The things you learn

We were in Disney World this past week. It was a ton of fun and Addy got to see Mickey for the first time.

But we learned some things along the way, as you do anytime that you do something new, I suppose, so I thought that I would share the Top 5 things that we learned when traveling with an infant/toddler.

1. You can never have too many grapes, raisins, pretzels, strawberries, Goldfish, fruit snacks, Cheerios, fruit cups, water, etc... Here we did ok. I thought that we were taking way too much food for Addy (though I still did pack it all), but we actually ended up running out on the last day of the trip. She ate like a champ while we were there (eating all of the above and eating well at meals too) - something that we attribute to the fact that she didn't really ever want to sleep. Because there was always something going on (even in our quiet hotel room, I guess), she fought to keep her eyes open. (Which is another thing to know too - being away is much more exciting than being at home - and kids (at least our kid) didn't want to miss any of the excitement). So anyway - if it seems like too much food, it's probably not.

2. A pacifier strip that attaches the pacifier to the child's clothing is a necessity. We learned this one the hard way. Addy only uses her pacifier at nap times and at bedtime, but we wanted it available to her on the plane (one, because we hoped that she would sleep for some of the 6+ hour ride, and two because we wanted her to be able to alleviate ear pressure problems by sucking on it), but she decided that she really didn't want it some of the time and because of that we had to ask the man behind us to retrieve it more than once. We really did try to make sure that she didn't fling it, but those quick little hands are simply too quick at times!

3. It's wise to put the "I won't allow..." in your back pocket. Though Addy was really well behaved for the trip - even as tired as she had to have been - we had a couple rough patches on the plane coming home. Adam and I don't give into Addy's crying when she's crying just because she wants something that she can't have. However, when you're 34,000 feet above the earth in a cramped and tiny space that you're sharing with 165 other cramped quiet people and holding a loudly crying baby, you begin to rethink some things pretty quickly. Addy, a couple times, got to continue playing with something (i.e. Mom's keys) even after putting them in her mouth numerous times - (which doesn't happen on solid earth). But I think that that one leniency was worth it - for all involved in the situation.

4. If you would like to arrive at your destination without a black eye, a fat lip and missing hair, you might consider buying your child a seat on the plane. Until age two, children can travel without a seat. At about age one, the saved money may not be worth it. We've traveled with Addy as a 'lap infant' on three other trips (which means six other flights) before with relatively little hassle. But now she wants to explore and squiggle and touch things. These are all skills that we're happy that she's developing, but on a plane it doesn't always work so well. For three hours on the way home, we all struggled. Adam had half a seat because Addy and I were trying to get settled in a place where she couldn't grab things that she shouldn't have and didn't kick the seat in front of us. It was an on-going battle. Toys were no longer interesting and everything on the plane was. She wanted to flail and play with (read: pull as hard as possible) my hair, take my glasses off my face and stick her fingers in my mouth. Even though we had kept her awake before the flight and had let her loose in the airport to burn energy, she was still something of a Wild Child on the plane. You wouldn't think that someone so little could cause pain, but there's quite a bit of punch in those little fingers and hands.

5. And the last thing that we learned is those first 10 (maybe even 20) minutes of a child's sleep are super deep - and almost nothing can cause awake-ness. Addy did finally fall asleep about 3.5 hours after take off. All was well, we were flying along and then BANG, DROP, RATTLE etc., we hit terrible and very unexpected turbulence. We rocked and rolled for about 5 minutes in the worst turbulence that I've ever been in. The flight attendants told people that were up (like I said, it was very unexpected) to sit in any seat that they could find and told people who couldn't find seats to sit on the floor and hold on to the seat next to them. I was panicked - and even though Adam was trying to calm me, I thought that our numbers may have been called. I squeezed Addy tightly as my seatbelt caught me and held me to the seat numerous times. But through all of the jostling and even my squeezing (I was sure that some of her organs had to have been moved around as tightly as I held her), Addy slept. She awoke only after it was over when I responded to someone's question about Addy sleeping through it all - and even then, she quickly drifted back to sleep.

We learned a lot more about traveling with a kid, but these were the top things. I'm sure that our learning is just beginning. It was a great trip and Addy proved what a good, adaptable and interested kid she is. We enjoyed spending so much fun time with her, and I think that she enjoyed the fun time with us too. It was a worthwhile trip for all of us, I think, and, I can say with the knowledge gained on this trip, we'll be even better prepared for the next one (trip, that is - I'm sure that Newbie will teach us a whole new set of rules to traveling with kids).