Friday, June 6, 2008

Aviophobia

I'm very scared of flying. Here's why:

She looks harmless enough, but she's feisty, active, and spunky. Not the best combination for hours and hours on an airplane. We're headed out West on Thursday (can't wait!), and I really can't complain...Nate will be with me on all the flights. I am SO thankful for that. But flying with kids is JUST PLAIN TOUGH. My friend Monica and I have been picking our brains for things we can bring to entertain our babies. We laugh and laugh at the recommendations on lots of websites:

"Bring some toys for them."

"Remember lots of snacks."

"Plan ahead."

DUH! It's insulting to me as a parent. Of course I'm going to do those things! But I want specifics. Creative ideas. Do you have any? I would JUST LOVE to hear about them. And anything goes...I don't care that she's only 9 months old. I will definitely try suckers and candy necklaces. I don't think I will try any drugs. It'll surely backfire anyway. What have you found that really keeps your baby busy? Thank you from the bottom of my heart in advance!

12 comments:

Kent and Leisy said...

I'm taking the mini dvd player. Zeb LOVES blue's clues. I agree that drugs will just backfire. Besides that I have no advice. I don't think that nine month olds can be distracted for long periods of time. I have to fly to utah without kent- but at least I've just got the one rugrat. good luck.

Heather said...

Rick is adamantly opposed to Benadryl - too many kids get wired from it instead of sleepy.

My kids that age LOVE to play with a cup of ice and make a mess all over my lap. But a quiet, giggly mess instead of a screaming one.
Good luck!

Kami said...

My suggestion was drugs, but since you're ruling that out... I'm not quite sure. I'm SO excited to be picking you up from the airport though!!!

Unknown said...

When I flew to Utah with my kiddos by myself in April, I gave Kambryn benadryl and it totally backfired. What airline are you flying on? Frontier has TV and that works the best for Jantsen, (if we are on a different airline I just bring our DVD player or my little IPOD and he watches movies. He also LOVES the game I Spy so for the first little bit before we get up to high, I play that with him out the window. For kambryn, that is another story. I usually let her play with my cell phone or touchy feely books. My friend put a ball of yarn in a empty gerber puffs bottle and then put a whole in the top and stung one end through and then he can just pull and pull that yarn until it comes to the end, and she wraps it up in another ball while he is pulling it out and then starts all over. (get the idea?)If you want more ideas I will share them! Good luck!!!! Oh Kambryn also likes photo books, little photo albums of family and things she likes Dogs, Horses, whatever. Anyways...

Anonymous said...

Two words: Mercer Mayer. They will read for hours!

Meggin said...

I share your fear. I am flying to Utah with Ty tomorrow and I am DREADING it. He can't sit still for 2 minutes. let alone the duration of the flight. Add to that the fact that he is getting all four molars in at once--this could be very bad. I guess it's a good thing that Denver is so close to Salt Lake!

Monica said...

You know that I fully share your fear... and I only have two days left! AHH! So, I will experiment with some of these creative ideas and will email you how they worked after I arrive in utah. All I can say is GOOD LUCK!

Traci said...

I flew to Hawaii with Ana at the same age it was a 5 hour flight and toys and food seemed to be good enough. Luckly she slept most of the time, if you have an ipod or dvd player take a show that will distract her. Don't worry to much she's not the first baby on a plane if "John and Kate plus 8" can do it you can too hahahaha Do you ever watch that show if not look it up on TLC it will make you feel better about having to deal with only two kids! There is an episode they flew from Penn. to Utah and even the mom broke down crying so don't worry you'll be fine!

Anonymous said...

Grandma Travis suggests that you get a sedative, but YOU take it! Love, mom.
p.s. I got the car seat from Carrie.

Jessi said...

When we went on a plane with our 2 kids, we did take our dvd player. It worked for Jarrett but not for Kynzie. She was too little. I actually just kept her up as long as I could so she would sleep a good part of it. That worked. Then, we ended up sitting in the emergency exit row. I don't know if we were supposed to but the flight attendant let us and it was awesome cuz there was more than enough room to sprawl out. I think that helped the kids a LOT! Not feeling so squished.. you know. Kynzie also loved my cell phone the whole time. Just turn it on "airplane mode" if your phone does that. Umm.. what else.. really that's about it. Snacks are good but like you said.. that's a given! GOOD LUCK!! :)

Shane's Angie said...

Wow, that's a tough one. I have a really random idea. It might be something that can't be taken on an airplane, but I'll tell you anyway. I would take either a small cookie sheet or muffin tin and then pick up a bunch of magnetized letters, or hot glue random blocks or toys to the large magnets. (I wouldn't recommend this unless she'd be supervised by you the whole time just in case something comes off and she eats it!) Evie loves magnets. She will put them on and off the fridge just to feel and hear the clicking sound. You can also buy sheet magnets and then put stickers on them and cut them out for Jansen to create little "scenes" on the cookie sheet. I bought a sticker sheet of the entire crew from "Finding Nemo" for Evie and put them on sheet magnets and she loves them! These little "toys" would have a hard time falling and slipping all over because they will be stuck to the play surface! I'm going to be putting something like that together for Evie to help her endure Sacrament Meeting, and I thought maybe it would work for you too! Well, enough of my verbal diahrrea! Good luck! Love ya!

Cara said...

Get a box (granola bar box or whatever) make a slit in the top so that a little toddler can stick pictures through the slot (playing cards, pass-along cards, cut-out pictures from cereal boxes, whatever). My sister sat next to an 18 mo. old or so on a plane who busied herself for a half hour or so with that. At the end of the plane ride, the mom just threw it away. It has worked great for Kate in sacrament meeting.