Flying With A Baby... and a Toddler.

The other week a friend, who was facing her maiden voyage with her newborn, asked me for any advice on flying with a baby. With the luxurious 38 seconds I had allotted to reply to the email before breakfast, I came to my blog, found this post on traveling with a baby and sent it to her.

After the email sent, I re-read the post that I wrote a couple of years back. I wrote it after Viola had traveled quite a bit and I wanted to help out other moms who felt the same knot in their stomachs when thinking about traveling... but still weren't ready to give up adventures quite yet.

Reading it now- after a recently flying to Iceland with both kids and NO Tyler- I laughed. I laughed and laughed and laughed.

Looking back on that post, I saw myself as a first-time mom acting like I had it all together. As if all those other frazzled parents on the plane had flunked an imaginary course focused on traveling with infants. To be fair, those ideas/steps I posted were really helpful for us- so if you are nervous, use them! They really will help! While I was still learning how to be a mom and how babies worked, it was nice to have some tips/tricks that helped us maintain some control in a moment that felt out of control.

Now though, some of those things just are a bit more intuitive to me. I just get kids a bit better. I just am a bit less scared of a baby getting sad in public. I just am a bit less intimidated by being uncool in front of other people without kids.

But I've got great news... I didn't do a single one of those tips for flying when traveling with Harrison for his first two international trips. And he traveled just as well as Viola did.

It's funny that in a subject where I seemed so sure of myself, I can now look back and actually feel confident. Not to say that I have had some enlightenment that now allows me to travel perfectly now that I have two children.... but more in the respect that, regardless of what happens, I'll be fine. One bad flight or trip won't break me. (And that is actually confidence to me.)

And just imagine what will I'll think in a few years down the road when I come back and reread the post I am currently writing on traveling with two kids. Apparently, old habits die hard, but, hopefully, if nothing else it can encourage you to travel with your kids just by seeing some crazy lady try it first.