Traveling with a Toddler

We are embarking on a grand adventure in a few days; traveling with an active toddler. And by traveling I don't mean in the car were he will be restrained in his car seat or were we can stop and let him out for a little bit. Oh no! We will be flying. That's right, I will be one of those people you dread and pray you don't have to sit by. Patrick will be a lap child and I'm sure will not want to sit on anybody's lap. The first plane ride will be about 3 hours and then we will have a short layover before the last flight of about 1 1/2 hours.

To help keep him entertained on the flight I'll be packing some of his favorite toys.  Instead on just tossing them all in the bag I've made some smaller bags with different closures.  When he looks in the bag he won't see all the toys, but different bags to "unwrap".  My hope is that this will make the toys last longer.

As Patrick is still in his crib, when we travel I ususally bring along his pack 'n play for him to sleep in.  As we are flying I'm not going to use his pack 'n play as one of our checked baggage.  It's bad enough having to pay for checked baggage but I'm not paying to "ship" his bed along.  That said, I bought Patrick a foldable travel bed that will fold down into a 1 inch high circle that I can pack in my bag.  He loves to play in it right now.