Airplane Travel

As tantalizing as my last post was about what Eddie and I had to endure because Eddie is on the TSA watch list, it really wasn't anything. The airline employee informed me of his status, handed me a paper on how to get removed from the list (after waiting about 10 minutes), told me to travel with his birth certificate in the future, and not to say anything to the people in security. Like I was going to volunteer--hey my 11 month old son is on your watch list, is there anything you need to do?

I'll be interested in what happens on the way back.

In anticipation of Eddie's and my trip on the plane, I wanted to minimize the amount of gear I had to contend with. Since Eddie is not walking, nor really standing alone, I also wanted to have some wheels. The baby product business being what it is, there are a couple options. One option is called the GoGoKidz, which is basically a luggage rack for your carseat. Pretty ingenious. Option two is called a Sit n Stroll. You might have seen this product in a SkyMall magazine. It goes from stroller to car seat. I posted pictures of them above. We do have a car seat 'bag' we bought to check the carseat, instead of carrying it on the plane, but this would have necessitated another piece of gear to hold Eddie, and I went to the expense of buying him a seat and didn't want the hassle of pulling it in and out of the bag). It was a $30 bag and in hindsight, am not sure it was worth the money since I don't plan on traveling with him as a lap baby again--once by myself was enough.

So there are a couple great listserves in the DC area for parents. I managed to get someone to loan me the GoGoKidz system and another person the Sit N Stroll. There are pluses and minuses to each, but both offer the same concept--wheel your kid around with a carseat and not with a separate stroller. I won't bore you with the details, but opted for the Go Go Kidz for this trip.

We got lots of double takes as I wheeled his carseat, with him in it through the airport. Mostly you could hear people say what a cute kid Eddie was--so maybe it was his cuteness they were starring at, and not the carseat on wheels. It rolled smoothly over all the surfaces we encountered and gettng through security was a breeze. Course we have no stroller with this option, but boy is it tempting to buy our own. Do we need another piece of 'gear'? If so, which one makes the most sense? We do travel quite a bit, but is it enough to justify the price tag? Anyone else have experience with these?

The picture of Eddie was after he finished playing with the blinds at g'ma and g'pa's. Our windows aren't this low to the floor, so he is really enjoying the view of the SNOW.