Traveling across the world with a 2 year old BY MYSELF! and my tips for traveling with a child

Sawyer and I were able to take a last minute trip to VA. It was a huge blessing and it came at a perfect time for me. Sadly Tyson wasn't able to come with us. He had a lot of things already in the works here in Thailand and plus Sawyer is 2 now which means full price air fair *ouch*. So we made the decision Sawyer and I would go it alone for 5 weeks!! In the 11 years Tyson and I have been together I have never been away from him that long before. Plus the thought of traveling to the other side of the world alone was a little scary.

The way the itinerary worked out we had to stay overnight in Bangkok alone....I wasn't thrilled with that plan but it was a lot cheaper to go that way so I bit the bullet. We left Chiang Mai at 3 in the afternoon which put us to arrive in Bangkok at 4. Everything went smooth and we made it no glitches. Sawyer got to ride in his own seat and he was super proud of himself.
my big boy in his own seat.

Haha he LOVES flying. He had been talking about going to see Grammy and Graa for weeks and he couldn't wait to get on the plane. The only problem was he didn't understand daddy wasn't coming. When we started to back out of the gate he was yelling out "Oh no daddy not here yet daddy not here yet" He didn't not want us to leave without Ty. Not gonna lie made me cry too. But we both recovered in about 2 min and then enjoyed our quick flight to Bangkok.

Once we arrived we had to get all our baggage and find our shuttle that would take us to our hotel. My first thought was how and I going to get all our bags and not lose Sawyer in the process. Solution:

he actually enjoyed riding on the push cart and we got lots of laughs in the airport. We found our shuttle and got to our hotel. It was not the Ritz but it was clean. To tell you the truth once we checked in I went strait to our room and locked the doors and didn't leave. It's was a little sketchy but for $15.00 a night I didn't expect much.

We went to bed at 6pm because we had to get up at 2am to get to the shuttle to take us to the airport for our flight that left at 5am. I honestly didn't sleep at all. I missed Ty and I was a little worried I wouldn't wake up and that we would miss our flight. Sawyer slept a few hours and was AMAZING when it was time to get up. He was so excited to be going to see my parents and to get on the airplane I wish I had his energy in the morning.

Who looks that cute at 3am when you were woken up at 2am??

Our first flight was Bangkok to Tokyo almost 7 hours. Sawyer slept about 5 of those hours and I slept 1. yep I was exhausted but couldn't sleep. The other 2 hours Sawyer was amazing he looked out the window and played games I opened our bag of tricks (tips from me on traveling with a 2 yr old at the end). We made it to Japan on a super bumpy flight. I was telling the lady next to me that my husband would have been freaking out (Ty hates flying). Sawyer on the other hand was saying weeeeee again mommy again. He loved the turbulence. 3 hour layover in Japan and we were on our way to DC YAY!! 13 hours in the air and we would be with my parents. Sawyer slept about 9 of the 13 hours (yes I gave him Dramamine). I slept maybe 3hrs. Our flight attendant was so rude to me the entire flight I almost wrote a complaint to the airline. Sawyer was a gem the entire time. He didn't cry or have one melt down there was no reason for this woman to be so rude to me. She woke me up several times to tell me random things and was totally rude about it. (note: when flying from Asia to the US use an Asian airline the flight attendants are AMAZING American Air not so much). We made it and I think the only thing keeping me going was pure adrenaline. We got to DC in the evening I think around 6 my poor parents got stuck in traffic on the way to get us so we got to chill and wait in the airport.

Here is sawyer playing his game while we wait.

When my parents arrived I so wish I had my video camera out. Sawyer and I were walking around because I knew they would be there any minute. Sawyer spotted my mom from across the airport. I was amazed he could see that far. He yelled as loud as he could GRAMMY and took off running. It was like a scene from a movie his arms were moving as fast as his legs. About half way to my mom he spotted my dad too and yelled GRAAA. Both my parents were crying and Sawyer greeted them with lots of hugs and kisses. It was priceless.

The first thing we did was get something to eat at you guessed it Olive Garden. Then we drove home. We got stuck in a bit of traffic but we still had a blast my parents sang songs and laughed. Every time they finished singing sawyer would say sing again so we would sing another song. Finally he passed out in the car for about an hour on the way home. When we got to the main road by my parents house Sawyer pointed out the window and said "it's the park " It was dark and you couldn't see anything but he knew right where our park was I could not believe it. Then we pulled into my parents court and he pointed to their house and said "there it is Grammy's house" haha. Paul and Amanda were there waiting with Jesse and Kelly. Percy tried to stay awake but couldn't make it. Sawyer was so excited to see everyone. He kept looking at all the faces and smiling. It was so sweet.

I love my family so much and is was amazing to be together as soon as we got in. I was really happy Paul and Amanda were able to make it up from Atlanta.

Tess' Tips on traveling with a 2 year old:

1. If it's a long flight that happens during usual nap or bed time I recommend Dramamine. I find that it doesn't make Sawyer droopy or loopy it just helps him stay asleep once he is asleep. half a pill was enough to keep him asleep for 8 hours. note: I have heard other moms say Dramamine made their kids wired so I recommend trying it out before your flight like one night before bed or a nap time. Also it usually takes sawyer about 20 min to calm down after I give it to him. I usually give it to him and then take him on a walk to the bathroom give him a chance to stretch his legs and walk a little bit.

2. Again for long trips. several changes of clothes. Pjs especially. Sawyer like to have clean clothes something about a fresh shirt and pants keeps him happy. (I'm the same way)

3. Food: Lots of different "special" snacks things you don't get a lot. For us we don't get gold fish in Thailand because they are really expensive but that's one thing I had on hand. Even if it's the same stuff I put them in separate small little containers. It makes it special to open a little blue box and eat your cereal out of it. I like to have 10-12 different little snack treats.

4. candy is a good one too. My recommendation would be after they wake up not before you put them to sleep. Lolly pops are great ring pops are the best. They are special and fun and fit in their little fingers. Sawyer thinks fruit snacks are candy so I use those as treats for him too. I also use the snacks as games. For example how many red M&M's do you see....separating all the colors and eating them one at a time.

5. Color Wonder markers and coloring book. These are the special markers that only show up on the special paper. Totally worth the money. Sawyer will color for a while with these, I love them because I don't have to worry about it getting on his clothes or all over the plane.

6. New toys. I like the dollar store for this. Any little toys that are new (they have not seen before). This last trip I had a little toy plane and several little animals.

7. Stickers. I got a bunch of stickers when I was home from the dollar tree that are great. I have also made my own. Buy some sticky paper and google image your child's favorite characters put them in a word document and print them on the sticky paper. I would cut them out and stick them in a zip lock bag with a big sticker on the front.

- Vinyl sticker books are great too. Sawyer likes resticking the stickers so these books are great for that.

8. Stamps. The ones that are attached to their own pad. I wouldn't recommend getting a pad with different stamps that seems like a major mess. I'm talking about the little stamps that have characters and you take the bottom off and stamp on paper but the pad is in the lid. Then you can put the lid on and you don't have a bunch of stamps with ink getting everywhere.

9. Leapster anything. When sawyer was little we had a leapster phone that he would play with for HOURS. Then we upgraded to a leapster computer. It teaches the ABC's and also letter sounds. I used it to teach him and he now knows his alphabet and most of the letter sounds. He still uses it a lot. We also got him a Leapster Explorer for his birthday/Christmas. The games are a little advanced for his age but he amazingly enough has figured most of them out. He will play it for a while and it also has a place for headphones so he doesn't have to have the volume up bothering our neighbors. It's also great because we can add a new games as one of his "new toys" on a trip.

10. I also have an old video ipod I let him use. I have downloaded many YouTube clips and converted them so they will play in itunes and I can load them on the ipod. He has some of his favorite show on there and can sit with the headphone and watch (no Internet needed). I spent the 15 bucks and bought a set of headphones that don't go in the ear. They have the cushion and sit outside your ear plus the top is adjustable so it can adjust to a child size head.

11. Mini Play dough. I tried this once with lots of options and then I learned only having 2 or 3 is much better. I bought the little jars and he had 2 colors at a time. There wasn't much but it was enough to keep him busy for a while. I didn't bring a lot to go with it just a mini rolling pin. Making little balls and then flattening them out is tons of fun.

12. Juice boxes. Sawyer drinks a lot and it always seems like forever to get a flight attendant so I like to have plenty of drinking options available. Milk in a juice box is also convenient. Sawyer loves milk before bed so for those overnight flights it really helps. I also like to bring an empty cup that way if the flight attendant give me an open cup I have something to poor it into.

13. His own neck pillow. You can see the little frog pillow in the picture. He loves it and I'm so happy we got it. It's small enough to fit in my backpack but it has stayed in great shape after traveling the world 5 times now. I think it was $12 at Target.

14. Every child is different so you know what things you can't go without. For us it's Buzz Lightyear and Woody (and Woody's hat).

15. Sawyer loves to read so I like having a few books on hand too. The Disney pack small cardboard books are great. Dr. Seuss is also a favorite.

16. My mother in law made sawyer a really cute picture ring. She used clip art and printed out about 50 pictures a little smaller than an index car size. She laminated the pictures and hole punched the corner and attached them to a ring. Sawyer flipped through those pictures telling me each one over and over. He is a little big for that one now but it was great for the 1-2 age.

17. Sawyer loves playing with change and putting them into piggy bank type things. We used a plastic cylinder container that had a lid and cut a slit in the top. I printed a Toy Story sticker to put around it and Sawyer then had a plastic bank. I had lots of change that he dropped in it and then we could take the lid off dump the change and do it again. My mother in law had the idea that plastic poker chips would be better than change. They are bigger (not a choking hazard) and less noisy. I couldn't find any here in Thailand but I'm sure they wouldn't be hard to find in the states.

18. Glow sticks. They sell them in packs at the dollar store. Sawyer love the sticks or the bracelets. They put off enough light for them to play when it's dark in the plane but it's not so bright to disturb the other passengers.

19. Magnets. My friend Jenna gave Sawyer these magnetic balls that have rods that connect with them magnetically. Entertainment for hours! There are other things out there like magnetic shapes and letters so anything along that line would work.

That is all I can think of now that I have done that's worked for us. The key is keeping things interesting for the child. Their attention span isn't that long but if you are playing with them they will stay interested for a lot longer. Sawyer will color alone for 10 min but if I am coloring with him he will go at least 20 min or more. Same thing applies to pretty much everything else. I also like to wrap things up in pretty paper and let him open it... the toys, candies anything new. He knows that means it's special and it adds to the excitement. I have added and removed items from my list as he has gotten older I'm sure I'll be adding more through the years.

If you have anything you have found works for your child please comment and add to my list. :-)