On Wednesday, I took my mother and Mazzy to Arizona for a Westin travel review I'm doing for Babble. I thought it was a great opportunity, a fun thing to do with Mazzy and something to do while Mike was away in Hong Kong. The trip was from Wednesday to Friday, tonight being my last night.
The resort is lovely but I'll save all those fun details for my review on Babble.
This post is more about the torture I have inflicted on my child by uprooting her from her regular schedule, plopping her down in Pacific Standard Time and assuming she'd just be able to deal.
More accurately, this post is about Mazzy's very specific form of payback.
Mazzy did pretty well on the plane ride here although the layover didn't make things easy.
When she screamed, "I DON'T WANT TO BE ON THIS PLANE ANYMORE!" I replied in the most excited tone possible, "Don't worry, sweetie! We are going to get off this plane and get on to a different one!"
My mother and I had a good laugh over that one.
When we finally got to the resort (after nine hours of sleepless traveling), Mazzy was somehow wide awake and ready to explore. (Blah blah blah details and fun moments saved for Babble review.)
Then at 7pm, Mazzy was ready for bed.
Perfect, right? Only an hour off her regular bedtime! We were adjusted without even trying— all was good!
Ah, so naive I was just yesterday.
I stayed up to write my blog post, watch some TV and ended up going to bed around midnight.
Roughly TWO HOURS before Mazzy woke up ready to start her day.
It was 2AM.
Oh, but it wasn't Mazzy who woke up at 2AM. That would be too easy.
It was some other form of Mazzy sent here by Satan to plague our hotel room. I believe Satan calls the evil spirit that possessed my daughter— "Jetlagged Demon Toddler".
JETLAGGED DEMON TODDLER: An evil being that screams and cries at a pitch ten times louder, twenty times higher and fifty times longer than any normal run-of-mill toddler. All attempts at using regular tantrum-ending strategies (i.e. holding, use of iPad, offering of candy) have been proven totally ineffective.
I was ready to give Mazzy anything she wanted to make her stop crying and let me go back to sleep. But the problem was, she didn't want anything. She just felt miserable.
Mazzy never went back to sleep. She spent the entire night screaming and crying and acting like she had been delivered a fate worse than death. (Thank god for my mother because we ended up taking turns dealing with her while the other tried to get some sleep.)
By breakfast Jetlagged Demon Toddler (JDT) appeared to have left the premises and my daughter was back. We went on to have a very nice day (blah blah blah details saved for Babble post).
But after my daughter woke up from her afternoon nap, JDT returned with a vengeance. Mad at the world, she made demands to ensure I was equally as miserable— "DON'T SIT DOWN!", "TAKE THAT ROBE OFF!", "GET THE RED CUP!" ( the cup safely back in NYC).
After I finally got her to accept my offering of the iPad, JDT clicked videos that wouldn't load fast enough, played games that compounded her frustration and lashed out at me whenever I tried to help.
Each time something didn't go her way, she'd raise her arms above her head and screech, "NOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!" like someone had just killed Calliou.
It was awful. (Except if someone really had killed Calliou— that would have been awesome.)
I just put her down to bed and I am hoping upon hoping that she does not have a repeat performance of last night. I am TERRIFIED of our trip home tomorrow. And I pray she transitions easily back to her old schedule. (And doesn't expect me to whip out TV and cookies every time she gets upset.)
But most of all, I am trying to write this post as quickly as possible so that I can go to bed early and get in a few hours of sleep, in case JDT makes another 2AM appearance.
Anybody know how to make a deal with the devil?
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Before I got to bed I've got a few giveaway winners to announce…
The winner of the $500 Bag of Baby Schwag from Red Tricycle NYC is Lauren Lamoureux.
Lauren picked Michelle Obama as her celebrity set-up. In fact, most people picked other women which I found very respectful of their significant others. I totally would have gone for Ryan Gosling myself.
Congratulations, Lauren! Please email me at ilana@mommyshorts.com to claim your prize.
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The ten winners of free babysitting from UrbanSitter are (in order of who I like best)…
Jenny, MJ, Natasha, Debbie A, Kristina G, Ari Wagner, Seri Kertzner, Rokkie, Lauren P and Kevin Blah.
Please email me at ilana@mommyshorts.com to claim your sitter money.
And remember, even if you didn't win, you can still use the code MSHORTS10 for a one time $10 credit at UrbanSitter.com.
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Lastly, "Harry Grows Up", the short film that Mazzy co-starred in with her friend Lucas won "Best of New York" at the NY International Short Film Festival!
Congratulations to the director— my friend, Mark Nickelsburg. Please keep Mazzy in mind when you make your first feature-length, 'mmmkay?
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Alright. I am off to bed. Wish me luck on our flight tomorrow.
Excuse me— FLIGHTS. We leave the hotel at 10:30am and get home just after 11pm.
This is going to be an ADVENTURE!
Or so I keep telling JDT.
Have a good weekend,
—Mommy Shorts
Godspeed my friend, Godspeed.
The first time I took my son to the US (from Japan), it took us 28 hours door-to-door. We stayed for three days and went right back home. He was only 8 months old at the time and never really adjusted to US time. It seemed fine for him, but awful for my husband and I, since as adults we tend to force ourselves to adjust.
Since then (he’s just turned two), we’ve been back twice and are going again in August. I’ve found that it takes about 10 days for him to adjust. It’s rough!! But just when I think I’m going to lose it, I just think of how frustrating it must be for him to not know why his day is flipped 13 hours. Poor guy.
Only advice I can offer is… when a trip is for 7-days or less and the time change is 3-hours or less, it’s best to stick with your time zone. It’s may be difficult keeping all meals, naps and bedtime per your home time zone, especially when it’s a 3-hour difference, but it normally helps with their temperament.
seriously on caiilou. why is that kid such a whiner?
I cannot stand caiilou. After enduring it with my niece, I did not let my kids get near that cartoon!
I imagine US to Japan with a toddler is a whole other ball game. The most exhausted I’ve ever been in my life was on a trip to Shanghai. I actually fell asleep at the dinner table— with clients!
And I didn’t lose it on Mazzy either because I knew she wasn’t just being a brat— I had put her in an awful position. Hence the unlimited iPad use and the bribery of sweets.
We went Utah for seven days in February and she adjusted like a champ. Ah well, I guess those days are over. Good advice.
It really upsets me that Mazzy loves that show. Makes me question her taste level.
First off, I am glad I have no idea who Calliou is and hope I never find out.
I have had demon toddler show up on a zero time difference thanks to a full day of travel. Usually when I’m traveling alone.
I repeat the advice of others: if possible, keep them on their old schedule, because even if you put them to bed later, they are 97% likely to wake up at their natural time.
Also? Does Mazzy get ear infections? Kids that small have issues pressurizing in planes if they don’t pop their ears, and it’s possible she was miserable from that. If demon toddler is still around when you return home, I’d have her ears checked.
As far as the return trip, dum-dum suckers are the perfect treat at take off and landing because the sucking helps them pop their ears.
I hope you had sleep. I’ve been there.
Youch, good luck. I was at the Grand Canyon & Vegas last week with JUST my husband (First mini-vacation since Becca was born!), and I was amazed how many people brought their infants and toddlers with them. It would have been a NIGHTMARE with my daughter at this age. She’s awesome, but she’s not the most laid-back toddler, very routine-focused and nervous/anxious in new places.
I can’t wait until she’s older and we can truly start traveling as a family.
Someone told me to get a lollipop for the plane but I assumed they meant it for emergency tantrum stopping purposes. I used ours sometime in the middle of the flight. Landing and take-off make much more sense. Gonna scope out the airport for some suckers!
UM, GOOD LUCK. That sounds terrible. I feel like I would have offered the JDT some booze at some point just in hopes that she’d pass out or at least be more fun to be around. (Just kidding you should probably not give kids alcohol).
I too would have picked Ryan Gosling. Or Leonardo DiCaprio, because I haven’t quite abandoned my school girl crush on him.
We vacationed at the beach in Alabama last month and were only an hour behind. An hour that my kid never adjusted too. And because she’s ALWAYS up before 6am here at home, she was ALWAYS up before 5am there. Traveling with a toddler always makes me feel like I need a REAL vacation after 😉 Best of luck and safe travels for the trip home!
I cancelled out on a trip to Seattle to visit my inlaws (other side of country from us) due to my stress levels of dealing with my tantruming toddler on the plane and then dealing with the time zone change, close sleeping quarters, change in nap routine etc. We aren’t evil, we offered to pay for inlaws to come to us instead. I tend to do little with toddlers outside of their usual routine ( i.e. no trips, no restaurants) between ages of say 18 months to 2.5-3ish. Am not saying for everyone but tantrums in general let alone in public aren’t my idea of a fun relaxing time. And over tired toddlers take so little to set them off … we did do a trip when my little one was 2.5 on a cruise, we way overpaid for our plane tickets to get reasonable flights, paid extra for hotel stops both ways to ensure not rushing and could relax and nap, and after her third day pool clearing meltdown ensured naptime and regular bedtimes were enforced over participating in activities at those times. Upside? We got lots of sleep too at least! lol!
Sounds painful! So sorry! Hope your trip back is much better. Maybe she’ll just pass out because she’s so tired! Looking forward to your Babble review and the highlights of the trip.
Agree on Caillou and unfortunately, that is the one cartoon my little girl picked to watch when we limited TV… It’s a faily ritual in our house. We thought he might be less annoying in the original French so we tried that for a few nights (we’re French Canadians) but nope, he’s annoying in any language! sigh…
First off OMG! I had no idea people still have to suffer through Caillou. Thank goodness my kids have grown beyond that. Hang in there!
benadryl
Im exhausted for you….hope you got home safe and sound. Time for a vacation.
I hope your trip home went smoothly. I’m curious – did you let her play with the iPad on the flights home?
I don’t know what I’m more excited about, that I won or that you like me third best! Woo hoo! Also, funny you should mention JDT. Just this morning, I was telling Matty that it’s like Hazel gets possessed by the devil sometimes. We’ll get little glimpses of our sweet little girl, and then satan will rear his ugly head, and she’ll be yelling, “NO! NO! LEAVE ME ALONE!” at everything we say. Good luck, Urban Sitters!
your post reinforced my thoughts about taking toddlers on trips to different time zones – i won’t do it until kayla is older. this means for the next few years, we’ll be travelling to places only within the EST zone haha.
my SIL went to florida and her kids were so overtired, ALL THREE OF THEM were up screaming all night. when i talked to her on the phone, i heard them in the background wailing and screaming that i thought there was an intruder in the hotel room and she sounded like she wanted to blow her brains out.
but at least you now know about JDT and hopefully prepare for it next time.
We live in Seattle and all our family live in the Eastern time zone. We (and by we, I mean usually, me)traveled by plane a lot with my daughter until she was about 2. It wasn’t too bad. Red-eyes back across time zones are NOT a good idea, as we found out the hard way. No one gets more than 3 hours of sleep. I came to the realization as she aged that she could not handle a 3 hr time change for a trip of less than one week. The more time zones means a longer trip. Even then it can be rough. However, when she turned 2, it became really tough even with a seasoned traveler such as her (and I had the routine down to a science). I think that that’s the real reason that airlines start charging when they turn 2, because you should have to pay for them having to deal with your insanity. That said, I think traveling with your kids, even young ones, is invaluable to you, them, and potentially everyone around you. Life is stress and adjustment – especially with kids. It requires endless patience, flexibility, humility, and occasionally a dose of’ “I will likely never see these people again” being repeated like a mantra in your head. PS – Dress your kid in their cutest attire and if its a late flight change them into their PJ’s. What a-hole is going to yell at a really cute kid? And if they do, most people will in turn give them the dirtiest looks.
I was just laughing and crying over this. I hope the night turned out alright. I love your storytelling! Tremendous insight and very good to know!