Air Toddler

A mom tackles her fear of flying...with her child.

By Alaina Sheer

This weekend Benjamin and I bought his cowboy boots for our big trip out to the desert and Joshua Tree.

He'll need them (I think). I've been buying a lot of things and have completely blown my vacation budget out of the window. I'm just scared to death of flying with my kid. He can't even sit still in the doctor's office, how are we going to survive two long flights in one day? 

Here's my list of on flight entertainment useless wastes of money for Benjamin: 

• 1 Thomas Laptop. Good reviews on Amazon. Just hoping it gets here in time 
• 1 Cars Movie book. He saw it in Target and loved it. 
• 1 real laptop (mine). But the battery life isn't great. Should I buy a portable DVD player? 
• 4 new movies he hasn't seen yet. 
• 1 iPhone with iTunes 1 plus 2 sets of headphones 
• Plenty of snacks. 
• 1 bottle of tequila (okay, not really, but I'm thinking about it). 

I also have tons of other little teeny knick knack toys I've been collecting over the weeks. What else should I buy? Is there anything I can do now to train him or something? And how can I relax? 

My stomach is twisted into a million knots right now just thinking about boarding a plane with my toddler. I blame that hair salon woman - she scared the crap out of me. She popped my new mom cherry.