Personalized videos from Santa

I love this site! 

Not many of us get the opportunity to take the kids to the North Pole to see Santa in person, so why not enjoy the next best thing.  Check out www.portablenorthpole.ca and Santa will email them their very own personalized video message.  The video is available immediately, and best of all, it's free!

Bringing car seats on board a plane

Here's a fantastic article by a fellow blogger about bringing car seats on board a plane.  Very comprehensive and informative!

Traveling With Kids: Flying with kids: all about bringing car seats on ...: Bringing a car seat on board a flight for your child to use might seem like a great idea. It gives them somewhere more comfortable to sit, a...

Wacky, Wonderful Weeki Wachee Springs

We’ve visited Florida many times, but on a visit to the Gulf Coast, we were looking for something a little different to do.  We found it.  About an hour’s drive North of Tampa is one of Florida’s oldest and most unique attractions - Weeki Wachee Springs!

Weeki Wachee Springs is a natural attraction in Weeki Wachee, Florida, about an hours drive North of Tampa.  The main draw is underwater performances by ‘mermaids’, viewed in The Mermaid Theater.  The theatre, built 16’ below the surface into the limestone on the side of the spring, makes you feel as if you are submerged with the mermaids.  The ‘mermaids’ swim freely underwater breathing from a free-flowing air hose, rather than from a tank on their backs and perform alongside the turtles, fish, manatees and otters who frequent the spring.

In it’s heyday, the park was visited by many celebrities, most notably Elvis.  These days, Weeki Wachee is not quite so famous, with most tourists sticking to Busch Gardens and Disney World.  That’s a shame because Weeki Wachee’s ‘mermaids’ have been performing underwater long before Cirque de Soleil, and these highly trained ‘mermaids’ really are fascinating to watch.

The mermaid shows are only just one of the things to see.  With animal shows, roaming peacocks, a river boat ride, canoe and kayak rentals, water slides and lazy river tubing, there is plenty to see and do.  The grounds, gardens, spring and river are lovely, and the people working there are friendly and welcoming.

We visited on an unusually cold and blustery day in January, so we didn’t have the opportunity to swim in the spring, but the mermaid show and relaxing river cruise were definitely worth the drive.

Unattended children will be used for bait

I got a chuckle out of this sign at a restaurant in Indian Shores Florida.

The CARES Child Aviation Restraint System

When B was under one, we always brought along a car seat for him to sit in when we flew.  While we still occasionally bring along his car seat on long flights, we more often bring along our CARES Child Aviation Restraint System.

CARES is the only child restraint ever certified for airplane use by the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) and is designed for children over 12 months of age, and between 22 and 44 lbs.

CARES’ belt and buckle system fits around the back of the seat and connects to the existing safety belt.  Its adjustable straps will fit virtually any airline seat and can be installed in less than a minute.

The benefits

• It weighs only 1 lb and fits into a small stuff sack - it takes up only as much room in your bag as a baseball
• The device is quick to install and take-off, and doesn’t hinder the passenger behind you from using their tray table
• It provides a safe airplane seat for your child, without having to bring a car seat on board
• Got twins or triplets? CARES offers discounts to parents purchasing for multiple children

Keep in mind

• We have been on several flights where the flight attendants were unfamiliar with the system, so it is a good idea to make sure you carry the FAA documentation provided with CARES, just in case they have any questions.
• If your child refuses to keep his/her lap belt fastened (B's new trick), this won’t help that.  For safety reasons, the buckle is still easily accessible in an emergency (AND for little fingers… click click click)

Where to buy

Bath time!

My son loves his pre-bedtime bath, and we try to maintain his routine as much as possible when we travel.  Often we find ourselves without a bath tub, so we've used sinks and several inflatable options.

The Munchkin Inflatable Safety Duck Tub was the first inflatable tub we purchased and it proved very handy.  The inflated size is 31" x 19" so it fit well even in tight shower stalls and it was lightweight at 1.6 lbs.  It deflated and folded easily and B enjoyed the duck shape.  (If you press the beak, it quacks!)  It even features a built-in patch that turns white when the water was too hot.  The manufacturer recommends this tub for babies between 6 and 24 months, but it became a bit too narrow for B when he was about 12 months old.  Of the tubs I have reviewed here, this one is the most suitable for babies who cannot sit up unassisted - when he was very small, we put B in sideways so he had little room to slide down.

The next tub we used was actually an inflatable pool - Intex's My First Baby Pool.  I loved this one because it was even lighter, at only 1 lb and folded up even more compactly the the other options noted here.  With a 24" diameter, it still fit in tight shower stalls (even cruise ones) and gave B lots of room to splash around.  We had to stop using it after several trips when it got a hole (my fault not the manufacturer's), and I found it very hard to replace when I needed it - in winter.


That's when I bought our third tub, and now my favorite - The Safety 1st Kirby Inflatable Tub.  It is recommended for babies over 20 lbs.  The inflated size is 28" x 21", it folds up easily and weighs only 1.4 lbs. My only fault with this tub is I found it difficult to inflate and deflate (the valves don't let much air in/out), so it is definitely best suited to holidays where you can leave it inflated for a few days, rather than having to inflate/deflate it on a daily basis. 



Please note - I have included links to Amazon for all these tubs, as I find it a helpful starting point for price comparisons and often contains the most comprehensive product descriptions.  I do not receive any commissions or kick-backs from purchases of products from their website.

Reclining airline seats. Love them or hate them?

An article in the Travel section of yesterday's Toronto Star The Recline and Fall of Western Civilization has my mind racing.  The article weighs in on the conflicting views travelers have on the etiquette of reclining airline seats.  Whether you love them or hate them, it is clear most people feel passionately either way.

On a Thai Airways flight a few years ago, I witnessed two passengers nearly come to blows.  A passenger in first class insisted on reclining his seat, despite the fact his seat came only a few inches in front of the person in coach directly behind (and only separated by a curtain).  I could understand both mens' points of view... the passenger in first class likely paid a lot for the extra measure of comfort, but the passenger in coach still deserved a measure of personal space.

I have never been a fan of reclining airline seats.  Unless I have had the fortune of sitting in first or business class, reclining seats rarely provide any additional comfort.  And, in these days of steadily reclining seat pitch, the inch or two of space lost when a fellow passenger reclines his/her seat feels intrusive and claustrophobic.  Now that we are traveling with a child, this lack of space has become more of an issue.

Last year we flew to Hawaii.  Because of the long flights from Toronto, we purchased B his own seat and brought along his car seat so he'd have a comfy, familiar place to sleep.  The down-side of a car seat on board is they raise the child up so that it is almost inevitable their feet will touch the seat ahead of them.  On our first leg, the distance between seats was so minimal, I tapped the young man on the shoulder who was sitting in front of B, and gave him a heads up that although we were sorry for the inconvenience, he would not be able to recline his seat because our son's feet would be squashed.  To my amazement, even though this was a daytime flight, he was less than understanding, and his mother seated next to him spent the next several minutes complaining to the flight attendant how unfair it was he could not recline his seat.

On the second leg, the distance between the seats was even tighter.  The (yet another) young man seated in front of B insisted on reclining his seat, despite my polite pleadings.  B's feet were so crushed up against the seat in front, we spent most of the flight with his car seat sitting sideways while Mark and I were jammed in the remaining seat and a half of space.  So much for safety...

Thankfully on our return flights, we were seated in the bulkhead row.  Though this presented other problems (see Are bulkhead seats worth it?), at least we didn't have to deal with reclining seats.  On other flights, we have been incredibly fortunate to have understanding passengers seated in front of B.  But this understanding is definitely a two-way street - we don't want to inconvenience another passenger any more than they want to be inconvenienced, and we do our best to make sure B disrupts other passengers as little as possible.

These experiences have made me particularly mindful when I think about reclining my own seat.  Now that B is over two, we usually bring along the Cares flight restraint system, which allows him to sit securely in the airplane seat, and keeps his feet far enough away from the seat in front of him.

Do passengers have the right to recline their seat?  Sure they do.  But given the large number of people crammed in such a small space, showing a little consideration to your fellow passengers is paramount.

So I've got a little request of everyone next time you fly... if you are thinking of reclining your seat, please look behind you first.  The passenger behind you may be very tall, may be very small (and in a car seat), or even just an exhausted parent bent over trying to retrieve a toy off the floor (if I had a nickel...)  Ouch!

Traveling With Kids: Flying with kids: 7 holiday-travel tips

A fellow travel blogger offers these great tips for traveling during the busy and hectic holiday season:

Traveling With Kids: Flying with kids: 7 holiday-travel tips: The holiday season can be stressful for many reasons, and flying with (or without!) kids during the holidays can also be more stressful than...