Traveling With Toddlers

In March 2001, a group of my fellow French students and I decided we would go to Paris. 

There was an amazing sale on airfare at the time and you could fly from Atlanta to Paris for $320 round trip. 

With a price like that I thought it would be an excellent idea to take my toddler with me.

The photographs from this trip show that this was, in fact, a terrible idea.

There's the one of her in front of the Seine where she is angrily pushing my friend out of the shot.

There's the one of her perched in a window seat at our hotel, wearing a scowl.

There's the whole series that a friend gleefully recorded which shows her storming off from me as I attempted to pose with her in front of the Eiffel Tower.

There's the one of her giving me the stink eye on the Eiffel Tower.

And finally, there's the one where she's trying to throw herself out of my arms and into one of the pools outside the Louvre. 

In two short days I will be headed down to Stewart Island with my two-year-old son. 

I can only guess that the absence of jet lag and lack of a highly regulated touring schedule will mean I have better results on this trip.

Alex is the only one of my children to get excited about birds. 

We have two little fantails that fly around our front porch catching insects and Alex always gets excited when he sees them. Their Maori name is "piwakawaka" and he always says, "hello waka!"

For me, Stewart Island is a glimpse of what paradise might be like. 

It is an island of birds with a small population of people. 

It is also the launching point to get to Ulva island which is a sanctuary for the extremely rare Tieke or Saddleback bird. 

This should be a relaxing little getaway for me to spend some quality time with my youngest child before he gets too cool to hang out with me (and too big to fly down to the island for free!)

Hopefully we will not have a replay of Paris where nap times were missed and tempers ran high.