Surviving an International Flight with a Baby and a Toddler

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When we talk to other young families about traveling, they always have the same concern:

“The flights will be too hard.”

Without a doubt, this comes up in every conversation. Flights are the most intimidating part!

It makes sense. You’re trapping wild children into a metal box and hurling them halfway across the world. That’s an invitation for meltdowns and tears and—only if you’re lucky—sleep.

Our kids are great flyers. Flying to Paris to kick off our French road trip was set to be Ellie’s 31st flight.

So OF COURSE as we filmed a video to kick off our European adventure, Heath starts bragging to the camera about how great Ellie is on planes.

Naturally, he jinxed it and we ended up having inarguably the hardest, most sleepless flight across the Atlantic.

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Rewatching this footage did not even begin to show how difficult this flight was.

Mostly because Heath didn’t film when he and Ellie were crammed in the airplane bathroom while she—how do you say this politely?—lost her lunch.

And I didn’t have any free hands to film while I held Eli in my arms and Ellie screamed that she wanted mommy, waking up Eli and probably everyone else in our vicinity.

It was a long night.

Probably the kind of night that makes most parents apprehensive about flying abroad with their little kids. The flight is always one of our big concerns too.

But now that we’re on the other side and not jet lagged, I’m reminded that something pretty awesome comes from those sleepless, exhausting, whyyyyyy-did-I-let-her-drink-chocolate-milk-from-Whataburger overnight flights.

Watch the video to see how one of the looooooongest nights of my life finally ends. 🥐