Adventures in Flying with a One-Year-Old

It is hard to believe that Luke has already been on 7 separate airplanes in his short 13 months. Of course, these 7 airplane rides took place over 3 vacations (I counted there and back and lay-overs), but still! It's not easy flying with a baby: keeping them quiet and occupied for the entire flight, convincing them to drink during take-off and landing so their ears don't hurt, keeping them from ruining the flight of the person in front of us by kicking their seat or pulling their hair (yes, Luke has done both of these things), convincing them it can be fun to sit in Mommy's lap for three hours straight, blocking their attempts to push the call button and summon the stewardess, coming up with enough creative games  to keep them busy for the entire flight with a limited number of toys, changing poopy diapers in tiny airplane restrooms (Luke has needed a diaper change on every single flight he's ever been on), and the list goes on. But despite all of these things, Luke is actually a pretty good little traveler. He may be busy, but he's happy. It's exhausting keeping him entertained, but it's also really fun to spend all of that time with nothing to do but give 100% of my attention to my cute boy.

And do you know what else makes flying with a baby easier? Being upgraded to first class. Of course this would never happen to me under normal circumstances, but Luke and I borrowed my father-in-law, Greg's miles for our mid-August flight to California and flying first class is no big thang for him. So before we knew it, Bam! Luke and I were living the high life.

It was just like the movies. They brought us unlimited drinks and fancy snacks like crackers with Peppercorn Parmesan cheese spread and Mediterranean green olives with basil and garlic (and zoo animal crackers for Luke). I was even offered a hot towel. It was awesome!

My squirmy boy. Some of the other first class passengers looked a little peeved to have Luke sitting in their midst when they first saw him, but fortunately, we sat next to a very nice woman. She and Luke got along great!

I was amazed at the number of ways to entertain Luke I was able to come up with throughout the flight. We had a fantastic time and I was just as surprised as he was by how fun Mommy could be. I think that may have had something to do with my pre-flight prayer for help.

Plenty of room to play in first class (whether that's what it's intended for or not)

Luke loved to open and close the windows and look out at the clouds

Crazy boy

Luke was constantly climbing all over me to get to the lights. He turned them on and off a million times and tried to sneak in the occasional call button, but Mommy was too quick for him.

After two flights totaling 4 hours and a lay-over in between, I was exhausted and I had a serious back ache, but I was so proud of my sweet, happy little boy for how well he had done. We finally arrived in California more than two hours past Luke's bedtime and he hadn't slept a wink. I was so relieved to see my mom waiting for us at the bottom of the escalator in the Orange County airport after our long day.