Barcelona trip

I decided that it was high time to finally finish this post on our trip to Barcelona. The pictures were already posted, but this is more about traveling overseas with a 13 month old.

The flight over

• We were upgraded to business class which was likely a mistake since we used points to get our flights but we didn't care! The only problem was that there was some distance between me and Izzy while she sat in her car seat so it made it hard to tend to her if she needed something during take off/landing.

Business class baller

• Before we left CP went out and bought things that Izzy had never eaten before like crackers and peanut butter. We also brought a couple bags of what we call "baby crack"- Izzy was OBSESSED with these snacks and signed "more" like crazy whenever she saw the bag. She didn't eat much of the dinner or breakfast that was served so it was all about pouches and new-to-her snacks.

Baby crack

• We loaded some easy games on the iPad which we really didn't use.
• We walked a bunch up and down the aisle. Thankfully business class wasn't full and most people thought that what we were doing was cute.
• At this point Izzy wasn't watching any tv but we made liberal use of the tv in front of her with the large section of kids games and movies.
• Izzy was still in bottles at this point which helped with her ears on take off/landing. The flight crew was happy to give us milk and water for her.
• Diaper changes were interesting because she really was too tall for the pull down! She was completely freaked out the entire time she was being changed while the plane was bumping around in the air, but thankfully there were no disasters. We definitely brought more of her nighttime diapers for the plane in an effort to not have to change her very much.
• We forgot to pack an extra pair of clothes for the two of us in case a blowout disaster happened but thankfully there was no issue. Whew!
• We took a red eye over to Vienna from Chicago. Izzy didn't sleep as much as we hoped but also didn't cry. As long as she was happy, we were happy.
• The Vienna airport had a kids playspace in our terminal which was great for Izzy to get out and crawl around while we waited to board our flight to Barcelona.

While we were in Barcelona

• Most restaurants did not have high chairs or diaper tables in their bathrooms. This was pretty frustrating because for meals we either had to have Izzy sit in her stroller (which she tired of quickly) or in our laps where she would reach for everything on the table. We did a lot of CP eating while I walked her around a restaurant and vise versa.
• We learned where all of the elevators were- especially in the subways, although we did do a lot of carrying Izzy up and down stairs as well.
• Barcelona has a lot of family-friendly lines where strollers get in much faster. That was pretty awesome.
• Since Izzy was a fairly new walker at this point, she would hold one of our hands and have a great time walking next to us. It seemed everyone in Barcelona thought that was adorable.

How could you not love this adorable new walker?

• Europe uses shelf-stable milk so when we went to the grocery store or a coffee shop, that is what Izzy got. Thankfully she had no problems with it.
• Restaurants in Barcelona didn't have kids meals so we often brought pouches/fruit in case Izzy wasn't interested in our meal or tried to order something she would like. She loved Spanish sausage and cheese which thankfully was pretty easy to find. ;-)

Mmm Spanish sausage

• Restaurants also didn't start to serve dinner until 8pm or so which was crazy late. We easily fell into a schedule where we would get to bed later (more like 11 or 12pm) and not wake up until 9am or so thus pushing our eating schedule later. Izzy was flexible and it was only on the first night in Barcelona that she missed dinner because she slept in the stroller.
• Izzy did A LOT of sleeping in the stroller. In fact, she only got one nap in a pack n play (sorry Izzy!). She was a rockstar about it.

• Izzy loved all of the train rides that we took and also enjoyed watching the trains pull up to the station, pointing at every single one.
• Barcelona is full of dogs so it was very exciting for Izzy to see a dog being walked on the street. She also saw a lot of birds and would get excited when she saw those as well.

The flight home

• Right before we went to board our flight from Barcelona to Newark, the bottle that we had filled with milk BROKE and it was unusable. Of course the second bottle that we brought we had already stuck in our checked luggage so I ran around trying to find something that looked like a bottle to put milk in. I ended up finding a water bottle that sort of had a spout but not really and Izzy refused to drink any milk until we got our luggage back in Newark. It was quite a stressful flight because she would sign for milk and start crying, we would try to give it to her in the water bottle which of course she wouldn't take (along with just a regular cup of milk, glass with a straw, etc.), so she just drank water. Once we got the second bottle and filled it with milk Izzy DOWNED it on the flight from Newark to Chicago and then passed out cold.
• Izzy didn't sleep as much as we thought she would on the flight to Newark which was a shame because the winds were so strong across the Atlantic we had to do a random stop off in Maine to refuel the plane (8 other flights from Europe had to do the same thing that day)- which obviously added to the amount of time we were stuck in our seats. During the refueling stop we let her out of her car seat and she played with another little girl right around her age at my feet which was adorable.

Overall it was an amazing trip. We were so happy to introduce Izzy to CP's sister and her family. Despite the fact that Izzy's cousins are much older (12 and 10), they were constantly trying to keep Izzy happy and play with her. Izzy was quite a trooper for such a big trip and totally rolled with everything we did.