Traveling With a Toddler On A Plane: Our Story.

Things started off well enough. We were seated next to this very kind businesswoman who was happy to skip out on our aisle for an upgrade that she could charge to her employer, leaving Ava with her own seat. We were thankful for this, and excited about having the entire row to ourselves. That is, until we realized that the extra space made Ava feel stir crazy (surely the fact that our plane took off at nearly 6PM Texas time and landed at 10 had more to do with it...)

She initially read her Dora books, of which we had plenty! We seriously bought out the Dora section of our local Half Price Books so she would have new and novel Dora things to keep her attention.

When that inevitably lost her interest, we searched and searched for Dora on the seatback TV's (thank God for JetBlue!) to no avail, and only could find super crap shows like Spongebob. NO. FREAKING. WAY. Never fear, though...we're resourceful. We turned to Animal Planet instead and caught a show all about dogs - Ava's idea of heaven!

When the show ended, we took some time to just stare out the window. That may not sound awesome as an adult, but for a kid at 35,000+ feet? Bliss.

We played a bit of musical seats...

Try as I might to get her to lounge on one of our laps, she preferred the floor. Whatever. I'm not the type of mom to care or fight pointless battles. She wasn't hurting anyone, so lie on the floor to your little heart's content, Ava.

Figuring she was likely getting tired, we changed her into her pajamas, which seemed to give her her second wind. Of course. She then played peekaboo with the woman behind us. Thankfully, A's adorable and the woman fell for her charms - whew!

Starting to get tired again - a feeling that rounded out the remainder of our flight, and thankfully led to her passing out in the car on the 15-minute drive home from the airport.

All buckled up for our final descent!


Sure, it didn't go as well as our flight out did, but that's due mainly to the time of day (we left at 8AM our time - perfection - she even napped!). To keep her busy and keep her from getting restless, I recommend many, many different toys, a mix of new stuff and old favorites, as well as something that will prove slightly challenging, but not enough so to make them freak out - for us, that was the sewing cards. Also, SNACKS. We went through a ton of snacks, though she just wanted a few of each thing. I'm so glad we brought so many. We also brought a ton of candy with us (dum dums, smarties) so that in case the worse happened and she was inconsolable, we could bribe her. Thankfully, we didn't open a single one! Woohoo!