sane airline travel with children

Our flights to and from Ohio were long, boring, and cramped. But, they weren't insane. For the first time David had his own seat. For the first time, David sat glued to the dvd player. I did not have to spend seven hours keeping his feet from kicking the seat in front of us and burning through a huge toy bag of distractions. I was exhausted at the end of both flights, but the exhaustion normal people go through not the special exhaustion of walking a toddler up and down the aisles or holding him while he screams.

petting a duck

The grandparents had planned great adventures for our visit. First stop, the family farm up the road. That's where the grandparents get their delicious hamburger. I chose not to explain these facts of life to the kids. Rose went on a school field trip to a farm, but David certainly never has. City kids, you know. I can probably count on one hand the times I've been on a farm. This one was so nice. The chickens, turkeys, and ducks are in cages so the predators don't get them, but the cages get moved to fresh grass every day. The steer roam in their own area. The pigs are very loud and curious. And the kids got to pet a duck, chicken, and chick.

petting two moose

This was inadvertent. For our next adventure, we went to a drive through wild animal zoo. None of us had ever been before, and it turned out to be a hoot. Deer, moose, buffalo, and other large grain eating animals wander about, and you can pour food for them. Grammy and I were in a car together, and we made the mistake of having both our windows down at the same time, so two very big moose (without antlers) stuck their very big heads through the windows. Like I'm going to shove a moose off my lap. I threw the cup of food out of the car. She and I spent the rest of the drive in a state of giggles, sort of like the hysteria you get on a roller coaster. The long horned water buffalo? were very very big.

riding on a pony

They gave us free tickets at the Wild Animal Park. Rose has sat on a pony before for some hokey picture thing at school, but I think this was actually her first time with the pony moving. She looked quite calm and said it was bumpy.

riding on a camel

Another benefit of the Wild Animal Park. I know Rose has never ridden on a camel before. I have. In Egypt when I was five and Julia was three. I remember how nerve wracking it was as the camel stood up. In this case, Rose mounted from a platform and had a rollbar to hold on to. David declined both rides.

David peed standing up

David, of course, knew about this, having observed Daddy and reading about it in numerous books, but he had never been interested in trying. Mr. Big Boy was quite successful and pleased with himself. He did it three times.