Little Footsteps in the Big World

The day of THE trip had come and the girls and I were heading home to Croatia from Indonesia. 11.000 km without my husband, just the kids (a three-year-old and a four-month-old) and I. On mother's day. Chances are, I'd never go alone with a toddler and a baby this far without my husband ever again, unless we get another child. We had to fly three times, from Malang (my hometown in Java island) to Jakarta (a 1-hour flight), then from Jakarta to Doha (an 8-hour flight) and finally from Doha to Zagreb (a 6-hour flight). Our first big flight from Jakarta to Doha was around midnight, so my mom decided to fly with us to Jakarta to give me a hand. I decided to fly to Jakarta early and book us a room in the airport hotel so the kids will be rested for the big flight. Our local flight to Jakarta was on Saturday at 1pm (GMT+7) when the kids and I said goodbye to my dad. Goodbyes are always hard, but it was probably the hardest for my toddler to say goodbye to him. She's attach...

How long can one enjoy a holiday before wanting to be back to normal life? Some people enjoy traveling for months, or even for years. I never see myself being on of them. There's always a point of a holiday when I'm basically ready to head home. As I'm typing this, we - the kids and I - have been away from home for forty three days. In normal circumstances, when we'd be away for a vacation somewhere new, it probably would've been too long. But since we're in Indonesia, my home country, staying at my parents' place, it doesn't actually feel like we're away from home. We actually ARE home. However, our main problem is the separation between us - the kids and I - with my husband. He stayed with us for the first two weeks before heading back to Croatia for work. Although to day the toddler still says she'd prefer staying here in Indonesia to going back to Croatia, I know it's now enough for her. Not the trip itself, but being away from her da...