exit, pursued by bear

have baby, will travel. (layover)

I'm still working on this little travel series of mine, but in the meantime - just wanted to share this great resource I found when I was doing my own pre-departure research. I meant to share this earlier, but forgot.

Written by a flight attendant, "Flying With Children" isn't really a blog - it's just a very long list of tips and recommendations - but it's full of great advice.

Highly recommend taking a look at it. It's not a quick read - and you can't really navigate it - but it's worth spending some time absorbing it all. I actually copied and pasted it into a word document so I could read it at my leisure, since it's a bit hard to find where you left off if you're reading it online.

And since we can't have a blog post without a picture, here's one of Charlie one the plane - waiting (for over an hour, gah!) for takeoff. "Ruff Day" is right. And yes, those are my pedicured feet ;o)

have baby, will travel. (part 1)

So, as I mentioned in my earlier post, just before Charlie's two month birthday, I had to take him on his first transatlantic voyage.

Perhaps in an attempt to distract myself from the reason for the trip (the death of my grandmother), I spent countless hours online, researching tips/tricks/best practices/etc. for making the journey easier on everyone.

Since the advice that I found online proved (mostly) valuable, I thought I'd pay it forward a little bit and share my own international baby travel experiences. But I think a lot of these tips will be applicable for non-international long-haul journeys, and even other short jaunts by land, air or sea.

First, some background: while I do breastfeed my son, he is not exclusively breastfed (EBF), since my supply is not 100% due to breast reduction surgery that I had several years ago, so with regards to feeding - I will be discussing formula and breast milk. And while I do also cloth diaper my son and I HAVE read about people who did this on international flights and while staying abroad, there was no way that I was going to undertake that during this particular trip. So we went with disposable.

Now that we have those guilty confessions over with, let's begin, shall we?

Preparing for Departure:

1. Passport

Even before Charlie was born, I had started to look into this process, because my Nana had been sick for some time and it became clear that I might have to travel to England sooner rather than later. Unfortunately, things progressed much faster than we anticipated, so we were outside the passport issuance window (i.e. I needed to get that passport ASAP).

Which meant (another!) trip to one of regional passport agency offices. If you're in St. Louis, like me, the closest one is in Chicago. Sadly, I already knew this, having previously made a similar trip up to Chicago the day we were supposed to leave for our honeymoon ... I'll leave that story for another day.

I won't bore you too much with all of the mundane details of how to apply for a passport for your child the NORMAL way, but I will remind you of a few important details that apply to both the normal and the crazy (i.e. last minute trips to regional passport agencies) way:

• You will need a passport photo. This sounds like a "duh." reminder, but remember, you need to take into consideration the age of your child. Call the place where you're planning on getting your passport photos done ahead of time and make sure they can accommodate INFANT (if applicable) passport photos. (Be sure to enunciate, so they don't think you're asking if they take INSTANT passport photos ... ).

For some reason, it actually did occur to me ahead of time that my local copy shop would probably not know how to deal with taking a passport photos of children, so I called an area camera store (who also takes passport photos) and asked if they could help me. They actually DON'T take infant passport photos, but they referred me to another place that does (STL folks: American Passport & Visa - Interestingly, I had almost the EXACT same experience as the first negative reviewer on that page, including the referral, but I guess I'm not as cranky about it? I don't know. Yes it is smoky and weird in there - they fix clocks as well, I think? - and yes, they brought out a stool for my child to sit on and pose for his photo. But it's not like they were thinking he was just going to sit there on his own and say "cheese!" - they had me hold his head from behind and they managed to get a perfectly acceptable photo of my not-even two month old son. Plus, they guarantee their photos will be accepted by the passport application authorities, which ... wouldn't have been much help to us if it had been rejected once we got to the passport agency, since the guarantee basically means that they'll retake the photo free of charge, but I still found it oddly comforting.)

I didn't want to take a photo of Charlie myself (there's a lot of tips online on the DIY route), because I had read that a lot of infant passport applications get rejected, primarily because of issues with the photo itself (not meeting specifications). So I wanted to have this done by a professional. I do think, however, that it would probably be easier to take an infant photo by putting said child on his or her back and taking a photo from above. I'm not sure why this approach wasn't used where I went but, whatever. And please note I said that they took an "acceptable" photo, because clearly this one does nothing to capture the cuteness that is Charlie:

{Apologies for the blurriness, it was a camera phone picture of the passport photo itself}

My husband thinks this photo is HILARIOUSLY awful. I actually think it's sort of oddly cute. The collar of his shirt is all askew from my (unseen) hand gripping his neck in order to hold him up. 

• Minors (under the age of 16) need to apply IN PERSON for a passport and both parents need to be present. When you fill out the passport application, there's a section where BOTH parents have to sign, in person, in front of a representative from the passport authority. If you're applying the normal way, you can just do this at a participating post office - but both parents have to be there to sign - you don't just mail in the application. If one parent has sole custody, there is a lot of extra paperwork and documentation that you need to provide, establishing that you have the other parent's consent to apply for a passport and essentially permission to leave the country with said child. If you're going to a regional passport agency, you both have to show up, with babe in arms (or you also have to come armed with paperwork establishing why the other parent isn't present). 

And with that, I've completely exhausted myself, and probably you as well ... more soon!

a much-needed, welcome distraction.

Hi, I'm Charlie of the blurry hand:

Here's his "official" two month photo, which was taken about five days early (does that make up for the fact that his one month photo was about a week late?). He is, again, Charlie of the blurry hand ... I clearly need to do some speed setting adjustments on my camera:

Here's the picture I took on his actual two month birthday - this one was taken in England. Yes, Charlie is now officially a world traveler - a passport holder and everything ;o)

Charlie and I traveled to England to attend my grandmother's funeral. I wasn't sure if I was going to be able to survive a transatlantic journey, without my husband, in addition to the death of my darling Nana, but we managed. Charlie was an absolute gem - I cannot tell you how proud I was of him. 

Cute babies heal all wounds, he was such a blessing to us all, during a very difficult time.

I'm still in the process of getting my head above water, after an emotional roller coaster of a summer, but I'm determined to recommit to this blog - especially since I'll be returning to work next week.

I spent a lot of time online, prior to our departure, trying to gather as much advice as possible re: international travel with an infant - so I'm anxious to share what I learned in order to sort of pay it forward, since much of the advice I read was invaluable. So look for that soon.

When Scots Get Bored.

Not sure if this has been around for a while or not, but was just sent this earlier today and I just had to share its awesomeness:

Baa-studs, indeed.

calm.

I've had several frazzled weeks at work recently and today I'm not sure if it's catching up with me or what, but I am just not feeling great. I've been fighting off the onset of a headache since last night, and I think I'm slowly losing the battle. Just feeling "off" today, you know?

So I had to dash over here and find a pleasant picture from our trip in the hopes of improving my mood:

{Goyt Valley - Peak District; Derbyshire}

This will either cheer me up or make me cry, I haven't decided which ;o)

at last.

I am here, truly! Just finally coming up for air.

Since returning from our trip to England, I've spent the last few weeks moping about the house, missing England and feeling rather homesick - which always is an awkward, misplaced sort of feeling that I have and have always had, every since I was little and started spending my summers abroad. It's sort of strange to feel at home in two places; a little unsure of where you truly belong.

That sounds dreadfully morose! But truly, I really have finally recovered from my doldrums. It did not help to arrive back in Saint Louis in the midst of that horrible heat wave - with the heat index hovering around 110. I almost wept when we stepped out of the airport - it felt like we had walked straight into an oven. I truly didn't think I was going to make it through this summer - I was so unprepared for the heat which makes me absolutely miserable. It was such a relief when the heat broke - not much, but enough to make a difference!

I'm settling into summer in the city - enjoying everything Saint Louis has to offer - sitting on our back porch, enjoying our little garden - escaping to the cool of a movie theater and stopping for ice cream on the way home. It really has been a lovely summer so far -- although, I fully admit to having officially launched "Operation Convince Husband To Move Abroad" ;o)

As for our trip - I uploaded all of our vacation pictures right away - but I've had them marked private while I named and tagged each and every one ... it took AGES, but I think I've finally managed it.

Here's one of my favorites - snapped on our last day, on our walk back to my grandparents' house after dinner at the local pub:

{Sunset in Silverdale}

More pictures and posts to come - I promise!

madsen cycles.

think I could train Norman and Louis to not jump out the back? ;o)

think of everything you could put in that bucket! groceries, picnic items, sports equipment, menacing French Bulldogs! Even kids, apparently!

the price tag ($1200) is definitely out of reach for me, but Madsen is sponsoring a contest and you can win one of their cargo bikes! Click here to find out how you can win!

satchel!

Satchel. It's such a great word. Reminds me of a scene from Psych ... here's where I would show a clip from the episode "Bounty Hunters," but alas, I have been foiled in my attempts to find said video. Here's a transcript outlining the relevant repartee, but it probably/definitely loses something in the translation:

Shawn Spencer: Is this a briefcase or an attaché?
Burton 'Gus' Guster: I think it's a briefcase. Attachés have a softer shell.
Shawn Spencer: Really? That's all that differentiates them, a softer shell?
Burton 'Gus' Guster: Well, "attaché" does have a better ring to it.
Shawn Spencer: Let's go with attaché.
...
Shawn Spencer: Attaché sounds pretentious, dude.
Burton 'Gus' Guster: Well, it could be the way you're saying it.
Shawn Spencer: You say it.
Burton 'Gus' Guster: Attaché.
...
Carlton Lassiter: [to Byrd] Hand over the satchel.
Shawn Spencer: Ooh, satchel! I didn't think of that one.

ANYWAY ... since I'm probably the only one that watches that show, let's move on.

As I have mentioned here ad infinitum, we are  going to England next month for two weeks. We'll be in London for a few days, then we'll take the train up north to visit my grandparents (and meet up with my parents) for the remainder of the trip. Very, very excited.

Over the past few months I've been trying to get everything together, so we're not running around at the last minute. This also helps in sort of spreading the cost of things - that way we're not having to spend oodles of money right before we depart.

I've been wanting to get the hubs a leather messenger bag that he can use on the trip: something that would serve as a carry-on, but also would be manageable enough to use as sort of a "day pack" when we were out and about: i.e. something large enough to carry our DSLR camera if I didn't feel like carrying it ;o)

Because I thought he'd use it during our trip, we didn't want anything too bulky or wide. Banana Republic had a great "camera bag" that I thought might work -- but I wasn't sure about the the closure on it. Plus, when I inspected it in the store, there were no inner organization pockets - nothing for pens or his iPod/iPhone. And it was a little on the small size -- which was veering into "manpurse" territory.

Their messsenger bag, on the other hand, was a little too big -- specifically, too wide. Plus, it suffered from that irritating habit of online store: no pictures of the inside of the bag. This frustrates the heck out of me when I'm trying to buy a purse for myself. I did look at the interior of this one in the store as well, but I have no memory of what I found. I think there was a similar lack of interior organizational pockets. Not to mention it was just too expensive.

Finally, after much searching, I came across this one from Fossil:

{"Fossil Messenger - Mason" via Amazon}

It's a vertical messenger, which is perfect, since the majority of it's capacity comes from its height rather than its width/length. It's tall enough to fit my 17" laptop when inserted vertically - but when I tried it on, it's not wider than my butt, which is perfect - I didn't test it on the hubs' butt - but I would imagine similar results, since his is pretty cute ... ;o)

And while Amazon didn't have extra pictures, eBags did, plus helpful descriptions noting "organizational pockets." The price was still probably more than I would normally pay, however we have a bunch of Amazon gift certificates from our rewards credit card, so we were able to get this and actually a bunch of other items for free, which is always preferable.

The leather is really nice and soft -- the interior is lined and there's space for a cell phone, electronics, an ID, you name it -- plus a couple of zippered pockets.

So, we're both pretty happy with this. I think it would make a nice briefcase, too -- or should I say attaché?

EDITED TO ADD:

Whoops! Almost forgot to mention my favorite satchel: Satchel Pooch from Get Fuzzy:

room with a view.

Came across this lovely photo while researching accommodations in London:

{"Luxury Double Bedroom" at Number Sixteen}

Why, yes I would love to sit outside in the garden, thank you.

file under "totally pointless, but completely cute"

I'm slowly gathering a few items here and there for our big transatlantic trip this summer -- I won this little bag on eBay recently and I'm kind of smitten with it:

{Kate Spade Par Avion Cosmetic Bag}

It's a clear vinyl cosmetic bag -- love the retro-style air mail design -- it looks like a little envelope! It will be perfect for holding my carry-on bag liquids -- much classier than my usual ripped and tattered ziploc bag, no?