Ok, so it’s been a while since I post. So sue me. We
recently traveled by plane to Ohio from Houston. Which lead me to the idea for
this post. Real travel tips for travelling with toddlers. First I’m going to
give you the run down of how our two travel days went and then my tips.
Our flight out of Houston was on a Friday morning at 7:20am.
We were planning on leaving the house around 5:30am so we could be at the
airport by 6:00am, approximately one hour before boarding began. Miles went to
sleep at his regular time the night before and I waited until 5:00am to get him
from his crib, which was only two hours before his regular wake up time. I fed
Miles his morning milk before we left for the airport and I packed several
snacks for him including applesauce pouches and Nutrigrain bars. I did not take
extra milk because Miles doesn’t typically drink another bottle until 2:00pm
and I figured we would be home by then or somewhere we could buy milk (like
Starbucks).
This trip we decided to not take our stroller, not even the
umbrella stroller. Instead I had purchased Miles this cute backpack that also
had a leash. It wasn’t a horrible experience without the stroller, but we did
end up holding and carrying him a lot, especially through security. Once we
made it to the gate my husband decided to forage for food (and coffee), which
meant Miles and I were at the gate by ourselves and all he wanted to do was
RUN. The leash made for an interesting experience and some
interesting
disapproving looks.
Once we got on the plane Miles was pretty good because we
lucked into getting a seat for him since the two seats next to use were empty. We started watching Despicable Me once we took off and within thirty minutes
Miles was sleeping on me.
I think he slept for an hour and then spent the majority of the flight in his own chair constantly opening his seatbelt. We watched some more of the movie and ate some snacks.
Before I knew it we were told we were going to be landing soon. Sweet!
We took our time getting off the plane and Miles was able to walk off the plane
himself. Too cute.
A quick trip to the
restroom and then to baggage claim and home.
Needless to say our return flight to Houston did not go like
this…at all. We flew out of Cleveland on New Year’s Day. No big deal right?
Well our flight was at 5:50…am. It should have started boarding at 5:15am,
which meant we needed to be at the airport around 4:45am. We needed to leave
the house around 3:45am…on New Year’s Day. Needless to say I got about two
hours of sleep and I think my husband stayed up all night. My dad, who drove us
to the airport, didn’t sleep either. Miles ended up waking up on his own around
3:30am because of all the noise we were making going up and down the stairs (my
dad’s stairs are REALLY loud). I was hoping to take Miles from his crib to the
car and have him stay asleep. Ha. He was more awake than the four adults in the
car. I held off on his milk until we got to the airport and our gate.
Before we went to bed for the night we knew that the flight
had been pushed back an hour to 6:45am, but you never know what is going to
happen so we still got to the airport in time for the original flight time.
Getting through security was rather comical. We had so much stuff. My husband
travels with two lap tops, so that’s two bins, plus one for our coats, and one
for Miles’ bag and applesauce pouches and milk. We also had my diaper bag, my
husbands book bag, and two carry on bags. Whew. Two people cut in front of me
as I was pushing all of our crap through the x-ray thing. One was a pilot and
one was an airport worker. Uh…kiss my ass.
Since it was so early and therefore empty at the airport I
let Miles run around for a bit after he finished his milk. The wait at the gate
didn’t seem horribly long and they were able to move us up to 6:30am. We
boarded the plane and did not luck out into getting an empty seat for Miles.
This plane was jam-packed. We tried watching another movie (Horton Hears a Who)
but Miles wasn’t really into it. Then we played musical parents. Miles kept
going from me and my husband until I was finally able to get him to take a nap
(so I could also take a nap). My husband thinks we napped for an hour but it
only felt like 5 minutes. After his nap it was back to musical parents and
trying to watch a movie. Miles later found the window and played with the shade
for a while. We ate a bunch of snacks and then still had like an hour left.
This was the longest flight of my life. As we were approaching Houston Miles
was starting to get tired again but would NOT fall asleep.
We finally landed and then sat on the tarmac for a bit
waiting for an open gate. Again we were the last ones off the plane. Another
trip to the bathroom and baggage claim and then we were on our way home.
So now for the tips:
1. Do not book a stupid early flight. Recipe for disaster.
2. Stroller or leash. Both have pros and cons, but I don’t
think Miles would have enjoyed being stuck in the stroller anyways and that
would have been one more thing to deal with.
3. Snacks, snacks, and more snacks.
4. Something to watch movies or TV shows on.
5. Just stay home.
What are your tips for traveling with little ones?
