What One Year-Olds Do on Flights

Cliffs: Time may fly when you're having fun, but it sure does crawl when you're flying with a baby.

When you travel with young kids, you feel every minute of the trip.

Sunday we took two domestic flights back home from the north east of Brazil, and these are some of the things my one and a half year-old and I did to pass the time.

(I'm not going to claim that all of these are good activities, but maybe our experience will help you form your own list of inflight dos and don'ts.)

• play with the folding tray (3 minutes)
• play with the window shade (2 minutes)
• eat fruit snacks brought from home (3 minutes)
• play hide and seek with Daddy's face and the safety instruction card (3 minutes)
• climb up Daddy to try and touch the air vents (3 minutes)
• climb up Daddy to try and turn on the lights (2.5 minutes)
• climb up Daddy to try and push the call button (1 minute)
• inflate and deflate the airsickness bag (4 minutes)
• put on (i.e. attempt to eat) lip balm (0.75 minutes)
• open now-pressurized CamelBak water bottle and accidentally spray woman across the aisle (0.25 minutes)
• try not to laugh out loud (1 minute)
• play with stuffed animals (5 minutes)
• press button on stuffed animal that initiates animal noise and causes flight attendant to make an announcement reminding passengers that electronic games are not allowed at this time (0.25 minutes)
• "feed" stuffed animals (1.5 minutes)
• put airline headphones on animals (1 minute)
• attempt to eat headphones (0.5 minutes)
• throw animals on floor repeatedly (2 minutes)
• "read" airline security card (3 minutes)
• kick seat in front of us (1 minute total)
• kick off shoes (0.25 minutes)
• "sing"(4 minutes total)
• eat seatbelt (0.5 minutes)
• sway back and forth (1 minute)
• rub noses with mommy and give sweetest laugh ever (0.75 minutes)
• play with hands and give high fives (3 minutes)
• eat feet (1 minute)
• eat--or play with--airline snacks (6 minutes)
• drink and see how long we can go without spilling airline juice (1minute total)
• walk laps up and down the aisle (12 minutes)
• play hide and seek with the stuffed animals in the airsickness bag (4 minutes)
• wave, blow kisses, play hide and seek, and generally flirt with older boy in row behind us (3.5 minutes)
• play with water bottle (1 minute)
• drink from water bottle (1 minute total)
• spill water from water bottle (0.25 minutes total)
• change diaper (8 minutes)
• repeatedly search for and find the monkey and giraffe on brother's Paul Frank headphones (2.5 minutes)
• make monkey noises at the Paul Frank headphones (0.5 minutes)
• attempt to eat the Paul Frank headphones (0.5 minutes)
• look out window with brother (2 minutes)
• play with brother (3 minutes)
• fight with brother (2 minutes)
• squirm and avoid sleep (12 minutes total)
• cry because mommy would not allow Babe-A to ______ (Fill in the blank with things like "eat entire Snickers bar," "stick both feet in mouth at same time," "walk up and down the aisles while taking off," "throw iPad on floor,"or "scratch brother's other eye.") (8 minutes total)
• play with headache medicine and natural sleep aids that mommy always carries in a ziplock bag (1.5 minutes)
• sleep! (34 minutes)

Total time = 151 minutes

And that was just the first flight.