2 kids. 30 hours. 11,000 kilometers. A million memories.

This trip was nothing but boring. But then again, with us it's always about lots of surprises.

The day we traveled to Indonesia (about the trip here) was the day the new Zagreb airport was opened for the first time for public. We expected chaos, confused staff, bad organization and surprises.

Our flight was at 6:30pm and my husband had to work until 3:30pm, then he took a cab from work to home, picked us all home and we went with the same cab to the airport. That also means that I, being with the kids, had to pack everything by myself and get the three of us ready for the cab. We were the first customers our cab driver drove to the new airport.

Testing the brand new Zagreb airport

It was already almost 5pm when we finally got to the airport, we unloaded all of the suitcases, husband got us a trolley and arranged everything, I got the kids. We paid the cab and the cab left. We strolled toward the departure area, looking for our check-in desk and finally approached the desk. I had the newborn on my chest in a ring sling, and pulled the toddler on a ride-on suitcase. I was reaching to my purse to take the passports for checking-in, when I realized, my purse was not on my shoulder. I looked onto the trolley my husband was pushing, scanning for my purse in between the suitcases, it's not there. My heart stopped beating. My wallet is there, and most importantly, six passports are there (the kids each has two because of their double citizenship). I tried to breathe, while telling my husband "I left my purse in the cab. The passports are there". My husband turned pale a little. It was half to six. In thirty minutes we should be boarding. He kept his cool and said "it's going to be okay", calling the cab guy. He happened to have his personal cell number because the cab driver called him when picking him up at work (thank universe for that!). The kids, the luggage and I waited at the desk and he went outside. It was probably ten minutes, but it felt like forty to me, when he finally ran toward us with my purse on his shoulder. I swear god the guy at the check-in desk (Qatar airways staff) was even more relieved than I was! For the cab driver who happened to be still around and didn't mind coming back so quickly, I can't thank him enough. Shortly, we were heading to the boarding lounge.

The first leg of the flight was five-hour-long. It went extraordinary. The toddler enjoyed it a lot. She watched Moana (which she already watched in the movies with us) while having her in-flight dinner. The newborn breastfed while the aircraft was taking off and she slept well in the bassinet. The plane was quite empty so after dinner my husband and the toddler moved to another empty row so she could sleep stretched like on a bed. We arrived on-time in Doha around midnight, barely had time for anything before boarding for our connecting flight at 1:30am. The kids were wide awake again because of course they served dinner right after take-off (meaning at 2am), so the toddler watched Trolls on her personal entertainment center. After service the light went off so we went to sleep, this time around the flight was full so the toddler slept crumpled on her own seat. It was just five minute after I put the newborn to her bassinet when the turbulence started. Turbulence means seat-belt sign is on, means you have to be seated and buckled, also means you can't put infants in their bassinets, and you have to hold them with you buckled. It was one turbulent flight. Like, five hours of turbulence out of 8-hour-flight. So the newborn slept on my lap, which was not too comfortable for the both of us. But we made it to Jakarta on time, around 3pm local time, after they served breakfast before landing.

The bassinet for the newborn in front of our seats

As soon as we arrived in the airport in Jakarta, we went to A&W because my husband was craving for their burger (it's like I have three kids, uh). At 5pm we went to check-in to our local flight to Surabaya with Sriwijaya air, when the newborn was rejected to check-in. Yup, you heard me. So apparently their policy for infants younger than three-month-old is they can't fly without an official fit-to-fly letter from the doctor. Our newborn is not yet three-month-old and of course we don't have the doctor's letter. I explained to the girl at the check-in desk that the baby just flew for fourteen hours and she's been fine, but she called her boss. The boss still didn't let us go and she called their bigger boss. I talked a little and we reached a friendly agreement, she liked us and she let us go, telling me that in case a boarding staff asked her how old she is, I say three and a half month, and I should not show her passport :) size wise, she can pass as a four-month-old.

The flight was delayed for two hours but we were in a good mood so the toddler was playing at all times, coloring, reading and running around with her dad and the newborn sleeping in the sling. The flight went well and finally we landed in Surabaya at around 10pm local time. I peeked through the glass door at the baggage claim, and saw my parents out there, they waved and I sent a text to my mom that we're still waiting for our luggage. One suitcase came, then another, and then another. One missing. We're waiting. And waiting. We're waiting until we were the last persons in the hall and the conveyor belt stopped. Problem number three. I looked for the airline's ground crew and reported that we're missing one suitcase. The guy conveniently said "oh yeah, for some reason there has been one suitcase there in our office". We went to the office, our suitcase was there. No explanation, no reason, no cross-checking. We rushed out to the waiting hall where my parents were, and went home happily. 30 hours since our cab story, we were finally home, away from home.

A little note: despite the fact that the toddler only sees my parents once a year, we're pleasantly surprise that she became like best friends almost immediately with them. As for the entire trip, it was beyond fun! And I'm not even lying, we all enjoyed it! :)

We woke up the next morning fresh, like new :)

Send us postcards?

People get things on their trips, collect different things they can keep and look at everyday to remind themselves of the sweet memories of the trips. Some people collect cute magnets, my husband collects model planes (and football club jerseys, and Hard Rock t-shirts, and pencils, and whatever things come to his mind -he's basically a hoarder), my mom collects little ceramic plates and foreign coins, my sister-in-law collects seashell from beaches, a friend collects snow globes from different cities, another friend collects foreign stamps, and the list goes on.

As for me? I don't normally buy things on our trips, I send postcards. I love postcards. I love sending them, and I love receiving them even more. My husband thinks I'm outdated but there's nothing more romantic than finding stuff in the good old mailbox (bills not included!). I keep a note on my iPhone of the list of friends and family to send postcards to for each trip. That way I have all of their addresses in one place, and I keep track not to send the card from the same destination to one person twice (Yes I'm that obsessed).

Since having our firstborn, I made her send postcards to her friends and cousins when she's on trips with us. She'd pick the postcards, I'd write the addresses, and she'd "draw" some random stuff on it, put on stickers, make hand prints, glue the stamps and throw it into the postbox. It's super cute! Of course she doesn't really get the idea just yet, but we enjoy doing it together, so, why not?

The next time you're traveling with your child(ren), give it a try. It could be a nice routine you do with them. Like, having strawberry ice cream in different cities in the world. To us, it's much easier than getting gifts or souvenirs for our loved ones. Postcards don't need space in our luggage!

Send me a message if you want one for yourself sent from our next destination :)

I'm about to fly alone with two kids and I'm nervous

In a few weeks we'll be flying to Indonesia so my parents see their new grandchild. We haven't traveled with two kids yet, but I don't think two adults traveling with two kids is a big deal. However, my husband will be coming back home by himself earlier, and I'll be staying with the girls a little longer, and finally, coming back home alone with them. The first leg of the flight would be around an hour, then two or three hours of layover, then a second leg of flight of around twelve hours, another layover of about two hours, and the last leg of the flight of around five hours. At the time the toddler will be three-year-old and our newborn four-month-old.

Can't really give any tips since I haven't done it myself, but I kind of have idea how I would do it. Kind of.

Our toddler in Treviso airport, when traveling to Paris

I think I'd do stroller

Normally I prefer babywearing (my thoughts about that is in this post), but that would be when I travel solo with one child. The idea of babywearing one child and running around catching another while dragging a suitcase makes my head spin. Babywear both of them? Not gonna happen. I'd still take a carrier though, just for those moments when the newborn refuses to lie down on the stroller. Then I'd put everything else into the stroller and push it. I also like the idea of getting a buggy board to attach to our stroller so the toddler can stand on it and I push 'em together. The stroller that I'm taking though, is basically also an infant carseat, so we can use it in our destination while driving in a car. That way we just need to rent another seat for the toddler.

I picked the shortest layover

I'm torn on this. Because this also means I gave up the free Doha transit city tour. I talked about the free stopover tour here and was really looking forward for Doha. I'd totally do it with one of 'em, but don't feel like risking it with both of them. If I want the tour, I'd have to have at least six hours of layover. I chose to skip the tour and picked a two-hour layover.

I "made" my newborn to own a comfort object

My toddler never owned a so-called comfort object. My husband and I were her comfort "objects". And that was fine. When I was alone with her, I was all hers. Whenever she was fussy, I'd drop everything else and pick her up. She was breastfed for two years, never bottle-fed and never had the need for a pacifier. Now it's different. When I'm alone with both of them, there are times when the newborn is fussy but I can't pick her up right away, mostly because I'm comforting my toddler, dealing with her tantrums or assisting her with something. We wanted her transition of becoming a big sister from the only child to be as smooth as possible, so we normally don't alienate her by always attending to the newborn first. And because of that, I introduced my newborn to a pacifier, which, she accepts well despite the fact she's exclusively breastfed. Pacifier allows the newborn to soothe herself, gives me some time to deal with the toddler, settle her down, and finally pick the baby up. Basically, it's a lifesaver.

We'll print lots and lots of coloring pages

She'll get to choose all the toys she want to take with her

In a normal situation, we pack really light. We'd let her to take one or two toys, so we're not overwhelmed with stuff. This time around, I'll let her fill her ride-on suitcase with just toys of her choice, so she's kept busy at all times. Our toddler, unlike many, doesn't own a gadget. She gets to watch cartoons on my tablet at home for an hour a day. But she has no idea that tablet actually works outside our apartment (YAY!), so we almost never take it out with us. She also has no idea that it's possible to watch anything on mommy's or daddy's cellphones. Which is great. And we'll keep it that way for as long as possible. She enjoys building bricks, coloring, solving puzzles, "reading" books a.k.a looking at pictures in books, and making a mess with dough. So she'll be busy for enough time when I have to feed or change the newborn, before we'll have to take a walk again.

I'll be thinking about my role models

Whenever I get frustrated with my children, I think about my role models. Well, I never really know them, but one of them was a mother traveling with three children by herself I saw once in an airport, and another was a couple having lunch in a restaurant with their five children, all aged below seven. Just remembering how calm they were (the parents, not the children) make me calm. I mean, if they can do it, heck, I can too! So yeah, wish me luck :)