel too.
We love traveling as a family. Our one year old has gone everywhere with us. Approx. 15 flights in the last year. Only international travel has been Canada but now that she has had her MMR vaccination, we’ll probably travel more widely.
The ERGO 360
allows front carry outward facing as well as inward facing. The baby needs to be able to support their own head, usually around 4 months.
We also really like the Osprey Poco Premium Child Carrier
. It combines a carrier plus small backpack. We spent all day at a rodeo and she was happy to hang out in this. Also nice that you can take it off and it stands upright on the ground. It is pricey but we received it as a gift.
OMG those chubby thighs. I miss those thighs.
I have two boys. Plenty of travel with kids, though none international.
He likes to eat :)
hi jeremy, great that your first travel experience with your child was a success. from watching parents with babies on airplanes for 30 years…have to admit i have never been envious. when in november will you be in chiang mai? what are your thoughts regarding meeting up with readers? i live in thailand at least 6 months out of the year and think it would be interesting to meet my favorite financial blogger for a meal. keep the excellent material coming.
If you schedule a meetup with your favorite financial blogger, would you mind if I join too? ;)
We fly to CM on Nov 10th and be there at least a few weeks before heading south. If you are in the area yeah let’s meet up
thanks for replying jeremy. am in thailand now (jomtien beach near pattaya) and will go to udon thani on wednesday for 11 days. back to honolulu on the 17th. then back to thailand on november 17. yes, would be great if you joined too with my favorite financial blogger, perhaps you know him…GCC! where will you be staying…in the old city or the outskirts? am thinking to go there from the 19th or 20th of november and stay 4 or 5 nights. only been to CM once before and only for a couple of nights.
Dunno yet. But we like to be central for easy walking so probably in the old city or nearby
Still renting the apartment in Taipei? How to manage the extra expenses?
For now.
The apartment isn’t the real expense though, as that is less than $50/day. The bigger expense comes from traveling quickly… flying back and forth in one week, staying in hotels vs long stay, no kitchen, etc… This was our experiment to see how traveling with a baby would work out for us, and is within our budget
It’s all about wearing those little buggers as long as you can! I agree with you on the stroller. Save that for when they are toddlers. The main challenge for traveling with a baby is maintaining their sleep schedule. Good for you guys for getting through your first baby trip!
I have to say it’s probably a lot easier to travel with a little one like yours than traveling with our 23 month toddler. Every day we were exhausted by the end. Baby wearing a great so definitely keep doing that until jr gets too heavy. We are definitely happy to have a stroller for our Japan trip though.
Thanks for all of the great posts recently. Adorable pictures! We only have one kiddo (now three) and also found wearing to be far preferable to strollering. Baby wearing plus nursing just gave us more flexibility all around. When our son was 6.5 weeks old we took him on an 8 mile hike, which was a breeze. Now that he weighs 38 lbs, not so much… We’ve gone on tons of trips with him though. Flying and everything else is so much easier without a stroller. However, as they get older, heavier and more opinionated, you will find you have to lower your expectations to meet *his* priorities more and more. The grandparents all prefer a stroller, of course..
Adorable family! My wife and I took our kids on vacation trips almost every year. Buy the time they went to college, they had visited over 15 countries!
Congratulations! I’m glad the trip went well. Traveling with a baby can be great or terrible and it is all up to the baby. If yours sleeps then your life is golden.
Baby wearing is absolutely the most magical tool in a parents’ toolbox (except maybe breastfeeding). It is the most convenient way of carrying the baby as you have found, but it is also a fabulous way to calm an unhappy baby while also being able to do dishes, or even to get a little sleep at night during those rough times when the kid will only sleep being held. We definitely resorted to sleeping propped up on pillows with the baby in the wrap on one of our chests during the dark, early days.
P.S. mixed babies are the cutest (says the mother of one….) :)
Our little guy doesn’t sleep well, up at least every 3 hours at night.
So travel or not, we will be up a few times per night. So we might as well be up in some interesting part of the world having an adventure
Funny thing about mixed babies… Everybody (100%) says he looks like me. The nice girl at our favorite coffee shop even told my wife that the baby looks nothing like her ;) I see mama in him in everything though, which makes him the cutest (not biased at all)
The up-every-three-hours is the worst. I feel for you. We played that game for a LONG time and I think I am only becoming human again now that my kid is over the 1-year mark. You are in an infinitely better position in that you don’t have to be awake and functional at a desk at 8:00 the next morning!
I expect that everyone is telling you he looks like you because you guys are in Asia right now. We have noticed that our Asian friends/family think our baby looks “just like” me (white) while our white friends see all the ways she looks like her (Asian) father. Personally I think she is her own woman and is clearly related, but doesn’t look just like either of us. It is so much fun to see how the genes mix!
I found it was easier to travel/do random things that messed up sleep when our baby was getting up every 1-2 hours. We’re like, well, it can’t get much worse than this! (Except that it did, when we went camping.) Now that he’s sleeping through the night, though, we’re afraid to go anywhere because we don’t want to mess that up. It’s so, so, so, so, so nice being able to sleep again. So nice. So, so, so nice. (My baby is 11 months old now, and we’re about to take a 3-week trip to the East Coast in a few weeks… I’m nervous!)
You can use the ergo to wear him on your back when he has enough back support, you can also use a ring sling for hip wearing (try the Sakura
brand since they have silk and linen ones for hot weather). There also amazing wraps that you can tie up in different ways. Face-front carries are hard on the carrier and don’t offer as much ergonomic support for the baby. Happy baby wearing!
I’m just getting around to commenting here and I didn’t read all the other comments so sorry if I repeat some things. My wife and and I are big travelers…we spent a full year backpacking in South America in 2008 before being married with kids. We now have a 3 and a 1 year old. Our plans for long term international travel are on hold for the most part, but last year we could not resist the stars aligning for the World Cup in Brazil. We traveled there for a full month with our kids in tow (they were just over 2 and 7 months old at the time). It was an amazing trip and it was very emotional to share the experience of traveling all over in Brazil with the kids. We live on the west coast and my wife is from the east coast so we have done a fair amount of traveling with the kids, but this experience was different. Kids adapt incredibly well, so I encourage people with little ones to travel if they are fortunate enough to do so, but I can tell you that traveling with a 5 month old is a cake walk compared to having a toddler in tow. For example, your story about the stroller points out something you haven’t thought out all the way…kids get very heavy. In addition, they have an uncanny sense for knowing when you are at the farthest possible point from home/hotel/transportation. But it doesn’t become “tough it out and carry them” at that point…because tired kids flail, cry, tug, flex, and do everything possible to get across the point that they are unhappy. I could go on…but I think the point is made…don’t stop bringing that stroller with you! Trust me. Even on the uneven, tree root laden sidewalks in Brazil, we were more than happy that we lugged it 10000 miles.
The beauty I think is that if you’ve done any long term traveling, you’ve learned patience. With kids you just have to have a bit more, and like you pointed out, you just have to keep a flexible schedule. I think any drawbacks are far offset by the feelings of exposing children to the world and watching them interact with kids from other countries. I hope we can instill a sense of the how amazing the world is in our kids…you are on that track without a doubt. I hope one day to cross paths with you guys and trade travel stories (and personal finance stories as this is an area I also have a strong interest in). Keep exploring with your family and please keep sharing!
Hi AC
Size and weight are the reasons we haven’t given up on the stroller just yet. There is no way my wife could carry a 15 kg bundle of terror. I swing a 16 kg kettle bell around for fun, but still appreciate that it isn’t attached to my person 24/7. We are doing our best to get the little guy to appreciate the stroller more through the use of toys and other distractions, and I think it is starting to show positive results.
Thanks for sharing! Hopefully we’ll see you out there on the road
Jeremy
Love reading your travel/financial adventures. We love to travel as a family, but with our third child and his temperament, it definitely has slowed us down. Hopefully, just for a little bit.
I would highly recommend Mcclaren Volvo Stroller. Lightweight and compact. Easy to fold up and carry on shoulder. Can avoid elevator instead use escalators. We’ve had ours for about 9 years, 3 kids, 4 trips to Korea, and all over the U.S. It’s still going strong with our 3rd child.
Baby Bjorn is a great front facing carrier. Although, it was hard on my back carrying our chunky monkeys, but great for my hubby. Once CCCjr gets older (1+), hiking backpack carrier are awesome. My kiddos rode it on 8+ mile hikes. They even had naps and snack while riding in it.
Safe travels!
Susan
Hi!! He is such a cute boy i must say. Ive been traveling with my baby since she was 3 mo. Her first trip is Bali, Indonesia. It was a success! and yeah, advisable to use baby carrier *my husband carry her the whole time..phewwww for me…haha!* and we just came back from Turkey few weeks ago…we bring both, stroller and carrier…hurm…we did not use the stroller at all..just use carrier the whole time so we left the stroller in the apartment..she dont want to sit still in the stroller and will cry out loud. Poor my husband since she is 9kg now..hehe..i admit travel with baby is a bit tired and challenging but yeah, its so much fun. We did not use any travel agent and use our own itinerary and much depends on her condition during the traveling. No pressure, no strict schedule but just leisure and relax. Enjoy your trip to Thailand. Maybe u can come to Malaysia! :)
A baby carrier works well up to about a year or so. A baby carrying backpack from 9 months to 2 years. And a stroller from maybe 1 to 2-1/2 years. One stroller is also great when you have multiple kids under 3. The other benefits of a strollers is it truly is a multi-purpose device as it can be used as a bed, a prison, a chair, extra storage, etc.
I see great value in a portable prison
Thank you Narul!
We may come south through Malaysia into Singapore
Oh – just gotta comment! Your little guy is adorable and you will have great fun muddling through like the rest of us! A stroller is a must – but the value differs based on the age of the child. Our boy is 7 now, and of course we haven’t used one for years. But – I remember our first 5hr plane trip and we bought a cheap umbrella stroller once we landed.
Our dear boy got a ridiculous (and first) bloody nose on the same 5hr flight. You can only imagine a screaming toddler struggling and blood flying everywhere. Oh how I loved his father at that moment! He boldly went careening down the aisle to the bathroom where the child became entranced by the plane’s sink/water faucet until the flow stopped. Lesson learned – vaseline for the nose! But really, I think it was only a phase. Several months later we were staying in Lake Tahoe. Our son slept in his (what we called a Japanese condo) bed in the closet on the floor. Because – the door can be shut providing the darkness he required to sleep. Anyway – I awoke to check on him and had to turn a light on because something wasn’t right. Blood everywhere. Another bloody nose – but in his sleep! Been completely fine since then.
Sometime later, we were on another 5hr return flight home and the sleepy cherub was out for like the last 3 hours. Imagine our horror as we arose to disembark the plane only to discover he had peed through all his clothes, our clothes and had puddled the (thankfully!) vinyl seating! Oh, we cannot say enough for airline personnel that is for sure! They earn their pay!
We’re fine, we all love each other – it’s just a passing phase. Now those times make for great stories. Probably my least favorite story is from when he was 5, we were on a Christmas trip – and the poor kid caught strep throat. 2 misdiagnosis later, his eardrum burst – but thankfully that happened before he was on the plane! And – that led to the correct diagnosis. Now – that was in the US, here. But I know that had we been home, a quick trip to his primary care Doc would have negated all that pain & suffering for him. He was a trooper though. Don’t know what the answer there is. Just know, it happens, and you gotta roll with it. Enjoy!
What hotel did you stay at in Osaka and Kyoto?
The Westin Miyako Hotel in Kyoto, and the St. Regis in Osaka
I discuss the hotels a bit in this post.