We got back from our big trip away last week and it was fun. I say that in a "oh my god why oh why did we think travelling with two small children was a good idea" way. I realised that you just have to change your expectation of what travelling with children means. For them it is all about new experiences. For us it is about bundling those experiences into small, manageable, bites that don't leave all of us exhausted and cranky.
The drive down probably didn't start well. Less than 5 minutes after leaving Charlotte asked "who is going to look after Charlie (the cat)". We replied that her uncle was going to house sit for us. Suddenly it began "I missss Charlie, I want to seeeee Charlie, I waaaannnt to go hoooome". We tried to distract her with the thought that we would be visiting our new niece, baby J. Which worked "I want to see baaabbbby JJJJJ, I want to seee herrrrr nooooowwww, this is boooring, driving is boooorrrriiiing". sigh.
I was quite paranoid about Charlotte's toiletting on this trip. She can sometimes leave it a bit late so I thought I would ask her frequently if she needed to go. No she would say. 10 minutes later "I got wee wee coming!". So we did schedule frequent stops, and often where there was a playground. Playgrounds became our favourite thing to find. "But I want to stop at a plaaaaaayground". sigh.
After lunch on the first day we plugged in our new toy - a dual dvd player. James and I have previously eschewed technology like this but have since decided that if it is there, we should embrace it. We also stupidly gave Charlotte the remote. The conversation went like this: "I've dropped the remote, where is the remote, it's not working, I dropped the headphones, Muum Angus has the remote, Mum Angus has the headphone wrapped around his neck, Muuuuuum Anugs is pulling on the cords". sigh.
With relief we arrived at our hotel which was so exciting. There was a BED just for Charlotte, and in the same room as Mum and Dad!! I cannot stress how exciting this was for her. Unfortunately it meant getting both of them to sleep was a challenge and eventually we just had to turn all the lights off (at 8.30pm) and go to sleep ourselves.
The second day of driving brought more loo breaks (and the chance to pat some horses), more playgrounds, more dropped remotes. It took us a lot longer than we thought to drive just a few hundred kilometres. However we finally arrived in Sydney and to Uncle C and K's house (and another playground). We had a yummy dinner out at a local restaurant (although a tip - if they don't have a highchair, it probably isn't going to be a great experience. My apologies to the other diners).
The next day was a typical Sydney day with glorious weather so we headed off to the train station and to Circular Quay. The kids loved this (not having been on many trains before) and there were just so many things to look at. Trains, boats, planes. The fact that we were also looking at one of the most beautiful harbours in the world was lost on them, but we appreciated it. A fun ferry ride later and we were in Manly. The weather was a bit nippy, and we had no intention of swimming. May I suggest that it is a mistake to take a toddler to the beach if you don't want her to get in the water? We may have had a bit of a tantrum at the beach. But fish-n-nuggets (what Charlotte calls fish and chips) was enjoyed by all (well except me, I don't eat fish) followed by an ice-cream.
Day two and we met up with a good friend and her daughter at the Sydney Aquarium. Again this was so much fun for the kids. There were fish everywhere! The kids just wanted to run from one exhibit to another. After some lunch we went to the water playground at Darling Harbour. I strongly recommend this for anyone going to Sydney. It was fabulous, with water bubblers, and rivers flowing. We just stripped the kids off and let them play for well over an hour. It was hard to get them away!
The next day we packed up, feeling very tired, to head off to Canberra and to finally see baby J!
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