Preparing for a “Family Vacation” with a 1 Year Old

    Ahhhh, the joys of air travel with a toddler.  After three different air flights in his young life, my son is still not a great traveler.  He apparently didn’t inherit his mother’s love of road trips and long distance get-aways to exotic places.  Or at least he hasn’t yet.  Ever since Cruz was born, he’s shown a great distaste for his car seat.  I used to think it was because he was facing backwards and couldn’t see anything.  But then we turned him around at 1 year old…and tah-dah!  He still hates it.  As soon as I start to strap him in, he arches his back, wriggles and squirms and screams until he is finally unbuckled and released.  So it is with great trepidation that we will leave in a few days for 9 days in beautiful Puerto Rico to visit my husband’s relatives, many of whom have never met Cruz.  We have ahead of us, a 3 hour road trip to Atlanta.  Then a 3 hour flight to San Juan, then a 2 hour drive to Mayaguez.  On this trip we are taking Cruz’s car seat since we’ll need one once we get there.  That means he’ll have to sit in it…..GREAT!  He’s gonna love that. 

During our last flight, Cruz sat between my husband and me in an extra seat.  He was a nightmare!  He screamed, cried even bit me when I tried to console him.  He didn’t want to look at a book, play patty-cake or look out the window.  He wanted to walk which is impossible on a plane.  I had become one of “those” people on the plane.  The one everyone glares at.  The one everyone prays isn’t sitting near them.  I decided after that trip that airlines should have an entire class called “family class”.  It would be cheaper than coach and everyone there would have screaming kids, so no parent would have to apologize or feel stressed.  There would be “Barney” or “Dora” on the movie screens and everything would be covered in plastic, so kids could throw food and spill without concern.  There would also be a baby changing station somewhere…because seriously where do they expect us to change a poopy diaper?  There’s no way you can fit a squirming baby in one of those lavatories with you and when you do it on the seat next to you, you realy get glared at!

Anyway, back to reality….the nightmare isn’t over once we get there.  Cruz doesn’t sleep well anywhere but in his crib in his room.  So trying to get him to go down in a hotel porta-crib (that’s actually just a re-named play pen) while he can see you sitting there on the bed, is next to impossible.  Ever tried hanging out at a nice hotel pool with a 17 month old?  One of us will have to be on “chase patrol” and follow him around as he runs from oneplace to another and tries on his own to get in and out of the water without drowning.  Did I mention Cruz is very active and doesn’t like to stay in one place for more than 60 seconds?

I know I should stop complaining, right?  After all we could just leave him here with my family and have a nice, quiet relaxing vacation.  But wait, he’s the whole reason we’re taking the trip…oh yeah.

Ok, any suggestions for making the travel any easier?  I’d appreciate it.  I’ll be incommunicado for a week or so, but I’ll let you know how it goes.