Flying With a 13 Month Old

The Bear took his first flight at the age of about 8 months. He flew to California.  He was not quite crawling yet. He was a great flyer; he received multiple compliments from fellow passengers. We've done two road trips up to Maryland and one to the beach and he has done great on all of those too. Now, he is walking and he is a solid 25 pounds. I was much more anxious about our flight to Idaho than I was on any of these other trips because he is now very mobile and boisterous. So, I sought advice from some experienced mommy travelers. Here are some of the things that they recommended:

• Books. One for each our of the flight.
• Kid friendly phone apps (Duck, Duck, Moose)
• Old wallet full of pictures of family
• Band-Aids
• Mini-post it notes and pen
• Things you can hide in a sock - show him something he loves and stuff it down in the bottom of a tube sock and let him try and pull it out.
• Sit cross legged in the chair and let him stand on the floor in front of you and hold onto your chair - great to exercise the legs
• Small snacks dropped into the bottom of a large plastic tumbler that he can reach into and get
• Walk the aisles as much as you can - everybody understands you being up :)
• Benedryl, just in case

BOOKS I brought two of his favorite, one cloth, and 7 or 8 of these little tiny books that fit perfectly in his hands (maybe 2.5" x 2.5") The cloth book held his attention the most probably because it was a touch and feel book and the mouse squeaks when you squeeze it.
KID APPS We are luddites. We don't have smart phones or tablets of any sort. (Someone recently said to me, "Is that a flip phone!???" hahaha. It will be worth money one day, it's so old.)
WALLET OF PICTURES What a great idea. We didn't do this. I will though, especially since our family is far away; good to keep the Bear familiar with his pack. I'd like to have something like this to keep pics of family in at home (he has one at daycare).
BAND AIDS  Another great idea that we didn't do. Instead I brought a roll of painters tape. I would rip pieces off and stick them on the tray, the back of the seat in front of us. Stan Bear enjoyed peeling them off and crunching them up (and sticking them in his mouth.) It ended soon when he tried to shake the sticky crumpled up tape balls off of his hands and they wouldn't shake loose! - he would get frustrated. But it was about 10 minutes of distraction fun.
POST-IT NOTES AND PEN This was fun. I stuck some post-its to the back of the seat in front of us he enjoyed retrieving them and crumpling them up and trying to figure out how to stick them back on. It does become a bit messy everywhere (crumpled post-it notes on the floor everywhere...but then the spilled Os trumped that...) I forgot to bring out the pen but he probably would have drawn on airline property, so my forgetfulness was helpful in this instance. I ended up handing him the entire pad of post-its which he enjoyed pulling apart, chewing on and crumpling up.
SMALL TOYS AND A SOCK  This was great...it's sort of like peek-a-boo with toys in a sock. He started to throw the small toys which could potentially enter into another travelers' space so I then figured out that showing him how to drop a toy in the sock and seeing it disappear is kinda intriguing. So he enjoyed doing that. If we do this again I will bring a less stretchy sock, and one that is shorter, because he had trouble retrieving items from the sock. This lasted at least 15 minutes...which is AMAZING. ha.
LET HIM STAND IN FRONT OF YOU We did this. Sometimes he liked it, sometimes he didn't. He even sat on the floor in front of me sometimes - but it's pretty gross down there...old food from previous flights, litter, blech...and he wants to put EVERYTHING in his mouth these days. Perhaps an old towel to throw down there would be good if he really wanted to spend more time down there without putting an old, half chewed raisin in his mouth. Grody to the max.
SMALL SNACKS IN A TUMBLER I wish I did this. Next time. I think he would love doing this.
WALK THE AISLES Mike and I would trade off. Stan Bear loves people and people watching so this is always good. I would walk up and down the length of the plane.
BENEDRYL We didn't bring any. We like to live on the edge.

Other things I brought:
SNACKS I brought his juice bottle which we will fill up with half orange or apple juice and half water. I brought snacks like Mum-Mums, Os, fruit. I nursed him on most take offs and some landings. The cabin pressure doesn't seem to bother him, thank goodness.
A BOWL AND SPOON He loves to sit there and try to use the spoon like Ma and Pa do. Even with nothing in the bowl. Although you have to watch out for the flying spoon (and bowl for that matter).
TOMAS THE BEAR or any stuffed animal that can double as a pillow for resting your arm while nursing or propping up your head while catnapping. Plus the Bear likes hugging and biting T the Bear.
BLANKET to be more discreet while nursing, to cover up the baby while sleeping, to play peek-a-boo.
TEETHING TOYS So he can bite things other than his mommy.

Things that we figured out as we went:
LET HIM STAND ON YOUR LAP This way he can see the neighbors behind you and chat and flirt and play with them if the neighbors are so kind (and most of them are).
LET HIM PLAY WITH THE ARM REST He enjoyed moving the arm rest up and down. UPdownUPdownUPdown. Forever and ever. This could be done with the window shade too if we had the window seat.
CLEAR THE SEAT POCKET IN FRONT OF YOU If you don't your child will clear it for you. I put all of my stuff in Mike's pocket and many times I, or the Bear, have found trash in there - sometimes yucky sometimes not so yucky, so it's good to clear it out ahead of time. I filled that pocket back up with OUR stuff: books, juice, snacks, toys, etc.
HANG OUT IN THE BATHROOM Maybe that's disgusting sounding but if you pull down the changing table and let him stand on that thing he will go to town on the papertowels - maybe that's wasteful but at least you're not sitting in between two adults in a cramped space. Plus you can go in there and scream and not be stared at.
PLAY "A LA KA ZAM KEVIN" We sat next to this lovely gentleman named Kevin on our last trip. Usually I'm pretty good about not entering our neighbor's space, even if they say they like kids. We are bound to accidentally kick/touch their leg or arm or toss (!) something their way during the length of the flight but I always apologize. So far we've only had great neighbors. On this last flight Stan Bear threw his wee bag of pretzels at Kevin's lap and then they fell between Kevin and my legs and were blocked by the arm rest so the Bear couldn't see them. Kevin immediately put his hands up and said, "Where did they go?" and then proceeded to wave his hands in front of Stan Bear as if doing magic and then sneakily grabbing the dropped bag of pretzels and saying "A LA KA ZAM!!!" and it was THE BEST THING EVER according to the look of pleasure on the Bear's smiling face. So then Stan Bear snatched the bag of pretzels and what do you think he did? Yes, he threw them at Kevin again and they fell in the same spot and he and Kevin played this about 10 more times. Each time was just as great as the first. After maybe the 4th time Stanley threw the pretzels and put his hands up as if to say, "Where did they go?" It was adorable for me, Mike and even Kevin to see. Then Stanley would put up his hands and then rotate them at his wrists trying to mimic Kevin's magic hand movements. It was amazing. It was like playing magical peek-a-boo with pretzels. Now when I ask him where something is, like his cowstar, he will throw up his hands as if to say, "I don't know. Where could cowstar be?" It's my new favorite thing.

All in all it wasn't bad. He never really cried, if he did he was tired and it was pretty easy to remedy that. I think his squirminess is the most challenging thing. We never had a free seat next to us like we did when we flew to California. What a difference it would have made. He is getting so big, so fast. When he's two we will be required to purchase a seat for him but I think it will be a relief even if there is an extra cost involved.

Check out this side by side comparison of him at 8 months to 13 months:

That hair!!