I decided before Monkey was born that when he was 1 we would go on holiday. Mainly because I was craving some sun, sea and some relaxation. Also because I thought that I we didn’t just do it one day, that we never would. I have travelled a lot and been to some amazing places, whereas hubby hasn’t really been anywhere. He went to Singapore as a 2 year old to visit relatives (his grandma was from Malaysia) and to Florida once with friends. That was it until we went to Italy for our honeymoon. So for hubby a sun, sea, lazing by the pool holiday in the Mediterranean is completely new to him. I was lucky as a child and we went to Menorca, France, Portugal etc. most years.

Even though I have travelled a lot (I visited 19 countries in one year of backpacking) I have certainly never had to worry about packing for little one year old. But now he is my priority at all times and so I have spent a loooot of time thinking about this trip and planning every aspect. Have I mentioned before that I am a planner?? Maybe once or twice hehe. We are going for the easiest holiday ever, to an inclusive hotel in a quiet area of Majorca. Not too long a flight, no cooking required, easy peasy hopefully and fingers crossed daddy and I will get to relax a bit while we are there!

My biggest worry for the trip is the journey, particularly, the plane journey! We have all been on a plane with a baby/toddler who screams or kicks off for the entire journey. Likewise I have seen babies/toddlers quite happy on planes, so I know it is possible! I would like to attempt to make Monkey as happy as is humanly possible in a confined space, sat on mummy’s knee for a couple of hours. When you have a little one who is constantly on the go and into everything I am not sure how easy this will realistically be, but, I am determined to try!

I got some advice from my friend who has taken her little ones to visit Poland since they were small on the best ways to entertain them in flight. We have also thought a lot about the times Monkey has been sat still for longest, what he has been doing at this point and what can we do to replicate it! Here our ideas for entertaining monkey during the flight:

A sticker book – he gets quite fascinated by them at the moment!

A magic colouring book –  my friend’s recommendation, where you have a little pen filled with water, colouring but no mess. Monkey isn’t that coordinating with colouring, or that interested so we’ll see how this goes!

Stacking star pots – although this may end up flying all over the plane so again, we shall see hehe

Food – I have bought allsorts of little snacks he loves, raisins and crispy things so hopefully they will help. I have also heard that you should try and get them to eat/drink during take-off and landing to help with the ear pressure.

Blanket & comforter – to get him to snuggle a little though very much not a tired time of day that we are flying out.

Portable DVD player – for when all else fails, with a couple of his favourite baby Jake or postman pat DVDs. Not ideal and there’s no way he will keep headphones on but I think I’d rather wind other passengers up with a bit of TV than have him really unhappy! We found a really cheap one on ebay for car journeys but figured we will take it with us too.

Spare clothes – not really for entertaining any of us but in case of accidents we all have a spare change of clothes going in the hand luggage. We also have some essentials in the hand luggage as hubby is a bit paranoid about our luggage being lost, which, let’s face it, does happen, so better to be safe than sorry.

That’s the plan for the plane journey and I guess we will just see how it goes and what will be will be. Hopefully it won’t be too stressful for all of us!

As for when we are there, we are taking a number of his absolute favourite toys, favourite bath toys, books, and anything else that will hopefully give him some comfort while we are away. We are taking a bunch of nappies etc. but I’m sure we will be able to get more there if necessary. We have portable black out blinds to put up on the window/door to the balcony as he always sleeps in the dark at home.

I planned lots and lots and then realised I had made one humungous mistake. As we have an early morning flight out we decided to book a hotel and parking at the airport so that the all the stressful stuff can be done the day before and we can get to the airport nice and relaxed in the morning (well, we hope so anyway!). My big mistake? I only went and booked said hotel at the wrong blimming airport! Honestly! Thank goodness I realised a few days ago. Can you imagine getting to the airport with no hotel or parking booked, bad enough for costs and stress etc. but even worse would be arriving at the wrong airport, parking the car, staying overnight, then the morning you are supposed to fly out, realising that you are at the wrong airport, and therefore not going anywhere! Yipes!

So yes, very very silly mummy but thank god I realised when I did, and, full credit to Holiday Extras, they were massively helpful and because we rebooked with them (at the correct airport) they didn’t charge any cancellation fee for the cancelled booking, and applied a discount code I had on the previous booking, on to the new booking. So all is well that ends well, but I am checking everything about a million times now, to make sure I haven’t made any more stupid mistakes!

We’ve been really busy with all of this planning and prep, but also because we have decided to have the decorators in while we are away. Our bedroom ceiling and walls need replastering where we ripped out an old fitted wardrobe and the whole room needs redecorating. We just haven’t got round to it, a) because of the cost and b) the mess and c) the energy it would take to do it ourselves.

We suddenly realised we could get round all of these problems. Hubby has moved office recently is now close enough to walk/cycle to work every day. This has meant that his expensive, sporty, boys toy of a car he got when we first met was just sitting on the drive as my car is the family car we use most of the time. So this month we sold his car and downgraded to a much cheaper run around of a second car, more suited to how much we will actually be able to use it. Hey presto we have a bit of unexpected spare cash to pay for someone to do it for us, thus eliminating problems a and c. Also, by doing it while we are away we should hopefully avoid problem b to some extent. At least to the extent that monkey won’t get near any of it.

So in addition to packing for the holiday I have been clearing out our bedroom, and making space in other rooms for the furniture to go in! Today the family came round and helped actually move the furniture and now we are all ready for it to happen while we are away. Both guys worked with us before when he had other work done so at least we know them, and as our in laws are only round the corner they are going to pop in to see how they are getting on, and also to try and keep on top of the dust situation. We really are lucky to have such lovely family willing to help us out!

It’s been a busy lead up but hopefully we will have a lovely relaxing week away and will come back to a nicely decorated bedroom 🙂 See you all on the other side!