When we arrived to Kobe, Japan, we were in a very lovely hotel but with two kids, jet lag, etc. hotels can be a challenge. To make things more fun, Brian made the closet into a theater for the kids (put the car seat, kids, and a dvd player in there, close the door=instant fun!) Even more fun when the Pocky treats I had up high fell and hit Colin in the head. We do enjoy Pocky! (Chocolate covered little sticks, they are quite tasty.)
Jane looks a little happier in the second photo.
We have started to travel with our Automoblox cars. Colin got one for Christmas and we added to his collection for his birthday. Both kids have lots of fun making different cars and they have been a good travel toy.
We travel with a great port-a-crib made by Phil & Ted (our stroller maker). It weighs less than 6 pounds and is small enough to fit in my carry-on luggage. But unfolded, the crib is bigger than the average port-a-crib. Our friends who have traveled a lot through Nepal and India with kids gave us this great little dog tent. We made a little bed for Colin in the tent every night, and it is fun to have an extra place to be. Sometime we have story time in the tent. Only about half of me fits in, but still fun. The tent is great because it is super tiny to pack but very fun.
There was a lot of jumping on the hotel bed, which drove me a little crazy but with not much else to do, jumping was inevitable.
Our kids love capes, and our light summer blankets serve a great dual purpose here. I brought some of the Little People I have been collecting and saved some packaging for Jane to play with. We frequently save packaging and make toys from boxes and plastic. It is fun to see what the kids can come up with from a box and how the plastic from the crackers becomes a great bath toy.
And if your 2 year old draws on the textured fabric walls of your fancy Japanese hotel, let us know. We got the marks off pretty well. I usually travel with a magic sponge but the fabric wall ate my sponge. Jane is such a stinker. On her own when she colors or draws, she makes neat little circles but in about 2 seconds, she made some very big circles with a hotel pen. It was a nightmare, but finger nail polish remover got the pen out.
Colin called this the arm rest toilet. Be careful using it as an arm rest, leaning could result in some surprise spay. It was a challenge to keep the kids from pressing all of the buttons in the room as Japan seems to have lots of buttons to press!
We have eaten a lot of the instant noodles. They are very tasty but may not be the most nutritive things we can eat.
Other things I have found helpful:
-I typically bring some of my kids plastic plates/cups/bowls from home. Even in short term housing I have found most dishes are breakable. When we sublet a place in NYC we had to order a replacement for a dish broken by little hands.
-I also like to have some instant oatmeal for the first couple of days while we are traveling. A hotel room typically will have a coffee maker where it is possible to heat water. Our Japanese hotel had a great hot water heater. The oatmeal was very helpful through the jet lag too since we were wake and hungry at 4am.
-As mentioned above, I love to through in a magic eraser sponge because it is not really if but when we will need to clean something off the wall from the kids.
-I like to through in a new sponge from home and put some dish soap in a travel container, since dishes need to get cleaned. My kids are not using bottles but I like bottle brushes to scrub sippy cups and water bottles. I hate stinky sippy cups!
-Don't forget some laundry soap and stain stick! We always arrive so dirty! I like the gel stain stick for travel since it comes with a scrubbing top.
