Travelling with two

I remember a time when travelling, even the thought of it, filled me with excitement. Reading through travel books I would mark all the things I wanted to do - often an overambitious list. Travelling to places that weren't new to me was also always exciting as it meant meeting old friends, rediscovering old haunts and looking for new ones. Unfortunately I have lost some of the enthusiasm around travelling after the birth of my second baby. I have never been capable of travelling light and my recent flight to India made me realise I have got to change my packing habits if I have to fly with two! I will blame the weather, obviously, for some of my packing woes - I am travelling to India at a time when I need to pack for summer and winter. To add to that, the most exciting part of this years trip to India is my brothers wedding - but just imagine what a big fat Indian wedding means in terms of packing! And of course there are half a dozen favourite books, her baby Kevin (not a living thing, but we won't tell her just yet), a few toys and her trunki that T refuses to travel without. A single buggy has now been replaced with a rather bulky double one. Raahi doesn't have a long list of travel musts yet but he makes his presence felt by demanding for milk at the most inappropriate time! With the second child, the romance around breast feeding is dying fast. The challenges started way before we tried to get all our boxes into the boot of the car. Tarana, who needs to be prepared for any change that affects her usual life, had spent the last two weeks saying that she doesn't want to go to India. These statements were often accompanied by melodrama so I asked her favourite nursery teacher to help out. After a couple of days of trying to tell the class adventurous stories about travel, Miss M finally gave me a call to say that there is little she can do to prepare T for the trip as any mention of India would get tears in T's eyes! So along with all the baggage I was tugging an unhappy kid on what was going to be a 24 hour journey from door to door! But like a few surprising moments in life, this one turned out to be easier than I ever imagined. The transit at Doha at 1am with too many handbags, two sleeping kids and no buggy or trolly was a challenge but besides that, people were helpful and most importantly, T who has been in India for a week now is absolutely loving it! I am probably going to jinx it, but she hasn't shown any sings of missing her home, friends or routine in Nairobi! I guess there is something very special about holidays with adoring grandparents.