When we decided to go on our trip to Aruba I made the decision to try not to “overthink things”. I do that all the time, and I psych myself out. I panic, second guess choices and just worry…about EVERYTHING. Will he sleep? Will he eat? Will the plane be a disaster? Did I pack what he needs? All those thoughts and more stream through my head constantly. Although those thoughts all crept into my head again this time, I kept them at bay by reminding myself that everything would be FINE. At just over 2 years old my little guy goes with the flow probably better than I do. It’s time for me to realize that I won’t break him, and during our day to day life I can panic and over think everything…but when it comes to travel I need to just relax and go with the flow…I tried to do that…and I think it worked.

It’s quite possible Captain Awesome will read this and just laugh. He always thinks I am a nut job, but I am going to write this hoping he will agree that I was rather calm. Our first possible drama was with our plane flight to Aruba. It was at 6:45 am. That meant we had to leave at 3:45 am! Forget how tired I was going to be, I was a bit worried about waking up my son and how he would react. But I didn’t panic. I allowed myself to be excited, and it worked. As a matter of fact my son did amazing while traveling to Aruba. He was in good spirits and did as well as could be expected on the 4 1/2 hour flight.

Schedule is another thing that I worry over. My son and I stick our daily schedule pretty regularly. I do whatever I can to make sure he gets his nap, and that he goes to sleep around the same time every night. Some kids can go with out both of those things but if my son is tired…he is miserable, and therefore so am I. So it works for us. But when it comes to travel you can’t always stay on a schedule. I did my best not to worry too much about it while away and both him and I did great. We attempted a nap every day whether it was in the stroller or in a bed, and he slept. At night he was up way past his bed time (a whopping 9:00!), and although it did all start to catch up with him…it was worth it. It’s not realistic for me to want him in bed by 7:30 while away…not when I am the one then stuck in the hotel room while he sleeps!

Having help helps…Captain Awesome was great on the trip. I normally take a lot on myself, but now that my son is older I am getting better at sharing the responsibility (I said better…not great). I asked for help. By doing that I got some great alone mommy time on the beach. I don’t think you can fully appreciate sitting in the sun….BY YOURSELF…with a drink your hand until being by yourself is a rarity. As a mom being able to just sit never really happens, so you can understand why even 30 minutes to myself was a vacation in itself!

I will admit the all inclusive aspect of the trip allowed me to give my brain a break. Mimosa’s and Mojito’s always have a calming effect. I think it helped that my son did AMAZING on the trip and took it all in stride. I may be writing a different post if he didn’t eat or sleep the entire trip and acted like a huge nightmare. But he didn’t. We all had a blast and I felt better not being a worry wart. We are now home and my thoughts have all began to swarm, but for 5 days….I tried to shut them off, and I was pretty successful!