Flying With A One Year Old

Family Vacation Time!

I will never feel as comfortable and complete as I do when I'm in the Pacific Northwest. Imagine my excitement when it came time to bring my newly expanded family back to that place that makes me feel like....well me! I love Portland and Seattle (Seattle more...) to no end. The Northwest has this beauty that I have yet to see matched by any other part of the country, and I've been to several parts of the country. We've seen beautiful things like Florida beaches, Mississippi swamps, Hawaii coastlines, Arizona rock formations, the majesty of the Rockies, a fall day in Virginia....but nothing FEELS like the Pacific Northwest. And to my very fortunate pleasure, Matt feels the same way and is just as excited as I am to one day call that place home for good and ground our family there.

Getting to the Northwest this time around would be a whole new adventure for me. I left on Thursday and Matt couldn't leave until the following Saturday because of work. I had to get myself, Jellybean, and a crap ton of stuff from one coast to the other. I started searching blogs and google like crazy trying to find ways to please a one year old on a very long plane ride. How in the world was I going to get this done? I was super nervous, but knew I'd figure it out because...well, I had to of course. Nothing was stopping me from getting to my favorite part of the country!

When we got to the airport parking lot and I had my stuff all piled up behind the car, I noticed just how much I had to lug cross country. Oh geez, talk about having my hands full. One of the security guards (a retired Navy vet) saw me and took pity on a mom traveling alone so he helped me carry all my crap from the car to the ticket counter. Talk about lucky! That trip would have taken me 4 times as long had this person not graciously offered his helping hand. God was really looking out for me that's for sure! We got to the gate with plenty of time to spare. I didn't know how long it would take me to get through security and everything so I wanted to be extra prepared. Jellybean was super happy watching the planes, banging against the window, and walking up and down the aisles. He knocked out in my arms before we boarded, slept through the takeoff, and woke up about an hour before landing in Chicago. During that hour, I took out my myriad of toys and snacks to help keep him quiet and it worked! He fussed occasionally, but never for too long, and would quiet down when I whipped out a new toy or took out a new snack.

I meant to grab some dinner in Chicago but our flight was late coming in so I literally had 10 minutes between planes. Fortunately the gates were right next to each other. I ended up eating some of Jellyean's snacks on the plane as my dinner that night. Oh well, I knew I had lots of food adventures ahead of me. The flight from Chicago to Seattle was significantly longer (4 hours) and required lots of toys, snacks, and silly faces to keep my little man smiling and happy. Eventually, he showed me his sleepy eyes and I nursed him until he feel asleep, and stayed asleep for the duration of the flight. It helped that we were traveling during his normal sleeping hours. Lucky mama once again!

The hardest part of our trip was getting from baggage claim to the rental car agency since the rental car facility in Seattle is about a 5 minute shuttle ride from the actual airport. Again, people see a mom traveling alone and are pretty helpful. I loaded up my big pile of STUFF in the rental, took a breather, and happily rejoiced in the fact that I was finally home! And with my Jellybean! We drove up to Seattle that night (SEATAC is about 30 minutes from Seattle) stayed with my best friend Trudi and her hubby Armaan because Trudi got pretty upset when she found out that Jellybean and I just planned on staying in a hotel that night. I didn't want to bother her on a work night when we would be getting in so late and I was just going to drive down to Portland in the morning anyway. But that's my Trudi for you, always the willing hostess and never wanting to leave a friend stranded. That girl will bend over backwards for the people she loves, so I'm pretty lucky to be on that list. I think she was just impatient about meeting her little Jellybean though...but who can blame her? He's kind of awesome.

That morning, Jellybean and I packed up our stuff once again, said our see ya laters to Trudi and Armaan (who we'd be staying with later when we came back to Seattle), and left to meet up Guncle Andrew for some Serious Biscuit on South Lake Union. Andrew's a friend from college who also joined the Air Force but got out several years ago. He was getting ready to move cross country but postponed his moving day by one day for me! Talk about good friends. I know, I'm extremely blessed and so grateful to be surrounded by wonderful people. Again though, I'm pretty sure Andrew did all that more for Jellybean than me. It's still strange to my friends to see me with a kid. While I know several people my age with children, I'm the first out of my truly good friends to have one and they get a kick out of seeing me fuss over a little one during breakfast or whenever because it's all so new to us. But despite how strange and pretty funny it is watching me handle being a mom, all of my friends have developed this instant love for my kid even before they meet him. Again.....I've been really blessed in my life and am surrounded by the most wonderful people! After lunch with Andrew, Jellybean and I started our trek south to Portland. Standby for blog posts on those adventures.

That's a lot of stuff to carry by myself.

Hanging out at Starbucks before the flight takes off.

He really liked looking at the planes.

I like to think that smile is because he's as excited as me to be going to the Northwest.

It was clear and beautiful when we flew in. See Century Link?!

Selfies in bed at Aunt Trudi's house.

Amazing breakfast at Serious Biscuit.

Seattle rooftop adventures with Uncle Andrew.

Trying to get the Space Needle in the background.

He's got a thing for shrubs.

Andrew insisted on taking a pic of me in my baby carrier. My friends are still getting used to me having a baby.

Selfie with Uncle Andrew. Jellybean was a huge fan and warmed up to him immediately.

Tips and Tricks

1. I like to fly Southwest. You get priority boarding when you travel with a kid under 4 and you get to pick your seats. There is always ample room when you board and I figure that the people who sit next to you are choosing to sit next to someone with a baby. I like to sit near other families to consolidate the noise, and noise from other kids doesn't bother Jellybean so it's a win. I also like Southwest because you can cancel your flight or change flights without having to pay a change fee! The free bags thing is nice, but all airlines offer free bags to military ;)

2. Gate check! I gate check the car seat and stroller. There's the option to gate check it to your final destination but I like to pick it up during layovers. Makes for easier transportation and I just don't know what I'd do if the airline lost my car seat! That thing is kind of required for safety. It's such an easy process and I'm so happy to have the option available to me.

3. Getting through security....is actually pretty painless. On our way out to Seattle I had a bottle of breast milk with me. TSA had no issues with me carrying a bottle of fluid over 3oz around. (When I was traveling back from Alabama, TSA also didn't give me a hard time about my huge cooler of frozen breast milk). I had to take Jellybean out of the car seat and they checked the car seat/stroller while I carried him across the metal detector. Pretty easy! I recommend traveling in shoes that are easy to put on and take off while holding a kid. Actually....I recommend traveling in clothes that are easy to move around in. I wore a jacket with LOTS of pockets for quick access to phone/wallet/ticket/toys/snacks...seriously, this jacket is awesome.

4. Travel through the airport with minimal stuff. Aside from the car seat/stroller combo, all I had was Jellybean's diaper bag. I hate putting things in the overhead compartment and I can't imagine having to do that while holding on to a one year old. I have no problem having a bag at my feet and it's easy access to baby distractions anyway.

5. Bring a variety of snacks and toys. I only gave Jellybean snacks when he was showing signs of hunger, otherwise, the toys kept him pretty calm. I introduced the toys slowly, not all at once. And I brought a long a few new toys that he had never seen before which he got a kick out of. Fortunately, airplanes are pretty loud so I didn't have a problem bringing along some toys that made A LITTLE noise. Not too much because I didn't want to bug everyone around me of course.

6. Please don't ever be afraid to nurse in public! While I'm not 100% comfortable whipping my boob out for all to see, I'm still not going to NOT nurse my kid when he needs it. They say it helps with the ear popping problem that kiddos don't know how to master yet, but the takeoff and landing didn't seem to bother my little man. I nursed him because I knew it comforted him and because he's still a breastfeed little boy. I would sit by the window, turn my shoulder so I kind of shielded us, and nursed away. I've heard horror stories about mothers being asked to stop what they're doing or people being offended by nursing mothers and I have yet to experience that. Thankfully! Maybe it's because I usually sit by other families and airlines probably don't want to have to deal with the backlash of having a flight attendant blasted on social media for being upset at a nursing mother.

7. Don't ever be afraid to ask for help. While I was in OBVIOUS need of help and really didn't need to ask, I'm never too proud to ask for it anyway. People are good and always willing to help out, especially moms traveling with small children.

8. Don't stress out too much about noise and keeping the perfect child. We've all been there and have had to listen to the crying baby on the plane. I think what bugs people the most is when parents just let their baby wail without trying to do anything about it. If you're trying to calm a screaming baby and it's still not working....well whatever. It's a baby for goodness sakes! Fortunately, Jellybean didn't scream his head off a lot, if ever, but when he did start to fuss, I didn't freak out about it. I'm trying to raise a tiny human here, we were all there at one point. Don't expect me to stay behind closed doors until my kiddo is 13!

9. Take time to enjoy the trip. Traveling with a baby is stressful and can raise a lot of anxiety, but it's also fun! Who needs a book or an ipad when the kiddo is entertainment enough. Sure I like to take some relaxing time to myself...but let's be honest here, those days are in the past. When was the last time I got my eyebrows waxed? Oh, I have no idea. But I LIKE playing with my kid. I love making him smile and talking to him even though he doesn't make any sense.

Matt flew with us on the way back and his help was very much appreciated. I had him entertain Jellybean while we were at the gates while I entertained him on the plane. He's too needy with mama to be content sitting in dad's lap on a plane ride anyway. But Matt earned his share of the parenting duties chasing him around the airport so I could just sit and watch them. And the extra pair of hands came in super handy when it came time to lugging those bags around!

It was a great trip but definitely an eye opener for us. Traveling with a kid, by plane, all the way across the country, IS EXHAUSTING. And not just the traveling part, the whole trip part. As a mom, you never really get to relax. Even when someone else is holding your kid, you're still watching them because...well, it's your kid. Your guard never goes down, not even for a second. It was definitely a learning experience. I can honestly say that I don't think we'll be making any big trips away from Virginia anytime soon. Road trips? Ok that's fine. I think we can manage that and I'm happy to anyway. I still need to explore up and down the east coast. But friends and family, if you want to see the Morans, you gotta come to Virginia. It's only going to get harder when Tater Tot comes around!