Just home from my son's first trip. (Santa Maria to Chicago and back.) Here are my &quot;words of wisdom! LOL! 1.Do purchase a seat 2. Try to board the aircraft last. The less time on the plane the better! 3. Bring your own snacks: pretzels, pudding, animal cookies, bananas worked well for us. 4. If you child gets restless, try to move to empty seats in the back of the plane. I found an empty row and let him stretch out a bit... he just needed to move! 5. Walking the floor works at home and it works in flight too! 6. Bring lots of wipes and an easy change of clothes. 7. After a short crying jag, I offered to buy a glass of wine for anyone around me who now had a headache! Everyone laughed and one lady offered to buy me one because she appreciated my efforts to keep him happy! 8. Profusely thank the flight attendants for EVERYTHING! 9. DO NOT have a bunch of carry on luggage. The baby, car seat and diaper bag will be more than enough. 10. Take advantage of the &quot;riding carts&quot; offered at the airports. There always seemed to be one when we needed to get around and I was so grateful. We had a great trip, not perfect, but very good. That being said, it is NOT easy. Be prepared to spend every moment of the flight attending to your little one, singing, reading, feeding, playing, etc... You will not have time to read, sleep or talk to your companions unles your little one goes to sleep. This is not leisure, it is hard work. Good luck!<BR>

Thank You moneygirl,<BR>I just wish all parents were as responsible as you when flying. I would love to buy you a drink as well if I ever were to fly on the same plane with you!!!<BR>Thank You again!

Thanks Frequent Flyer! 24 Hours later I'm thinking... that wasn't so bad! Am I crazy or what? I'm not perfect, neither are my kids...I just want people to know that while doable, it certainly isn't easy. I was traveling with my baby and my Mom, who was a big help. (My husband would have hated it!) Here's to happy trips!

Good advice. And don't worry, it will get easier and easier to take the kid along. My boys are now 12 and 16. Both have been travelling since infancy. Now they are almost self-sufficient on a trip, even to the point of packing. You just have to keep taking them---and make it clear they are expected to behave.

Sounds like your child is under 12-18 months or so, you did a good job of coping. Let me suggest something that became pretty obvious with ours: between 18 months and about 3 years, it's just kind of nuts to try to travel long distances -- old enough to want to run around, not old enough to like to use crayons or listen to tapes. Before that, you can do pretty much what you did. After that, you can have a stash of toys and treats and diversions. But that year and a half of careening toddler-dom is truly hair-raising (as opposed to heir-raising) for travel.<BR><BR>Congrats on your resourcefulness. Congrats to your kid for not being worse than the usual kid.

Sorry for the P.S., but I'm sort of seconding what Rachel G said -- it does get easier and easier, just not for that 18 month in-between time. I know some people just have no choice about traveling then, but if you are in that position, definitely try to have enough adults traveling to out-number the kid!

Yeah, I didn't mention that we also have a 3 year old who flew for the first time at 9 months... he wasn't along on this trip. There sure is a HUGE difference between a sleeping almost newborn and an active 18 month old! Thanks for the encouragement!

Glad you had such a great trip moneygirl!