On travel with children: they joys and challenges...

 Georgie having lunch at Cullen

I make no bones about it - having children (or in our case, a child) is the best thing that ever happened to Mr K and I. It's also the hardest thing we have ever done.

I know it's a very tiny first world problem, but the one thing I have struggled with over the last few months has been lack of - or broken - sleep. We have had a bit of a rough trot on the sleep front - what with 5 teeth (including 4 molars) coming though since mid-December (one more still to come) and three colds.

 Tiny footprints: Early morning walks at at Smiths Beach

Our trip to Western Australia was fabulous, but no picnic. Poor Georgie never settled into the time zone shift which meant for some very very early (3am) mornings for Mama and Papa. Despite that, we had a wonderful time and Georgie was on her best behaviour for much of the trip. We visited some fabulous wineries: Stella Bella, Cape Mentelle, Cullen and the always Fabulous Moss Wood (hello Erika!). All worth visiting if you are in the Margaret River vicinity, especially Moss Wood.

For us, it was the first time on holidays we really had to balance the needs of a toddler and our own desires. Our pre-baby wine region visits used to consist of 8-10 wineries a day, involved and complicated discussions with winemakers about crop yields, irrigation, vintages, oak and tannins, a quick stop for lunch and long, complex dinners.

Our trip post-baby allowed us to visit approximately two wineries per day (taking turns to alternate the baby wrangling) with a lunch in-between and a long stop at a park, duck pond or other such baby friendly activity. In some respects much more relaxing, but requires a lot more planning.

We are off to Hawaii in May. I am hoping for another, slightly more relaxing trip and that Georgie will slip a little better into the time zone. And perhaps she'll like the beaches a little better there.

Kitty