Up at 3.30am allergic to the 10hour flight ahead. Slight confusion as we appear to have accumulated more things since going to bed last night. How did this happen? Mammy hasn’t even shopped yet! Did the Teddy’s breed since we put mylittleloves to bed?
We knew they would each pick their favourite (Fuffles and Pinky) but we had forgotten that when your small, you don’t want to leave any teddy out. The suitcase reappeared with 2 Frozen characters, 4 Barbies and the whole cast of Mickey Mouse Clubhouse, but as I hadn’t had a coffee yet and it was “stupid a’clock”, anything that promised to make our flight easier, mylittleloves happier and the whole airport experience hassle free was of high priority.
We flew with Emirates as they have a direct flight to Bali from Dubai. Thankfully check in was easy and Aoibhie managed to be the first on to the plane. Why isn’t there a prize for that? Mammy upgraded to Business perhaps? They walked onto the plane like they owned it and settled in knowing what was ahead of them. Mylittlelove Cadhla-Rose who is 6 has been on 17 mostly long haul flights (holy moly thats a lot) and Aoibhie who is 2.5 has been on 10 of those flights. We had free Wifi and all of our seats were together which is a luxury!
I feel like every holiday we find one item that we couldn’t have done with out! This holiday was our first using the amazing Babyzen Yoyo. If you haven’t heard about this dreamy travel stroller yet, it was the first pushchair to be approved for cabin luggage (measuring only 56x45x25cm when folded up). It can be folded with one hand in a few seconds – and there is a strap to carry it over your shoulder like a light baby bag. Our last two trips we have been told, “your stroller will be there for you when the door opens” – LIES… it is never there! So thankfully this light stroller is as easy to push and easy to store. You can purchase it from Just Kidding which is our go to shop in Dubai or for stockists world wide you can go to the Babyzen website.
As you can see by this post, I felt like I was winning! Granted this winning feeling didn’t last long. A few hours into the flight we had already watched Frozen twice and a few episodes of dora the explorer, Aoibhie realised that she was allowed to use the bathroom (oh dear). She also realised that sticker books are more entertaining in the bathroom. Stickers all over the mirror and me trying my best to peel them off when she wasn’t looking as I really didn’t want to end up on passenger shaming. Then realising your seat goes up and down… who knew? My personal favourite was asking everyone she could see, “are we there yet?”
One hot tip for Mammy’s out there when travelling is to make sure you have spare clothes for YOU. I assumed that because mylittleloves had travelled so many times without being sick that they would never get travel sick. Unfortunately this was the flight I would learn! Turbulence was rocky and poor little Aoibhie couldn’t take it any longer – this Mammy was destroyed! Bye bye to my new 4 in 1 Gap dress.. it was nice knowing you! In future I will be dressing comfortable and layers!
I wouldn’t have traded this mad experience for the world though. ALWAYS travel when you have the opportunity. I’m guessing that 10 to 20 years from now we won’t remember the times that tested us on our adventures but we will remember the beauty that was wanderlust bali, the funny family moments and the new friends we made…