Traveling with a Toddler and a Stitch Fix necklace

Traveling with a toddler is not easy.  I can tell you that.  That must be why everyone always asks me what it's like and how I manage.  First, I am blessed, because Evan is super easy to travel with and pretty calm on the plane.  I traveled with him in January when we went to Houston and that was a bit challenging because it was supposed to be a four hour flight but it turned into a 5 hour flight and that was a long time for him to sit still in his seat.  Or my seat really, because he flies as a lap child still.  This past flight was fairly easy because Atlanta is only a one hour flight from Baltimore, so it wasn't too difficult to get there.

Taking every baggie out of the box is airplane friendly, but it sure helps me get dinner ready!

But there is SO MUCH STUFF.  Packing for children is not fun!  First, I packed the diaper bag with so many activities and toys and snacks that it weighed at least 20 pounds.  It was SO heavy.  Then I had a backpack that had some of my stuff in it and things that I didn't want to check.  We also had the car seat because if you want to go anywhere in a vehicle you need a car seat.  I know that legally you don't need to put children in car seats if you are taking public transportation (buses, taxis, shuttles, etc.), but taxis are just as likely to get into an accident as I am so why risk it?  So I always bring the 50lbs car seat.  I did by this nifty carrier for the car seat and love it.  It fits the seat perfectly and then I can carry it on my back.  I always check the car seat with my checked luggage and it doesn't count as an extra bag.  If I get desperate I can always throw a few things in with the car seat because they don't weigh that.

Evan can now climb onto the rocking chair by himself.  He loves sitting in his own seats now - but on planes he
still has to sit with me!

In the suitcases go normal stuff like clothes and shampoo, but then I have to remember all the stuff for keeping a toddler entertained at a hotel: blocks, animals, coloring books, books, trains, spatulas, measuring cups, bath toys, etc.  Plus enough diapers and wipes and special baby shampoo and soap.  And swim diapers.  These things get heavy...and take up an entire suitcase.  So, on top of the diaper bag, car seat, and backpack, I also have two suitcases.  And a child.  That is a LOT of stuff.  Usually my husband helps me check in but sometimes there is no one waiting on the other side so I have to somehow get all my stuff into a cab by myself.  This time I was meeting my mom at the airport so she helped me out. 

The airplane ride was a breeze this time because on the way there we flew at 2pm which was close to nap time.  I nursed Evan on the take-off (yes, he is 21 months and I am still nursing) and he immediately fell asleep and then slept for the entire flight.  On the way back the flight was delayed and didn't take off until 9:05pm and that was close to his bedtime, so again I nursed him at take-off and he fell right asleep.  Easy peasy.  The flight home was super crowded so there was a person in every seat.  This made it a bit tight since I had a lap child.  He may have gently kicked the person sitting next to me, but she didn't care. 

It makes nursing a bit interesting though - when someone is practically sitting on top of me.  I'm not a huge fan of nursing in public because I have to try and be a bit more modest (i.e. I can't take my entire shirt off, I have to wear something underneath so that my entire back and stomach aren't exposed, etc.).  Although I have read numerous stories about people having problems nursing in public, this has not been the case for me (thank goodness).  I have nursed Evan on all of his flights and I rarely use a cover (what's the point - Evan hates being covered and flings it off two seconds into a feeding) and no one has ever said anything.  Some people don't like to make eye contact with me - like they are a bit embarrassed or thing I am embarrassed), but that's about it.  I've nursed at the airport too, but usually in gates with only a few people.  I've never had to pump in an airport though, and I hear that that can be pretty rough (it's hard to find outlets in private areas). 

To keep Evan busy while waiting for the plane to board we usually try and find an empty gate and set up shop near the window.  Then Evan can run around, take out his ball, build some blocks, look at planes, make a lot of noise, and wear himself out.  Sometimes we walk up and down the hallways, but this can be hard because of my 20 pound diaper bag.  And Evan eventually wants to let go of my hand and go darting in and out of people and in front of airport carts.

So - that is a brief summary of my experience.  Nothing that I'm sure you couldn't figure out yourself.  I wrote a post of airplane tips with toddlers a while back that might be useful if you are flying too.  So far I have taken Evan on every work trip (a total of four) and am really lucky to have family members willing to meet me at my destination and hang out with Evan while I'm working (thanks Elizabeth, Aunt Pam, and Mom!!!).  That has made all the difference and has made work travel so much less stressful.  It is awesome getting to eat with Evan during lunch and show him off to my work colleagues - who are in love with him, of course.  Plus, I get to see family I normally wouldn't get to see - even bigger bonus!

After spending half a week with his Mimi, he was all set to Skype with her shortly after we returned home.
We usually Skype lying on the floor - so he was all set to go!

Aside from that - not much to report around here.  Oh, except I got my third Stitch Fix box yesterday and LOVED it.  I wanted to keep 4/5 things but really didn't want the 5th thing and it was more expensive to buy the five things than to buy the four things so I decided to just buy three things.  One included this necklace that I love!

I'll snap pictures of the other things too.  Plus the things from my second box, since I never showed you that.  I am really loving Stitch Fix!!!  If you click those links to sign up, I get $20 for referring you.  No pressure though - you can just go to the website yourself.  I just wanted to put it out there just in case you were interested and didn't mind using my referral number.





How is your week going?  Any tips for traveling with a toddler?

Any Stitch Fix lovers out there??

Disney Trip Part Three

Somehow I survived the first day at work after daylight saving time.  The irony of it is that I drank a cup of regular coffee, instead of decaf, and so at 10:30pm when I crawled into bed I was wide awake.  Yes, a cup of coffee at 8am will keep me awake at 10:30pm - I don't have caffeine very often.  So, I was still up late again, just this time I was in bed.  I am trying a new method where I make a slow cooker meal or cook the night before in hopes of reducing dinner prep time.  It was a complete success yesterday.  Evan and I played for a while when I got home and we still sat down to eat at around 7:30pm and all I had to do was microwave a few things and dinner was ready.  I'm not sure how long it will last though.

Ok, onto Disney!  It's the last Disney post in case you are tired of hearing about the "happiest place on Earth"!

The Disney Princess Half Marathon

The half marathon was the sole reason we had even embarked on a ridiculously expensive vacation to Disney World in the first place.  My sister had wanted to run a half marathon for her 30th birthday and I agreed to do it with her (so she wasn't doing it alone).  She chose the Disney Princess because it sounded fun and not as serious as a regular half marathon.  And people dressed up as Disney Princesses and she thought it would be fun to dress up (it was fun actually).  So, we paid the outrageous entry fee of $165 back in June and there was no turning back.  I was a bit skeptical about paying so much money because it's not like you got free entry to the park or something.  You got nothing extra actually - just the same old stuff like a t-shirt and a medal.  I'm not quite sure why the race is so pricey, but it was fun.

On race day I woke up at 2:30am to catch a shuttle to the race start.  The first shuttle left at 3am and I knew I wanted to be at the start with plenty of time to spare.  Mission accomplished - I was one of about 50 people there!  I had my costume on that my sister had made and I walked around, used the potty, and stretched a bit while waiting for my sister to arrive.  There was not a lot going on, but they did have a DJ and he was playing some motivating tunes, so I was jamming along by myself.  Finally my sister showed up!

First things first - getting our picture taken.  As you may or may not know from our costumes, we were Anna and Elsa from Frozen.  My sister made our costumes, which you can see a little better in the pictures we took when it finally got light out.  Remember, it's only 4am right now so it's still plenty dark!

We eventually headed over to our corral, F, to start stretching and get ready for the 5:30am start.  My sister was a bit nervous because she hadn't trained that well and was worried about finishing, but I figured we'd be just fine.  I was initially put in corral C but decided to run with my sister so ended up just going to F (just in case you're not race savvy, you can usually move down corrals but you are not supposed to move up corrals because the front corrals are for faster people).  While waiting for the race to start we find Olaf!

We didn't actually know that guy at all, but it was fun getting our picture taken with him.  And do you see that cape I'm wearing?  That was actually my niece's cape and I had to run with it the entire time.  My mom had made a shorter cape for me to run with but it got lost in the mail and didn't arrive in time, so instead I borrowed my niece's cape and ran in that instead.  I can tell you - it was a bit hot!!  And it occassionally pulled at my neck.  However, it worked fine and everyone was able to recognize that I was Anna, so that was a huge positive.

We started out the race running like a normal race.  My sister was puffing a bit beside me so I kind of figured we wouldn't be keeping that pace the entire time, but we started out strong.  The beginning part of the race was just along highways and through parking lots.  We started in the parking lot of Epcot and had to run to Magic Kingdom, so that was a good bit of distance.  We finally hit Magic Kingdom about the time the sun was coming up!

There's the lit-up castle behind me!  All the pictures are a bit blurry because they were from my sister's iPhone, but they are better than nothing.  And way better than paying $100 for race photos!  Here's a closer picture when we ran through the castle:

As you can see (on the left of my sister's head), the castle was under construction a bit and the person who took this photo of us didn't think to crop our bodies out for more of the castle.  Oh well.

 

From about this point on we started stopping to take pictures all the time.  Disney had a bunch of characters out on the sides of the race where you could get photo-ops and so it was fun to stop  and get pictures taken.  Especially since during Disney hours you have to wait for hours and hours for a photo with a character!  Don't get me wrong, the lines were really long at times but I think the longest we waited was 15 minutes for Mickey and Minnie mouse.

But it was worth it!

I think my sister enjoyed the pictures because she got a chance to relax, take a break while waiting in line, and look forward to the next character coming up!!  So, we got a lot of character photos.

 

The White Rabbit from Alice in Wonderland:

Mary Poppins and Bert, from Mary Poppins:

The Genie from Aladdin:

 

 

On the side of the road there was this sign:

 

"Let it Go" is one of the main songs from Frozen so we had to get our picture taken with it.

The Disney Princes!

Notice how my sister is flexing her muscle but if you look closely at me you'll see that I am carrying her water bottle.  Yup, that's what older sisters are for - when the little sis gets tired the big sis carries her water bottle.  So I actually had my water bottle in one hand and her's in another.

Princess Dot from A Bug's Life:

As you can see from the photo above, it was very hazy and foggy out during the race.  It was great actually because it wasn't too hot but it wasn't cold either.  We were perfectly comfortable the entire time.  It got really sunny and warm after the race ended but it was nice that the weather stayed cooler for the race (of course we finished a little after 8:30am so it was still early).

 

 About mile 10 there was a decent sized hill and about half way up the hill they had this green army man yelling at everyone to keep running and do push-ups!  It was cute, so we snapped a picture.  It was a little sad because there were no lines to get your picture with him - I guess princess racers aren't interested in army men!

 

Towards the end of the race they had this big set-up with Jack Sparrow and the ship from Pirates of the Caribbean.  Too bad it wasn't Johnny Depp!!!  

 

In Epcot, within the last mile of the race we found Sofia the First!  My nieces love her (she was their favorite until Frozen came out), so we had to snap our picture.  We were hoping Elsa and Anna would be on the course, but they were not.  Actually, there were hardly any princesses on the course - just Snow White, Princess Dot, and Sofia the First.  What happened to Belle and Pocahontas and Aurora and Ariel and all the others???  I think I remember Princess Tiana from The Princess and the Frog, but I hadn't ever seen that so I didn't know who she was until my sister mentioned it.

And then we were done!!!  13.1 miles and 3 hours later!!  Yup, it took us THREE HOURS - it was the longest half marathon of my life!!!  I guess that's what happens when you wait in a million lines for photos with Disney characters....

I had a ton of fun though - it was fun running with my sister, not caring about the time, stopping to get fun photos all the time, and just relaxing through the entire thing.  And we didn't do too badly, I think we were in the 9000 out of more than 24,000 runners so we finished before more than half of the people out there (scary thought, huh).  Plus, I wasn't out of breath or tired after the race and I wasn't even sore the next day.  It was like I had dreamed the entire thing!

 

All in all the race was really fun and I would recommend it to anyone looking for a fun race, especially if you don't care as much about your time.  I'm not sure it would have been worth the money if I had just run straight through and hadn't taken any photos - what made it worth it were the fun photos and the actual experience.  I was disappointed that more of the race wasn't through the parks though.  We only ended up doing about a mile through Magic Kingdom and then a mile through Epcot - but the race was 13.1 miles - so that means more than ten miles were just on highways and through parking lots.  Not that exciting.  Sure, they tried to make it more exciting by having the characters along the highway, but the park and characters together would have been way better.  We could have looped through Hollywood Studies and Animal Kingdom if they needed more space.  Not sure why they limit the park part so much.

After the race I took the shuttle back to the hotel, showered, packed, and we checked out.  Our resort was nice enough to give me a late check-out so we didn't have to be out until 1pm.  Then our friends from Tampa (they used to live in near us and are Evan's godparents) came and picked us up and we spent the rest of Sunday and all day Monday hanging out with them.

They had giant legos at the entrance to the hotel so evan had a blast playing with them while we waited for our friends to arrive and figure out how to pack all our luggage into their car.

We had a lot of fun staying with them - Ivan really loved it because he went golfing Sunday afternoon, fishing Monday morning, and golfing Monday afternoon again!  Evan and I hung out at the condo, took a nice walk along the mangroves, and went to the beach Monday afternoon.

Evan looks SOOOOO old in this photo.  Where is my baby???

Evan thought the best thing in the world was their screened-in porch.  He loved hanging out there and looking at everything (they were on the 6th floor and looked out to the water).

On Monday I made a huge boo-boo that ended our trip on a high-panic note.  I thought our flight left at 8:45pm so we were about to leave the condo (at 6:15pm) and I checked to make sure and our flight actually left at 7:45pm!!!!  Yikes!!!!  It took at least 45 minutes to get to the airport and we weren't sure we'd make it.  We decided to try because we didn't have a lot of options (changing flights would have cost a small fortune).  We got to the airport at 7:15pm and by the time we got our luggage out, put the car seat in its travel bag, and made our way to the check-in it was 7:20pm!!!  The woman was doubtful we'd make it but she said we could try if we wanted.  So we checked our bags, raced through security, and made it to the gate!!!  They had even printed out our gate-check tags already!  Plus, we weren't the last ones on the flight - two people came on after us.

It was a bit hectic and crazy, but I was so happy we had made it.  

And just like that we got home and I went to work the next day.  

 

Disney?  Done.  

 

Half marathon?  Done.  

 

Bank account?  DONE!!

 

The End.

Disney Trip Part One

Did you wonder what happened to me?  Well, remember that half marathon I was training for so pathetically?  I finally did it!  And since it was the Disney Princess Half Marathon, we decided to do Disney World too and visit Evan's godparents in Tampa for a day.  I decided to break the posts up because I have a lot to say.  So, I'll start with Friday.

**************

We headed out to Orlando on Friday morning.  I had initially bought tickets for later in the day but then realized that it would be good to have that entire day to check into the hotel, visit the race expo, and get settled.  So, I booked us on the first flight out of Baltimore at 6:20am.  That meant I had to get up at 3am so I could get everyone ready to leave by 4am.  Seems a bit early but it's a 30 minute drive to the airport and then we had to park in long term parking, which means another 30 minutes to get to the airport. And when I am traveling with Evan I like to make sure I give myself an extra half hour to check-in and go through security.  I was a bit exhausted because, just like every other trip, I was packing at the last minute and washing up the dishes, etc.  I didn't go to bed until 12:30am...so got a whopping 2.5 hours of sleep.  Nice.  Luckily for me, and everyone else, I am still a pretty pleasant and positive person on two hours of sleep.

The first flight was pretty easy.  Evan didn't fall asleep like I thought he would, but he wasn't too crazy either.  We only had 20 minutes to find our connecting flight so we booked it out of that plane and ran two gates (yeah, it was close) to find our flight to Orlando.  We boarded that plane with no problems and still got seats next to each other, only to find out that there was bad weather on the way to Orlando and our flight was delayed an hour and a half.  Boo.

Southwest, being the amazing airlines that they are, let us off the plane and we got something to eat.  Well, Ivan did,  I wasn't ravenous like he was.  After the delay had passed we boarded again and headed out.  Evan, of course, finally fell asleep 20 minutes before the plane landed.  

Since we were staying at a Disney Resort we got a complimentary shuttle to the hotel.  And it wasn't your regular run of the mill shuttle, it was a Disney shuttle with great perks.  The best perk was that you didn't have to pick up your luggage.  When I reserved our spot on the shuttle they sent me special luggage tags to put on our checked luggage.  We walked right from our flight to the shuttle and Disney got all of the luggage and had it delivered to the room.  We did pick up Ivan's golf clubs though, because he had a tee time at 2:30pm and needed them right away.

Now, let's focus on that tee time for a second.  We were supposed to arrive at 10:30am giving us plenty of time to get to the hotel before Ivan needed to get to the golf course.  Except our flight was delayed.  So we didn't get to the hotel until close to 1:30pm.  This would have been fine except Ivan was golfing with a friend of ours who had moved to Tampa (Evan's godfather) and he was supposed to pick him up.  Well, Mark was running late and wasn't there yet.  So Ivan waited with me as I check in and then we ran to the food court to get Ivan some food.  Although he had had a bite to eat at the Atlanta airport, he was starving.  And if you want to know what hangry looks like, it's my husband after not eating for hours.  Add that to the fact that he was going to be late for his tee time (which he hates), and it was a recipe for short tempers and lack of patience.  I figured the best plan of action was to get Ivan food stat.  Right as we get the food Mark arrives so Ivan takes a few bites and then runs to meet him and head to the golf course.  He was playing at the Magnolia Golf Course, one of the Disney courses and was super excited.  They ended up having a great time, in case you were wondering.

Source: Disney

With Ivan off golfing, Evan and I checked out our hotel.  It was awesome!!  We had decided to stay at a Disney Value Resort because it offered the best transportation to the race and wasn't too pricey.  They have a selection of value resorts that are actually a good value.  They would have been a better value if I had booked them during the winter special when I initially looked at them, but I made our reservation the next day.  Huge bummer.

Source: Disney

Our hotel was Pop Century, basically a homage to pop culture throughout the 50s, 60s, 70s, 80s, and 90s.  It was so fun!!  I picked it because I had remembered Whitney talking about how she loved Art of Animation (another value resort) and that her second option would have been Pop Century.  Well, Art of Animation was sold out so I figured Pop Century was a safe bet.  And Whitney was right, it was as great as she thought it would be.  Evan loved walking around and looking at all the pop culture items.

Giant fuseball with the big wheel in the back.

 It was kind of rainy the day we checked in, so most of the photos are cloudy/rainy.

Evan playing Twister - I think it would have been really fun to play this for real!

In front of the huge big wheel - so fun!

Evan LOVED this display and threw a fit if we walked by without stopping.

Trying to get into the car - it was kind of the perfect height for him (but the door didn't actually open)!

Roger Rabbit!!!  That was our building on the left.

We stayed in the 80s building - which is awesome since I am a child of the 80s!  I think it was also one of the cheapest building because it was the farthest away from the hotel lobby - at least a ten minute walk.

Our room was pretty basic, but still nice.  We didn't plan on hanging out in the room all day, so a basic room was just right.

Source: Disney

 This wasn't our room exactly (because let's face it, our room was a disaster about two seconds after we got in), but it gives you an idea of what it looked like.  Very simple, garden-style, but still comfortable.  And every room had a table with two chairs and a fridge, which was great.

Source: Disney

The bathroom was nice too, nothing spectacular but plenty of space and very clean.  The only thing I was disappointed about was they only gave you soap and a shampoo/conditioner.  I know, a frivolous complaint, but I would have liked some lotion.  And I was spoiled staying at the Hyatt during my last business trip where they gave us baby shampoo, baby lotion, and baby powder.  I guess you don't get those perks in a value resort.  I didn't bring any shampoo or lotion so I ended up using my face lotion on my body! 

After we got settled a bit and walked around, Evan and I headed over to the race expo.  It was at ESPN's Wide World of Sports complex.  There was a shuttle from the hotel (another good reason for staying at a Disney Resort) and so Evan and I hopped on and went to get our race numbers!  The race expo wasn't anything different from other race expos (except for it was SUPER packed) and it was well organized and easy to find everything.

Blurry photo of race expo

The only confusing thing was that there were a variety of different races going on so I had to keep looking for the half marathon and kid races, rather than the 5k, 10k, or Glass Slipper (the 10k + half marathon).  I successfully got Evan's race number and my race number and then got sucked into the expo and bought a Skinny Sparkle Black Bic Band and a Nathan Handheld SpeedDraw Plus water bottle (I had forgotten mine and was a bit nervous about running in the heat and humidity without it, since I had been training in below-freezing temps for months).

What really shocked me was my corral.  Disney Princess Half Marathon specifically said that you had to send in a 10k time within the past year to get placed in a corral.  If you didn't send a time in you would be placed in the very last corral and there would be no changing and no sneaking into other corrals.  I didn't end up doing a race beforehand and had assumed I'd be in the last corral (which was P) - I was a bit sad because I'd heard I could start over an hour after everyone else and plus I had thought it would be fun to run with my sister (she was afraid to start in the last corral because she wasn't sure how fast she could finish and didn't want to get picked up in the bus).  When I went to pick up my race number I was pleasantly surprised to find that I was actually in corral C.  WHAT!!!???  I had put on my form that I was hoping to run the half in under 2 hours so maybe they took that into consideration?  Who knows, but it was a nice surprise.  I wasn't going to be last and I could run with my sister!!!

Evan and I took our time heading back to the hotel and I let him stop and touch a bunch of trees (his favorite thing ever).

And he let me take a photo too!

This is what I look like on 2.5 hours of sleep and after a few plane rides.

We got back to the hotel and I put Evan down for a short nap (it was already 6pm!!) until the boys finished golfing.  Then we headed to dinner.  I ended up buying a Disney Dining Plan (definitely a good idea) and it came with one table-service meal a day.  I wanted to have a decent table-service experience so I made a reservation at Boma's - Flavors of Africa, which is located in the Animal Kingdom Lodge.  I made my reservations at the last minute so a lot of places were already booked and had no availability.

Source: Disney

It was buffet-style and I thought that that was the best option for us because then we could eat as much as we wanted and we wouldn't need to head out for more food.  Of course having a 7:45pm reservation would probably have eliminated that problem anyway, but oh well.  I also figured buffets are easier for Ivan because he can look at all the food and try different things.  I loved the restaurant and thought the food was delicious.  Ivan, not being into African flavors, thought it was just ok.  I was tired of eating Mexican and Chinese food though (what we eat at home all the time), so I wanted to get something different.  It was a success!

Evan was a bit tired and a tad bit uncooperative, so that was interesting, but other than that it was a great time!

And Animal Kingdom Lodge was beautiful!!!

Source: Disney

We could never afford to stay there, and even if we could I'm not sure we'd spend the money because then I'd want to hang out at the hotel all day and not do Disney - but it was fun to look around.

And that concludes our first day.  See, aren't you glad I decided to break this up into a bunch of posts - this was way too long and it was just day one!!!!  Congrats if you made it all the way to the end!!!

Stay tuned for Day Two!!!

Plane Rides with Toddlers

I have so much to tell you.  It's been a while since I had a chance to post and that's mainly because I went to Houston for a conference.  And what a conference it was!  I really had a great time and it was made even better by the fact that my sister drove over and hung out with Evan while I was attending sessions and presenting.  Good times.

Of course to get Evan to the conference we had to somehow survive a four hour flight.  People have asked me a few times about traveling with toddlers, so I thought I'd do a quick post about my strategies and how I survive travel with a kiddo all by myself.

I admit I was a tad bit nervous this time.  The last time I had flown with Evan was when I went to New Orleans and he was only 10 months old.  There is a big difference between 10 months and 17 months, I can tell you that.  And the main differences that matter to airplane trips? Walking and napping less.  Previously I could count on Evan sleeping the entire time on the plane...not really the case this time.  Plus, with a four hour flight he would inevitably be awake for at least half the flight because there was no way he was going to nap for 4 hours.

Playing in a car - not quite a plane and he only stayed put for five seconds!

Luckily, it didn't turn out too badly.  The flight there was a bit more stressful because we sat on the plane for 45 minutes before leaving, essentially turning a four hour flight into a five hour flight.  Plus, I had decided to skip his nap in hopes he'd sleep on the plane; however, rather than falling asleep during take-off he decided to sleep the second half making the first half of the trip a bit more challenging.  We sat next to a pilot who had four kids of his own so he wasn't too annoyed that Evan kept poking him and he didn't even glance up when Evan had a mini tantrum on the floor of the plane.  And by mini, it really was pretty small (thank goodness).  Just a fuss, an attempt to throw himself backwards that failed due to the very small space, spaghetti body, and then sleep.  I counted myself lucky!  The return was even better.  He played the entire flight and fell asleep the last 40 minutes or so.  No fuss or tantrum at all.  

A previous plane ride, when he was still a little baby and napped the entire time.  My, have times changed!

Keys to a successful plane ride?  Not sure I really have the answers, but I will give you my thoughts on traveling alone with a toddler.

1. Bring lots of toys!  I packed the diaper bag with a plethora of airplane friendly toys (or at least I thought I did until a few were chucked at my face and they were deemed unsafe for such close quarters).  I brought books, a train, a little car, a small soft ball, some measuring cups, and some blocks.  I didn't break out the toys until Evan was restless and then I'd bring one out until he tired of it, etc.  I should have brought a crayon and paper because I think he would have liked that, but we were pretty good on the toy front.

His favorite toys = anything that is not a toy.  I did bring some kitchen utensils on the plane though!

2. Bring lots of snacks!  This was a lifesaver, of course.  When are snacks not life savers?  I had lots of pouches, little crackers, rice cakes, applesauce, and honey grahams.  The flight was long and crackers went a long way.  The flight attendant gave us Ritz cheese crackers (something I would never give Evan normally) and I gave some to Evan as a special treat.  Totally worked!  Because the flight was long and snacks keep a kid busy, they were essential.  Especially crackers in those little plastic containers with the rubber flaps on top that make it a challenge for kids to get the crackers out.

3. Remain relaxed.  This is key.  Kids are masters of sense - at least mine is.  The second I am nervous or anxious Evan goes into anxious mode.  Although I was nervous about being in such cramped quarters with him and wondering how he was going to sit in my lap for four hours - I kept telling myself that we could both handle it and if he started throwing a fit, the plane ride would eventually end.  Even when things didn't go according to plan and he decided not to nap when I thought he would, I just let him keep playing and remained calm.  I think that helped the situation because Evan never once acted anxious or clingy.

Cool as a cucumber - no stress in sight!

4. Make friends with the people next to you.  Obviously this is luck of the draw, but I try to sit all the way in the back in hopes that the people who sit next to my/around me consciously made the choice.  I feel like people like to sit in the front of the plane because they want to exit first, but there is no good reason to sit in the back of the plane.  So, if they choose to come all the way to the back and they see I have a toddler, then it is their own fault.  And if they choose to sit next to me?  They should expect to get poked a few times.  I got lucky and had very nice people sitting near me - they played peek-a-book with Evan and helped me carry my bags off the plane and did all kinds of nice things.  It was way easier to remain relaxed with friendly people nearby.  Plus, Evan loved playing on the floor between the seats and this would have been awkward if the person next to me was a child-hater.

5. Try to turn part of hour flight into nap time.  Really, isn't this everyone's goal?  The first flight was during Evan's nap time so I was really counting on him sleeping.  He did eventually fall asleep and that was great because it gave me time to relax, get a beverage, and read my book.  However, the flight back was in the morning and didn't really overlap much of his naptime, so I was uncertain if he'd actually fall asleep.  He ended up falling asleep the last 40 minutes or so and then slept all the way until I got my bags in baggage claim.  Would I have preferred a longer sleep-time on the plane?  YES!!!  However, he was in a really good mood and wasn't fussy at all, so I didn't complain in my head too much.  I did still nurse him on the plane and I'm sure people thought he was too old to be breastfed (although it's recommended to breastfeed until a child's two, most people I know stopped at 1 and I feel like a lot of people I know think it's weird that I still breastfeed Evan).  No one said anything to me and I didn't even get any weird looks or anything, but I can tell you that the older Evan gets and the more he grows, the harder it is to find space in those tiny cramped airplane seats!

Those are all the suggestions I have.  I feel like they are pretty much common sense, but sometimes when you are sleep deprived or so anxious about something you forget most common sense.  I had thought that maybe I would walk up and down the aisle with Evan for a bit but then I was afraid that if I took him to the aisle he'd never want to sit down again, so I decided against it.  He did spend a lot of time on the floor and looked at books down there and ate some snacks down there and was quite content.  We also had a middle seat free for part of one flight so he liked to sit there and buckle and unbuckle the seat belt.  My next trip is to Orlanda and the husband is FINALLY coming with us so it will be nice to have some help.  It will be the first trip I've taken with Evan that I haven't had to do alone.  Plus, planes to Orlando are always filled with tons of kids so he won't stick out at all.

How do you fly with kids?  Any suggestions?

I'll recap my amazing conference tomorrow!