I was really worried about the flights because children and confined spaces don't really mix. Particularly confined spaces with pressure changes that happen to be hurtling through the air at 800km/h with no way to get off.
At the airport the people around us physically tensed on seeing a baby waiting for the same flight as them. For a moment there I became a mind reader; one look at a person and I could instantly hear their thoughts, as if by magic; "That kid better not be anywhere near me" and "That kid better not cry". It was a warm and welcoming reception of furrowed brows and pursed lips. I felt like telling them to piss off, at least they didn't have to hold the squirmy child for 5 hours.
But I needn't have worried. Tricks slept through take off, woke up for some breakky, had a play, then went back to sleep as we landed in Sydney. I was amazed. He then went straight to Sydney time unlike me who felt those three hours soooo much in the morning.
I was pretty impressed when I got to the hotel and there was a massive stack of goodies from Rock-A-Bye Baby Equipment Hire waiting for us!
The pram was a Quinny Zapp pram and it was brand new! It's really light weight, pretty easy to unfold and designed for travel - it's the smallest buggy when folded (and fits in it's own carry bag that is smaller than a tennis bag). It wouldn't suit an infant because it doesn't recline, but Tricky is old enough now that he doesn't need that. It came with a plastic cover which was heavily used - Map Guy and I walked around all day on Sunday, enjoying the strange wet stuff that fell from the sky - it's been a while since I've seen anything like that, but I think it might have been rain.
The Valco Traveler Portacot and Bubba Blue linen pack were Map Guy's domain - he's put together a portacot before and had much trouble, but this time he read the instructions and whaddayaknow, he got it, first time! Bravo, Map Guy!
By far the best thing though was the exersaucer. When you're staying in a room that isn't baby-proof, having somewhere you can put your kid while you go to the loo is really important and something that I hadn't thought of until we got there. I had just been thinking that it would be great to keep him entertained (which it was) but it served a much higher purpose and I was glad we got it. Pretty sure Tricks would have happily spent hours in the thing and I'm seriously considering buying one for home now that I know he likes it.
Checking out of the hotel we needed one of the concierge trolleys for our 2 suitcases, laptop, baby bag, pram in a bag, portacot in a bag and exersaucer. Kelley from Magneto Bold Too who was checking out at the same time did a double take and again I was blessed with the ability to read minds; "Fuck you guys brought a lotta shit!" (c'mon, it's MB2, you know she swore when she thought it!) so I got to do the whole "Oh nahhhh we didn't bring all this" sponsor plug.
Tricky fell asleep soon in to the plane ride home and the rest of the flight was uneventful unless you count the aborted landing and having to fly around for another ten minutes before we could try again. I'm not a very nervous flyer but almost touching down only for the engines to rev and the plane to jolt upwards kinda made me wish I'd worn brown pants.
So the first flying holiday with Tricky was a massive success mainly due to not having to take care of him for much of it (thanks Map Guy) or having to lug massive amounts of supplies over (thanks Rock-A-Bye Baby Equipment Hire)!
How do you go traveling with kids? Do you hire prams and the like or do you lug it all over with you?
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