Traveling with Toddler

I wrote a post last year about traveling with a three-month-old.  One year later...we upped the ante and boarded a transatlantic flight and subsequent two week European adventure through three countries with a 15-month-old.  I'll be honest, this trip gave me anxiety from its inception until our final flight landed.  The last thing I want to do anytime is disrupt other people and cause a scene; Luke often does not share his momma's courteous intentions.  A few tools in my arsenal were ready for worst-case scenarios: the Ergo baby carrier, Benadryl, and the local translation for the word "teeth" in hopes of appealing to parent sympathy of the very real teething struggle.  Luckily, the Ergo was really the only worst-case scenario intervention we needed.

I scoured Pinterest and interrogated interviewed some of my tot-mom friends incessantly for a while to stock up my bag of tricks.  It was challenging to try to plan for a 15-month-old when he was still so much younger than that and I only had a slight clue of the kind of social, extremely mobile, rough-and-tumble toddler he would become by the time our adventure would begin.  As it turns out, we were over-prepared and we could not have been prouder of our little guy - he is such an adaptable wanderluster!

Here are some ideas which helped us survive enjoy our trip with our 15-month-old traveling champ!

• Snacks!  A Dollar Tree pill box {source} was a great tool!  We filled the compartments daily with raisins, goldfish, M&Ms, canned beans, etc.

The pill box (among a few other toys) consumed him while on a canal tour of Copenhagen.

• Lollipops...are awesome to help ears adjust to pressure changes in the airplane as well as to occupy him when all else fails.  Bonus points for organic and/or Vitamin C lollies.
• An apple.  I consider this more of an activity than a snack because it takes him so long to get through it.  The sweet juice motivates him to keep at it.  Win for everyone!
• New toys.  Luke was most captivated by a miniature personal fan and a rubber ball.  It's the little things.  (The ball was not used on the plane, but was quite fun to chase when we found open areas for Luke to blow off some steam.)
• Painter's Tape.  Luke loved peeling the tape off the airplane tray/arm rest/etc and handing the pieces to me to re-stick somewhere else.
• A slinky.  This toy got baby boy giggles :)
• Shoes!  I think Luke's shoes provided 30 minute intervals of easy entertainment.  On-off-on-off-oooh the Velcro makes a fun noise!
• Make a game of turning the overhead light on and off.
• Fastening the airplane seat belt, rinse and repeat.
• Walk up and down the aisle.
• Cross your fingers that you have fun-kid-loving people in the row behind you to happily endure: the small child popping up like a PopTart to say "Hi", indiscernible chatter, and a garden variety of potentially unpleasant noises.
• Homemade Toddler Toys.

Content with the seat belt

*Disclaimer: I was equipped with many other activities (an old iPhone stocked with apps and Sesame Street podcasts, coloring book/markers, Play Dough, stickers/paper, blocks, etc) but they didn't really do the trick for Luke...this time.