Back from SC & the Things I Learned About Traveling with a Toddler

We are back from our South Carolina vacation!  We got home last night a little after 9:00 pm and were all in bed before 10:00 pm!!  Four airplanes in five days and one toddler made this family very tired.  We survived it though, and we had a wonderful time.

Things I learned about this type of traveling with a toddler...

* It doesn't matter if I whisper in his ear while disciplining him in public because he will shout out whatever it is we're discussing for the whole flipping world to hear.  I had to tell him countless times on the plane to keep his seatbelt fastened because it was the rule, but he didn't care.  I tried telling him it wasn't a toy, and all that got me was him yelling when I went to mess with the air vent above our heads, Mommy dat's NOT A TOY!!!  And when I would lean in to swat him as discreetly as possible or try to correct him, he would shout, I TOLD YOU!  And of course there were also the times when he would just meltdown and cry for the entire plane to hear.

I know, he looks so innocent.

* If you introduce a toddler to PEZ, he won't care that there is a certain way to work the dispenser, and he won't understand why the dispenser is no longer producing them after he's eaten them all up.  All he'll care about is that you give him more Shark PEZ a.s.a.p. 

* Telling a toddler not to lick the airplane window because it's gross will only cause him to do it again and then shout, Dat's gosss!

* Sometimes people will give you free things because your kid is cute.  This is obviously fantastic.

* Taking pictures on the beach in 60 degree weather, plus a windchill, will not work out so well.  Adults can suck it up and carry on with a smile.  A toddler can't.  He will cry and make his lips quiver in the cold so you feel like an idiot for trying to plan such a thing.  It's a good thing God invented Papas, because Collin's saved the day during our beach photo shoot.

Poor baby finally getting some dinner after a cold evening taking pictures.  He's still glassy-eyed and snotty-nosed from all the wind.

* There is nothing better than handing a toddler something *new* and watching them be obsessed with something they love, but you better be prepared for how quick the *new* wears off.  I was so proud of my bag of tricks I had put together for the airplane rides and they worked wonderfully on the way there, but they were all old news on the way back. 

* Having a woman who could pass for Paula Deen's cousin declare (in Paula Deen's accent) that your boy is gorgeous and should be on the cover of a southern gentleman's magazine can almost make you forget about all the naughty things he's done in the past 48 hours.

* If you give a toddler a kite, he won't care that it takes some effort to put it together and he won't care that it takes a minute to get it to fly.  He will just want. it. right. now.


"Helping" Daddy put the kite together.

This is all he wanted - to hold the kite string and feel like he was in control of it!

But really we had a wonderful time!  We ate so much amazing food that I think I will do an entire post on the food alone.  In fact, I'm still full.  Seriously.

I thought I could sit and look at the ocean for hours and now I know I can.  My mother-in-law did a wonderful job locating an awesome condo to fit us all comfortably.  Every morning, all I had to do was open my eyes, turn my head and I could see the ocean. 

The view from my pillow.