Holiday....

So, we finally took the plunge and went on holiday...abroad!

Before Reuben was born, we regularly went on holiday abroad and had a really fab and relaxing time. But, since having Reuben we have been (putting it bluntly) scared.

Reuben is a very complex little boy. He can be very unpredicted in his behaviour which can be highly stressful on both us and him. Routine is a must for Reuben and once we step out of it, our troubles and his begin.

So the very thought of being in a completely different country, having a language barrier and being so far away from home. Not to mention no extra support from family or friends seemed like a trip from hell.

After a lot of thinking and talking, we decided to book a holiday to Tenerife. My husbands parents decided they would come along as well, which made the thought of the holiday a little less terrifying.

Walking into our lovely clean hotel room at midday after being on the go since 4.15am felt fabulous.

We set our cases down, the girls were running around exploring and my husband and I having sat down for a much needed 5 minutes. That was until we looked around to discover, Reuben had disappeared!

That's when we noticed the hotel door standing wide open......

My husband and I both bolted out the door, going in opposite directions and shouting Reuben's name. The girls stayed at the room just in case he was to come running back, they too were shouting his name.

I have never felt so terrified in all my life. My heart was in my throat and I could feel the bile rising. Shouting Reuben's name over and over then listening for his voice whilst running through corridors and up and down steps.

Finally, what felt like a very long time, we could hear him laughing and a Spanish lady talking to him. The Spanish lady turned out to be a cleaner and was trying to ask him where his "Mama" was and obviously Reuben could not understnad a word of what she said.

From that point forward, I don't think I ever fully relaxed in that hotel room. The door would be locked and checked a million times and the pushchair would be put in front of the door. Everyone was given strict instructions to have Reuben in their sights whenever we were in the hotel room.

That first day and the day after, we had to have eyes in the back of our heads. We were on "high alert" at all times as Reuben was like a ticking time bomb, ready to do impulsive things at any moment.

The evening of our first full day, I said to my husband that we should never have come on holiday. I could quite easily have packed our things up there and then and gone home.

As the days went on. Reuben seemed to settle. We got into our own routine and we stayed more or less in the same place by the pool each day.

Reuben loved being able to just jump in the pool and cool off. In fact by the end of the holiday he was swimming really well, albeit with his face in the water and he completely mastered the art of jumping in.

The heat seemed to affect him and make him really tired and drowsy, so walking anywhere became quite a challenge (Reuben is not light). Just the little tasks of going to get something to eat turned into a mission.

The main challenge we had on holiday was the hotel restaurant.

Whether it was the big open space or the noise or the amount of people, Reuben just did not like it!

He would refuse to leave the hotel room in the morning to go to breakfast and we would end up having to bribe him with a cup of tea (his favourite) then sneak food out of the restaurant for when we were round by the pool as he would just refuse to eat.

Evening meals were even more of a challenge as, obviously we couldn't sneak food out. Reuben would full on refuse to go down to the restaurant for dinner and would even have temper tantrums in the hotel room.

Each evening we would have to think of another bribe to get him down there or simply try and distract him by chatting about cars while we walked to the restaurant. But once inside he would be terrible, he really wasn't comfortable there.

I would usually go and get Reuben's dinner first and try to get him settled eating while everyone else went and go theirs. But just as I sat down to eat my dinner, he would have finished his and start to disrupt the whole table. This would be either, banging cutlery on glasses, shouting, banging, throwing his plate or drink across the table or simply getting up and trying o run off.

Between my husband, his parents and myself we had to juggle distracting Reuben or getting his pudding to keep him calm. At some points, I had to leave the restaurant mid meal and take him to the lobby to just calm him and get his attention  back.

All in all, meal times were very traumatic for both Reuben, ourselves and probably some other guests sitting by us!

Looking back now, I wished I would have spoken to the hotel staff and explained our situation to see if there was anything they would have done. I am sure we could have eaten out in the lobby or been aloud in the restaurant early before everyone else came in. But hey ho, a thought for next time!!!

Leaving on a Jet plane...

Well, what a week!

We have just returned home from Reuben's first holiday abroad and I think we did ok.

Our flight to Tenerife was at 7.15am, which meant we had to leave our house at 4.30am. This wasn't as bad as I thought it would be as we just woke Reuben up, got him dressed and went out of the door.

Obviously we had to prepare Reuben beforehand about where we were going, what we were doing and what would be happening while we were away. I think he was fine with it all as he seemed quite happy.

Reuben loved going in the taxi (simply because it was just a different make of car ha) he spent the journey to the airport looking out of the window and telling Nanny and Grandad that we are all going on the aeroplane.

Once at the airport my heart sunk as the queue to check in was massive and the airport was really busy with crowds of people (2 things Reube hates)

Luckily the queue moved quite fast and Reuben only got fed up as we approached the front, by which time he kept sitting on the floor and refusing to get up, which was holding the people behind us up!

Going through security was a bit of a nightmare as Reuben had had enough by then and it was really hard to get him moving. He would sit on the floor and refuse to move, this deemed quite a challenge when carrying my own bags, Pip the teddy and Reuben's hand luggage!!!

I was a bit worried how Reuben would react to going through the beeper machine (don't know the real name ha) but he seemed to cope really well. That might be down to us telling Reuben that Pip the teddy was also going through his own machine to have a special photo taken.

Once through security we had just enough time to grab some breakfast. Reuben was so happy to get his morning cup of tea, it calomed him instantly. I have never seen him enjoy a cup of tea quite like it. Thinking back now, maybe I should have made him a cuppa in his travel cup to have in the taxi. It might have set him up for the day.

We were so lucky with the seats we had on the plane as they were right at the front and had extra leg room.

Reuben coped really well with getting on the plane and letting us put his seat belt on. I gave him a sticker book that was all about aeroplanes and airports so we sat and did this whilst waiting to taxi on to the runway.

Surprisingly, Reuben didn't care at all about taking off. There I was trying to get him to look out of the window as we sped down the run way but he looked straight ahead with is thumb in.

Even as we were up in the air and the clouds were visible from the windows, Reuben still did not seem to care or notice. It was as if he had gone into his own little world to protect himself from this strange new situation!

Once the seat belt sign went off, we were able to get Reuben's bag down from the locker and get his things out. He played for a while on his Leap pad, then got his cars out.

As we were half way through the flight, Reuben got a bit fed up. Thankfully we had a back up plan!

My husband had put quite a few episodes of Peppa Pig and Ben and Holly on his ipad. Reuben loves these programmes so we hooked his hearing aids up to the ipad using the special adaptors. These are better as the sound goes straight through to his hearing aids whereas normal headphones don't.

Reuben sat watching this for a good while and it seemed to calm him down a lot ( a very good idea by us ha)

Once the seat belt sign came back on and we had to tidy Reuben's things away, he got agitated again. This was simply because he didn't want his seat belt back on, he liked the freedom of standing by his chair and playing.

So, my husband and I spent the whole time until we landed holding his seat belt as Reuben had figured out how to undo it. This,  he did not like at all and so we had a quite a temper as we came into land. The sound of Reuben screaming and making a whole lot of noise could not be helpful for any nervous travellers on our plane...Sorry!

Our next challenge was the dreaded wait for our luggage. Reuben had had enough by now and really didn't want to do anymore waiting.

Luckily we got our pushchair quite quickly and he was able to sit in that and cuddle stinky blanket.

Once on the coach, we had to do the dreaded waiting thing again which meant Reuben was now doing anything he could to be disruptive and as awkward as possible. He was standing on the seats, shouting, pulling his Nanny and sisters hair and generally being a pain in the bum.

As soon as the coach started moving he was fine and sat and watching everything from his window.

Now for the holiday....