Our next adventure began with a 14.5 hour flight from Vancouver to Brisbane. When figuring out our best option for travel, we had hoped to find a flight with a stopover midway somewhere to break up the trip. After much research, we discovered that most flights still involved 12 hours on one plane and then the layover time and another flight. We decided to bite the bullet and book the direct flight instead.

Next came much preparation (mental too!) to get ready to spend that long on a plane with a 20 month old in our laps. I read many blogs on ways to entertain a toddler on a plane. Mom (aka Grandma) spent hours making the most amazing busy book. Anoop downloaded tons of songs and short videos as a last resort. After gathering all the supplies, I spent two days packing everything and thinking through the order we would need things on the plane.

Finally the day of our flight arrived! Our flight was scheduled to leave at 11:45 pm, and was delayed by about 45 minutes by the time we actually left the gate. We put Rhys to sleep at home and then woke him up at 9:15 pm. Our friend, Wendy, met us at home to drive us to the airport. This saved us having to transfer the car seat for a short drive and meant that we could pack up the car entirely before waking up Rhys. It was much appreciated! Miraculously, we managed to fit 3 large duffel bags, a huge suitcase, a small suitcase, gym bag, small backpack & bag, and stroller in the car along with 3 adults and Rhys.

Rhys was wide awake and gave us a running commentary on the way to the airport. He seemed quite taken with the fact that it was dark; I guess since he is usually in bed before its dark and up afterwards it was new to him! We unloaded everything and manoeuvered our way to the check in counter – pushing 2 luggage carts and a stroller with only the two of us was quite a challenge! We then headed through security, not quite sure what to expect since we had lots of food and extra liquids for Rhys. We knew that it shouldn’t be a problem, but weren’t sure what they would want to take a further look at. We weren’t surprised when they asked to look in our cooler bag, thinking that they would be checking out our freezer packs keeping his food cold. Imagine my surprise when they pulled out my Swiss army knife! Oops! In all of my checking of pockets, I had forgotten to check that one zipper! Luckily we had one bag that we could remove some items from in order to check the knife. So Anoop went on with Rhys while I headed back through security to check the knife. I can’t say I’ve ever checked a bag on a flight with one item in it, but I can now. You can bet I will be triple checking all zippers from now on! Once back through security we made our way to the gate. Rhys was still wide away and we figured it was a losing battle to try and get him to fall asleep with so much activity around him. He had a snack, rode the travellators and even managed to step off at the end, went through the duty-free shopping, and “drove” one of the carts they use to transport people from their gates.

Finally we boarded the plane and got everything stashed away. Thinking we would be up in the air shortly and that Rhys would be tired, we didn’t keep any activities with us for that part. After we were delayed leaving the gate, we wished we had kept some sort of small toy with us! He did extremely well considering that he should have been sound asleep at that time. Finally after taking off, I managed to rock him off to sleep around 1 am, nearly 4 hours after waking up him to start the trip. We figured that we likely had a solid 5 hours of him sleeping before he might start to rouse.

Boy were we wrong! Around 1:45 am, dinner service started… the lights came back on and amid the very loud questioning  by the flight attedants of whether each passenger wanted “chicken or pasta?!”, he woke up again. Poor guy was sooo tired and he just wanted to sleep! We were really not impressed and neither the chicken nor the pasta seemed particularly appealing at 2 am. We decided that we had better eat anyhow since this was one of the two meals they would be serving us. Let’s just say that it was probably the worst airplane food we have eaten on an international flight. The bun was so stale that you could barely rip it open. We got rather giggly as we kept trying to poke a hole in it to tear it and instead the bun just kept squishing together.

After “dinner”, we figured we should use the washroom and change Rhys’ diaper before settling in for a few hours in our seat. As we were standing at the back of the plane waiting for the window seat person to return to our row, one of the flight attendants came by. In the ever caring manner which we have come to expect from Air Canada staff, he asked us to please be quiet if we were talking at the back of the plane. The reason? The crew sleeping quarters were just to our right and he didn’t want us to wake anyone up and have grumpy flight attendants. I’m not sure that this is ever a good thing to say to people who have just boarded a flight and are about to be sitting bolt upright in a cramped and uncomfortable seat for 14.5 hours. Let alone to two parents with a toddler who has to sleep on their laps and who said flight attendants have just woken up bellowing chicken or pasta across the rows.

So back we went to our seats and Rhys did eventually fall back asleep with much rocking on my part. He got in a solid 4.5 hours of sleep before waking at his usual 6:40 am. We had hoped he might be nursed back to sleep, but on came the lights to offer those passengers awake a chicken sandwich and a drink. Resigned, Anoop took him to the washroom & got him dressed while I swapped over sleeping items for daytime entertainment. We gave him breaky which he ate without his usual gusto. The lights went off again and Anoop kept Rhys entertained by walking up and down the aisles and reading him stories. As Anoop was about to drop off, Rhys started getting drowsy and fell asleep for another few hours. Luckily I finally managed to doze a bit and by the time he woke up again, we only had 3.5 hours left. They kept the lights off for the entire duration of the flight (except dinner of course) until we had about 1.5 hours left when they served breakfast. This made keeping Rhys occupied a bit of a challenge since the individual lights are glaringly bright when yours is the only one on! However, between walking the aisles, eating, playing with his car, stuffing pompoms through holes in a lid, and colouring, time seemed to pass relatively quickly. We saved the busy book until the descent and he really enjoyed the pages mom had made with the kitty and farm animals. Lots left to explore on the return leg when we leave at 10:40 am local time. It will be interesting to see how we all make out on the way home when he will be awake for much more of it. I can definitely pack less food, although I would rather have too much than not enough! Especially when the “meals” they provided for Rhys were 2 jars of baby food. Needless to say he opted for the blueberry pancakes we had made instead…

We had an excellent landing and got off the plane near the end. We then had an hour and a half line up to clear customs. Poor Rhys, after all that time on the plane he had to sit in the stroller for another 1.5 hours. Most of the plane must have been Australians or those who could use the epassport entrance because by the time we made it through, there was only 1 other suitcase left on the carousel!