Up Up & Away

We took our first “trip” with Noah and traveled on a direct flight, to Orlando, Florida. My parents stay there through the winter months and we visited for about a week. Noah had a blast playing in the sand, on the playground, and swimming in the pool and in the hot tubs. They even had a splash pad with all sorts of spraying water and we had so much fun in there.

Luckily, Noah had his 2-year checkup a couple weeks before, so we asked the pediatrician for any tips or tricks when flying. She told us to offer a lollypop during takeoff and landing to provide a sucking sensation and assist with pain in the ears. Do not give little ones the small dum dum lollypops, give them something bigger, but not with gum or tootsie roll inside.

Also, I purchased some items ahead of time that Noah had never played with, and slowly introduced them to him throughout the flight.

· Silicon stickers that he could stick to the back of the seat, the tray table, or the window.

· Special snacks or treats.

· A magna doodle board (similar to an etcher sketch).

· Airplane books.

· Airplane toys and pop-its.

· Crayola coloring books with the markers that only work on the specific pages.

· Various shows on the iPad with small toddler headphones.

· Coloring books and crayons.

· Matchbox cars

We brought his favorite blanket, so he had a comfort object and something familiar with him. He could have cared less about his blanket. All he wanted to do was to stand on the seat and be silly.

Our flight to Florida went fairly well. On our descent to Orlando, Noah was starting to get over tired, and I think his ears were starting to hurt a little bit. I cuddled him the entire way until we landed and he was screaming. He finally fell asleep, of course, ten minutes before we get off of the plane. He was an angel the rest of the day. He is like Mommy, we can function on very little sleep and still be happy.

The flight home was a bit tricky. Our flight was delayed and therefore right smack dab in the middle of Noah’s nap time. This kid refuses to sleep in the car or on an airplane, so we just rolled with the punches, but there was definitely some protesting.

Thankfully, a woman and her two kids sat in front of us and assisted in entertaining Noah and playing peek-a-boo throughout the flight.

In the car, on the way to our house, Noah literally fell asleep, one minute before we pulled into our driveway. Needless to say, despite being a pinch crankier than usual, Noah was pleasant and went to bed an hour early.

Gone are the days of throwing my headphones in and watching TV shows or listening to music for the duration of the flight, but I wouldn’t have traded this experience for anything.