Travelling with a Toddler

Tomorrow we are leaving on a proper vacation. What the freak makes it proper you ask? It's a vacation which has the sole purpose of being a vacation. Being an expat means that a lot of your vacations are actually trips to visit friends and family. Don't get me wrong, I love seeing them, but I'm really excited to being going on a proper holiday which for me includes a beach and our very own OUTDOOR pool!


This will be our third trip with Blondie Boy so I thought I'd pull together a list of what I think are must haves for travelling with a toddler. Some of these I haven't tested or tried yet, but like I said it's my opinions, not facts.

Trunki: Unless you've never been in an airport ever you'll have seen a Trunki; I saw at least ten over the past two weeks when I flew to Manchester and London. Not only are they ridiculously cute, but they are functional. Your child can ride on it, you can pull them on it while you use it to schlep their carry-on stuff on the plane. Blondie Boy has been pushing it around the living room all week so I can't wait to see what he does at the airport.


Salter Luggage Scales: I hate packing; I am always overpacking and don't even get me started on how I jam everything into our suitcase when we come home from the US (I may or may not bring an extra bag just for food). On more that one occasion we've had to shuffle items from one bag to another so they were the right weight.  You attach the Salter luggage scales to your bag, lift it by the handle, and wait for the beep to see the total weight. No more embarrassing moments at check-in and no more excess luggage fees!

New toys and books: The tip mentioned to me most often is to bring toys and books your child has never seen before to keep them entertained. I've already broken that by letting Blondie Boy play with his Megasketcher but I love that the pen is attached to the board so he can't drop/throw it away. Luckily my Mother-in-law has gotten him some new books as well.


Change of clothes in your carry-on: I'm not just talking about for your toddler here; pack an extra top for you, too. Do you want to sit in a puked on, peed on or food smeared shirt for an extended period of time? I didn't think so.


Snacks: I don't like airplane food and chances are your toddler won't either. Pack snacks you know they like and are easy to eat. Things like snack bars or fruit pouches which your toddler can slurp. If the pouches are more than 100ml you'll have to taste them but 100ml or smaller and you are good to go.


A baby carrier: If your child is still light enough use a baby carrier. We used one when we flew with Blondie Boy at 5 months and it was amazing. He fell asleep in it and I could carry him while eating a Sausage McMuffin; I call that a win-win situation.

A compact stroller: We are taking our Nuna PEPP with us on the flight. It folds up easily and compactly, but doesn't slack on style or function. I've been happy with how it's worked for travelling around Glasgow and I'm interested to see how it does travelling abroad.


Travel Cot: Blondie Boy still sleeps in his crib so trying to put him to sleep in a regular bed is just not going to work. We're taking a Mamas and Papas Sleep Travel Cot. It is compact and portable, but still very spacious, sturdy and stylish. Hopefully Blondie Boy will like sleeping in it!

Pourty: I've talked about the Pourty before and since we know Blondie Boy likes using it as a potty and it is portable we are taking it with us on our trip. No reason for potty training to stop just because we are going on holiday. It also means we can dispose of everything in the potty easily and without mess.




What are your *must* haves for travelling with a toddler? Am I forgetting anything?


Some, but not all, of these products were provided to Transatlantic Blonde to review but all opinions are my own.

Feminist Friday X

This week's theme is there is no theme. You can write and link anything as long as your post has a feminist slant.


This week I've been thinking about being a modern feminist; obviously I'm not first or second wave, but I'm really not third wave so where does that leave me? As far as I know there hasn't been any academic discussion of a fourth wave so I'll go with modern feminist, which I'm stealing from Caitlin Moran. I don't know much about her, but from an article I read in Stylist, How to Be a Modern Feminist, I like her.


I completely agree with her on Lady Gaga, fashion and bitching.  Have you ever seen Gloria Steinem up close and personal? I have and she is stunning; immaculately stylish with long, manicured nails.  Does that make her less of a feminist? Does that change the amazing writing she's done or devalue her activist activities? No.  You can be a feminist and get manicures. Hell you can be a feminist and wear short pink dresses and heels; I personally prefer flip-flops for most occasions but I just bought a pair of amazing Steve Madden nude wedges today.


I think for me a large part of being a modern feminist is tackling the image the general public has of feminists. The de-feminization of feminists is clearly part of the backlash and tackling that is one of the much needed steps to turn the "F-word" into a title young women and girls want to claim.  I think many women are hesitant to claim their feminist identity because they are worried of what people will think of them.


I went out to happy hour in DC one night in my "This is What a Feminist Looks Like" fitted t-shirt and I had some guy come up to me and say "So do you shave your armpits?" Much to my friend's dismay I rolled up my shirt and said "Yes I do, you want to see my legs, too?"  I'm not sure where this "hairy-legged women's liber" stereotype has come from but if we aren't eschewing hair removal then we are butch lesbians. 


Feminists can be pretty. Feminists can wear pink. We can wear dresses and hell, even ribbons in our hair if we so choose. Feminists can come in every shape, colour, size, style, age and sexuality. Do some feminists not shave their legs? Probably. Are some feminists lesbians? Yes. Note the word some. Vast generalizations do not do any movement good and the sooner we cast off these generalizations clearly put upon us to scare off women who like being feminine the better it will be.


I hate when I hear women say they aren't feminists. (So what are they then? Masochists?) Maybe it's just me, but I think a lot of them are just afraid of the label. This feminist is proud to wear the label and I'll do so while wearing a pale pink dress and fabulous wedges.

Feminist Friday X

Here's how it works. Write a blog about being a feminist mom, raising a feminist child, a rant or anything that falls under the realm of the theme for the week. Come back and link your post and post the button on your blog.


That's it.


You don't even have to be a blogger to take part - just send me your post and I will publish it on my blog for you. You don't even have to include your name if you prefer.


When you've published it, come back on Friday and via a widget thing you can add a link to your post and share it with everyone. The link remains open for 4 days.


Visit others, comment if you like them or feel inspired by them. Just go out and encourage and support other feminist Moms.


The more support you give, the more you will get back! I can't wait to meet and interact with other feminist moms around the world!

CyberMummy 11 Meet & Greet

It's T-Minus 5 days until CyberMummy and I guess maybe it's time the #CyberMummyBirthdayGirl got her Meet and Greet post up. That's right I'll be celebrating my birthday with 400 friends I haven't yet met!

Name: Blondie (You'll have to meet me on the day for my real name)

Blog: Transatlantic Blonde

Twitter ID: @Melaina25

Height: 5' 3" ish

Hair: Long Blonde

Eyes: Blue

Likes: reproductive rights, sexuality and health issues, scotland, zack morris, tattoos, chocolate chip pancakes, washington d.c., skyline chili, bagel sushi, krispy kreme, mountain dew & randomness

Dislikes:  Hate, right-wing propaganda, coriander (I'm allergic), sexism and oranges

I don't bite so if you see me on the day please come say hello or happy birthday if you prefer. You know you want to hear my transatlantic accent live and in person :)

Happy Father's Day

My wonderful Dad made this for Blondie Boy's wonderful Daddy (on BB's behalf) and I love it.  I'm very lucky to have nothing by wonderful Dads and Grandpas in my life and I know how lucky Blondie Boy and I are to have such wonderful men in our lives.  I'm especially lucky to have NotBlondeHusband as Blondie Boy's Dad; he's a great husband and an even more amazing Daddy.

This free picture slideshow made with Smilebox

Feminist Friday IX: Violence Against Women

I have so many things I could say but I'm exhausted and just back from Manchester (cop out I know) and I want to get this up. I loved that poster. I'm so tired of women being made to feel guilty for the way they dress or where they walk at night or if they drink too much; no matter what no one asks to be raped, assaulted or beaten. That the poster turns all those misplaced assumptions on their head is just amazing.  When NBH lived in DC with me he worked for an organization called "Men Can Stop Rape" and it's so true that a large part of stopping violence against women is working with men and boys to create a culture free of violence against women.


I'm going to instead ask you to look at the amazing work done by Glasgow Women's Aid.  I'm honoured to be on their Board of Directors and what they do for women and children affected by domestic violence is amazing. The video made by their Hot Chocolate Club lets you hear the voices of children affected by domestic abuse who've used their Children and Young People's Services.  I'll leave you with some frightening statistics: 

• 1 in 4 women experience domestic abuse at some point in their lives.
• On average, 2 women per week are killed by a male partner or ex-partner in the UK.
• In 90% of domestic abuse cases, children were in the same room or in the room next door of where the abuse took place against the woman.

Violence Against Women

Here's how it works. Write a blog about being a feminist mom, raising a feminist child, a rant or anything that falls under the realm of the theme for the week. Come back and link your post and post the button on your blog.


That's it.


You don't even have to be a blogger to take part - just send me your post and I will publish it on my blog for you. You don't even have to include your name if you prefer.


When you've published it, come back on Friday and via a widget thing you can add a link to your post and share it with everyone. The link remains open for 4 days.


Visit others, comment if you like them or feel inspired by them. Just go out and encourage and support other feminist Moms.


The more support you give, the more you will get back! I can't wait to meet and interact with other feminist moms around the world!

The Memorable Firsts

Sally tagged me ages ago and since I'm holed up in bed with a cold I figured I should actually get around to it!

First Teacher: My kindergarten teacher's name was Miss Dick, I kid you not, but I don't remember much about her if I'm honest.  My 1st grade teacher was Mrs. Baas and from what I remember I liked her (I was only 6 give me a break).  I can remember for show-and-tell I brought in my bike and somehow she knew to choose the boy I had a crush on to help me carry it in. If indulging a 6 year old's crush isn't being a good teacher I don't know what is :)

First snog: Tim, he was 18, gorgeous and played soccer for another high school. He had his own car and drove (I was 15) and I kissed him on my best friend Dana's trampoline in her back yard.

First record: I had a lot of vinyl singles (those little records) from a very young age including Madonna, Neneh Cherry, Tina Marie, Taylor Dane and tons more I can't remember. 

First job: If you don't count baby-sitting (which I did a lot of) it was at the TP Swim Club Snack Bar when I had just turned 15. My friend Stevie and I would experiment with putting pickles, tomatoes and Airheads into the deep fryer. We also used to freeze wet baseball caps to keep cool and basically goofed off way to much. I'm still not sure why we were entrusted to using deep fryers and a grill.

First crush: Michael Jackson. I wanted to marry him and kissed my 3rd birthday cake.  I had a Michael Jackson Barbie doll and posters all over my wall. Please note this was when he was still a black man and before he turned into a scary white woman.

First hangover: I'm guessing it was at my college orientation. I didn't drink in high school (remember that and not this next part Mom) and somehow even though I was 17 I got into clubs and definitely decided it was time to try drinking. I drank strawberry vodka straight because I didn't know it should be mixed. Someone told me I needed a chaser and gave me beer. How i didn't puke I don't know.

First gig: Counting Crows at the Cincinnati Zoo with the fore mentioned best friend Dana when we were 14 or 15 I can't remember! I met Adam Duritz in the audience and got his autograph.

First flat: Not counting dorm rooms it was my apartment at The Majestic on W. McMillian in Clifton. The Majestic was anything but and while I could walk to classes at UC it was super ghetto. My parking space was often filled with sewage, homeless people lived in the laundry room and I once came home and found a man passed out over the stairs. I felt like a horrible, mean Republican as I called the police since it was snowing out but said man didn't move when I said "Excuse me Sir" so I was worried he was dead.  The police knew him and seemed more than happy to shift him for me at least until they discovered he'd soiled himself.  Classy place, right?  They've since totally refurbished and cleaned up the place so if you are a student at UC don't let me experience sway you as it is an amazing location.

First byline: I know I wrote things for my high school newspaper but I couldn't tell you what. I wrote a story for my town newspaper on our Congressman though as well. I can't tell you if it was about interning for him or about a Town Hall meeting he held but it was one or the other.

First blog: My first blog was a Live Journal (I think?) and just me rambling and writing really horrible post-breakup songs that were way too heavily influenced by Dashboard Confessional and alcohol.  I had a blog on MySpace after that which was mostly memes and then another LiveJournal blog after I'd moved over here. Started up with this one and actually stuck with it.

Feminist Friday IX Theme: Violence Against Women

This week's theme is inspired by this image my best friend sent me:

Use this image as a jump off point for your post this week. Any feminist inspired or related post based on your thoughts/reaction to this image will work.  There certainly has been plenty of stories on the news recently you could draw from as well.  Since some of you may have something to say but don't necessarily want your name on it I am happy to host anonymous posts on this topic; the info on how to contact me is below.

The Friday Feminist Mom Round up

Here's how it works. Write a blog about being a feminist mom, raising a feminist child, a rant or anything that falls under the realm of the theme for the week. You don't have to be a mom or parent to participate. Come back and link your post and post the button on your blog.


That's it.


You don't even have to be a blogger to take part - just send me your post and I will publish it on my blog for you. You don't even have to include your name if you prefer.


When you've published it, come back on Friday and via a widget thing you can add a link to your post and share it with everyone. The link remains open for 4 days.


Visit others, comment if you like them or feel inspired by them. Just go out and encourage and support other feminist Moms.


The more support you give, the more you will get back! I can't wait to meet and interact with other feminist moms around the world!

Little Charley Bear DVD Review and Giveaway!

....and the winner is:

Di Coke! Please contact me within 48 hours to claim your DVD!


Have you met Little Charley Bear? Little Charley Bear is a CGI infant series about an imaginative and playful bear called Charley. Under the watchful eye of his friend, the Narrator, Charley Bear uses his imagination to play and go on adventures where he discovers new things about himself and the world around him through active role play. Aimed at young children aged up to four years, Little Charley Bear is a gently paced show that inspires creativity, discovery and imagination.

Blondie Boy was sent a copy of Charley Bear's new DVD "Are you there Charley Bear?" with  six of his most exciting imaginary adventures, plus fantastic bonus features.  I've got to be honest, Blondie Boy was less than interested. He loved dancing to the theme music but otherwise he wouldn't sit and watch.  Blondie Boy doesn't really watch TV and I thought he might be a little young so I asked my friend Deb what her children who are 2 and almost 5 thought of Charley bear.


Both her son and daughter loved Charley Bear! They both really enjoyed watching the DVD and her 5 year old said Charley Bear had "a great imagination." The episodes are just long enough to keep a child's attention but not too long to lose it.  I like how Charley Bear started out imagining he was doing an activity and then he was transported to really doing it!


Charley Bear doesn't speak and while the episodes are driven by his imagination, they are narrated by the Narrator, James Corden. Depending on  if you are fan of him (or if your husband isn't :cough:) this may or may not be a selling point.





Are You There Charley Bear? is available on Amazon or you can find him on Facebook and BBC2 at 10:10am OR you could win your own copy in my giveaway!




To enter:
Follow my Blog publicly (link on right sidebar) and comment what was your favourite thing to pretend to be when you were little! (mandatory)


Extra Entries:
-Follow me on Twitter and tweet "I entered to win a "Are You There Charley Bear" DVD with @Melaina25 & TransatlanticBlonde.com! You can too!: http://tinyurl.com/AYTCB" and comment to let me know (1 extra entry)
-Become a fan of Charley Bear on Facebook and comment to let me know (1 extra entry)
-Blog about the giveaway and comment to let me know (1 extra entry)


Make sure to leave each entry in a separate comment.
All entries will be verified and deleted if not valid so make sure to leave the usernames you subscribe or tweet with.


The DVD is region two so the giveaway is only open to the UK and Europe. A winner will be drawn at random on June 19th at 12:00 GMT. Winners must contact me within 48 hours or another winner will be drawn. GOOD LUCK! CLOSED.


Transatlantic Blonde was provided this product to review/giveaway, but postage is paid by Transatlantic Blonde.

Feminist Friday VIII: Raising a Feminist Child

There are things I know I do as a mother because I am a feminist. I don't let gender stereotypes influence my purchases or decisions  for Blondie Boy. I don't let my being a mother define me; even though it is a very big part of who I am, it is not all I am. However, when I stop to think about raising Blondie Boy as a feminist, well I get a bit stuck.


If I was raising a daughter I think maybe it would be more straight forward, but how do you raise a feminist son?  The best I can come up with is that his father and I set a good example of what feminists are.  I think a lot of it is pretty easy. We teach him he can be anything he wants to be and support him in whatever he wants to do whether it's what culture deems to be "gender appropriate" or not.  


He's just 17 months so how to raise him a feminist isn't something that really comes into play at the moment.  When I mentioned to a colleague how much he loved Lady Gaga she asked if I was worried that this was giving him a poor template of what a beautiful woman is.  I'll give you that Gaga is very thin, but he doesn't see Gaga as anything other than someone who sings songs that he likes.  I realize as he gets older I will have to temper what the media shows him and help counteract the poor messages most mainstream media sends out about women.


For right now I think all I can do is be a feminist myself and let him follow the example his father and I set for him.  Sure someday I know I'll have to get into it more deeply with him. I'd hope though if I teach him what's right and wrong, how to respect others and all the other things you should teach a child regardless that he'd find his feminist identity on his own. 


I don't think my parents particularly set out to raise a feminist daughter, but they certainly have one (if not two) of them now.  I'd like to think that positive and supportive parents raise feminist children whether they set out to or not.  Or am I being too naïve?

Raising a Feminist Child

Here's how it works. Write a blog about being a feminist mom, raising a feminist child, a rant or anything that falls under the realm of the theme for the week. Come back and link your post and post the button on your blog.


That's it.


You don't even have to be a blogger to take part - just send me your post and I will publish it on my blog for you. You don't even have to include your name if you prefer.


When you've published it, come back on Friday and via a widget thing you can add a link to your post and share it with everyone. The link remains open for 4 days.


Visit others, comment if you like them or feel inspired by them. Just go out and encourage and support other feminist Moms.


The more support you give, the more you will get back! I can't wait to meet and interact with other feminist moms around the world!

Poopscapades

So you know we are potty training and we are being pretty laid back about it. The events of the past week have made me want to padlock a diaper on Blondie Boy's cute little tush.  If you don't like reading about poop, you may want to stop here so dont' say I didn't warn you.


The first incident resulted when while Blondie Boy was running around I thought I saw a brown mark on his bum, inspected said mark looked around the floor but merely found the Emma dog licking her lips.  Now the evidence was purely circumstantial and I'm sure no judge or jury would have convicted her, but needless to say I couldn't look at her the same.


Move forward a few days and Blondie Boy again is frolicking about naked as he likes to do, seriously this kid is a stripper, and I see it drop from his bum to the floor. He then sprints across the room dropping presents on the floor along the way. This time as I scream "Noooo" I watch in disgust as Miss Emma eats up the chocolate treats greedily.


His "shit and sprint" is repeated the next day but luckily this time we are able to keep Emma away.  I still can't quite look her in the eye though knowing what she's done.  We have a few poopscapade free days and then while I'm sitting in a board meeting I get this text from NBH:


"For Blondie Boy's next trick, how about pulling your nappy to the side under your PJs, shitting down the leg of your still-fastened PJs into the foot and then smushing it about with your got so both your PJ foot and foot are ingrained with shit. Had to bath him."


It took every ounce of willpower not to burst out laughing when I saw it flash on my iPhone. Also I was secretly excited because I could finally use this emoticon which I've been dying to use since I download Emoji.

So what is the point of this blog post, other than to obviously have my son hate me some point down the road? I don't know but maybe someone else has similar stories? Or you know of some scatological sporting events I could enter him in? Bueller? Bueller?

Feminist Friday VII Theme: Raising a Feminist Child

This week I want to know your stories, opinions, point-of-view on raising a feminist child.  How do you raise a feminist son or a feminist daughter? What does that even entail? Write about whatever you want as long as it falls under the theme.

The Friday Feminist Mom Round up

Here's how it works. Write a blog about being a feminist mom, raising a feminist child, a rant or anything that falls under the realm of the theme for the week. Come back and link your post and post the button on your blog.


That's it.


You don't even have to be a blogger to take part - just send me your post and I will publish it on my blog for you. You don't even have to include your name if you prefer.


When you've published it, come back on Friday and via a widget thing you can add a link to your post and share it with everyone. The link remains open for 4 days.


Visit others, comment if you like them or feel inspired by them. Just go out and encourage and support other feminist Moms.


The more support you give, the more you will get back! I can't wait to meet and interact with other feminist moms around the world!

24 Hour Heat Wave!

It hit 75 in Glasgow on Friday and when it gets that warm here you take advantage of it in case it goes away (which it totally did when it dropped 20 degrees today) so we broke out the BBQ and Blondie Boy's very first paddling pool! It was a gift from his Grandma with a ball game and fancy sprinklers and he LOVED it!  

I've been getting jealous of all my American friend's photos of their kids in pools so I'm glad that even if it was just for one day my boy got to swim in his backyard, too! I've promised certain readers :cough:myMom:cough: I'd post more photos of the boy so here he is enjoying the lovely Friday we had!

At the end of the evening he was very tired and his hair was very curly :)