Leaving on a Jet Plane

There are many things in life that were way more enjoyable before having a kid. Sitting, sleeping, taking a shower, going to the bathroom, going to pretty much any store, and driving in the car just to name a few. But, I think I found another big one. Traveling. And, more specifically, flying. I used to pack up a few things the night before in my small carry on. No worries really if I forgot anything. I could always get it there. I would show up at the airport with enough time to casually get to my gate, get a snack (yumm...Cinnabon), and read a magazine until we boarded. Then, I would read a book or maybe even sleep during the flight. Um, yeah, not so much with kids.

We don't have any family in Kentucky, so we have been making our family travel to see us. But, some of our family cannot travel easily, and have been begging to see our little man. And, I can be honest, the thought of taking my little dude on a plane scared the crap out of me. Like, waking up in a cold sweat at night scared me. Disaster lurks behind every corner when traveling and flying is even more unpredictable and tricky. And, heavy. Because, you need to pack just about everything in the world when traveling with kids. Snacks, extra snacks, toys galore, clothing and back up clothing, and a few extra shirts just in case, the car seat, the noise machine, the monitor, etc. Whew, it wears me out just thinking about it all.

And, the airport has it's own issues for traveling with small kids. The lines that you need to stand in to do just about everything. Not easy explaining to a toddler why you need to stand in one line to check in and another line to drop off your bag and then yet another line for security. And, yes, those conveyor lines do look cool, but you cannot ride on them. That you cannot just skip the security line and run through the the scanner (although we all want to sometimes). And, you cannot have any water until we get back into the airport because of umm, well, safety issues I guess. And, I know that the TSA guy really loved giving you that sticker and you freaking the heck out because it touched you.

Did you know that toddlers love walking sidewalks? Mine loved them so much that he didn't want any of them to end and stood at the end watching all the other people get off of them and telling them to jump at the end. All while standing right in the way for them to get off. Didn't see that one coming. Also, did you know that the floor of some airports have designs on them to make them more attractive? Well, my toddler decided that it was a great idea to stop suddenly and bend down quickly to point to all the different colors. Awesome job on the color identification kid, but we almost got run over by a few rolling bags on that one.

I do have to admit the dude did awesome on the flight. This may have been partially due to the one man band show I was putting on. We watched his favorite shows (with commentary by me since my husband kept telling me to turn it down), we colored, we looked out the window and make plane noises, we did stickers, we played with dinosaurs, and we even sang songs (which I am sure everyone loved). But, he didn't really fuss or cry, so I count that as a huge mom win.

It was awesome seeing his little face light up when we took off and he looked out at the town below. To see his amazement in the fact that we were actually flying through the air. But, I must admit, there was a small part of me that missed the old low-stress traveling. Which is funny, by the way, since I used to consider flying very stressful. Funny how things change.