We just returned from another whirlwind weekend with the extended fam in Illinois. We had a wonderful time, and I certainly don’t mean to take anything away from that by this post, but I have to be honest – traveling with a toddler is hard. It’s an art actually. A very difficult, highly-skilled form of art. The art of war, perhaps. It takes patience, skill, timing, and a bag full of tools.
If toddler travel is an art form, we are far from being Davincis, though we have had lots of practice in Pumpkin’s short life. We fancy ourselves more like the Painting-with-a-Twists of Toddler Travel. Not pros by any means, but you can typically be proud of your work when you are finished.
Like any fine art, each trip brings more fine-tuning, more attention to detail, perhaps a new tool. This being Pumpkin’s seventh flight, we felt fully prepared. That doesn’t lessen the dread, but it gives you the hope of survival. Like bringing the right weapon to a war.
First, timing is everything. Flight timing, arrival at the airport timing, leaving the house timing, eating lunch timing, changing diaper timing. Every single thing you do and the time you do it will greatly affect the overall success of your toddler travels. Never forget that.
After timing, comes tools. We had a fully charged portable DVD player and a variety of movies from Mickey Mouse cartoon shorts to feature length talking dogs and cats. We had books, crayons, stickers, and dolls. We even had the rare gem of Pumpkin’s little life commonly referred to as an entire bag of 100 Dum Dum suckers. That was in addition to another mini-cooler full of fruit strips, pretzels, squeezes, and raisins.
This time we even took the unprecedented chance of NOT bringing a stroller so that she HAD to walk through the airport (granted, this slowed us down to a snail’s pace, but luckily we arrived REALLLLLY early). While Hubby paced the airport hallways looking for “ee-uh-panes,” I carefully scoped out our fellow sojourners to identify those with children and we covertly embedded ourselves on a row deep in their midst once aboard the plane.
Add to all of this the fact that Pumpkin is “practically perfect in every way” (as her wall stencil will tell you). I’m not bragging. She really is a pretty great kiddo. I mean, don’t get me wrong. She is definitely a soon-to-be-two-year-old with a very strong personality, but she is an angel besides. Angel or not, however, nobody (me included) likes being confined to a cramped seat for two hours. That is the unavoidable. You can typically time one or two trips to the bathroom (Pumpkin likes to go wash her hands) to help ease the confinement, but you just can’t avoid it. Pesky FAA rules.
So there we were, all aboard. The flight there went well, particularly considering that it was preceded by a three hour drive to the airport and followed by an hour long drive to our final destination. Pumpkin was a doll. In fact, she was a doll the entire weekend, despite lots of driving between family members’ homes coupled with sleeping in a hotel room with mommy and daddy. She made friends and played sweetly with her first, second, and third cousins. We discovered she is a huge Division III college women’s basketball fan (so much so that she cheered for BOTH teams indiscriminately) and she was not disappointed by the constant attention and food that comes with one of these family trips.
All too quickly, the time came for us to make our way back home. We had the same preparations in place as before. You know what they say about if it ain’t broke. The night before our departure I did a thorough inventory of the snacks and entertainment, and double-checked that the gadgets were charged and the crayons sharpened. Once again, we were fully armed.
But I underestimated just how far life will go to bring you irony. As I made my list and checked it twice, I never thought about making any preparations for anyone other than Pumpkin’s health and comfort. Not that preparations could have warded off what came next. Luckily, though I doubted it at times, I did live to tell you this – the only thing more stressful than traveling with a toddler, is traveling with a toddler when you are pregnant (surprise to those of you who didn’t already know) AND have a stomach bug. At one point I think I asked Hubby to just leave me in Illinois. I was too nauseated to even lift my head without having the entire room spinning at lightning fast speeds. I just knew there was no way I was going to make it. I was the fallen soldier. They were just going to have to leave me behind.
Well of course they didn’t do that. Like true Marines, they dragged me home (almost literally). But along with irony, God also gave us blessings. First, the blessing of a less-than-half-full flight home. Then, couple that with this being the one flight during which Pumpkin slept – on Hubby’s chest – the ENTIRE way. That meant that mama could curl up in the fetal position and sleep herself.
Needless to say, we all made it home safe and sound from a wonderful (albeit cold) time in Illinois. Stay tuned next year for tales from the front lines of traveling with a toddler AND an infant. Does the second child come with an extra set of arms for mama and daddy? Guess we will find out in October! For fun, here is a pic of me two weeks before Pumpkin was born and Pumpkin's own announcement about her impending sisterhood.
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