When he was a newborn, he was fairly easy to take care of. He slept most (if not all) of the flight. We did have one incident, though, when he was laying on my lap and I was trying to change his diaper. I had just opened up his diaper and he just let it--poop, that it--go. It was pretty funny. But I was SO uncomfortable on the flight. The Airtran seats were not comfortable, and there was hardly ANY space. This time we flew in style--we flew Southwest.
Some tips (reminders for myself) I have about flying with a toddler:
-Get a luggage carrier: We got this amazing thing from Walmart.com. It cost less than $15 and it's called a "TravelKart Metal Luggage Cart." It was pretty amazing. We put the convertible carseat on top of the cart (once we had unfolded the cart) and we sat the carryon suitcase in the space where Kayson would usually sit. Then we strapped it all down with the bungee cords. It folds down so that it's small enough to fit under the seat on the plane. Super awesome!
-Distractions, distractions, and did I mention distractions?!: KJ slept for the first hour and last half-hour on the plane, which left me with about 1.5 hours to entertain him. Oh, and did I mention that Andrew slept just about the whole time? It was probably due to him starting to get sick, though! I jumped onto Pinterest and found a few budget friendly things to keep me sane and not break the bank!
I made this using a Gerber Graduates Puffs container. I punched a few holes in the lid big enough for a pipe cleaner to slide through. (Note: I let Kayson test it out about a week before our trip. He had a super hard time getting the pipe cleaner through the hole, so I took off the lid and let him practice sliding the pipe cleaners through the bigger hole. After a few days, I put the lid back on and let him try to put a pipe cleaner through the hole. It took a a little while, but with guidance, he eventually mastered it!) This thing is great for practicing with fine motor skills!
I folded the pipe cleaners in half and manipulated it so that the ends of them wouldn't poke him.
I used the Graduates Wagon Wheels container (really, any container will do) and cut out three circles from the lid. I bought some little puff ball thingies from the dollar store and this little "toy" was finished!
This little toy was fun, quiet, and kept him busy for a little while. It didn't take up a ton of space, either, so I was able to just place it on the tray that lets down the seat in front of you on the plane.
-My creative genius: I made some sensory cards using stuff I found around the apartment. For the base of all of these, I cut up some USPS priority boxes.
Far left: Yarn for hair and I used some googly eyes that I had.
Bottom left: Pennies super glued onto scrapbook paper circles
Bottom right: Aluminum foil
Far right: For practicing untying and tying. I just used yarn
Top: Puff ball thingies glued onto cardboard
Middle: Lentils glued onto cardboard
You can really use anything from around the house.
-Exercise: Every 1/2 hour or so, Andrew or I would let Kayson walk up and down the aisles (and we would walk behind him) to release any pint up energy. There was a time on the second flight when the "fasten seat belts" sign was on for an hour! That's as long as sacrament meeting. (But he does stand up and walk around in the seating area during that time.)
The flight actually wasn't as bad as I thought it would be. On the way back there were quite a few babies on the plane and they were probably as loud (if not louder) than Kayson. When Andrew, Kayson, and I had lunch with my mom at a little sit down place, this man said something to me that I'll always remember. It was something along the lines of "Don't apologize for your child making a lot of noise. They are babies. We should be enjoying them because they grow up too fast."
No comments:
Post a Comment