6 concerns and solutions While Planning For and Visiting NYC with my 2-year-old

I recently travelled from Seattle to the east coast and Houston with my young daughter, Dahlia and both experiences were good. My husband used his frequent flier miles to get us first class or business class seating and as a result, the flight attendants were extra accommodating and our luggage was out first.

However, I was in planning overdrive last week while figuring out the logistics of a trip to New York for my brother’s graduation from Columbia University. Since I was so uptight and had so many concerns, I thought I’d list them, along with the way the situations was resolved, in the event that there are others out there who are traveling with a two-year-old this summer.

Concern: Personal DVD players on an airplane are the way to go and Dahlia’s DVDs were a mess. Some were too damaged to work, the cases were broken, she was tired of the movies and we didn't have many to begin with. I needed a solution for the flight.

Solution: I bought a CD case and a few new DVDs. I pulled all the other kid friendly DVDs from my home collection and put them all in her new DVD “book”. She was only allowed to pull one out at a time, and she watched and or listened to the DVDs with her little, pink headphones. Even if she only watched the first 20 minutes of each, she was happy looking through her colorful assortment and choosing the next show. I also had a few other new, tiny kid toys, books and snacks to hold her attention

Concern: What if she had a BM on the plane?

Solution: It’s inevitable! Everyone was seated for takeoff when I smelled something suspicious. Before the other passengers could smell it, I indicated to the attendant that we had a “situation”. The plane wasn't moving yet, but I had to be quick! To the tiny, airplane bathroom we went. I had Dahlia stand on the toilet seat and I changed her diaper while she was standing up, something I perfected on our flight to Houston. Parents, make the diaper into “underwear” and have your kid slide the diaper on, or rip the sides to take it off cleanly.
I then handed Dahlia to her daddy and he safely buckled her in. I flushed the evidence, bagged her dirty pants and like clockwork, we were set in no time.

Concern: What will Dahlia eat? Airplane food is not mother or toddler-approved.

Solution: We planned to have meals at the airports and snacks on the flight. By the time the in-flight meal was served, Dahlia wasn't even interested. During meals, Dahlia and I ate one at a time. They brought her meal first, I tried to feed it to her and then they replaced her tray with mine so I could eat.
I didn’t even attempt sippy cups since Dahlia likes to shake them and make a mess. She drank from bottles while we were in flight.
And first class travelers, beware of the warm chocolate chip cookie! I let Dahlia have one and it was a huge mess. It melted, smeared, crumbled, stained and was everywhere in 5 minutes. I had to bathe Dahlia with a wet nap and change her entire outfit. The flight attendant thought it was hilarious.

Concern: How the heck were we going to get Dahlia from point A to point B in a taxi? Did we have to carry her car seat all over town? How do New Yorkers do it? Should we take a subway?

Solution: There is no government regulation requiring car seats for children in taxis. This solved many of our logistical problems, but it didn't feel very safe to hold my darling sweet pea on my lap while our cab barreled down Park Ave at 50mph. I had to do it though and everything worked out fine.

Concern: I needed a babysitter three days in a row and wanted the same person each day. I didn't want Dahlia to have to get used to one perfect stranger, let alone three while we left her in a strange place with a strange person.

Solution: My brother valiantly tried to arrange sitters for us from Barnard Women’s College, but it didn't work out due to poor communication (I refuse to call people on the phone) and timing (one girl was available for only part of the time. Our last line of defense was the hotel babysitter service. We had used a hotel sitter service at Atlantis in the Bahamas and it worked out really well. We had the same sitter each evening.
In New York, we were staying at the Waldorf-Astoria. The concierge had difficulty communicating on the phone (doubly ironic) and so I arranged everything in person. Their sitting service was… $35 an hour! OMG! HFS! But… we were paying for convenience, we could have the same person each day, we were out of options and we were out of time.
Fortunately, the sitter was great! She was interacting with Dahlia before we even left our hotel room and we returned to find our daughter gleefully running down the hallway or watching a DVD upon our return.

Concern: We will be someplace in public and Dahlia will flip out. We will have no recourse and life will suck.

Solution: I suppose this is another inevitable rite of passage, but we got off easy this time. After we visited the Central Park Zoo, Dahlia took a two hour nap, during which I kicked my husband and dad out of the hotel room so they could check out the ladies in the hotel bar. (Fortunately for me, they were all over 50.)
Later that night, we all attempted dinner in the hotel restaurant and Dahlia, to put it lightly, was not interested. Sadly, my husband had to take her upstairs and get room service, but I was afforded a toddler-free dinner with my dad. My husband and I traded adult time and if you don’t bring a nanny along, it’s what you have to do.

Overall, our trip was really great. Dahlia took naps, she was able to tell us what she wanted, and we communicated to her what we were doing. Tomorrow at a family gathering, Dahlia will wear her new “I heart NY” T-shirt.

Congratulations Uncle Brody!