Travelling Jack

He's only 4 months old, but he's been on 12 flights and visited four states. Yep, Jack has been quite the baby traveller, but now we're putting the suitcase away....at least until August.

If you fly with a "lap child," then I wholeheartedly recommend flying Southwest if you can. They are extremely family friendly. We flew Southwest initially because they let you fly with two bags free, and if you have a baby that's pretty important. Plus, your stroller doesn't count as a bag and you can check it at the gate. If the plane isn't fully booked, then you can carry your car seat on board and use it in an empty seat just like you paid for that seat. On those flights, I turned Jack around and strapped him in just like he was in a car and he snoozed away.

The toughest part of this entire process is going through security. You have to put your normal bags through, break down the stroller and car seat and run that through, and open up all your milk for special screening. Add that to holding a baby while taking off coats and shoes and running that through x-ray machines. It's quite the juggling act and it's hard to be fast.

There's bonus fun involved if they decide to scan you more or if you accidentally left hand sanitizer out of the Ziploc in your diaper bag.

While flying from Little Rock to Minneapolis recently, I discovered the secret to getting through security at a relatively breakneck speed. Keep in mind, I consider myself a well-versed traveller and can generally move through security very fast anyway. On my way to the checkpoint, I usually have in my head all of the steps I will go through to pass through quickly.

So here I was. Stroller frame broken down and put on belt. Jack in car seat on floor. Diaper bag (opened) in bin. Hand Sanitizer and lip gloss in baggie out of bag in bin. Milk out and open in another bin. Milk pointed out to security lady. Shoes off and in bin. Summer coat off and in bin. Then, unstrap a very smiley Jack and pick him up. Move to put car seat on belt.

Then, I spot it. Runny green poo puddled in the car seat and now on my arm. Ick.

Nevertheless, the car seat goes on the belt and I speed through the scanner with a stinky and cooing Jack in my arms. The man who was in charge of security saw me, saw the poop, got scared, and waved me right by.

My quickest time yet.