Wandering Browns

Parks are our favorite for getting wiggles out! A few months back, a friend's apartment was damaged by fire and her family ended up in an extended-stay hotel for a month or so until they could get back on their feet. She asked me for tips on how to live in hotels with a toddler. Here I will share them with you. Aside from brief times at grandparents' houses, we have been living in hotels for over a year now. "Living" in a hotel is different from vacationing and staying at a hotel. On vacation, there are plenty of activities and attractions to stay busy all day, and it isn't always to keep toddlers on a routine for vacation. My definition for "living" in a hotel is staying in a location for longer than a week or two and trying to establish some sort of normalcy in said location. Here are my survival tips for LIVING in a hotel: Railroad museum in the Netherlands- Our hotel room was so small that we went on excursions a few times a week! 1. Get O...

Playing around at the hotel I wake up. Usually too early because Landon has been awakened by the loud street noise just outside our window. He crawls into bed with us around 5:30 and hopefully sleeps a little longer. Time for breakfast! Much like the rest of Asia, people eat the same things for all three meals here. There is a big buffet at our hotel that includes steamed rice, cooked vegetables, meat, and usually some sort of cooked soy product as well. There is chicken porridge, which is actually rice porridge with chicken in it, as well as fried veggies and meat that has been battered. That's the Indonesian section. There is always toast and various pastries and breads, which I find to be dry. I always opt for the bread pudding where all the dry bread is cooked with eggs, milk and vanilla into a delicious little custard. then there is the small "western" breakfast area with pancakes or french toast (always cold), sausage, veggies au gratin, potatoes, and omelets....

Since moving out of our 2-bedroom townhouse in mid-March of this year, we have lived exclusively in hotels/guesthouses/extended stay hotels. Since May, we have lived in a business luxury hotel. There are many perks to living in a hotel. I bet if I didn't have a toddler I would be perfectly fine staying in hotels for long periods of time. There are some downsides, though. I will list them all- pros and cons- here for all who are contemplating living in hotels to consider before taking the plunge. PROS: Maid Service every day/ No Housework ever!: I don't have to worry about the messes Landon makes, for the most part. We have someone to come in and clean our room every day. This is my favorite pro. Never have to wash sheets: Automatically with maid service comes new sheets and towels whenever we want! I know this is horrible for the environment, but we're not in a position to do anything about that.   This is our hotel buffet! Free buffet breakfast: This isn't ...