We have taken Landen and Joey to Florida over Christmas the last two years (yes, Joey was still a fetus for the first trip, but whatever). Somehow, both times, we ended up with major flight delays. Last year, Landen was on his second ear infection of the month and had a nasty cold, so the doctor told us to give him Benadryl for the flight. We did this just as we were about to take off – doors closed, plane is about to roll away from the gate, flight attendants are seated for take off. Then the air conditioning broke and we deplaned with no information about when it would be fixed and when they’d let us back on.
Cool, I have now drugged my one year old and we have to get off the plane. Fun. He then proceeded to fall into a Benadyl induced slumber in the airport (on me of course, so I couldn’t move), and then was awake the entire flight. Lesson learned. Do not give the child Benadryl until you are IN THE AIR. (This is a bonus tip – not one of the four entertainment tips found below.)
But guess what. We did it again this past Christmas and once again we were so close. We were on line to board our 11 am flight, and they canceled boarding. The weather in New York was bad, so the airports were spreading out their timing to have fewer flights circling and landing at once. They weren’t sure when we’d be taking off but they estimated 3 pm. However, when we checked the flight status on our phones it said we had a 1:50 estimated departure time. I asked one of the airline employees about this, and they said we would board for a 1:50 departure, but this was just to get in line. Our actual take off time was estimated to be 3 pm.
Let me break this down for you. We were traveling with an 8 month old and a 2 year old, and we were told that after our 3 hour airport delay we would board the plane to sit on the runway for over an hour before take off. So we had to try to find ways to entertain Landen WITHOUT using his tablet, because we needed the tablet to be new and exciting for the one hour we had to sit on the plane before we started moving, plus the 2.5 hour flight from Palm Beach to Newark. So here’s a list of some of the things that kept us sane.
- Enlist help if you can! Eric and I were not alone. You would think two parents to two babies is a pretty solid ratio, but I’m not sure we would’ve survived without my sister. Everyone needed breaks, and the ability to take turns was life changing. We’re flying home from Colorado next week without any extra help though, so I’ll let you know how that one goes soon.
- Use the airport as your own personal jungle gym. The airport is huge! There is so much space to run around. AND THERE ARE ESCALATORS. Landen may have spent the entire 3 hours going up and down the escalators. A few weeks later, we took him to an aquarium. If he was more articulate I’m pretty sure he would’ve said “These fish are cool and all, BUT THOSE ESCALATORS!” (What he actually said was “take escalator more fishies!”)
- Sit down for a long lunch. For us, this totally happened by accident. But as soon as our flight was delayed we figured why not go for a sit down lunch. We ordered chicken fingers and a quesadilla for Eric and Landen to share, and salads for Marissa and me. The chicken and quesadilla arrived pretty quickly, and we just waited, and waited, and waited for the salads. They never came. Finally, the waitress came to tell us the lettuce shipment for the day was not yet unloaded from the truck, and did we want to order something else. Sure, we said, and ordered a Turkey burger for me and a Veggie burger for Marissa. And then we waited, and waited, and waited some more. Finally (again), the waitress came back (again), and said sorry, we’re out of both veggie AND turkey burgers. But the lettuce is off the truck – do you want your salads? And finally, a few minutes later, we were fed. The waitress was lovely, and took it off the check, but the point of the story is that we had no choice but to sit and eat. Obviously, no two year old would sit still for this amount of time, so we took turns (see #1) running up and down the escalator with him (see #2) and eating. It gave us each a much needed break, and some peace and quiet and time to eat food.
- Snacks, snacks, and more snacks. I think this one is self-explanatory. Feed the kid whatever he/she wants. It doesn’t matter if he has chocolate for breakfast and cake for lunch. All rules go out the window on travel days. This is also true for infants. I wanted to feed Joey for take off and landing to help her ears, and I am super strict with feeding schedules, but on travel days an extra bottle is so totally fine to make your life easier.
(P.S. We have also had some easy no delay flights to and from Colorado with Mr. Landen, so it’s not always this way.)
TRAVELING WITH ARDEN 