On Monday, Robert, Milan and I will be heading out to the beautiful city of Geneva for one of our favorite conferences, LIFT. Last year, we were blown away by the caliber of speakers, breadth of the materials covered, the overall artistic appeal of the conference, the amazing people we met, the beauty of Geneva and the amazing Swiss experience. Laurent and team pulled off a complete success. Can't wait to see him and everyone else there. Hope you will join us at the conference.

Robert, Patrick and I are totally hooked on Lost. We watched the entire season three over the holidays and now wait to see the season premiere tonight. We loved season one; tolerated season two and liked season three. I wasn't entirely impressed with the flash forward scenes, but have to wait and see what happens tonight.  My favorite character is Hurley. If you watch Lost, who is your favorite character and why? If you don't; you should watch it. It is the best thing on TV.

I can't begin to tell you how much we appreciate Mylicon infant drops. Milan always started crying after each feeding and we tried changing bottles and formulas, and I was watching what I ate so that contents of my breast milk would not upset him. We thought he was just a fussy baby, but my friend who has a one year old suggested giving him Mylicon and it made a world of difference. We checked with our doctor and she said it was totally safe too. God bless who ever invented this drop. It is a miracle worker.

He would cry and be upset right after each feeding. His digestive system is just not fully developed at that age and he had a lot of gas with the milk. Most babies are like that. It makes parents lives hell because you have just fed the baby, burped him, changed him, and he is not sleepy and yet he is crying. You are at the end of your wits. Let me tell you: One drop of Mylicon and a few minutes and Milan is as happy as can be.

No one is paying me to write this post. The best payment is having my child be happy and healthy. Check with your doctor first of course, but Mylicon really worked for us and continues to do wonders.

I honestly thought that my days of traveling adventure would be over once our baby was born. Not so! Barely four months old, Milan has accompanied us without much fuss to Paris, London and Vegas, traveling via Trains, Planes, and even on a bus. We are headed to Geneva next.

If you are traveling with child I highly recommend checking out My Traveling Buddy website.

Baby Center has a great checklist on things to take with you while traveling with child.

My advice based on my own experience?

1) Don't pack too many little bags and suitcases. You will leave things behind or else won't be able to carry all of them together. While it was easier before to have smaller, lighter suitcases, you now need to try and consolidate as much as possible. Remember in addition to the suitcases, you also have to push the stroller and you only have two hands :) I used to pack a suitcase, a carry on and a bag for each of us and it worked perfectly before, but now one of us has to push the stroller while the other carries everything on the cart. My heart goes out to single parents!

2) Don't forget the baby Bjorn or other form of baby carrier with you. You need to check in your stroller and sometimes have to walk long distances before claiming it back after you get off the plane. You can check in the stroller right where you check in to get on the flight, but you won't get it back when you land until you walk all the way to baggage claim. In London, we had to walk far and long, and wait quite a while before getting our stroller back. Thank God, I packed a baby carrier with me.

3) Don't forget the bottle washer and soap. It's hard to wash bottles without the bottle washer and the soap at the hotels or airports might be too fragrant for the baby. I had to send Robert out to search for a bottle washer in Vegas and I had a hard time finding a perfume free soap in beautiful Paris, home to many famous perfumes.

4) If you are using formula, make a bottle ready before going through security screening. They won't let you carry a bottle of water but they would let you carry the milk through. The bottle would be safe for an hour and two and you are not forced to run around and look for bottled water in the airport. The security officer in the Vegas airport told me that I could get out of line, mix my formula with water and go through again if I wanted to. I didn't want to wait in line again, but next time, I will just make the formula ahead of time.
 
5) Check in early for your flight so you can make sure your baby has a bassinet on board. You can't reserve one on the phone and if too many babies are traveling on board, you may lose out to those who checked in before you. We were late to check in for our flight to London and couldn't get a bassinet as there were twenty other babies traveling on board. We got smart on the way back and checked in early :)

6) Make sure your baby is sucking on a pacifier or a bottle during take off and landing. The air pressure won't hurt their ears as much. We were feeding Milan while the plane was taking off and landing and he fell asleep each time without crying.

7) If traveling by train find out where the bathroom with diaper changing table is located and book your cabin close to that. I had to walk through over ten cabins while the train was moving with a baby that badly needed a change, all the while worrying if we were going to reach the station soon.

8) Pack enough formula and diapers. Babies sometimes show allergic reaction to different brands of diapers. It's also very hard to find the same brand of formula while traveling abroad and babies stomach often react to new brands.We ran out of formula in Paris and I couldn't even read the instructions on the formula I bought and had to trust the reluctant pharmacist advice. Luckily Milan liked the new formula and it worked fine for us. Next time, I will pack extra formula though.

9) Having a travel system based car seat and stroller (we use Graco) works best because you can use the car seat in the cabs, buses, trains and cars, and then place the seat easily in the stroller when walking around. The stroller folds easily and is light to carry around. You can also use it as a cart to carry stuff around.

10) If you have older children I suggest running them through the airport to let them exert some of that extra energy so that they are good and tired and ready to sleep in flight. Planning travel during their sleep time is also a good idea.

11) With older children taking some cheap new toys and coloring materials helps keep them occupied during flight. When Patrick was younger, I always bought him a bunch of magazines so he could read them during the flight and of course he had his trusty hand held game players.

12) Remember that there are different rules for traveling with babies domestically vs. internationally. For example, babies traveling on your lap can fly for free on United inside the US but you have to purchase a ticket for them while traveling abroad. It usually comes to about 10% of your adult fare plus taxes, etc.

13) You need a valid passport for children traveling abroad with you, even if your child is only four months old like ours.

14) Before traveling make sure to check with your pediatrician about any medical issues you need to be aware of. Traveling with babies under three months is not recommended and some airlines won't even allow a new born to fly. Depending on the country you are traveling to, your baby may need to get special vaccinations. I packed over the counter  gas-relief medicine and baby Tylenol with us just in case.

15) Last but not least, check the weather and pack accordingly for your child. It was raining hard in London and Paris and we looked around for a long time before we were able to find a waterproof plastic cover for Milan's stroller.

Bon Voyage and Happy travels!

Track your flight with Flytecomm: If you are picking up friends and loved ones at the airport or dropping them off and/or if you travel plans involve flying, Flytecomm service is awesome. You can even check this via mobile devices.

Book your flights with Kayak: Kayak checks multiple sites simultaneously and is gauranteed to find you the best deal.

Search for hotels with Tripadvisor: You can read hundreds of reviews on various hotels and then check multiple sites simultaneously to get the best hotel for the best deal.

Find the best restaurants in the US with Yelp: Read customer reviews on some of the trendiest as well as offbeat restaurants to find the best place to chow down.

Here's another fun email that was forwarded to me. Enjoy!

I wondered why the baseball was getting bigger. Then it hit me. 

A friend sent this to me via email and I simply had to pass it on. I guess you all have to pay the price by reading stuff like this on my website, now that I am raising a little baby of my own :)

	The government recently calculated the cost of raising a child from
birth to 18 and came up with $160,140 for a middle income family. Talk about
sticker shock! That doesn't even touch college tuition. 
	But $160,140 isn't so bad if you break it down. It translates into: 
	* $8,896.66 a year, 
	* $741.38 a month, or 
	* $171.08 a week. 
	* That's a mere $24.24 a day! 
	* Just over a dollar an hour. 
	Still, you might think the best financial advice is don't have
children if you want to be 'rich.' 
	Actually, it is just the opposite. What do you get for your
$160,140? 
	* Naming rights. First, middle, and last! 
	* Glimpses of God every day. 
	* Giggles under the covers every night. 
	* More love than your heart can hold. 
	* Butterfly kisses and Velcro hugs. 
	* Endless wonder over rocks, ants, clouds, and warm cookies. 
	* A hand to hold usually covered with jelly or chocolate. 
	* A partner for blowing bubbles, flying kites 
	* Someone to laugh yourself silly with, no matter what the boss said
or how your stocks performed that day. 
	For $160,140, you never have to grow up. You get to: 
	* finger-paint, 
	* carve pumpkins, 
	* play hide-and-seek, 
	* catch lightning bugs, and 
	* never stop believing in Santa Claus. 
	You have an excuse to: 
	* keep reading the Adventures of Piglet and Pooh, 
	* watching Saturday morning cartoons, 
	* going to Disney movies, and 
	* wishing on stars. 
	* You get to frame rainbows, hearts, and flowers under refrigerator
magnets and collect spray painted noodle wreaths for Christmas, hand prints
set in clay for Mother's Day, and cards with backward letters for Father's
Day. 
	For $160,140, there is no greater bang for your buck. You get to be
a hero just for: 
	* retrieving a Frisbee off the garage roof, 
	* taking the training wheels off a bike, 
	* removing a splinter, 
	* filling a wading pool, 
	* coaxing a wad of gum out of bangs, and coaching a baseball team
that never wins but always gets treated to ice cream or pizza regardless. 
	
	You get a front row seat to history, to witness the: 
	* first step, 
	* first word, 
	* first bra, 
	* first date, and 
	* first time behind the wheel. 
	You get to be immortal. You get another branch added to your family
tree, and if you're lucky, a long list of limbs in your obituary called
grandchildren and great grandchildren. You get an education in psychology,
nursing, criminal justice, communications, and human sexuality that no
college can match. 
	In the eyes of a child, you rank right up there under God. You have
all the power to heal a boo-boo, scare away the monsters under the bed,
patch a broken heart, police a slumber party, ground them forever, and love
them without limits. So, one day they will, like you, love without counting
the cost. That is quite a deal for the price!!!!!!! 
	Love & enjoy your children & grandchildren!!!!!!! 
	
	

It's with regret that my tenure at PodTech has come to an end due to the elimination of my department. While at PodTech, I learned quite a lot about podcasting and video; traveled extensively and met amazing people; and was part of some awesome events such as Vloggies and CES Bloghaus. Most of all though I worked with wonderful, smart, and top of the class professionals. I wish everyone well at PodTech and value the memories.
What's next for me?
For now, I am committed full time to raising my little baby boy who has just turned four months and taking care of my Mom who just moved in with us this month. I guess I am part of the middle generation, taking care of the older and future generations :)
I am also looking for a part time position, something that I can mostly do from home. While I am not in a hurry to land a new job right away, I am serious about wanting to remain part of the work force if only for a few hours a week. I need the intellectual stimulation; the adult interaction and hey the finanacial compensation can't hurt either! If you can think of something let me know. In the mean time, I will be raising the baby, taking care of Mom, keeping Robert in line and blogging away of course!

I think one of the reasons I enjoyed the BlogHaus so much is all the amazing women I met at the BlogHaus this year. Don't get me wrong; guys are all fine and all, but I get excited when I see fellow female bloggers and inspiring and fun women at the conferences and events.
Some of my favorites?
The Frag Dolls were kicking some serious ass playing Halo at the BlogHaus.
Ask A Chola got escorted out by the security at the ShowStoppers event but she was feeling right at home here at the BlogHaus.
iJustine walked in and was immediately surrounded by many adoring fans.
I missed hearing the sweet and talented Teresa sing at the Atomic Museum, but she was at the BlogHaus in her full glory and as always fun to hang out with.
Lora Heiny stopped by with her brother Loren and it was so good to hang out with the tablet PC goddess.
And of course the ever fashionable and sassy PR Diva, Rene Blodgett was at the BlogHaus too as I have already mentioned.
So many other smart and inspiring women stopped by of course and above are only just a few of my favorite ladies :)

We are just about ready to wrap up the Bloghaus and it feels bittersweet to me. Usually by this time at the end of any event that I've been working, I feel tired and spent, and ready to go home. So many bloggers have stopped by with kind words to say about the Bloghaus that I am feeling energized with all the positive energy and sad that it is all ending.
Some of my favorite examples?
Jean Baptist Su from UberPulse told me that the BlogHaus was the press room of the future.
Chris Cardinal from GearLive told me that winning the Seagate Hard Drive on our nightly drawing made his day. Incidentally, some people whose names were drawn told me that they never win anything, so I guess everyone can win in Vegas, especially in the BlogHaus ;)
Rene Blodgett came back again and brought a new fellow blogger to show him around the Bloghaus. I believe in word of mouth marketing :)
Reading through the blogs, it makes me feel proud and happy to have been part of such a fun and productive event. Thanks to my fellow PodTechers for all the hard work, to Seagate for sponsoring and of course to all the bloggers, vloggers and podcasters and press who visited us and made BlogHaus their own.