One of my biggest hesitations in ripping off the bottle bandaid with Bennett is traveling. I’ve asked the Facebook masses how to take away his beloved “bot” and the suggestions were pretty good, but I just can’t pull the trigger. The “bot” is one of the only things that makes traveling with Bennett possible.

Bennett with his lovies – his “bot” (bottle) and “nigh-nigh” (blanket)

While I’m not entirely sure that his travel personality is learned behavior versus his innate crankiness, I suspect it is. With the exception of a few major “I’m-not-getting-back-in-the-car-EVER” freakouts from Natalie (at age 2!) during the longest 3 day, 1,000 mile trip from Virginia to the tip of Michigan, the other 3 are pretty good travelers. In my mind it’s because they have always traveled. We moved to Nevada when the girls were 2 and 1 and ended up about 45 miles from civilization (my job and their daycare). So at least 5 days a week, we drove roughly two hours a day. Like little fish growing into their tank, the older they got, the longer the drives became (Reno to San Fran and Monterey, Reno to LA, Reno to San Diego, Nashville to Jacksonville, Jacksonville to Norfolk – All with tons of fun sightseeing stops). They easily tolerate a solid 12 hour travel day with no problems (More than that I’m not so sure. For each cross country move, I’ve spared them the 4 days of driving and flown them to stay with the grandparents). So out of necessity, I really do think they’ve gotten used to the travel.

Back to Bennett, from 2 months to 9 months, he stayed with a lovely family 2 days a week while I worked. It was a 20-30 min drive each way, but he was little so  slept most of the way. By the time he was 10 months, we moved again and I immediately started working full time. Daycares were full so I relied on babysitters…babysitters that came to my house. So basically, he never went  anywhere! Not only did he miss out on leaving the house, he was never forced to learn how to engage in social situations (sitting quietly with others in circle time, book time, or for meals) -bad parenting!

Fast forward to our European expedition – we didn’t exactly ease into it. It started with two 13 hour travel days about a week apart. Then, a 14 day transatlantic cruise with multiple stops and modes of transportation. Then, a 3 hour car ride to London. Then a 3 hour train ride to Brussels. From the cruise on, most of our adventures included modes of transportation that did NOT include any sort of straps to keep him still. If a screaming toddler strapped in a car seat isn’t bad enough, a screaming, flailing loose toddler in a taxi/bus/train is WAY worse…and has scores of other (super irritated) passengers. This is when we pray he wants to sleep…except it never happens. So for now, we’ve resigned to only going places that are drivable (to save us embarrassment in public).

He willingly gets in the car, but instantly screams for his bottle (learned behavior). He tolerates most of a drive from that point, if we try to occupy him with food (a hungry baby is a cranky baby) AND whatever we do, we don’t stop and get out  anywhere other than our actual destination. Momentary stops to pee, eat, change diapers are the end of the world. Heaven forbid we stop to see mountains, waterfalls, fun statues on the way. That’s when this 👇🏻 happens.

Bennett is best known for “the rod”

We’ve been here about 3 months and have continued to travel because we love it (though the constant stress of B is wearing on me making me consider becoming a hermit). I hope he eventually grows out of this phase because I’d like to actually enjoy some these places – like enjoy with interested children who love good food and want to learn and see and taste! (The beer helps!). But if that doesn’t happen, we’ll just visit these places anyway (drink a beer) and try to bide the time with snacks and milk (hopefully in a sippy cup soon) and souvenirs (junk) for the older kids.

Most of the time, he enjoys the backpack, but sometimes this happens when he wants to run those little leggies!

If I were to give advice to any other European travelers with toddlers: don’t take my advice! Kidding, sort of. If a movie and snacks and milk and souvenirs keep them sort of happy, do it! Luckily (like my last post), I never said “I’d never let them watch movies in the car/eat snacks/drink milk” (Heck, I even specifically bought a new car with DVD players TWICE). It’ll just look like this 👇🏻 (Third time in 3 months that I’ve cleaned it).

Under the seat of a 2 year old after 1 month of travels.

This weekend’s travels: back to Paris, where last time this was the mood of the day 👇🏻. (But, as much as I like to pretend he’s always bad, he’s really not. He’s a sweet little man that I waited years for!)

Hottest day of the year (or close) in Paris with not enough water and not enough snacks.