miles rides an airplane!

ross was STILL out of town for work, so next i took miles up to portland to show him off to all my friends there. also i got to have one last fun adventure before i head back to work on monday :(
miles was an awesome traveler and i had a great, refreshing trip. here's some things i learned...

1. while you don't have to pay for a "lap child" you do need a flight coupon for your infant. if their name isn't showing up on your travel reservation, DO call the airline the day before and wait on hold for 20min so they will add him. i'm not sure if it would have caused problems the day of the flight, but it was certainly easier to have his coupons print off with mine then trying to get them added while checking in.

2. while you apparently have to pay $20 to check a stinking suit case now, you do NOT have to pay to check the car seat, they will do this for you free of charge. and rightly so. by the way, this fee means even more people than before try to bring carry on luggage that is obviously too large.

3. the people aren't staring at you because you have suddenly grown a second head. they are looking at the baby! or trying to figure out what i have in that sling...its a baby people!

4. put your baby in a sling! this allowed me to strap the diaper bag handle onto the suitcase and roll that with the arm i have my purse around, and still leaves you a free hand to hold the car seat with, baby comfortably perched in the middle. once you've checked your bags, it makes it easier to walk around the airport with free hands. also, i call mine the magic sleep sack, because anytime miles is in there he just sleeps! all the way to portland!

5. buy really good diapers. i'm still using free diapers people gave to us (yay!), but for the trip i went ahead and bought a pack of pampers swaddlers. why? because i have never experienced a leak or blowout with them! i'm glad i did this, especially when on the first leg of our return trip miles had a major poop fest about an hour and 20min into our 2hr flight. the diaper held its own until we landed. i didn't have the courage to change the diaper on the plane, but next time i would definitely put a diaper and wipes into my purse, since i put the diaper bag in the overhead bin and didn't want to have to drag it out. the lady with the toddler in front of me couldn't do the same, swaddler diaper or not.....toddler poo reeks!

6. bring lots of baby clothes. normally i keep one spare outfit in the diaper bag. for the trip, to avoid even more baggage costs i stuffed all of miles' clothes into his diaper bag. on our way up to portland, miles spit up in huge volumes everytime i changed his diaper. we were on outfit #3 before we ever made it to portland!

7. planning to breastfeed? rest assured you will ALWAYS be sitting next to a man, never a woman! just use a blanket and don't worry about it too much. surely they prefer that you feed your child over him crying! in fact, during my trip i breastfed in a lot of public places. not a fan, but you do what you've got to do. and it sure is easier than "declaring" all your liquid bottles at security checkpoints. the best part was when i found an open area at the phoenix airport with about 100 empty seats and i started breastfeeding miles in a deserted corner. a young teenaged boy came and sat right across from me. at first i found it strange but then decided he (hopefully) didn't realize what i was doing. if he did...creepy! at one point miles pooped really really loudly and the teenager gave me a terrified look. i thought about saying "uh that was the BABY" but didn't think i could convince him such a loud noise came from someone so small.

8. enjoy the moments! one of my friends i was visiting had a 15month old boy. i spent most of my time staring at miles wondering how he would go from his current self to THAT talking, walking, food eating cutie in one short year.

9. the plane rides go much faster when you are holding an infant (i imagine they seem twice as long once the child can walk or is otherwise desiring to be mobile). i got to sit and stare at my precious little sleeping boy for hours and they just flew by as we flew to/from portland. i'm glad i got to take such a fun trip with my little man!