DIY for Cross-Cultural Families: 8 Lightweight Gifts
There are so many clever DIY gifts out there on the internet, but I’ve been on the lookout for DIY, lightweight (weigh less than 100 grams), and upcycled gifts you’d […]
air travel
The not so warm welcome home
The following is a sequel to my last post on our recent trip to America. In that article, I shared how we all went through some adjusting, after being gone […]
World-schooling… without the camper van!
There’s a LOT of buzz in my circles around “world-schooling”. While definitions differ, most people use the term world-schooling to talk about using the world as your school. World-schooling families […]
A simple tool to help young kids remember their travels
Our tired stroller wheels wobbled from side to side along the uneven cobblestone of the Muttrah corniche. My cousin was leading us across the busy street towards the fish market […]
Keeping the family afloat
We uprooted our life just one week ago. That’s when we moved our family of five from city life in the United States to a small village in France. Wow. […]
Big news for our family
In case you’ve caught word, friends, the rumors are true. In just five weeks from today, we will move our little family of five to a village in France. It’s […]
All God’s Children Need Traveling Shoes
I jumped right into All God’s Children Need Traveling Shoes, the fifth of Maya Angelou’s seven part autobiographical series and I thoroughly enjoyed it. In this installment, Angelou writes about […]
6 tips for TCKs returning “home”
The move to my passport culture, a country I hadn’t lived in for 20 years, was littered with pain and grief. I felt the physical ache in my heart as […]
Freefall to Fly
A few months back, I wrote a review of the novel Americanah because of its rich layers and interwoven themes: Immigration, The Third Culture, Cross-cultural living. Books must really be of […]
When kids aren’t a distraction to your calling…
I plucked up the courage to leave my chaotic and needy small humans to invest into my future at Influence Conf this month. The time away was such a gift […]
“They’re gonna hate you for it”
I have been grateful for so many encouraging comments and emails about traveling with small kids, multilingualism, and cross-cultural living on social media. Then, almost out of nowhere, this one […]
Adventures in China with small kids
Not so many Western families travel to China with young kids for a vacation. That was the first thing that struck us as we flew to Shanghai a few weeks […]
“H” is for…Humility
“I’m going to China, where are you going, Grammie?” Ayo asked last week as if nothing were. I didn’t think much of it at the time but it really marked […]
The school question
Over the past couple of years, as parents of older kids discussed preschool, my eyes would glaze over. We have time, and we won’t be living in the United States […]
France & Greece
Returned from Europe. Two kids on jetlag. Ayo 26 mos, Délice 5mos. Tall Mountain leaves for long trip to Asia. Kids use it as an excuse not to sleep at […]
The iconic American cookie
I was driving the hubs to the airport the other day when I noticed this hotel shuttle with a gargantuan chocolate chip cookie on the side… The branding person inside […]
Fun times…
Just a few random photos from our travels (France + UK). The final pic is of Ayo and his second cousins in the UK. Ayo is 20 months old, […]
Tia Camp
Well, girls, I am pretty sure I am the luckiest pregnant mama out there. My sister-in-law, a.k.a. “Tia”, recently declared she would be taking Ayo one day a fortnight in […]
Flying alone w/ 19 month Ayo
This cozy Sunday afternoon found me catching up on Pam’s witty blog about air travel with a toddler over here. I beckoned Tall Mountain to come over and read her […]
This just happened…
Hi there, We just returned home by airplane and our tube of SunnyBaby SPF 30 squeezed out into our suitcase. I am wondering how best to wash the lotion out […]
NYC Chinatown and CMoM
It turned out really helpful for us to fly into New York with one whole family day to figure out public transportation before Ayo and I were left to explore […]
Pregnancy 2.0
In case you haven’t gathered from various social media sites or missed the subtle change from “child” to “children” in the blog description, I am 21 weeks pregnant with bébé numéro […]
Cupcakes & hotdogs
Today was the first day I have felt like myself again following another gruesome trip over the Atlantic. The airplane didn’t turn back this time, but we missed our connection in […]
Sleeping baby bubbly
Last night was jetlag night number 5 and Ayo slept through! Hooray! I am not sure if it had something to do with this being the fifth night or based […]
Flying me crazy!
It is hard to believe that this is Ayo’s fourth trip to France in less than a year. He is such a fortunate toddler and he doesn’t even know it! […]
Mexico at 14 months
Three loads of laundry are piled up next to me and bright colored toys are strewn all over the first floor. I had to step over a sippy cup and […]
A new way of seeing things
Ayo’s room is undergoing a bunch of little changes. Here is the latest of them. I have had the vision for something like this since about November, but I only […]
International travel with baby
It’s hard to believe that Ayo has been on 16 flights in the last six months. I’d say that flying with him is definitely getting easier as we learn how […]
Living in the tension
Well, on Monday, we flew over to Europe again. I had to remind myself what was in our suitcases as I pictured them still having the contents of our last […]
Our quick trip to Brussels
We are back in France after a short trip to Brussels for the European Parliament film screening. We flew on low cost EasyJet, which is Tall Mountain’s new least favorite […]
Baby jetlag
Well, as uneventful as the flight was, baby jetlag has been pretty bad for the past three nights. At 3.5 months Ayo had no issues at all adjusting eight timezones […]
A few trip photos
As stressful as it is to prepare for a trip like this with a baby, our travels couldn’t have gone better. We’re so thankful. For my two mama friends traveling […]
Autumn 7.5 month packing list
It’s hard to believe that tomorrow, we get to fly to Geneva. (Sorry robbers, we do have guests staying in our home.) We’re in that last minute packing frenzy for […]
Los Angeles at 6.5 months
We made our way to Los Angeles on Saturday. Tall Mountain had to be in the area for tonight’s screening of his newly released documentary film. We have also been […]
Our journey “home”
As terribly hard as it was to leave mamie and papi and “the most beautiful region of the most beautiful country in the world”, we had a wonderful trip home. […]
A 24 hour blur
Ayo got to see the Rockies, the Statue of Liberty and Geneva’s Jet d’Eau in 24 hours. That was kind of fun. Less fun was to discover we had no […]
Packing list (for 3.5 month old)
Tall mountain and I try to do most of our travel with carry-ons. We like to bring only what we need and are known for packing deep into the night […]