Mother knows best

Sunday morning M, V and I headed off into the beautiful sunshine for an outdoor excursion. Where were we going? I wasn’t that sure… all I knew is that it was an hour away. In the middle of loading everything up into M’s car, his father called and asked if we wanted to borrow theirs for the trip.

Their car is a sweet ride, all new leather interior with Sirius satellite radio and so of course the answer was yes. We headed over to their house, switched cars, re-loaded everything up and off we went. About 5 minutes after we left, M turned to me and said “Did you remember the stroller?” to which I replied “Of course!” in a confident manner. I WAS confident. I remember putting it in the trunk. No worries!

An hour later we arrived at Cyprus Gardens. It used to be one of the earliest theme parks in Florida, M explained to me. A few years ago they closed down all the rides but kept the gardens open. And added on a water park.

As we pulled into the parking lot, parked and got out… M swung around to the back of the car and opened the trunk.

Lo and behold it was empty! No stroller to be found anywhere. Where was it, you ask? Lounging in the trunk of M’s Mitsubishi in Orlando not in Polk County (where we were). Hmmm, my confidence was suddenly gone. Darn, I remember putting it in ‘a’ trunk. Not necessarily the trunk of the car we were in.

Things to remember when traveling with children:

Bring a stroller. Or at least make sure you can rent one wherever you are going. Or your arm might break off (like mine almost did while carrying V around). I know you aren’t retarded so I am sure you already knew this…

Bring hat(s). And be prepared for those hats to be flung off. I kept saying to M that I couldn’t believe we forgot one. And he kept saying “But all he does is throw them off”, which is true. But still wish we had one.

Sunscreen (especially if you live in places like Florida) is key. Even better if it is ‘stick’ form, which works well for little faces.

Water. Food. Food. Food. Water. Food.

Make sure your arms are nicely stretched out and can handle carrying your child that will for sure throw a fit after being in the stroller for 20 minutes or more. My bicep on my right arm is developing nicely. Not so much on my left…

Make sure you have lots of extra diapers. My darling child immediately filled his the minute we entered the gardens. So we immediately entered the washroom….

Which leads me to my  next point… make sure you have a changing pad. Baby changing stations are icky. Oh and a poo-bag. Oh, and most important…. hand sanitizer. (This particular changing station wouldn’t fold out completely, so V was on an angle. But on the plus side he was fascinated by being on an angle and I changed diapers with lightening-like speed!)

And in conclusion, don’t forget anything. And over-pack. And never forget to bring extra food/diapers/food/diapers. And make sure you pack enough snacks to feed a small army.