Thursday, December 11, 2008

And I'm Back!

I'm SO glad to be done traveling for work. I just got back from an 8 day trip to AZ for work and I'm so done with being away from home. Nothing like a cute little dirty face to kiss on you and a bleary-eyed husband to wrap his arms around you and tell you that he missed you...REALLY missed you. *sigh* I love family.
This past week has been a whirlwind. It's been work, eat, sleep...REPEAT for 8 full days. I did score a fun car to drive. I didnt know the 2009 Taurus' were so nice: leather heated seats, a sunroof, SIRIUS radio. I really enjoyed it over the 98 no-power-anything Saturn I drove to the airport.

So if you're like me, you're way behind on the shopping aspect of Christmas. I'm not sure why I wait until the last minute, but this year I COULD say it was because I was busy frolicking throught the desert and working 7 days a week right around the start of the season. But really, it seems like it creeps up on me every year. I've started THINKING about sending out my Christmas cards but as you all know, the past two years those have turned into New Years cards because I've just been too lazy to get them in the mail in time for Christmas. We'll see this year...we'll see.

I've started to worry a bit about my trip to KC right after Christmas. It's not being KC that I'm worried about. It's the actual getting there and getting home part. Kevin's not going with me so that will mean I'll have a very ACTIVE (that's the nice word everyone's been using to describe Natalie's endless stream of energy lately) one-year-old and a large carseat to contend with both in the airport and on the plane. I just bought this after seeing a woman with 4 kids in the airport and I thought, if SHE and her husband can do it with four kids, I can surely do it with one.

But then I thought about Natalie wanting to get down and run around everywhere and how she was NOT going to want to sit still on my lap for 2 hours. So then I bought this so she'd be strapped to me. All of this may be well and good, but I don't think it's going to keep her from having a meltdown because she's not allowed to get down and do what she wants to do (independence is her thing these days).

So then I've considered Benadryl. Is this a bad idea? Can you give it to a 15 month old? I've got to do something or else I'm going to be THAT woman on the plane who everyone tries to sit VERY FAR AWAY from.
Ideas...anyone?

3 comments:

Derrick said...

Here's one somewhat humorous discussion on the topic in general, traveling with a toddler: Link

Heather said...

my advice is purchase her a seat next to you, strap her carseat in that seat and leave her in the carseat the whole flight. only take her out if she becomes super fussy and then put her back in her carseat whenever she's content again. this is what we did with ella on many flights and everything was great. make sure to have some toys she can play with while in her carseat and food & drink with you and just feed her snacks or a meal if it's her normal meal time. do not drug her with benadryl, lol. i don't think that's a good solution!

Heather said...

oh and the traveling car seat thing worked great except at security- you have to take the carseat off the suitcase and then when you board you have to unhook everything again. kind of a pain especially by yourself. when it was just me and ella, i hung the carseat over her stroller and did a seperate stroller (that you can check as you board) and then i walked on the plane with just her & her carseat. much easier. i think that made sense!