- I borrowed Jen's Traveling Toddler. I will soon be buying one myself. It worked fine on a large suitcase, but I had to check that suitcase. So instead, I rigged the traveling toddler and car seat on top of our umbrella stroller. It worked surprisingly well.
- NOTE: I only put E in there when I was desperate and then held the car seat back while I pushed just to be sure it didn't go anywhere. It was far from an ideal set up and probably not the safest, but I had to do what I had to do. I don't think much about traveling alone with a toddler is safe to tell you the truth.
- I was very proud of my ingenuity though.
- I will now be buying a suitcase I can stow just to use it for these occasions.
- I also learned that it is pretty much impossible to tighten the car seat down on the plane seat. (Jen may have mentioned this, but I don't remember.) The place where you pull the strap to tighten ends up inside the car seat, and there's no way to get it as tight as it's truly supposed to be. There's also nowhere to anchor the top strap for forward facing.
- I spent some long, sweaty, frustrated moments with a fussy boy and an intimidating man staring at me before I gave up.
- As I've said before, traveling with E is a delight for me, though it is a lot of hard work. Having him sit on the window helps a lot so he can look out and play with the blind. It also means he doesn't have to sit next to a stranger. Another thing that helps is making him feel like he's in on the game. I have him "help" me by pointing out signs, holding things, exclaiming over something new etc.
- Something else that helps SO much is my Kindle Fire. I can't say enough about it. We downloaded a couple of TV shows and new games for him, and it was a lifesaver in many a long line or drive.
- And ACCEPT HELP! If someone wants to carry your car seat. Let them. Save your back and sanity.
- Finally, I had the sippy explosion phenomenon happen to me as well. I had totally forgotten about that. Luckily it wasn't very full so it only spit out about 2 feet in the air.
- And in completely unrelated news, I am almost finished with my strawberry plant modifications. I will post that next. (I think.)
Tuesday, August 7, 2012
Things I Learned While Flying With a Toddler
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5 comments:
He's too young for it as yet, but something I have found great for traveling by plane with my little one is the Ride Safer Travel Vest -- a quick google or amazon search will turn it up. It's not approved for airline travel (though truthfully I think it would be better than just the airplane seatbelt as it at least holds the lapbelt where it should be, across the top of the kid's thighs -- but it's really intended for use in a car with a shoulder belt. Basically, you put it on the kid, snugly, and put the seatbelts through it, and it routes them safely -- and it's small enough to be crunched into a travel bag or large purse.
In case of interest for later. It's only approved for those 3+ and at least 30#.
Thanks! Great tip!
Don't buy a traveling toddler. Just borrow mine. We will keep mailing it back and forth. I actually don't intend to use it for the rest of this year, so keep it until I dare to leave the house again, which will be at least 2013. I use that thing so infrequently that there is absolutely no reason for us each to have one. I mean, can you think of the last time you and I took simultaneous plane trips?
And I think we need to write a note and attach it to the strap of that thing. It needs to say "vent your sippy cup." I hit rows and rows of people with my apple juice.
Thank you for reminding me to be the person who offers to help.
Ohhhhh. I love that traveling toddler, will be getting one for our xmas trip! There will be two adults, but all day airports and flights with a 2 year old and 7 month old do not strike me as very fun. I am scared, lol.
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