sunset & sunrise // traveling with baby
when we decided to go to the maldives (because we knew we could earn four free nights at the park hyatt), we debated for a long time as to whether we would bring our baby along. we thought about going when i was pregnant (as a babymoon), and about waiting until moses was weaned so we could leave him with family while we went. both of these options just didn’t work with all other factors considered, so we decided to do some far, exotic travel with a seven month old.
and, pretty much through all the varied adventures of the entire ten days in sri lanka and maldives and airplanes, we were so glad that we had little moses with us! we are very lucky that he is a happy adventurer and good traveler (at least right now – i’m really curious what will happen when he starts crawling and discovers the joy of independent mobility!), but i think that even if he wasn’t so chill in transit and new places we would still be really glad we brought him along. he truly made our travel experience richer. a cute baby is a people magnet - we met and interacted with so many more people than we would have traveling on our own. i love cross-cultural exchange, and having moses with us just fostered so much more of that. it was really sweet to share beauty and wonder with our baby boy, and that somehow intensified our own sensations and perceptions. working as a parenting team through different, foreign scenarios was bonding and fun. it was just so awesome to see mo’s eyes light up at the discovery of his ability to make splashes in the pool, or at the sight of baby elephants, or at the sensation of sand between his toes.
on hadahaa island, i thought i might be a bit bummed to not have baby-free time to really relax or baby-free quality time with ian. but i honestly didn’t wish once that we would have come sans-baby. we tag teamed a bunch so that we each could lay by the pool, or read, or snorkel, or take our sweet time at the breakfast buffet … and we had a babysitter for two chunks of time when we went scuba diving together. and! our villa was close enough to the beach that we could put moses down for a nap, leave the door open and hang out on the sand and in the sea while he snoozed. the staff at the park hyatt loved baby moses and always offered to hold him while we ate dinner at the restaurant.
certainly our travel habits will continue to evolve (as they have already) as moses grows and hopefully as siblings come along. but i’m really happy to say that we not only survived our first “big” trip with a baby but that we super enjoyed it and discovered a bunch of reasons why traveling with kids is really awesome.
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our first night on hadahaa island, we experienced a spectacular sunset – unlike any i’ve ever seen before. check out those distinct pink rays! the next morning, i let ian sleep in and took moses out on the jetty to watch the sunrise, which was so dang gorgeous. that beauty made for a pretty dreamy first night and morning on our lovely maldivian island!
^^ we tried to find some good silhouette poses with all three of us :) ^^
^^ ian’s classic dip pose. can you spot mo’s little foot? ^^
^^ please excuse my bed head :) love this little boy so so so much! ^^
^^ the clarity of the water around hadahaa is just incredible. ^^
mo’s new trick is to give kisses! it is the sweetest thing ever. he grabs my face and slobbers all over my cheek and my heart just melts.
^^ after we woke ian up and got ready for the day, we walked through this glorious green tunnel (which circumnavigates the entire island as a passageway to the villas through the dense vegetation) to have breakfast at the restaurant by the pool (which was soooo delicious!) ^^ a good start to the day, that’s for sure!
more photos from hadahaa coming soon!
What an amazing destination!
ReplyDeleteDelightful pictures and writing!
ReplyDeleteWe travelled a lot with our first when he was a baby, then when our second came along (they are two years apart) things got really tricky for a couple of years. Like, we came home from every trip saying "NEVER AGAIN!" Then when our younger one was 2.5 and our older one was 4.5 all of a sudden the magic turned back on and traveling with them was fun again! Since we hit that point (about 20 months ago) we've been on many vacations with our kids with amazing memories and lots of fun. My point is, that it might get hard for awhile, but then it gets fun/easier again!
ReplyDeleteThese pictures are glorious! Love the sparkly in Moses's eyes :)
ReplyDeleteBeautiful pictures! When you traveled by car in Sri Lanka, did the car service provide a car seat?
ReplyDelete