Airplanes.

Toddlers.

Those two words combined make me nervous. It doesn’t matter how many times I’ve flown with my children, I always find myself getting anxious prior to a looming flight.

I’ve flown twice with my children. Once when my daughter was 8 months. Another time when my son was 7 months and my daughter was 26 months. I was a ball of nerves before each flight, but you know what everything always turned out okay. We were never those parents. You know the ones with the child that won’t stop crying. Er… I take that back… There was one time during the decent into Toronto.

On our last vacation I packed up a huge backpack solely for my daughter to use. The backpack was full of miscellaneous knick knacks from the dollar store, crayons, stickers, books and a travel size Aquadoddle. What actually kept her busy was our in flight personal TVs that were on the back of every passengers seat. She had The Wiggles at the tips of her fingers. A luxury we won’t have on our upcoming flight.

My daughter has a huge love for airplanes. If she had her way we’d spend days just sitting out by the airport watching the planes take off and land. So why is it that I’m so nervous for this trip? It’s not my daughter I’m worried about. It’s my other little one. He’s such a busy body. Always on the go. Doesn’t bode well with sitting still for lengthy periods of time. He’s curious and loves to explore. I know the tricks I’ve used on my daughter will more than likely not work for him. I know he’ll adjust well when we reach our destination. He loves people and enjoys exploring new surroundings. It’s the getting him to sit still for 4 hours which is going to be a huge pain in the butt. Haha!

Have you ever flown with a 1 year old? How did you manage? I’d love to hear any tips and tricks you have up your sleeves!