I was actually more nervous for our recent flight to LA than when we went to Park City because ever since learning to walk, Dakota can barely be contained in a shopping cart for our 15-minute grocery runs at Trader Joe’s. A six hour flight was definitely daunting.

However, Dakota quickly quelled my fears. She travels like a seasoned pro! She napped for about an hour, which really is the best we could hope for (she usually takes a 1.5-2 hour afternoon nap every day.) Other than that, she was pretty happy to play with her toys, read books, and wave hello to a flight full of new faces.

Now that we’ve done this a few times, there are a few tried-and-true tactics we rely on to make flights easy on all of us.

• Snacks, snacks snacks – This girl loves to eat so having some of her old favorites + new interesting snacks was a great way to keep her occupied. I packed a bunch of tiny snacks in zip lock bags so she could spend time learning to open the bags, taking the snacks out and putting them back in over and over again.
• Lots of water + a sippy cup – This was Dakota’s first flight since we weaned so I was nervous about the air pressure but having a sippy cup with water available for take off and landing did the trick.
• Invest in a couple new toys and books – I snagged some farm animal finger puppets from Target which were a huge hit this trip.
• iPad apps – We don’t allow Dakota any screen time at home but I downloaded a couple iPad apps and episodes of Peppa Pig just in case we really needed an assist. Thankfully, we didn’t have to turn it on once during our flight! (During the long car ride from LAX to our AirBnB hours after Dakota’s bedtime was a different story…)
• Pre-made diaper changing bag – I’ll throw 1 diaper and a couple wipes into a disposable bag that is easy to reach in my carry-on (backpack) to make in flight diaper changing trips quick and easy.
• Splurge for the extra seat if you can – On our last flight we lucked into flights with empty seats but this time around we were nervous about the possibility of the only nonstop flight to LA being full so we got Dakota a ticket. Dakota squirms from me to Alex when feeling restless and also loves the independence of having her own seat. The flight would have been way more uncomfortable if Dakota was a lap baby.