First flight with two kids #MurphysDoLA

We did it! Our first flight with a two year old and a nearly three month old on United Airlines was fairly easy. Fairly being the keyword. We left Toronto last Friday and arrived into Los Angeles close to midnight with two exhausted kids and one very cranky toddler. Follow our journey this week with #MurphysDoLA on Twitter and Instagram!

We had a stopover in Chicago which was great as we were all about to grab a nibble and stretch our legs before we hopped on the 4 hour flight to Los Angeles. The first leg was smooth sailing , especially considering that the hubs and I were separated. It’s quite annoying that when travelling with kids on United you aren’t allowed to pre-select seats (that’s what I was told when I tried to secure seats together couple weeks prior to departure). Ofcourse by the time you check in there’s no seats together, not even for the paying toddler to sit with a parent! It’s illegal for a minor to be seated alone when parents are on board so some very generous people exchanged seats so that the hubs was able to sit with the Little Monkey. One lovely gent gave up his aisle seat for a middle one and even refused the drink we tried to buy him. Baby Baby boy slept for the first leg and was quite good. Infact when we were leaving we got plenty of comments on how good the kids were…. we smiled smugly and got ready for a smooth flight to L.A

One thing I must say is that the stewardesses were extremely friendly and on both United Airlines flights we got nods on how cute the kids were and I believe they wanted to hold the baby if I gave them half a chance! Thought their comment ” Can’t believe there’s a baby on board… we never heard any crying” may have jinxed our landing! 

Second leg got off to a great start as we were all seated together and while no bassinet was available on this leg either, we were able to be comfortable. The Little Monkey was buckled in safely with her CARES harness and Baby Boy was on my lap until the seatbelt sign was off, at which point I transferred him to the floor.

At one point I even smugly thought to myself.. HAH! This is bliss.. I’m reading a magazine, Baby Boy is asleep on the floor and the Little Monkey is mesmerized with the ipad and snacks. All was well until we landed… the Little Monkey does not like being awoken from her slumber and wailed loud, ear piercing screams for 20 loooong minutes. I felt very bad for the other passengers though most were smiling and were sympathetic given the late hour. As we were gathering our stuff to disembark the plane we had two crying kids and not even the baby carrier and soother would calm Baby Boy. Oh well.. we sucked it up and tried to calm the Little Monkey before we picked up our bags.

I knew we were taking a gamble with a late flight.. we landed close to midnight which would have been 3 a.m. in Toronto… let’s see how our morning return flight fares for us. I really need to up my game on waking the toddler gently. Besides that crying fit at the very end, our journey was smooth. No ear blocks thanks to timely treats and soothers and I even breastfed without a cover with no one throwing daggers at me.  Ironically some passengers nearby to us were also on our AVIS rent a car bus (where the baby gear rental company met us with a stroller and car seats)… and they welcomed us with smiles and shared stories of missing the age when their kids were babies. It’s the small  gestures that really help parents maintain the love for travel with kids in tow! All in all a fairly successful first flight as four!