Monday, July 21, 2008

The First Plane Ride

Posts might be even sparser than usual around here this week- Hubby and I are busy trying to plan for Pumpkin's first plane ride. We are going to Seattle at the end of the week. For this first, relatively short trip, Pumpkin is riding on my lap. But part of the point of the trip is to practice for a trip to Hawai'i that we are planning at Christmas time, and on that trip, she'll have her own seat.

Being the geeks that we are, we've googled for advice. This post was helpful, as was this packing list. Sadly, I couldn't find anything about this on Ask Moxie, my source for all other parenting wisdom. If I had my act together, I would have sent this to her as a question a week or two ago, but it seems a bit self-absorbed to hope that a question I sent in now would get answered in time to help. So anyone in my much smaller readership who has advice- let loose in the comments! I'd also love to hear of any ideas for cool things to do in Seattle with a 15 month old who likes to run (walking is so last month....) and play with balls. So far, we know we'll go have a drink in the space needle, if they do that sort of thing- we have a tradition to maintain- and go to Pike's Place Market. We'll probably also check out the Children's Museum, because we are staying right there. Beyond that, who knows?

3 comments:

  1. When we flew to AZ we gave him some benadryl to relax him. I bought some new little toys that he had never seen before. I packed a lot of snacks.

    I dreaded taking Mason on the plane. But it wasn't nearly as bad as I had imagined it would be. Good luck!

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  2. We flew to South Africa (20 hours of flying plus a 4-hour stopover)when Swee'pea was 11 months old. I think I blogged about it then, and Em at three times three had good tips. I think I linked to it somewhere in my blog, probably in November or December 06.

    We bought new toys and saved them for the plane and introduced them over time. Flying with him on our laps was easy because that's mostly how he slept then anyways... he flirted with the other passengers. It was better than I expected. But flying when he was 2 was harder, probably mostly because of the timing of the flight. They say not to fly when your kid will be ready for a nap because they'll be overtired and screamy - that's what happened to us when we flew to Cuba.

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  3. I flew alone with Brayden when he was 2 months old. I too was stressed and tried to read everything I could. Pumpkin is much older, but I think the biggest thing is to stay relaxed, prepare for the worst, and hope for the best. Flying with Brayden ended up being way easier than I ever imagined. I agree with "mason" in the toys and snacks thing. I've heard/read that advice a lot. Also, Pumpkin will probably be very interested in her new surroundings, so that should be to your advantage. Enjoy your trip!

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