Flying with our toddler

This past weekend we used some free vouchers we received from US Airways, or US Scareways as I call it. These came from our lovely flight debacle when we were flying to Hawaii in September of 2010 and our cabin started filling with smoke over the pacific ocean. We were turned around and rerouted to San Fran and delayed us getting to Maui for about 12 hours. You can read my recount of probably the most scary incident in my life HERE.

Anyway, we used the free vouchers to fly to see my dad and step mom over the holiday weekend, and we took Drew. We had two flights there and two flights back and each were about and hour long.  Drew was great on all the flights.  He loved looking out the window at all the other planes, and the workers on the tarmac.  A few things I did learn...You don't need to travel with 30 diapers, airports do sell them.  A 17 month old will not wear headphones even if they are the big comfy ones.  This actually didn't matter because he watched Baby McDonald and Baby Noah and no one else could hear the sound but him.  Planes do not have milk in their beverage service, now some other airlines might but United did not.

So here's what I brought that I thought was oh so helpful: a travel magna doodle, coloring book & crayons, touch and feel books, portable DVD player, snacks and milk.  Mostly Drew either wanted to watch his DVD's or color.  When we couldn't have the DVD player on, he was perfectly happy reading his books. 

A few things that I thought I'd share:  you can bring milk and juice through security when traveling with an infant.  TSA says that it needs to be a reasonable amount. We brought one sippy cup full of milk and 2 small 4oz. containers of juice in which we carted there and back.  Why I brought them I have no clue, Drew doesn't like juice.  TSA agents did ask to test the milk and juice in which they tested the vapors of it with a small test strip.  They also allowed us to carry Drew through the security screener, he did not have to walk through.  He did however have to take his shoes off just like every other passenger, as well as this sweatshirt.  We took with us our smaller umbrella stroller and it too had to go on the belt to be scanned.  The one thing that was a huge surprise to me was that there are only certain rows that you can sit in with an infant.  This is due to that row having an extra air mask. We had originally booked our seats together, however when we arrived they had switched my seat to the designated row and split us up.  We just had to ask the person that was next to me and Drew to switch to Brendan's seat, which each one of them did.  Who really WANTS to sit next to a toddler? 

All in all the trip was great, we had a wonderful time at my parents house.  I will do a recap and post pictures later this week.  I hope everyone had a wonderful and safe holiday!