Travels with My Toddler and New Philippine Tourism Website!

What’s happening now, mommy?

What’s that over there?

Where’s Opa’s house now?

You’re hungry now!

Daddy, the Polizei are behind us!

I knew all along, that the day would come, and now it finally has. Our little smiling, sometimes crying, always pooping baby has grown up and become a toddler-talking-machine.

Finding his way in-between adjectives, mixing up pronouns, and the complication of both languages, he is just as fluent in English as he is in German, and just as inquisitive.

You can imagine that this makes for very interesting road trip conversations—many of which, he is having with himself. Whether narrating what’s going on outside, or pestering us with questions, or singing to himself, there’s always something going on in that head of his.

And I’m glad for that. Since Karsten was three months old—no, since he was in my tummy—we have been on the road, in the air, in nearly every kind of public transportation mode possible in all (last count was seven countries), and he has fallen in love with traveling. (Read my article on What To Pack for Travel with a Baby, in Smart Parenting Online.)

This makes long journeys like the 28 hour drive we just did yesterday (Italy to Germany), so much more bearable. He sits comfortably in his car seat, with hardly a wiggle, enjoying the great outdoors, the highway trucks, the zooming along the autobahn, all the while counting every clock-tower in Tuscany.

I’ve also been reminiscing my own travels, not only here in Europe, but back in my country of birth, the Philippines. Fresh on assignment for the Philippine Tourism website, I’ve been time-traveling back to when I first got better acquainted with the islands, and garnered some pride in being from an amazing part of the world.

Wanna know what it’s like in my islands? Check out More Fun in the Philippines, which launched just a few days ago!

10 Things to Do at Home with Your Toddler

  1. Take long, warm bubble baths with yellow rubber duckies
  2. Clear the table, or set it, and spend half an hour doing so
  3. Jump up and down on the bed, and dance like crazy
  4. Watch all the Youtube posts of Thomas the Tank Engine and Chuggington, in every language available (the one where it features the kiddy voices of Chuggington is especially cute)
  5. Hang laundry together
  6. Overdose on chocolate and gummi bears (saves on having to cook lunch)
  7. Make silly faces in the mirror while taking pictures with your camera on self timer
  8. Wipe all the surfaces in the house; sweep every nook; try to not knock over grandma’s special china
  9. Learn how to have an entire silly conversation while whispering
  10.  Fall asleep at the exact same time