Traveling Anxiety!

The holidays are here! Hunter and I will be going to see my parents the week before Christmas and I am terrified of this trip! I know that I have blogged about this before but this time I am serious.  The last time we went on a trip was to see my Grandma (in September) in the hospital and Hunter was taking at the most 6 steps at a time but still preferred to crawl and actually hang out in the stroller.  This time Hunter is going to be bananas! I am basing this assumption on the shopping that we did this past weekend with going to stores.   For one, he could care less about the stroller unless he was pushing it, which is fine but only lasts for about 2 minutes.  Two, he not only walks all over the place but runs as well and is not a fan of just holding on to mommy and daddy’s hand.  Also, he loves for you to chase him and it is funny because he cracks up while we are doing it but will pitch a fit if we even think of picking him up! Yikes! Is this normal?  Haha. Oh and to top it off, if he is tired, this is a million times worse! So yes, I am terrified. I did make sure to book the flight at 6 am like we did last time around which works out perfect because he is still sleepy and will sleep on me during the flight.  This would be no sweat because the flight from Fort Lauderdale to Charlotte directly is only 2 hours but the thrifty mom that I am booked a flight with a connection which won’t get us to Charlotte until 11:30 am.  So, I’m really just terrified about getting to the connecting flight, getting us something to eat, diaper change (I guess I could do it on the plane if possible) and mommy bathroom break, all while juggling a bookbag, stroller (just in case) and restless toddler.  I can just picture myself now:  That mom with the active little boy trying to juggling him and keep him entertained all by herself! Yep, not that Sean doesn’t want to come but he is still on his probationary period with him becoming an officer that he can’t take any time off so we decided that me going for 5 days and coming back right before Christmas works. So I won't have "Daddy-o" to help me.  

Here are some things that I am going to include for the trip this time to help me out and to entertain him on the second flight:

·         Carry a bookbag rather than a duffle bag (duh, why did I do this last time!?)

·         Checking with the airport/TSA to see if I can take a lunch box of his milk and yogurt  for him so that I don’t have to hunt to find him something semi healthy and what he would eat

·         I have a bunch of little toys that he has never seen before – little gadgety things

·         Coloring book and crayons

·         Our Blackberry Tablet with little toddler friends apps that he can play – may only last 10 minutes but I’ll take it!

·         Portable DVD player to play Gigglebellies – not a 100% on this yet but will decide later

·         Tons of snacks (obviously)

·         Crinkle paper and bubble paper (he loves this)

...And that’s about it.  I am reaching out to all of you inexperienced or experienced flyers with little ones that have any advice, items or ideas that I could use for this trip to help out this wild child of mine (hahaa).  I would very much appreciate it or if you just have any words of solace for me to relieve this anxiety that I have, I’ll take that too. I'm not a supporter of "drugging" my child either so please don't suggest it.  Our trip isn’t for a few weeks but the “planner” that I am is already thinking of this. 

Thanks!