Going on Vacation with the Kids

Going on vacation with a kid is always an adventure in parenting patience. It's always good to expect the unexpected when traveling with the little ones. My daughter has been a traveler since she was four months old and rode her first plane. As a matter of fact, she's traveled by plane, train and automobile. Probably the most unforgettable motherhood traveling experience with my daughter was our road trip to Austin, Texas.

My sister had just given birth to her first child, and my husband and one of his brothers drove the two of us to Texas. As usual, we had every necessity you need to be on the road with a one-year-old, including snacks, extra diapers and extra clothes. On this particular trip, I had a box of Girl Scout cookies that I had just bought--my favorite kind, Thin Mints.

I was sitting in the back seat with her and feel asleep. Suddenly, I began to smell something minty. It didn't dawn on me until the drowsiness wore off that it was my Thin Mints. I looked at my daughter and her teeth were black and she had dark chocolate stain on her hands and face. She managed to open the pack and eat an entire row of cookies. All she did was smile at me as if she'd done nothing wrong. I was upset, not necessarily because she ate my cookies, but because she only left four in the pack.

I had to use almost an entire pack of baby wipes to clean her up, and I won't even speak of what came out of her diaper. Because she ate all of those cookies, I didn't allow her to have any sweets for a few days. I had to keep an eye on my mom because she tried to sneak things to her.