When Allie was 5 months old, we took her on her first trip. That road trip to Seattle was a disaster. It’s taken me a whole year to muster up the courage to travel with her again, but this time, we’ll be flying.
I think the fact that she can now walk, eat regular food, begin to express what she wants and understand what we tell her makes me feel more confident to travel with her. Just shy of 18 months old, she and I have also built a good bond of trust so I know I’m a safe place for her. She’ll be okay as long as I’m there. I also don’t have to deal with pumping and bottles so that makes things a lot simpler for me.
On the flip side, she is beginning to have opinions and learning quickly how to throw tantrums. So she’s a bit of an unpredictable creature.
Today, we will board a plane destined for Toronto and she will be essentially restricted to our laps for 4 hours and 33 minutes. We’ve armed ourselves with a whole bunch of new toys and activities to hopefully keep her entertained. I’ve also loaded Sesame Street videos onto my phone for emergency use.
We’re also being proactive with the folks we’ll be flying with. I’ve put together some goodie bags for our fellow travelers. I once heard of another couple doing this and I thought it was a brilliant plan so we’re going to try it out. Hopefully people will receive them well and extend us some extra grace if we need it. Apparently, when the idea surfaced a few years ago, the response was split 50/50. Half of the recipients thought it was great and the other half thought it was an bribery attempt by lazy parents who didn’t want to “parent” their kids. Rest assured, I am not doing this out of laziness!
To curry favour with our fellow passengers, we’re giving them some candies, chocolate and an attached note.
This flight, of course, is actually just a warm-up flight to the 12 + 4 hour flight to Hong Kong/Bali we’ll be taking later this summer. I’m trying not to think about that (yet)!
photo credit: caribb