10 Year Challenge

I’m not one to jump on social media bandwagons, but I’ll admit I did go back and look at my first facebook profile picture. I didn’t even make a post because, honestly, I pretty much look the same! I still wear that coat. But oh, how life has changed.

“Child-Raising Vacation”

That’s what they call extended maternity leave in Romania. You get six weeks of obligatory medical leave, then after that you have the option to take two years of paid “child-raising vacation.” Sound too good to be true? I thought so, too.

We were in the car on the way gone from the airport, and on a whim I decided to check my bank balance again. I’d been checking it every few days for the last few months, anxiously awaiting the day my maternity leave pay would finally show up.

Baby Takes Flight

America, meet Benjamin!

carefully chosen flight wardrobe

I was pretty stressed about this trip. We'd been sleeping a solid 8 hours every night for about a month, with a nap schedule that worked, and I was not looking forward to messing that up. Ben also hates long car rides and usually goes between sleeping and screaming whenever he's strapped into his car seat. The thought of 11 hours on a plane did not sound fun to me.

Well, it turns out all the stress was for nothing (as usual), because traveling with baby was actually no big deal. It was almost easier than flying without him. Yep, I said that.

I know I'm not the first to write about this, but there were a few things that I was so glad I did to prepare for this trip!