Before Flight

Thought I would document my pre-flight mood and what I have done to prepare.  Also I would like to see how far from my "Plan" we stray.  That way I can easily make fun of my mistakes or give myself a high-five for the success's.

I am beyond freaked out about flying with my toddler on Saturday.  We are flying out of Atlanta on a direct 3 hour flight to Phoenix.  So this means we will have a slightly messed up schedule starting Friday night.  Which if all goes as "Planned" it should work out just fine.  (This is the part I will laugh at later, many many weeks from now.)

So on Friday Z will get dinner about an hour early and bedtime routine will still happen.  Instead of going to bed in her crib she will go to bed in her car seat.  I hope to keep her asleep all through the night so she can still get her 12 hours.  This will be a little tricky once we arrive at Derek's parents, but it can be done.  Saturday morning I plan on getting her as exhausted as possible.  Then she will get lunch about an hour early.  Then a little more playing before getting loaded in the car.  We will drive her around a little before we leave to get her to sleep before we have a car full.  With people riding in the back seat with her it could be hard to get her to sleep.  It will take us about an hour and a half to get to the Atlanta airport from Derek's parents so this should give her a good nap, if she falls asleep before we leave.

I have no worries about getting through the airport, she will be in the Ergo and will have plenty to look at.  Once at the gate I plan on letting her run wild until we board.  I am hoping we can get boarded in the first group.  We will be traveling with NaNa and Pop so Z will be out numbered 4 to 1.  Our flight is with Southwest Airlines so I have my fingers crossed it is not a full flight (this is the part that I say: "I was so naive" when I tell the story)  I hope to have two of us take a row of three and plop her down as though we have paid for a seat for her, and have the other two in the row behind us.  I have not yet figured out what would be the best seating arrangement.

For the in flight entertainment I have a backpack full of surprises.  I have 2 Cheerio necklaces one for take off and one for landing.  Hopefully this will help keep her ears from hurting.  An obscene amount of snacks and books.  I have pulled her favorite books so they will be extra special when she sees them again (during story times she has been looking for them).  A few small toys, a new sticker/coloring book, her backpack which she has not seen in a day(this is kind of her lovely item), the stuffed Zoe she got at Sesame Street Live and has not seen it since.  She has been really into straws lately so I got her a new fun sippy cup that has a straw on it.  My phone is stocked full of cartoons and new apps for her to play with.

Hopefully 3+ hours of entertainment

Some of the items I did not get that I would have liked to but ran out of time or thought it was not worth the cost:  I was going to get the Ergo backpack that attaches to the carrier but I have so many backpacks and saw no reason to spend $50 on a backpack I would only use a few times.  Also my Kelty backpack has lots of straps and I was able to attach it just the same.  It looks a little awkward but really most of the time I do too.  Another item I found out about on Monday and really wish I had time to order and receive it from an Etsy site is a "Quiet Activity book".  After seeing them I thought I could find one around town, I searched everywhere and no one had any.  The books are cloth and have all kinds of snaps, zippers, and ties to keep little hands busy.  The last item I almost got but decided it was not worth it and I was running out of room in my carry on is a Travel AquaDoodle.

A couple things I did make last night after a glass of wine was a photo book of old photos taped to crate paper and a piece of felt with beads and buttons sewn onto it.  They took me about 20 minutes to make both and like I said I was drinking wine so I will not be posting photos of them.

Zoë is usually pretty well-mannered and should handle this just fine.  She enjoys new places and seeing new things so this should be fun for her.  I know it will be way harder on me then her, so once arriving in Phoenix I plan on drinking a Mirror Pond as soon as I can get my hands on one, or two, or three.