Thursday, May 22, 2008

Memorial Day weekend.

As the title implies, this weekend is Memorial Day weekend. My husband, Ragsy and I will be going to Charlotte, NC to see my sister and brother-in-law. I'm really looking forward to it - now that we're older, I thoroughly enjoy spending time with my sister and my brother-in-law is one of Ragsy's biggest fans. The only thing I'm not looking forward to is leaving the house at 6 a.m. Unfortunately, the only flight we could get for the weekend takes off at 8 a.m. or something like that. Ah, well.

At least this time he's got his own seat! Now to keep him sitting in it... I had mentioned to a friend on her blog that one of the best "toys" Ragsy ever had for an airplane was an empty water bottle and a straw. So, in addition to a DVD player and some Fraggle Rock, we'll be bringing our recyclables (at least one, anyway) for our son's entertainment. I'm actually looking forward to having him in the airport. Security aside, I've found that he's ridiculously easygoing during travel. In fact, traveling with him is pretty fun (famous last words). Then again, I guess traveling to India will do that to you. You either become easygoing or you completely lose it. I appreciate that Ragsy took the latter route, not the former.

Well, off I go. It only just occurred to me that since we'll be in the US and not India, we need to figure out what to do about a car seat - do we just not worry about it for a weekend, bring our own or get a super cheap one for them?

2 comments:

BriteLady said...

If you're willing to lug it through security, you can have Ragsy sit in his carseat in the plane. That's what we've had Char do for all her flights (she's always had her own seat....it's only the last flight with Trystan that we tried the baby-in-lap routine).

If you're renting, unless your sister & BIL want to bring you one, this is the way to go...they charge you like $15 a day to rent a carseat...after about 3 days you could buy a brand new one at Walmart and just throw it away when you come home...

You can also check the carseat with your luggage (maybe in a bag, to make sure it arrives in one piece).

For one trip, we used a wheeled luggage carrier to help tote the carseat through the airport, and it helped a LOT (it wasn't quite sturdy enough to make an ad hoc stroller, but almost). Char's newest carseat/booster is really lightweight, so we didn't bother with wheels this time (it's almost lighter than Trystan's "pumpkin seat" carseat is).

Have fun on your trip!

Sarahlynn said...

We have a specially-shaped over-the-shoulder bag that carries car seats (and other overflow) nicely. It also checks with the suitcases.

We've never used car seats in the plane. In fact, the one time we tried (just last year) we were not allowed to do so for takeoff and landing; I was required to hold the infant on my lap although she had her own seat and car seat. Guess that varies by airline.

When Ellie was 2-3 we took the rare cab ride from an airport without a car seat, though I don't think I'd do that again except in emergency.