“Ok, You’re A Week In. What About The Baby”

I get it, he’s not a baby.  He’s 18 months.  But don’t remind me.  Now, how is he doing?  Honestly, amazingly.  People are so fearful of traveling with kids - and I get it - but I swear the more you do it, and the more you expect from them, and the more you endeavor to still create little routines and rituals even when away from home, the better it gets.  I KNOW we will have our moments.  I’m scared to even write this as I write it.  But, I have to say, Luca seems to be thriving.  His language is exploding, he has restored his sleep/nap/wakeup routines and times, he wakes up full of laughter, and he is having fewer meltdowns here than he does at home.  It is possible we just have a child that thrives on novelty and change (he would come by it honestly, eh?) - after all one of his first words was “Calle!” (Spanish for “street”) and from the moment he could climb he’d go directly into his stroller chanting “Calle Calle Calle” and pointing toward the door like our home was a prison.  So there’s that.  The one place we’ve seen a difference - and it’s always been this way when we’ve taken him places away from home - is at bedtime.  He insists on me putting him to bed (still a preference at home, more of an, er, demand here) and the first few nights in a new place he wants to sleep between us in the bed.  NOT ideal, I know.  But if that’s what it takes for him to feel OK amidst all these other changes, and to seem to otherwise thrive in the day, we’ll take it.  For now.