Traveling with a Toddler Coast to Coast

Our Journey to Hanoi, Vietnam—Part 1: Florida to California

After traveling with a toddler, we finally made it to Hanoi—the capital of Vietnam! This is a culmination of excitement as we’ve been destined to live here since being notified two years ago, as part of my Soldier’s career timeline. However, it definitely was not an easy joyride getting here. For most people, traveling is exhausting, sometimes overwhelming, and a world of unknown factors. In our case, we had to do all of that with a terrible two’s, two-year-old. Traveling with a toddler is not for the faint of heart!

Our journey from Tallahassee, Florida, to Hanoi, Vietnam, comprised of many moving pieces. We had our home packed up and either put into storage, shipped to Vietnam, or set aside to take on the many plane rides from 15–19 December.

600lbs of our household items headed to Vietnam

Then, we transitioned to Weeki Wachee, Florida (yep that’s the name of the town) to spend a few days with Matt’s dad and step-mom. After a few days, we departed Florida via Orlando Airport to San Francisco, California, on 22 December, where we spent a week with my family over Christmas. Then, on 29 December, our seemingly endless flight to Vietnam officially began with a 12-hour leg to Seoul, South Korea, with an hour and a half layover and airline change, then a 5-hour flight to Hanoi, Vietnam, arriving the next day on December 30.

Orlando to San Francisco

We departed from Orlando Airport for San Francisco as our first leg of the trip. But, to get to the airport, it took nearly 2 hours of driving from Matt’s parents’ house to the airport—mind you with a short attention span toddler buckled in. It was “zero dark thirty” when we woke up and by 4:30 am, we were out the door and driving to the airport in order to catch our 8:05 am flight. As a military family on the move, you have to hand carry many documents, valuables, and other items to last you up to 30 days in some cases, so yes, this may seem excessive to some people, but at the time of moving, it all seems necessary. In tow for this particular move, we had four checked luggage pieces (including a car seat) and 6 carry-ons (including a stroller) for this Soldier, Spouse, and our 2-year old “Minnie Mouse”—Lily!

Once we arrived at the Orlando Airport, we were dropped curbside, at the departures terminal, where we were able to easily check in from the curb and get assistance with all our checked baggage. The United Airlines employee also TSA pre-checked us—score! I think she realized that traveling with a toddler was going to make for a long day so any help would be some relief to us.

TSA Pre-check

We gathered up ALL of our carry-ons and headed for the TSA pre-check line at security. This was my first time being pre-checked and let me tell you, I was impressed. As we approached the x-ray machine we didn’t have to take our small liquids in the clear bag out of my purse, my shoes stayed on, laptop and tablets stayed in our bags—easy as pie! I took Lily out of her stroller and everything went through the x-ray machine while Lily and I headed through the metal detector, and as my luck would have it, the TSA employee said I’ve been randomly selected by the machine. Huh? He told me to take off my shoes and run them through the machine and to stand-by with Lily. All the while, Matt cleared the x-ray and metal detector scanners with a breeze and five other people then passed by. Two other people were then randomly selected and we are all standing there with no one “checking” us for whatever reason. Lily starts screaming and ran to daddy. At this point, I am enraged as no one is helping us and Matt is standing at the end of the conveyor belt with all our bags and a screaming child because he cannot go anywhere with her and our 6 carry-ons.

Finally, a TSA worker asks me for my electronics. . . again, huh? So, I give her my phone she walks away and scans it or something and then just hands it back to me without a word—rude! I thought pre-check was supposed to be easy. The silver lining was that even with this debacle, we still cleared TSA in record time, compared to the very long line of holiday travelers waiting to go through security in the regular line. We gather our belongings and headed for the gate hoping the flight is quick, easy, and without incident, as we are all a little on edge at this point, and it’s only 7 am!

Items for the flight

In preparation for the flight, we purchased a few things to help aid in traveling with a toddler and to make our lives a little better. After reading all the blogs and clicking through Amazon’s travel items for a toddler we bought a fold-up lap activity center where Lily could have all her toys and tablet set up in her lap since airplane trays are so small. I bought this one here. On the trip from Orlando to San Francisco, we didn’t even use it because the only bag it would fit into was a carry-on roller suitcase, which is impossible to get anything out of while on the plane. When we bought it, we thought it folded up smaller than it actually did. This item may work better for a long car ride, so we will soon see how that pans out. Another item we bought was a blow-up leg rest/pillow. Essentially, you can blow it up and place it in the leg area in front of the seat and your child can sleep more comfortably in his or her own seat…did not use it either.

One item that was a godsend was a pair of child headphones. We accustomed Lily to these months before our flight so she could get used to having them on her head and taking them off and on. Using them on the flight saved us for about 1 and a half to 2 hours of self-entertainment. These headphones paired perfectly with Lily’s new Amazon Fire Kid Edition. We have Amazon prime video and downloaded as many shows as the memory would allow and installed some kid-friendly apps as well. The case covering the Amazon Fire is perfect for those tantrums when everything gets thrown on the floor! We tried to anticipate the good, the bad, and the ugly while traveling with a toddler.

Lily enjoying being on the plane for the moment…

After the initial 2 hours of tolerating the plane ride, Lily decided to have a major tantrum on the airplane—a tantrum of epic proportions that lasted two hours with all eyes of the packed flight starring at us with looks of annoyance. All she wanted to do was get up and go check out the potty (over and over again), “go bye-bye”, or go for a walk (which means getting off the plane and go walk, not walk the aisles). As you can imagine, we became that family that is sitting on the plane with an unforgiving toddler, kicking and screaming and all. After two hours of endless crying, kicking feet, and yes hitting and throwing toys, she (finally) fell asleep. To top that off, she only wanted to lay on her father (who was in an aisle seat) and anytime he moved she screamed; therefore, the pillow was inaccessible in the overhead compartment. Matt had to be as still as possible so that Lily wouldn’t throw another fit. . . and he didn’t look comfortable at all!

Matt being used as a bed by Lily!

Therefore, the final 2 hours were nice, as Lily slept the remainder of the flight—it was her naptime after all. Despite all the activities and snacks, we brought we just knew a tantrum was going to happen when traveling with a toddler. But we arrived safe and sound and happy to see family.

Our must-have items when traveling with a toddler:

• Tons of snacks
• Thermos to fill with milk once through security, to have on the plane. I used this one
• Insulated Munchkin cup keeps milk cold longer
• Pacifiers (saved her ears from popping)
• Coloring book with crayons (I put the crayons in a makeup bag, but ziplock works well because the cardboard crayon boxes never last)
• Stickers with paper to place them on
• Amazon Kindle Fire
• Headphones
• Small toys
• Diapers
• Wipes
• Two changes of clothes
• Allergy meds and Tylenol 3oz or less (you never know when you will need it)
• 2 Epi-pens
• Toddler Pillow
• Blanket
• Small stuffed animal
• Activity tray (didn’t use)
• Blow up pillow thing (didn’t use)

Here is most of what we brought, snacks, a pair of clothes, and blow up pillow not pictured.

Check out more blogs about our travels here.

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Traveling Houses