SECRETS FOR A HAPPY PLANE TRIP

Mama Sweet: Every time we travel, my girls receive a wrapped present from my husband and me. The girls look forward to it and so do I. My "gifts" are actually secret weapons to keep them occupied. My girls see presents, I see silence. Whatever the gift, it will give me 45 minutes to an hour of distraction so we can all begin our trip peacefully. Today, they received a "decorate your own" Melissa and Doug princess mirror. They carefully placed the stickers and gems on their mirrors and then used their mirrors throughout the flight to learn about reflections and to pretend to be Snow White's evil Queen. What a sweet it was today to witness their joy and to feel so proud while the other passengers admired my well behaved my girls. Sweet! Sweet!

Mama Sweet: Another flying ritual we have adopted this past year is to "blast off" like the Little Einsteins every time we take off on a flight. It is so fun to have the whole family with their hands up "as high as they can" to scream blast off. Another passenger stopped me today to say how wonderful that ritual was to create a fun memory for the girls as well as to keep them from being afraid of flying. It is such a fun sweet!

Mama Sour: When installing a car seat on the airplane with a seat belt extender, be sure to keep the metal fastener out from behind the seat when you tighten it. Our car seat was stuck on our chair for quite some time before we were able to dislodge it. The lone flight attendant said that she has had to call maintenance before to cut them off so she was glad that we were able to loosen it. It was so sour to receive all the grumpy looks from the pilots and attendants waiting to go home. Lesson learned!