Blog Hopping: Traveling With a Toddler

By Mike Morris
The Los Angeles Times

My boss handed me a fortune cookie on my last day of work. "Ideas that may seem absurd ultimately lead to success," read the tiny slip of paper.

It was an omen for what was to come. Just days after cleaning out my desk, I began an around-the-world trip with my wife, Amber, and our 16-month-old daughter -- something that sounds crazy but turned out to be quite the opposite. After our daughter, Ediza, was born, I started getting the itch to travel, and Amber agreed that's what we should do -- although many people told us our days of freedom to travel were over.

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We refused to accept that and began planning our cross-continent trek, which took us from hiking pristine mountains in New Zealand to running a marathon along the Great Wall of China to swimming in the turquoise waters of the Greek islands.

All with a baby.

Read more...

Traveling With Toddlers

With the holidays approaching, many families will tackle the challenge of flying or driving to their destinations with a toddler. We have a lengthy drive ahead of us in a few weeks and once again we'll count on one of the Technology Gods' brilliant creations: the video iPod.

We used to lug around a portable DVD player, but the ultra-portability of the video iPod makes the whole process much easier. We load several of Jack's favorite shows (Ratatouille, Super Why, Mickey Mouse Clubhouse, etc.) and he stays occupied for quite a while.

He also likes to play with our GPS unit, which would explain why our home address is now labeled a rest area.

Here are a few more tips to keep in mind when traveling with a todder.

Related: Toddler Travel Quiz, Five Toddler Travel Problems Solved

iPhone Fun for Toddlers

By Scott
BabyBlogAddict.com

I own an iPhone. It cost a lot. So why on earth would I let our toddler put his grimy little fingers all over it? First, he only plays with it in a "safe" area. That means one of us is watching him and he's sitting down on the sofa, carpet or some other harmless surface and can't walk around with it. Jack is almost three and, like me, he loves gadgets. On a recent two-hour flight we kept him entertained by ditching the portable DVD player and "upgrading" him to our video iPod. At his fingertips he had access to his favorites: Ratatouille, Super Why! and Mickey Mouse Clubhouse.

On the iPhone, it took no time at all for him to learn to scroll through the hundreds of pictures by sliding his finger across the screen and double-tapping them to zoom in. Pretty incredible to watch, actually. Outside of the pics, his favorite thing to do is play around with the bubble wrap application. A couple of other good ones include bubbles and iDoodle2Lite. There are sure to be a lot more in Apple's App Store soon.

Which gadgets work for you?

Baby and the Big City

Dying to visit Chicago, but Baby is holding you back? Take heart, Mama and Dada. You can take your toddler or baby along.

“We took our daughter to Chicago when she was 4 months old, then again when she was 7 months old,” says Tina Dzikowski, 30, of Eastpointe, Mich., whose daughter is now 3 and son is 1. “It worked out fine. I haven’t tried it yet with two. But I’d say, go.”