The day that broke us

The day that broke us Im not sure if it was the backlash from spending five hours traveling by train yesterday from Barcelona to Seville (not fun!).  About halfway (around Madrid) I started to panic.  After Theo took a brief cat nap at the onset, I fretted "what are we going to do for the next 3 hours"??   What ended up happening was me holding Theo in the Ergo carrier in the in-between non train car alone rather than in the nice seat we paid for where Joe & Joseph hung out.  Joe took his turn with the baby too.  That Ergo carrier has saved me so many times!  I think when Theo is in it he regards it like a carseat: there's no getting out so why bother struggling?  That doesn't mean he doesn't cry in it, he does.  But it's better than trying to freehold a strong, struggling 22 pounder determined to get down.   Or maybe it was the fact that when we set out today for our first day in Seville, there happened to be a general strike going on (in the whole country by the way not just Seville) and so nothing was open, there was trash everywhere, and there were loud demonstrations and marches going on complete with canons firing which was stressful to listen to in the background.   Or maybe its just that after ten days of traveling an no real naps, the kids have had enough?  Joe and I both finally had to admit that the honeymoon is over, now it's time to start taking breaks in the afternoon for an official nap time again.  The kids have both spoken loud and clear!   Hopefully tomorrow will be a better day.  The strike will be over.  The trash will begin to be collected again.  The stores will be open so we can buy water and bread and ice cream.  Our oldest son won't grab a handful of dirt/sand and dump it on the head of our baby in the beautiful orange grove of the biggest Gothic cathedral in the world.  Our aloe Vera that we bought for 7 Euros will not disappear from our stroller before we even get it home.  Our baby won't find a half empty can of coke, dump it out and play with the spillage on the dirty street before we can snatch it away. And most importantly, our shower won't run out of hot water before all of us have rinsed, shampooed, conditioned, shaved & rinsed again. I will say, the smell of the orange trees in bloom is intoxicating!  It gives me nostalgia for visiting my grandparents in Florida many years ago.

Getting by on less? Sure! As long as you already own a stroller that rocks!

Our last night in Barcelona! Tomorrow afternoon we are heading southwest to Seville by train.  Our time in Barcelona was fabulous!  Our boys were as good and as bad as they can be.  One bonus is that city noise is a great buffer for tantrum noise.   We did end up getting a new, high-end stroller and boy is it nice!  We should've bought it 4 years ago...  I can't believe we were walking around all day trying to push that $12 stroller around (which by the way we are STILL doing!).  The way we roll now is usually with Theo in the carrier and Jos in the new stroller with the crappy stroller attached to the new stroller rolling along behind it.  We alternate between this and pushing both boys in both strollers. We have been lucky enough twice since we've been here to actually sit down at a cafe for a meal.  Usually we just look longingly on as we pass all the childless travelers and city dwellers sipping coffee and sangria at the cafes and tapas bars.  We are spending our days at playgrounds in between attempting to see the museums and tourist sights.  Luckily there are playgrounds everywhere here!  Yesterday just as we arrived at the most famous sight, the La Sagrada Familia church, both boys fell asleep!!  It must've been some kind of divine intervention.  And wow!  The Sagrada should be one of the seven wonders of the world.  It is really amazing. Joseph's diet has done an embarrassing 180.  My stir-fry eating, tofu-loving 3 year old has been living on dessert croissants, muffins, crepes and ice cream.  I can't even believe it myself as I'm writing this.  It's just that when he's hungry there is always a patisserie right there and of course he wants to go in and choose something and rather than cause tantrum number five of the day I think "well, we are on vacation...". I know, bad parenting that's going to be hard to undo.  At least there aren't gelato stands every 20 feet at home.  I've had my share of sweets too. So today's lesson for those of you paying attention at home: if you're going to be trekking through European cities with little ones, get the best stroller you can afford.  As for my new shoes, I'm still hitting the pavement in the ones I brought.

Five straight days of walking

Sunday (our 5th night).   I'm so tired!  We've been all over this wonderful city on foot for five days now.  And carrying a 22 pound pack (Theo) or pushing a 33 pound stroller (Josey) who likes to be carried too, is like training for the Hunger Games.  All three pairs of my most practical, comfy shoes I brought have given me blisters.  Tomorrow I'm going to try my sandals and hope no one rolls a cart over my toes...   Also, the $12 cheap-o umbrella stroller we bought before we left (which is so cheap it doesn't even have an umbrella) has proven completely useless.  We are going to break down and splurge for a Maclaren or similar.  In Houston we just don't need a stroller that much because we aren't able to walk to many places.  When we do its just to nearby parks or restaurants and the wagon works fine for that.  Now that we are here and see how quickly our 3 year old tires from walking we realize we are going to be "pushing" this crappy stroller all day for the next 4 weeks.  It hardly rolls the wheels are so bad.  We are constantly kicking the wheels straight.  The trusty Ergo carrier has paid for itself 100 times over, but after five days my back is killing me.  Now I'm thinking double stroller!  We will see... Once we decided we were going to travel, my old habits encouraged me to run out & buy a bunch of new things for our adventures.  I decided to hold off and wait and see what we would actually really need and just buy it here.  So tomorrow, first order of business: new comfortable shoes (I'm leaning towards jumping on the Toms bandwagon), and get a new, better stroller.

The best shower in Europe

Today was our third day in Barcelona.  We are having a fabulous time during the day, but our nights have been challenging.  Theo has not adapted to the 6 hour time difference and has his days & nights mixed up.  We've been putting him to bed exhausted at around 7pm (same as at home), but instead of sleeping roughly through the night, he wakes up a few hours later (right about the time we are ready to pass out for the night) ready to play.  He thinks he's just had a nap, rather than being put down for the night.  The first night we tried to force it without success.  Last night we just got him up and played with him until after midnight and then put him down again, but he was hard to settle and kept waking all night.  Exhausting for us.  I'm hoping surely tonight he will get the hang of it.  Especially since we left our place at noon and walked around until dinnertime, not stopping for naps- he has only had about a 1/2 hour of sleep today.   Naps here have been non-existent or in strollers or carriers.  If you know me at all, you know how this goes against my beliefs.  My boys are never allowed to miss a nap.  But hey, I've said it once and I'll say it again: when in Rome!  Joseph has actually been better without his nap.  His behavior is so unpredictable even when he is well-rested that when he's super tired it works like a sedative.  He's been going to bed at a reasonable time and sleeping in until 9 or so.   By the time we get out the door in the morning it's close to noon.  I guess Theo isn't the only one having trouble with the time difference!  We head out on foot to explore and the boys have been troopers so far!  We usually do something we want to do and then something for the boys, repeat.  Today we took the subway to the Castle Montjuic.  Joseph was so excited to be going to a real castle and couldnt wait to see the princess and king.  We rode on the cable car from the train station up to the castle.  What a sweet view of the entire city and Sea!  From the castle we strolled back down to a playground where the boys had a ball for over an hour.  Then we checked out the Joan Miro art museum, walked past the Olympic stadium, then visited the Catalan Art Museum.   Having a stroller is a mixed blessing.  It beats carrying a 30 pound 3 year old around all day and provides a place for naps on the go, but the city is full of stairs and the train stations in particular are tricky with a stroller.  We end up carrying him chariot-style a lot or we have to make him constantly get in and out of the stroller and walk down the stairs while one of us carries the stroller.  The first two days we left the stroller at home and he walked (or we carried him intermittently).  But that's a lot of walking for a little guy (and back breaking for us) so today we tried the stroller.  Theo can ride in the stroller too which is good because I'm sure riding in the ergo carrier all day can't be comfortable, even with playground breaks.  Thankfully there is no shortage of playgrounds and quick food is also easy to find.  What are we going to do when we get back home and Joseph wants a croissant every morning for breakfast?  The croissants here are fabulous!  Plain, or cheese-filled, or ham & cheese filled....   The people here are very nice to our children.  Theo flirts with whoever sits next to us on the subway and gets called things like "preciosa" and "simpatico" (nice).  Joseph has been given lollipops on two separate occasions by strangers.   I was looking forward to speaking Spanish once in Spain but they mostly speak Catalan here so I haven't been getting much practice.  I have also noticed a fashion trend here where the women wear dark colored tights with very short skirts. Cute!  But too wintry for me to attempt in Houston.   Yesterday we visited the Barri Gotik which was a very cool neighborhood of shops & restaurants, the Catedral de Barcelona, & Parc ciutadella where we had a pic-nic at a playground.  The first day we arrived it was raining but we still walked to the Sagrada Familia but decided not to go in until we had more time. We are staying in an apartment rather than a hotel room for many reasons.  Mostly to save money cooking our own meals but also to have separate sleeping spaces for our kids since they have a tendency to wake each other up.  Our place in Barcelona is perfect!  We have the best shower in Europe (according to Joe).  We can do laundry which is also a plus with two small ones.  

So for those of you who may be wondering what we are up to, my husband Joe and I came to the decision that he should leave his demanding law job and take some time off to figure out a better way to live our lives.  We decided that we wanted to try our luck and travel for awhile, even though we have two very young children.  We know children thrive on familiarity and routine and we have chosen to try it out anyway. We currently live in Houston, Texas but are selling our house and the plan is to figure out where it is we want to be and what it is we want to be doing over the course of our travels.   We don't have an exact plan yet of where we are going to travel, when, or by what mode.  We are just going where the wind blows us.  Right now we are at the start of our first big trip to Spain & France.  We will be here for five weeks.    I apologize in advance if my blog entries are about bodily fluids and sleep schedules.  I never said it would be a riveting read.  But I promise that it will be an honest account of our experience.   I hope to inspire my readers to take a chance if they aren't happy in their current situations and are wondering if there is a better way.  And I also hope to offer some on the ground expertise to anyone else with small children who think they might want to try this kind of thing out.  This could be a very quick, failed experiment.  We very well may realize tomorrow or next week that our kids (or all four of us) just want to go home and forget about all of this.  I hope that isn't the case but if it is at least we tried!

Theo woke up at 5am the day our travels were to begin.  After a while he went back to sleep but I was too jazzed up to fall asleep again.  We spent the morning cleaning the house which was now staged for going on the market.  We left our house on time with no problems yesterday.  Theo had a good morning nap but we had to wake him up to leave.  Both boys were a little sleepy in the car on the way to the airport.  Once we got to the airport, the fun started!  We got through security and headed for the United club members lounge.  As soon as we checked in, (I was holding Theo) I felt a very warm, liquid sensation spreading down my side.  Theo had somehow peed through his diaper!  We headed up to the special family lounge, inside the regular members lounge, and it was empty, clean and perfect for our needs.  Joe went to get snacks & treats for the boys (& wine for us) while I changed Theo's diaper & put the only extra pair of pants on him.  Joe reappeared with the snacks and the boys were loving it!  The room was big, had a couple toys, and a glassed in overhead view of the people in the airport below.  We couldnt help but feel a little bit like the Jolie-Pitts.  The boys were in great spirits and began trashing the place.  Joe was gone buying some last minute things.  Theo pooped, then Joseph started to panic when he had to pee.  I couldn't get him & Theo to a bathroom soon enough so I just had him sit on the trash can and pee in it.  Joe reappeared and took the trash bag of pee & poop & got someone to clean it up.  This is all before even boarding the plane! Our flight was over an hour delayed.  By the time we got on the plane it was 4:30pm Houston time.  It wasn't a full flight so we were lucky enough to get the entire bulkhead section of the plane.  One young guy came up and sat down nearby, then noticed our kids & moved away.  The boys were pretty good.  Theo was very active and Joseph insisted on playing with the microscopic Legos that kept falling on the ground and I'd have to comb the floor looking for them to quell a tantrum.  At some point (I think around 7pm) I realized everyone on the plane was asleep but us, maybe because all of the lights in the cabin were on until then.  But the lights being off had no effect on the boys.   I was tired, having been up since 5.  But my boys were both going strong and decided they didn't want daddy, only mommy would do.  We kept trying to pass one of them off to Joe but for some reason they were dissing on him big time.  So Joe finally went to sleep.  I figured at least one of us should be well rested.  Everytime Theo would get calm and start to nod off, Joseph would rile him up again.  They installed a bassinette, but try as I might, Theo hated it.  Finally at 10pm Houston time (4am Paris time) Theo fell asleep.  Joseph proceeded to ask me every question that came into his little head for the next hour & a half. I answered patiently as I fought to keep my eyes open.  Finally at 11:30 pm (5:30am Paris time) Joseph fell asleep.  I was nodding off but I couldn't fully relax because I was holding Theo and he kept stirring.  At 7 am the lights came back on with no warning which immediately woke Theo up.  He was so tired and confused.  It was daylight outside the plane windows and they started serving breakfast which I gobbled down even though it was technically 1am Houston time mmmm croissants (when in Rome...). Thankfully Joseph slept until midway through the descent, but he also woke up grumpy & confused.   We got through the airport, various trams & shuttles, Joe loaded down with all the bags & gear and me with the babies, without too much trouble.  But of course, Theo was in the Ergo carrier strapped to my back and I once again felt that familiar warm sensation spread down my back.  Really?  Yes.  Twice peed on in 12 hours.  We arrived at the hotel, exhausted and grumpy.  Our suite was close to the airport in the small town Roissy outside of Paris.  As soon as we got to our room things started falling apart.  Maybe it had to do with me being awake for 24 hours while caring for two small children in a 4 foot x 2 foot space?  But I started not being able to function.  I needed sleep, bad.  But it was 11am local time.  Joe suggested catching a train into Paris to check out Notre Dame.  I told Joe to take the boys out to find a playground while I got some rest but of course Josey wanted Mommy mommy mommy and Theo was about as tired as I've ever seen him.  In the end I ended up just passing out in bed with the baby and Joe & Joseph (after a massive, screaming, thrashing 3-year-old tantrum) left.  Ah sweet sleep.  After a couple hours I woke up feeling 100% better but realized I had only been asleep for 2 hours.  I found Josey playing quietly by himself (miracle!) while Joe napped nearby.  I couldnt believe how much better I felt after only 2 hours of sleep in the last 24, and couldnt believe Joseph was still going, refusing to nap, after only 3 hours of sleep.  Finally when we were all awake we headed out to explore the small town.  It was chilly outside but sunny and beautiful.  Spring was just starting to appear with flowers and buds on all the plants.  We went to a playground and watched the boys as they played alongside the French children.  Theo pooped.  We didnt have any diapers so Joe took him back to the hotel and changed him while Josey & I stayed at the playground.  When they returned we walked some more and bought a fresh croissant (only because Josey touched it in the case) which we all split.  Bye bye diet.  We struck out finding a restaurant open - it was 6pm Paris time and finally got a pizza to go.  We took it back to the playground and dined al fresco.  Theo had had enough by then so we scarfed our food and headed back to the hotel alongside a screaming baby.  Josey was even (finally!) showing signs of tiredness.  Both boys went to bed without incident and eventually so did a very tired mama & dada.   I can't believe anyone would want to read this?  I'm writing it anyway so I don't forget it.  Especially since Theo won't even remember this trip and Joseph may or may not.  I'd say this trip will not be without its challenges but if the rest of it goes like this first very long day went, I think we will survive.