Traveling with a Toddler and Lots of Pics from the NY trip

excited for her trip (at the airport)

As I mentioned in last week's Thursday Thoughts, EM and I went to NY for the weekend (2 weekends ago). This was EM's first plane ride and boy was it an experience. You know when you get on a flight and see someone with a baby/toddler and cringe, and they end up being "that person" on the plane with the screaming kid... yea, well that was me and I wanted to cry by the time we deplaned.

I purposely chose evening flights thinking since EM normally goes to bed around 7-7:30, she'd just sleep on the plane and then I could doze off and it'd be perfect. Well, our flight was supposed to leave at 8:10, was delayed to around 8:40, so I figured, even better. While we waited for the flight to board, EM was perfect, playing, walking around saying hi to everyone, pushing her stroller around, in a great mood. Luckily, we flew Southwest and were in boarding group A! When we got on the plane, I spotted an empty row and sat EM in a seat (even though she was supposed to be on my lap, I had asked any knew there were about 45 empty seats), sat next to her and put my diaper bag on the third seat and luckily no one tried to sit with us. We had the whole row of seats, perfect! So we take off, not so bad, but throughout the flight, I kept trying to get EM to calm down/lay down and fall asleep. This is where I went wrong. When she'd just play with her toys/books or be snacking (how was she hungry considering she normally is asleep at this hour is beyond me)  she'd be fine but as soon as i tried to get her to go night night, she'd get super fussy and cry/scream. Trying to console her only made it worse. It wasn't the WHOLE flight, but it was enough of it that someone even offered me a banana to try to quiet her (it worked BTW).  EM finally tired herself enough and crashed at 10:40pm (3 hours past her normal bed time) and we landed at 11:15pm. I tried so carefully to pick her up without waking her, but I was unsuccessful, and she woke up screaming and of course it took people FOREVER to get off the plane even though we were only in row 7. Our stroller wasn't immediately ready and EM was just crying the whole time. As soon as I put her in her stroller, she was fine. I was mortified and dreading our flight home on Sunday night.  I got several "I feel so bad for you" looks, several "We've all been there" comments, and a few nasty stares (which I was surprised, were only a few).

watching the luggage carts

all smiles ready for take off

how she FINALLY passed out

Our actual visit in NY itself was a great time! EM got to meet some new family members including my cousin (who is actually younger than her). It was so cute watching them play together (they are about 4 months apart). And we got to spend a good amount of quality time with the people we visited. Somehow on Saturday, EM made it through the day until around 6pm before crashing. Was surprised she hadn’t fallen asleep in the car in between visits around 1:30 (already past her nap time) and was surprisingly chipper. She crashed at 6pm, slept for about 45 mins, ate a little and then was out for the night around 7:30. On Sunday, the day of the baby shower, which started right at her normal nap time, she was really happy and chipper as well and didn’t crash until 4pm, where she literally fell asleep in my arms at the shower and my sister in law (who also flew up for the shower with one of my nieces) and I rotated holding her while she slept. She slept only about 45 mins again and then we got packed up and went to the airport for the dreaded flight home. Once again, we got really lucky with a non-fully booked flight and had the whole row of seats to ourselves. This time, rather than trying to get EM to sleep on the plane, I just let her play, eat snacks, “read” and play between me and the empty seat. She didn’t cry once. It was SOOO much better! Even if I was sooo exhausted from the trip and wanted to doze, I would prefer entertaining her to trying to console her screaming and crying. She didn’t crash until we were on the shuttle to the parking lot where my car was. Monday she was a little cranky in the morning going to day care, but she just went to bed early and she’s been back on her schedule and is doing great.

Playing in the pool with Cousin Allison

Enjoying Great Aunt Dawn time while watching Cousin Danny play football

all smiles at bedtime 

Playing at Gramps house

playing at the park with Gramps

and EM had her first ice-cream cone

giving kisses to Cousin Thomas

and playing with Cousin Hailey

passed out at the baby shower

playing so nice on the plane ride home

reading her Spirit Magazine

My cousin’s baby shower was absolutely gorgeous! I felt like I was at a wedding. She found out she was having a boy, and his name is going to be Jaime Jr and he’s going to be one well-loved little man! He should be arriving any time in the next few weeks and I can’t wait for his arrival!

the beautiful parents to be 

Overall, traveling with a toddler is exhausting, but the key is to kind of let them go off schedule and just have fun rather than try to get them to sleep when they clearly don’t want to. It makes for a happy mommy and happy baby!