Flying with a Toddler

Mari is now of age to where when we fly, we are required to purchase her own seat. Well, since we had to pay full price for the seat, we went ahead and took advantage of the 2 piece carry-on allowance for her, plus her car seat.

What we learned:

• We should've used our own carry-on rolling bag and the car seat strap that attaches to the roller. This would have been infinitely easier to carry the carseat!
• It is about time she has her own rolling bag to fill with whatever she needs/wants.
• Carrying a large canvas tote bag filled with your needs is a great idea for toddlers because they fit perfectly under the seat and provide easy access to games, books, kleenex, snacks, and drinks. It also fit my book, water, and trail mix.
• Packing a small juice box and a couple of easy snacks were a lifesaver.
• So was having a fully charged iTouch.
• Her regular blanket is small enough to be a travel blanket, so having it on hand made it easy to keep her warm, comfort her, and use as a pillow.
• Having a strong armed husband was also awesome because he carried the carseat, camera bag, laptop bag, and his carry-on bag. I kept herd on the toddler and the canvas bag, another laptop bag, and my purse, which was inside of the canvas bag. I swear that canvas bag was like the carpet bag Mary Poppins carried around!

On our trip back, we ran into the current head football coach at Texas Tech. I still have a soft spot for Coach Leach, but Don suggested I go up to Coach Tuberville and get a photo with him and maybe that would help things. You know what, it did. I felt a little better about the current state of our football program and was really happy that he was willing to pause and snap a photo with a tired and pregnant fan.

Hopefully, your little one is as happy about flying as ours is. She loves to fly and being on a plane was a real treat for her. See how much her face is lit up?