Leaving on a Jet Plane

Boy have we been busy!

Last week we traveled to "wild and wonderful" West Virginia so we could introduce Claire to my dad's family. So it feels like the last two weeks have been PACKED full of business. During our vacation, I tried to do as little as possible, so much so that I almost missed taking any pictures of the event. It was so nice to do nothing but BE with my family. I didn't worry about cleaning, or going places, or getting crafts, gifts, or projects done. It was SO nice! Especially considering all of the worrying and planning I did in preparation for that week!

First, I made lists for everything. I made lists for things that we would need on our trip. I made lists for things I needed to do before the trip. A list for things to buy and people to talk to and most importantly, a list of ideas for entertaining Claire. No, I didn't actually reference this list while on the plane, but making the list helped me to remember the ideas on it a lot better.

Before I made this oh-so-important list, I did a lot of reading with the help of Pinterest and some of my favorite baby-raising sites. I got ideas from everyone and everywhere I could on how to entertain an active toddler on a plane. I knew that for Claire, I needed as many different ideas as possible with a very limited amount of physical items and space.

I wrote my list using the Evernote App on my phone so that I could see the list from any device.

This is my list:

Hand Activities
Pat-a- cake
This Little Piggie
I'm a Little Tea Pot
Itsy Bitsy Spider
Heads shoulders knees and toes
If you're Happy and you Know it
Popcorn Popping
Hokey pokey
I'm all made of hinges
Roll your hands
I have ten little fingers
Ring around the Rosie
Here we go Round the mulberry bush
I'm bringing home a baby bumble bee
The wheels on the bus
Here is the church

Songs
I am like a Star
ABCs
Twinkle Twinkle
Row your boat
Belly button song
Give said the little stream
Horsey horsey
Old Mac Donald
You are my sunshine

Games
what's that?
Make this face
Say this
Stack the drinking cups
Eat one item at a time
Read a book
Poke the straw through the lid
Put your shoes on
Listen to music
Watch shows


I also prepped some small activities that would fit in my bag. Me being me, I didn't finish any of them. But they are well done and worked well enough.

Activities that I made:
Felt Mr & Mrs Potato head pieces (in a ziplock bag--didn't finish the book)
One felt Chicken finger puppet
Gospel ABCs picture book (I got through letter "I" done)
A Weekly Vitamin tracker filled with buttons, beads, and pom poms

Completed Items

The eyes and nose were completed, but not the turkey or Christmas tree

Things I didn't get done or forgot:
The rest of the felt bags or even pages--Turkey with feathers, Christmas tree with ornaments, Flowers that button on, Cow and Pig felt finger puppets for the Barn Page that I didn't make.
The rest of the ABC book
A book called "Grandma's purse" full of fun things.

What actually happened on the plane:
We sang and played lots of hand games.
If Claire found something safe and interesting, I let her do it until she complained. This is by far the BIGGEST tip I have. I stretched out every interesting thing as far as it would go.
Claire liked to sit between our feet and explore the zipper on the diaper bag.
We looked at the SkyMall Magazine and she took the pamphlets and magazines out of the pocket and repeatedly put them back in again. That lasted a good 20 minutes. We spent time sipping out of the complimentary cups. We looked out the window. She played with the velcro on her shoes and practiced taking her shoes on and off.
She ate lots of snacks: Annies Cheddar Bunnies, Raisins, Vanilla puff stars--out of a self feeding snack cup with the plastic flaps on the lid.
She watched other people on the plane. And watched their individual tv screens.

I did not actually use the felt toys or the books that I brought. I was saving them until she got out of control and done with the other stuff.
We also bought a Nexxus 7 tablet specifically for this trip. We purchased a couple of apps from her favorite books and she enjoyed looking at those for a while. We also loaded the tablet with a few movies and episodes of her favorite tv show, Backyardiagans. This worked pretty well, but would have been better if she would keep the headphones on and if the sound on the tablet was better. That's another story though.

Overall the biggest thing is to stay calm. If other people give you dirty looks when your child cries, who cares? They can get off the plane and get away from babies. You can't. And right now, on this trip, it is all about keeping your little one happy. Another thing to remember is that, at least for me, the screaming and crying always seems worse to me than it really is. And every other parent on that plane has sympathy for you because they know what a chore it is to take small kids on a plane. It is NOT an easy task!

So when you make it off of the plane alive, rejoice! You succeeded!