Flying with a Toddler

I was extremely worried about flying for 6 hours with a 2 year old trapped in a car seat. Ella is not one to just sit. She can't even sit through a 30 minute TV show. A few days before we left I headed to the dollar store and picked up a gazillion toys for her and Sarah. I spent a total of about $20 (there and back) and kept them both busy for a good 8 hours of total flying time. I also brought tons of snacks to keep their bellies full! It was seriously like Christmas on the plane -- I kept pulling out toys and their eyes would light up. Ella was most happy with a toy truck and Sarah loved these little pixie/fairy dolls. Throw in a couple of new Little Pet Shop pets and we had no problems.

We also brought along the iPod, mostly for Sarah. I downloaded some stories (off of Storynory) for her to listen to (she didn't) and also threw on a Veggies Tales CD on a whim. We only had ear buds, which didn't fit in Ella's ears, but she was happy listening to Bob holding the headphones up to her ears. Go figure.



Everything went so smoothly that I'm doing it again, this time just me and Ella, in August to visit the other set of grandparents (and maybe to get out of the heat for a while!).