11 Highlights from Traveling with a Toddler

This past summer, I flew internationally with the munchkin. He was just under two years old at the time, and was incredibly excited by all of the activity. On the way there we flew with one of my sisters and her younger toddler, whom my toddler absolutely dotes upon. On the way back, it was just small sir and me.

Here are eleven highlights from the flights:

1) The toddler signing for his cousin to sit down, because she was standing up in the bulkhead bassinet and he was afraid she would fall. Please note that this is coming from a boy who would bungee-jump if I let him.

2) The fact that the in-flight breakfast included yogurt, which I promptly ended up wearing. Which stressed him out, because duh – it’s totally reasonable to dump yogurt on someone and then yell at them for being dirty. Toddler logic FTW!

3) The really nice lady sitting behind us who played peekaboo with the munchkin through her niqab, keeping small sir entertained for a glorious half hour. Seriously, cannot thank you enough, nice lady.

4) The entire (large) bag of pretzels that the toddler somehow managed to dump right before the flight attendant came by with the cart. I think those crumbs are forever a part of the carpet now.

5) The size of the airplane bathroom changing tables. Seriously, toddlers wear diapers too. That thing wouldn’t fit a nine-month-old. Plus, gross. (At least I had my travel sized No Time for Diaper Rash cream, so diaper rash didn’t add to flight stresses!)

6) That time that I gave up on the nasty, tiny changing table and decided to finish dressing him in the back part of the plane, where he promptly disappeared up the aisle of the plane in nothing but his diaper.

7) The look on the flight attendant’s face, and his startled and apologetic manner, when I exasperatedly called “SIR!” after the running and mostly-naked toddler, and he thought I was upset with him – followed by the bond we formed once I explained that “sir” is actually one of the toddler’s nicknames, and I absolutely, positively, in no way was yelling at any of the plane’s staff.

8) The way that flight attendant kept coming to check on “sir” throughout the flight, just for the pleasure of calling a toddler “sir.”

9) Cookies. Lots and lots of cookies. No one – not mommy nor baby – could have gotten through those flights without cookies.

10) Watching Shaun the Sheep. That movie is freaking hilarious. If you disagree, stay up all night in cramped quarters with a yogurt-covered shirt and nothing but junk food for sustenance, and then get back to me. Hilarious, I promise.

11) The joy of traveling with my baby – watching his face light up at the sight of all the planes, pointing out cars and trees as we approached landing, and cuddling him as he slept in my arms. Oh, and the joy of arriving, because let’s be honest: toddlers are terrible travelers.

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