Traveling with kids: Our trip to Montreal

I have been meaning to write about our last exploring adventure about three weeks ago: our trip to Montreal

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We had initially planned to take a way overdue camping trip for a long time now, however Emilio had been teething and waking up way too often and crying in the middle of the night. So, let's say that  that was my line for going on an adventure with an infant, since going to the back of the woods in the dark with bears roaming around with a screaming baby wasn't my ideal of a fun camping trip. When Emilio finally got a bit better we thought we'd finally go camping... And then we all fell sick with a cold... So that was pretty much it for us planning to go camping, and we decided kind of as a spur of the moment thing to pack our stuff and go to Montreal.

As I always say, no planning and zero expectations ALWAYS makes for great adventures in my view. We literally booked our suite at the Marriott Residence Inn the night before, packed our bags with as little as possible, grabbed our kids and Nanna, and off we went.

Usually we like to plan car trip around nap time so that the kids can sleep in the car. However this time we were only going for two days and therefore had to leave as early as possible, so that we could  have as much time as possible there. Montreal is only about 2 hours away from Ottawa by car, so in the end, we left the house at about 9.30 a.m.

The great  thing about our hotel is that is included breakfast and it had a kitchen with a microwave, stove, fridge, etc. so we literally packed a bag with our groceries from the house to make sure we had food for meals and snacks at all times. The kids napped in the car even though it wasn't nap time yet. I didn't factor this into our planning, but it worked out great, because by the time we got to Montreal they were completely rested and ready to go. We unpacked our things, rested a little, and off we went to Old Montreal.

 

 

First, we looked for a place to sit down and have some lunch. Then we just walked and walked and walked. We had Paulo in the stroller or walking and I had Emilio in the sling the whole time. It was great because we we able to cover a large area, give Paulo a chance to walk around but also rest when he got tired.

 

 

Towards 4 or 5 p.m. Paulo was beginning to look tired so we headed back to the hotel. We rested there for a bit. Paulo was too excited to nap in the hotel room, but he at least lied down in bed for a while and was able to wind down a bit. We could have rested some more, but we were all hungry so we head out to a restaurant for dinner.

The restaurant we went to was super stylish and big, the ambiance was great and the best of all: it was family friendly. Nothing like a bunch of crayons and paper to keep a toddler from freaking out while waiting for food. They also had high chairs so Emilio was happily seated while we ate our own food. Honestly, my kids are CHAMPS when we go out to eat. We do not do this often at all, especially since we had kids, but when we do go out our kids just LOVE IT and as long as it is a place where banging noises or the occasional loud scream goes undetected, we do awesome.

The first night we went back to the hotel at about 8.30 and didn't manage to be in bed until about 9.30. I was so worried about how night time was going to go, as we only found a room with a king size bed and a sofa bed for Nanna. I was terrified about how the whole sleeping routine was going to go. Turns out, we were all so exhausted from walking, that as soon as the lights went off , we all switched off as well until the next morning at 6.30 a.m. It was awesome.

The next morning we got up and immediately headed downstairs for breakfast that was served from 6.30 a.m. To give Nanna a chance to sleep in. We we the first ones there so we had plently of seats and food to choose from.  Nanna joined us a while after. It was still early by the time we finished breakfast, so we decided to go to Old Downtown again.

One great thing about having kids is that you get to go to places that are normally crowded at insanely early times, so you get to see beautiful places in their lighting and empty glory. This is what happened to us that morning, when we ended up heading downtown for the second time around 9 a.m. on a Sunday. We had the entire all town for ourselves, parking was not an issue at all, and we walked the old Montreal streets completely empty -- perfect for picture taking. We visited the Notre Dame Cathedral and Emilio napped for a whole hour in this beautiful, quiet, warm and dark place. We then got to have a proper visit, sitting down to admire its beauty and soaking in the peace and quiet, plus send out a prayer to thank God for the blessing of being there with my beautiful family.

 

 

 

We then went and sat down for a hot chocolate and coffee, to let the kids sit down and rest for a bit, and then marched towards the car. It was towards1 p.m. and I knew Paulo was exhausted after running around and all the novelty. Once we got in the car, Paulo was out in 5 minutes.

 

It was our plan to head to the Botanical Gardens for the afternoon. However, the last thing I wanted was to have to wake Paulo up once we got there. So we decided to drive around Mont Royal Park and stop at the lookout there to give him some more time to sleep in the car. So we drove to the Park and once there, I stayed in the car while Rob took Emilio and
Nanna to walk around a bit in the park and to the lookout. Then we drove around the cemetery and finally headed towards the Botanical Gardens.

 

 

 
 

Finally, we spent the rest of the day at the Botanical Gardens. The entry was quite expensive - $30 pp for non Quebec residents, but the gardens are supposed to be second only to London's Kew gardens, so we decided to go for it. The Gardens are HUGE and it took us quite a while to go from one exhibit to another, so we had to think ahead what we wanted to see and just stick with that. We decided we wanted to see the Japanese Pavilion and the Insectarium, which were both awesome. It took us pretty much all afternoon to visit these, and we got practically kicked out of the Insectarium when it closed at 8 p.m. and a thunderstorm began -- perfect timing!!

 

 

 

 

 

Once we got in the car we drove back home, and stopped somewhere along the highway for dinner at a McDonalds. It sure got late and we didn't plan to eat that late, but at least we had packed tons of snacks so we could manage our hunger.

 

Our trip worked out perfectly and I think some of the keys were:

 

- pack lots and lots and lots more snacks (it is aaaall about the snacks whenever you see a meltdown looming in the horizon)

 

- It is hard to plan for nap time when you are on the go and with limited time. But if you just can't work in a nap in to your schedule, plan some low key activity like a sit down snack or just getting in the stroller.

 

- Weather permitting, plan lots of outdoor activities. My kids just handled the whole trip like troopers, and I think it was because most of what we did was outdoors.

 

Now some of my favourites:

 

 

 

 

 

Moving.

I haven't had time to write lately. I have been wanting to post so many things, but I just haven't had any time at all. We finally moved to Ottawa last Sunday, and as you can picture, our lives have been pretty close to a nightmare since last week. We spent every night packing until late at night, then the movers came and took everything but our bare essentials, and still we managed to travel with about 10 pieces of luggage between big suitcases, carry-ons and car seats.... Pretty crazy.

We got on our 3 hour pane ride late at night and didn't make it to the hotel until 1 a.m. Ontario time. This is two hours ahead of our usual, so the kids have kind of been struggling with the new schedule. Especially Paulo. Emilio, as usual, just goes with the flow and falls asleep when and where he can. He's pretty awesome.

Anyway, the plane ride went as well as could be expected. I think there where 2 keys to making this as stress free as possible: 1. One was to actually prepare mentally for the worse. I mean, we were, after all, travelling with an infant, a two year old, and a senior (Rob's mom). N number of things can get frustrating under these circumstances, and we just had to try our bests not to get angry or stressed, because we would only add to the situation. We just had to try and keep it together at any cost. And 2. Was to allow enough time to take our.sweet.time doing everything, from calling the cab to getting into the plane, just doing everything with way more time than necessary. Because we knew we would forget a million things, and we needed time to allow for tantrums, pit stops, snack breaks, etc. without making us late.

 

Discovering the Ottawa Public Library

As for the new house, I mentioned earlier that when we came to Ottawa the first time to look for houses, the one we had liked fell through. We didn't want to do another big trip like that again, so we ended up renting the house having only seen a tour on video. Pretty gutsy, I know. But actually, you can do that these days with all the technology there is, such as emailing videos using dropbox, using google maps ( to get an idea of where the place is relative to the rest of the city, and to actually SEE what the neighbourhood looks like), and of course e-mail to sign rental contracts tec. At some point we even almost used Skype because the landlord wanted to meet us. So yesterday we visited the new house and it looked just like it did on video. The backyard is smaller than we thought, though (it was hard to get a good view with all the snow), and we noticed all the open space around it is actually fenced off (bummer!) but I have decided not to worry about it.

Rob is going through an enormous amount of stress. We all are. But I think he bears the burden of not only taking care of us and all the physical stuff, but also the responsibility of bringing us all across the country, doing all the moving arrangements I have tried to handle these as much as I can so he doesn't have to worry about any of it), and then doing a good job at work (where he has been super busy as well). Poor guy. He's got a lot on his plate, and added to that he's having to adapt to a new city, away from his friends and most of his family. I hope we can all bounce back to our new normal soon.

 

For now, tomorrow is moving day, so although I know it will end up being a crazy busy day, I am excited and looking forward to moving into our new house, yay!!

 

 

The grass is always greener in Mexico....

It's been a long time since I last wrote, and it is mainly due to my 3- week vacation in Mexico, and two weeks of absolute madness before that, packing and taking care of a bunch of errands for our big move to Ottawa.

We flew to Mexico on a direct, 5- hour flight which is always a bit scary with a toddler and and infant. However, I am proud to say that both kids handled it like the little troopers they are. Emilio slept through the whole flight and only woke up to eat ( which is absolutely hazzle free due to breastfeeding). Paulo resisted sleeping literally until he just couldn't do it anymore. Sleeping in planes has always been a pain for him, and I don't blame him-- they are uncomfortable, tiny, noisy places, so it is always hard for him to fall asleep. This is always incredibly stressful for me, but I pretty much restrained him in a very tight hug and wispered stories in his ear and eventually he fell asleep. I was lucky to find an empty row ahead of us, so I moved there with Emilio and Paulo was able to stretch out in both seats next to daddy's.

We finally reached our destination, Puerto Vallarta, and as we got off our plane and smelled the humid, salty air, all the stress and worry in our bodies just left with the breeze...



Our little family in Puerto Vallarta

It was such an amazing vacation. To start with, I think going to the beach with a toddler just can't be beat. The fun they have is just unreal, and I found myself in a constant state of excitement for him.  Plus, as a parent, it is so easy to look after a kid in that environment. Of course the ocean can be kind of a danger, but as long as they are supervised, the can play for hours on end in the sand ( with sunscreen of course!) , they love the water, they can run and run without hurting themselves, etc. all this while you enjoy the nature, the calm and the scenery yourself...

The other highlight of the trip was experiencing Mexican culture through Paulo's eyes. People were so incredibly friendly to him all the time. It was not uncommon for strangers to stop and chat with Paulo, or for someone to literally get out of their way to come and see the baby. It is just such a child-friendly culture -- another reason why being on vacation in Mexico is so great for both child and parent. We often went to restaurants where Paulo could just run around along with other kids without us being worried that our kids would disturb other customers or that we would get kicked out. People are just so used to having kids around and tolerating them like a fact of life, especially if the kids are well behaved ( but still kids nonetheless). I can't even count the number of times somebody did something extremely kind for our family, like a random neighbour would unexpectedly invite us into their home because they got a gift for Paulo, or getting a free haircut from my dad's hairdresser just because they knew we were visiting and liked our kids, etc.

Also, having Paulo surrounded by the Spanish language was so amazing. He definitely has a stronger connection to Spanish since him and I always speak it at home and he spends the majority of his time with me. I could see how thrilled he was to understand everything around him and make himself perfectly understood. It was a matter of a couple of days before he started adding words to his vocabulary like it was his job. He totally improved his language skills even more.

Paulo against the pinata

Emilio napping on daddy's shoulder

The thing that completely blew my mind though is how attached Paulo became to everyone in the family, especially his cousins. My sister's kids are 3.5 and 1.5 years old, so Paulo falls right in between. I was honestly a bit worried about the toddlers being typical toddlers and fighting over toys and most importantly, grandparents, but shockingly, I was wrong. They immediately hit it off , hugged and held hands constantly, they followed each other all the time, asked about each other all the time, played together, bossed and followed each other around.... It was adorable to say the least. I was so incredibly happy to see this happen...

so nice to lie on the green grass

However, even though I had an amazing time, I have to say there was always some sort of nostalgia and sadness lingering in me. I always feel this way when I go back home, but this time it was a bit different. This time I felt nostalgic and sad for my son and my family. I felt like I had been punched in the stomach when I saw my nephews so grown up since the last time I saw them. I felt guilty that I am the one pulling this family apart, and taking my sons' cousins, grandparents, aunts and uncles away from them... And I kept wondering what on earth am I thinking to take my sons' away from all this love. I know I have decided to live in Canada mostly for what I believe are good reasons and to give my children a good life, but sometimes it doesn't quite feel like that. I mean, isn't family supposed to be the most important thing in life? .... It is just so tough to go through these thoughts and feelings all over again every time I feel close to my family again...I know I can perfectly justify our being away, but at the moment it is just hard to say goodbye. I guess I can only hope these feelings will get better with time and that time flies before we all get to see each other again next year...

waking up by the beach

The Amazing Race... with kids.

It's been a while since I last wrote and it is only due to the craziness that our life has been in the past two weeks. A few weeks ago Rob was asked to go to Ontario for an employee party for his new job. He had to go for a week, and if I decided to attend they would also pay for my plane ticket. So, being faced wit the decision to either stay home by myself with the two kiddos for the first time, or join him with the kids on the trip and meanwhile do some house hunting before our move, I decided I was still not confident enough to stay on my own with the kids. So we got all of us a plane ticket (luckily Emi still doesn't pay for a ticket because he is under 2, so we only needed to pay for Paulo's) and off we went to Ontario. We also took Nana, since she will possibly be moving with us and we thought it might be good for her to see the city and some houses with us, plus she could babysit for a couple of hours while we attended the company party.

Well, in retrospect I feel like a real idiot for dragging my whole family across the country just because I "wasn't ready" to take care of the kids on my own for a week. Man, was that an exhausting trip. I can honestly say that now, at barely 3 days after our arrival, I am just beginning to feel rested.

We were very lucky that once the grandparents left, Paulo was back to his usual self and has since been behaving very well, like he used to. But I can't begin to explain how exhausting it is to travel with two kids and a grandma. To start with, Emi was only 3 weeks old when we flew to Ontario. So that meant I was carrying him the whole time in the sling, and although he weighs close to nothing compared to Paulo and he pretty much slept the whole way there, it is so not fun to change diapers in the tiny airplane bathroom, or to have a screaming, hungry baby while you are standing in the line for security. As if that weren't enough, add to that the whole 2-year-old factor. THAT is what I call challenging. We had to work around Paulo's nap times and get him to fall asleep in a crowded airplane full of people and noise. And the cherry on top, the 85 year-old grandma, plus tons of lugagge (and car seats), plus it is Winter, and having to load up a van in -20C weather while carrying a newborn is not fun at all, if not just plain impossible (thanks to my lovely husband who had to bust his butt doing this while I just watched from indoors with the kids).

 

Despite all this and in trying to see the silver lining, I did get to see a bit of the city and Rob was able to do some house hunting and found the perfect house -- which we later found out we could not rent because the owners wanted to try and sell it first... bummer.

 

Finally, on our way back, our 6 a.m. flight got cancelled, so you can imagine the ordeal of staying at the airport another 3 hours trying to sort out our trip back, and then getting into a cab again back to a hotel, and then try again the same thing the next day... fun times people, fun times...

 

Now our trip to visit my family in Mexico is coming up in a couple of weeks and I can't really say that I am excited about getting on a plane again just yet. Not to event mention doing it all again in April when we are moving for real and we are carrying 3 times as much crap with us...we'll see how that goes.

 

For now, I'll just enjoy my peaceful little life at home with my 3 boys. One of which, by the way, has turned 1 month already (!!!). And here some pictures:

Emi- 4 weeks old

Emi's tiny feet

Emi and his big brother Paulo