Cancun-ing with Kiddos

The last time Simon I and were in Mexico, I had just defended my thesis, finished my MA and written my BCBA board exam. Our vacation to the Mayan Riveria was icing on the cake. It was a much deserved break all about relaxing, tanning and reading books, long walks on the beach and romantic dinners.

Then we had kids. And vacations have been less than relaxing. You can read all about my thoughts on crossing the border with kids and camping with kids or just planning for a day at the beach. Anyways,  I convinced Simon that we needed a stress free vacation and to do that we needed to go to an all inclusive resort where I didn't have to meal-plan, cook, clean or plan activities for the kids. It took a bit of negotiation but Simon agreed.

So here are my thoughts on cancun-ing with kids (yes, cancun-ing is a verb).

1. Flying with a Baby SUCKS.  If you imagine your flight as being utterly terrible and when it turns out to be as horrifying as you imagine at least you were mentally prepared. The flight there was actually pretty awesome, it was Noah's first flight so for the first hour he didn't even know that running up and down the aisle was an option so he happily sat on my lap and played playdoh and ate his snacks and even napped for 1.5 hours in the carrier. The flight back was the most dreadful experience I have ever had and do not wish this misery upon anyone. It makes me never want to fly ever again or at least I have buried the memory of it deep into my subconscious.

5:30am at YVR

playdoh on the plane

nap on the plane

When we first got on the plane in Cancun, it was like getting into a parked car on a hot summer day and it was quite a while before we took off and every minute in the baking hot plane was agonizing. Then add wrangling a sweaty and very uncomfortable baby on my lap made it that much worse.

That wasn't the worst part though, the worst part was when I had Noah asleep in the carrier and his little foot was sticking out in the aisle and the flight attendant bumped into him with the trolley and woke him up mid-nap. He was so mad to be awoken and wanted every single person on the plane to know that he was not happy about this. At this same moment, the pilot thought it would be fun to issue the seat belt sign because of turbulence so I couldn't even pace with him in the aisle to calm his screams. I just had to hold him while he exercised his vocal chords to their full capacity. Then after the seat belt sign was turned off, I went to the back of the plane to try to calm him down but after 30 minutes he was still wailing and kept pointing to the door trying to get off the plane and was hysterical when I told him he couldn't get off the plane yet. Both of us were sobbing at this point and Simon came to take him so I could have a break but being separated from me made him even more livid and he proceeded to projectile vomit all over Simon AND 3 rows of passengers. Seriously, this happened.

And that's not all. After that, I changed him and put him back in the carrier with me. He was so exhausted from wailing for over an hour that he fell asleep. But after sleeping for less than 5 minutes, he opened his eyes slightly and puked all over me and then instantly fell back asleep. I couldn't even clean up the vomit because it was between me and him and carrier and I did not dare wake him up again and face the wrath so I had to slowly slink back in my seat with the puke in between us and just feel it seep into my dress and simmer in it for the next hour. Seriously, yes, this happened. I was "that mom" with "that baby". Total Epic fail.
But onto other things now.....

2. Travel with friends who also have crazy kids. It was so nice to go on our trip with our friends Jennifer and Wesley and their kids Emily and Sarah who are about the same age as our kids. We took turns getting down to the beach super early to claim our beach chairs, shared sand and pool toys, had meals together and each couple even got a date night dinner without the kids.

3. Pack the pharmacy. I thought it was a bit overkill at first but we packed every drug we could possibly need: Gravol, Benedryl, Tylenol, Asprin, Pepto Bismol, Immodium and are we every glad we did. There must of been something 'off' with their food because 7 out of 8 of us spent 12-36 hours getting sick and puking at some point in the week. I was out for a day, the kids picked the same night to be up all night puking and Simon was sick on the last day. An all-you-can-eat buffet and 5 different restaurants is awesome but it was like Russian roulette and you never knew if what you ate was going to make you sick. I think the chefs need to review their Food Safe standards.

4. Pick a kid-friendly resort. Other than the fact that the food was less than awesome, the hotel itself was pretty great.  There was a giant pirate ship and castle water slide, shallow pools, mini golf, photo opps with exotic animals and minions and other characters that patrolled the pool.There were lots of other families there too and the kids even made new friends with a family from Minnesota and we met up with them in the evening and the kids played tag and hide and seek together.

5. Keep it low-key. Cancun-ing with a 1 and 3 year old means you don't leave the resort. No scuba diving, swimming with dolphins or para sailing excursions, the kids were more than happy with sand buckets, shovels and inflatables. We just alternated between beach time, jumping in the ocean waves and playing in the pool all week. Simple, stress-free fun.

6. If you baby is a crappy sleeper at home prepare that it will be worse on vacation. Noah has never been a great sleeper like his sister but if he's not teething, sick, hungry, thirsty, too hot, too cold, too tired or angry at the world, he can sleep through the night. However, that is only when I can put him to bed and close the door. Being on vacation meant we were all in one room and having his crib right beside my bed meant he was getting up multiple times a night to see if it was time to go to the beach yet.

is it beach time yet?

7. Stay on BC time. Cancun is 2 hours ahead and it was easier to not switch time zones and have kids go to bed later and sleep in a little bit. The sleeping in part had to be forced because once it's light out, Noah was super keen to grab his bucket and start digging at 6:00am but that's 4:00am Vancouver time! It was nice that the kids were able to stay up late because they had shows at the hotel every night at 9:00pm and Natallie loved them. We watched a Mexican dance show, a break dance show and a Mexican spin off of Glee.

in the lobby waiting for the 9:00pm show

copying dance moves she learned from the show

8. Pace yourself with all the all you can eat. Although I'm adamant something was not quite right with the food, the kids also may have contributed to their own stomach's demise by having ice cream for breakfast lunch and dinner. They were so excited to line up and ask for anything they wanted at the dessert shop and get it. I too may have been a bit over zealous on the first day with their made-to-order Belgian waffles. Had to remind myself that the food is there all week and we don't need to sample everything in the first 24 hours upon arrival.

9. Walk along the beach. It may not be as romantic as before kids and holding hands along the shore but it was equally nice to walk altogether to the playground near our hotel packing our big and little kiddos along in the carriers because of course they refuse to walk when you want them to.

big kids with moms and little kids with dads

beach side playground

10. Accept that babies, toddlers and 3 year olds have unpredictable moods and it doesn't matter if you're at the pool or the beach with all-you-can-eat ice cream, they will still find things to whine and complain about. Like when there are a dozen shovels and the kids all fight over the same one. Or when you're holding 4 beach towels, the buckets, the pile of shovels, sunscreen, the camera and balancing pina coladas, your kid will insist that they can't walk and need to be picked up right now. My favorite was when Natallie walked on the beach every day and whined, "Mommeeeeeeeeeeee, there's SAND in my toes!!!!!!!!!!"  Good thing she accepted that sand would be in her toes while at the beach and we had a lot of fun burying her in the sand. The last day we made such a big pit that they probably wouldn't come out. We could of kept all 4 kids there and left for drinks and come back later.

I think the best part was when we came back and my mom asked her about the trip and Natallie talked non-stop about jumping the waves, swimming in the pool by herself with the floaty, giving high 5's to minions and taking pictures with monkeys and parrots. She even drew a picture of us at the beach.

Natallie's depiction of us at the beach jumping the waves

So yes, the flight was utter misery and the food was sketchy but other than that, it was still the most stress-free vacation with a 1 and 3 year old that we've had. The kids had a blast and when the kids are all smiles, I'm all smiles too.