A Few of My Favorite (baby) Things: gogo Kidz Travelmate

Sooo, I embarked on my first solo trip with my gal that involved two flights over 2hrs. Needless to say I was petrified considering the hubs and I could barely keep our sanity for a short 1 hr jaunt over Turkey Day. I had no idea what to expect but knew that I absolutely had to get a seat for her to at least try to keep her contained. I also knew we had to get a portable DVD player (another of my new favorite (baby?) things....)

We were going for a week which meant multiple bags and no desire to deal with a stroller or carrier on top of them. (Our luggage quantity also attributed to yet another of my favorite things, curb-side check-ins....highly recommended when flying solo).

But I digress, on to the real reason for this post, the gogo Kidz Travelmate. This handy-dandy device was sooo great. You basically attach it to your car seat to convert it into a stroller. It allows you to navigate through the airport without lugging a huge car seat and maneuvering a stroller and/or toddler at the same time. It works on most car seats (check out their site) and is super simple to attach.

I can't tell you how many comments and/or looks of envy I got as I wheeled through the frenzied airports. Here are some usage hints should anyone heed my advice and purchase one....

• -You can buckle the seat into the car with this on, just remove the wheels (which is super easy).

• -Don't even try to put it through the x-ray machines, just ask them to scan it on the side. This way you don't have to take anything apart.

• -I don't recommend taking this or the wheels off for the plane ride, you can buckle the whole thing in. However, I think I will have to for future rides as her legs get longer because it positions them pretty close to the seat in front of you and makes for easy chair-kicking.

• -Getting on/off the airplane is tough. Not because of this product but because of the car seat. It's too wide to roll down the aisles. The two strategies I used were to ask the flight attendant if they could bring it back to me once everyone was boarded, this was by far the easiest thing to do. Or, just carry the whole thing with baby in it if you can safely handle the weight.
  

The big bonus to this was that my gal frickin' LOVED it, she's in a phase of digging getting in and out of her car seat and pushing things which she did both to her hearts content while we were at the airports. We walked a ton with her pushing it which greatly helped wear her out and ultimately led to her SLEEPING on the plane. I was so shocked and totally caught off-guard....all of the flights we'd previously been on she was way too wired and excited and NOT contained in a car seat to ever give us any semblance of a nap. Who would have thunk that I could have gotten that trash magazine and enjoyed a little bit of guilty pleasure....now I know.