Traveling with a busy toddler...

Stroller | Monogrammed Diaper Bag | Monogrammed Luggage (White) | Parker's Suitcase

Thank you so much to everyone who responded to my Instagram story asking for travel tips! I received so many messages with great ideas (scroll down to see the list), and also so many people asking me to share these ideas, too... so here goes! I've tried to capture everything, but I'm sure I missed some and would love any additional ideas you guys may have in the comments. :)  And sorry about the picture quality, these were all iPhone pics taken is such bad lighting!

We flew to Florida twice this winter with Parker and took two totally different approaches for each trip... 

FIRST TRIP 
​Parker was just a few weeks shy of 1 year, and we chose to fly at night (8-9pm flights).
​
In the airport 

• I used our stroller and was able to easily check it at the gate when we boarded. I put it in large trash bags to protect it from wear and tear and make sure we didn't lose any of the pieces like our canopy or cup holder. We used our stroller everyday on our trip and don't know what we would've done without it. It was great for wheeling our heavy toddler around the airport, too. 
• I also packed a large blanket that we could set on the ground and create a little play area for him to sit and eat snacks and play. That way he wouldn't be playing on the airport floor. I washed the blanket when we got to Florida and it came in handy down there for the beach and in the yard.
• I packed lots of milk (formula). He drank a lot of it which was great, except for the fact that he then didn't want his bottle once we were on the flight which is how he was falling asleep at the time (we rock him with a bottle as part of our bedtime routine). So this made it hard to put him down to sleep once we were actually on the plane because he was already full. I wouldn't have given him so much milk in the airport if I had known this.
• He loved sitting/climbing on the chairs and looking out the windows too. A good way to let him burn off some energy. 
• Note: I did not bring his car seat or pack-n-play on the trip with us. My in-laws ship their cars down for their stay, so the carseat and pack-n-play were already there when we arrived. It was really nice not having to deal with this extra luggage. I'd recommend renting a car seat so you don't have to lug it around. There are already so many thing you have to carry! Just make sure that whatever transportation you take to/from the airport has a car seat ready to go for you. 

On the Plane

• My husband boarded the plane and got the stroller checked first, but I waited awhile to board the plane with Parker to reduce the amount of time we were in our seat. 
• We booked night flights, in hopes that Parker would sleep the whole flight. This sort of worked.  On the flight down he did sleep for about half of the flight, but since it was his first time on an airplane, I think he was also really overstimulated and had a harder time falling asleep. There were neon lights on the ceiling of that plane that I think totally distracted him, since he sleeps in a pitch black room with a very loud fan. But we put him in his Merlin sleep suit and he eventually fell asleep after some long fussing.  As I mentioned above, giving him too much bottle at the airport kind of screwed up our routine since he usually falls asleep drinking his bottle. He slept from about halfway through the flight until landing.
• We did not buy Parker his own seat, he was on our laps. However we did fly in first class so we had oversized seats and lots of leg room for all of our stuff which was nice. Once we need to buy him his own seat we will most likely sit in coach or economy comfort. I think he's now at the age (16 months), where he would do better in his own seat. For this trip though, it was totally fine.
• I made sure we had a lot of bottles/milk ready to go since he was mostly using bottles at this point (he was slow to start eating food). One thing I had to make sure of though was that we tried formula with Parker before our trip. I had just stopped pumping, and all I had was my frozen supply, which was impossible to transport down there for our two week stay, so we used formula. Luckily he took the formula just fine and all went well with it on the flight and trip. 
• On the flight home we did the same thing as on the way there, with the exception of giving him his bottle in the airport and our flight home went really smoothly, he slept almost the entire time in my arms. I really liked taking night flights with him at this age and would definitely do it again. 

When we arrived to Florida and back home, Parker was awake for the rides to and from the airport, and we had no problem putting him down to sleep after that for the night. He even slept in. :) 

SECOND TRIP
​Parker was 15 months (not walking yet, but crawling everywhere), and we chose to fly during the day. Our first flight was super early in the morning and the return flight was mid-morning.

We are so lucky that we made it out of town for this trip. We flew out at 6:50 the morning that the biggest snowfall/blizzard of the season hit MN - and everything after us was cancelled.   Thank heavens we made it out! The only bummer was that we had to get de-iced and that took 30-45 minutes and by the time we were done being de-iced, my "bag of tricks" (food, games, etc.) was almost completely out of things because he had already gone through them all. 

In the Airport - 
I took the same approach this time flying with Parker as I did above with a few differences.

• We used our stroller to transport P and gate checked it again with the trash bags as covers.
• I let him climb on the chairs, crawl all around (so he could get his energy out) and look out the windows. I brought a blanket to make a little play area for him again but by this time he was crawling everywhere so fast that he didn't really stay on the blanket. Oh well, this is where hand sanitizer comes in!
• I packed lots of snacks and those were a big hit both in the airport and on the plane.
• We also boarded last to reduce the amount of time we were on the plane. 
• I carried his diaper bag full of toys, snacks, diapers, wipes, etc... and my oversized tote bag so we had plenty of room for all of the things we had to try out on the flight.

On the Plane - 

• ​My husband boarded the plane and got the stroller checked first, but I waited awhile to board the plane with Parker to reduce the amount of time we were in our seat. 
• We did not buy Parker his own seat, he was in our laps. However we did fly in first class so we had oversized seats and lots of leg room for all of our stuff which was nice. I think he probably would've liked to have been in his own seat though by this age. There was a point where I sat on the floor so he could sit in my seat and play around. He's really into sitting in his own chair right now.
• P is still at an age where he could careless about tv shows/movies/games on an iPad etc, so that wasn't an option for us. 
• Things I packed:
  • Munchkin Bath Toys with suction cups that we could put on the trays/windows. He liked playing with the spinny pieces and putting things in the cups.
  • Items from the $1 section at Target - window clings, stretchy & colorful sharks, play sand, bubbles, things that lit up, etc - NONE OF THESE WORKED FOR US. He just wasn't interested in any of it, or tried to eat them so we had to take them away. If he were a little older I think they may have worked a little better.
  • Suckers - he didn't really like them, but I wanted to try them for his ears at takeoff and landing.
  • Pill box filled with snacks for each day - gold fish, cookies, puffs, etc. He didn't think it was as cool/entertaining as I would've hoped, but it worked for a little bit.
  • Dixie / Solo cups - Yes, like the ones you drink out of at a keg, haha. These were a big hit. He loves playing with these at home, we use them as stacking cups and build towers where he can knock them over, so we did that on the tray with these cups and it kept him entertained for awhile. 
  • Lots of snacks! Like more than you would think you need.
  • His blanky
  • Water sippy cup, Bottle
  • Post-It notes - we put them on the tray table and window and let him play around with them. 
  • Toy remote control - but he ended up throwing it a lot and the people across from us had to keep picking it up, which I'm sure they loved. Haha.
  • One random thing we packed for the flight home was a pair of indestructable reading glasses. Parker loves taking people's glasses/sunglasses off and playing with them. In FL, my MIL had a pair that literally could not break, so we let him play with these all the time and he really enjoyed it. 
• He likes playing with the lock screen on our cell phones, so we let him do that a lot, and we got temporarily locked out of our phones a few times, but it was worth it! 
• We were able to hold him and give him his bottle for a nap. He fussed for awhile before going to sleep, but he eventually feel asleep and took a 45 minute nap each flight. 
• I walked him up and down the aisle on each flight so he could look at all of the people.
• He liked standing in my chair and looking backward at the people behind us. 
• FYI about Milk - if your kiddo is drinking only cows milk now, know that not all airlines carry milk onboard anymore. We flew Sun Country and they didn't have milk for us to refill our bottle with. Buy it in one of the stores in the airport ahead of time.

FIRST TRIP VS. SECOND TRIP
Overall, the flights went fine both times. I think I would attempt to travel either way next time, but maybe lean toward a night flight because a sleeping toddler is way easier than a busy one that gets bored very quickly. Once P is at the age where he can watch a show/movie on an iPad, flying during the day will probably be more the attractive option. 

I know this was kind of a hodge podge of info, but hopefully it'll help someone out who plans to fly with a busy toddler sometime soon! 

Other ideas that people sent me (THANK YOU!!):

• Doug and Melissa Water Color Pad 
• Window Clings ($ section at Target)
• Stacking Cups, or Solo Cups like we used
• Hand Sanitizer - for obvious reasons :)
• Pill Box - Put a different snack or toy in each day
• Suckers - For their ears at take-off & landing
• Activity Kit by Taza
• Post it Notes - Fun to put them on the tray or window
• Sticker Books
• Crayons/Coloring Books
• Kleenex - Let them take the kleenex in/out
• Let them play with the window shade - put it up and down
• Let them play with all of the things in the seat back pocket
• Play-Do
• Anything with buttons to push
• New toys, something they've never seen or played with before so it is novel
• One person told me to ask for their first  set of wings! Love this idea and I'm bummed I forgot to do this.