Flying United Airlines with a Toddler/Preschooler OR How to Travel on an Airplane With a Contigo Bottle

Sometimes I think that I have everything planned as a mom on the go, but I realize that I have no idea. When traveling to San Diego for a few days away for family time, we prepared our three passports (one for mom, one for dad, and one for baby girl) and we persisted through the TSA lane. This was my first time traveling United Airlines with my Premier Silver pass (thanks Marriott Rewards) and I was pleased to know that this status provides you with the green light for the TSA "express lane". This was my second time to travel with the priority access.

We removed our shoes and our sweaters (it was a colder day in Dallas/Fort Worth, TX) and walked through the security process. Then, I discovered it was MY Vera Bradley bag in the "important area" of the TSA process. We were VIPs for TSA, because THIS mom forgot to declare our Horizon Milk packets to TSA which were in the Vera Bradley Bag. Lucky me!

Luckily, I remember that we had an empty Contigo water bottle and we poured this milk into the bottle for the litmus test. We passed (not that I had any doubts) and we gathered our belongings and Contigo bottle and sought our gate.

When we arrived at our gate (before 6am), baby girl was extremely cranky (she normally wakes up at this time each day). So, baby girl and her apologizing parents (us) boarded the airplane and finally sank down in our seats. The airplane was TOP NOTCH! The seats were extremely comfortable, everything was exceptionally clean, and the leg room (for this petite woman) was great! The baby girl had a seat by the window and she wanted to make sure that she did not miss any of the action occurring on the ground or as we ascended into the skies of Texas!

She quickly fell asleep and this was a relief for me, because I fell asleep as well. Then, I had to visit the restroom. As I journeyed to the back of the airplane, I discovered there was something truly different about the United Airlines experience. The individuals on the airplane were friendly, the airline attendants were efficient and exceptionally friendly, and the restroom was the ROOMIEST restroom I have ever encountered in my 30 years of flying!

Then, when I ventured back to our seats, I realized that my little one was awake and ready for her organic milk. I placed the Contigo bottle beside her and she persisted to open the bottle as usual. We encountered an unusual surprise - the pressure inside of the bottle caused the milk to create a geyser in our seats! I observed and quickly reacted to this "experience" by waking my husband yelling "wipes, please... wipes, please...".

He quickly awakened and handed wipes to me. As I wiped the seats (thank goodness for leather seats), I quickly realized that not only our seat was part of this liquid adventure, but the seats behind me were christened by organic milk as well. I quickly handed wipes to our neighbors and apologized.

Thank goodness for the kindness of strangers, especially strangers who understand the adventures of traveling with a three-year old.

Thanks for such a great experience seat neighbors, United Airlines and TSA! :)