Leaving on a jet plane

We're going to be traveling this week. We're off to Arizona for a quick trip to see J's great-grandmother on my side. It's a fairly unexpected trip, but we're all excited, particularly J, since we've been talking up the airplane part of the adventure. How many airplanes are we going to be on, J? Four! Yay! My goal is to get him through at least the first flight on pure adrenaline and excitement. After that, we have multiple new toys and books and the sainted DVD player, all charged and ready to go, stocked with Caillou and Sesame Street and Curious George. We've ruled out Benadryl this time around because we think it may be having a stimulating as opposed to a calming effect nowadays, based on one unfortunate experience we had with a cold and J a few months ago (awake, awake, AWAKE and ready to go at 2am--not pretty), so it's going to be parents on parade all the time.

I'm really trying to cut down on the luggage we have to trek over with us, because we're really only going to be there two days, plus two days of traveling, and it makes me sick the amount of stuff we have to cart around. Some are non-negociables, of course, like the stroller and the car seat, though thankfully my parents are providing a pack-n-play, or else we'd be lugging that with us, too. So my goal beyond that is one small checked bag (that rolls, of course), the husband's carry-on backpack, my carry-on diaper bag, and Toddler J's small backpack (really more decorative than anything else, but it can hold his immediate toy needs). I altered the backpack just tad, so it now has a fastener on the straps that means he can't remove the pack without our help, so we don't lose it in some waiting area somewhere.

In anticipation of our departure and the fact that we'll be having Thanksgiving dinner out, I am roasting a turkey the night before we leave so we'll have leftovers. I may also roast some sweet potato fries to leave in the fridge. And then we'll be able to take roasted turkey with us for sandwiches on the plane, which is great because turkey keeps much better than cold cuts, is less allergenic than peanut butter and jelly, and tastes yummy with mustard! I am also going to make pumpkin cookies, half with chocolate chips and half with apples (for Toddler J and the husband who like the muffin-esque cookies best, while I want the chocolate, baby!). I was thinking of making low fat oatmeal apple muffins to use up said apples, but then I found out that "low fat" is kind of a joke when it comes to muffins, even with my substitutions for oil and white flour and eggs, so that killed that idea. So cookies it is! And all the usual J snacks: applesauce (in cool new squeezable pouches!), raisins, fruit snacks, chocolate milk (if they'll let me take it), fruit leather, clementines, apples, and granola bars (minus the nuts, of course). I feel like a convenience store!

Updates as possible!