I was not concerned about the 26 hour plane ride, at least not in regards to how Keira would handle it. I KNEW that I would hate it, but Keira, she is happy anywhere with Mama. And she was. This is not to say that she was never cranky but overall she had a good time.

Things to entertain a baby with on an airplane or in an airport: A water bottle or a cup, especially if you drink out of it first. She much prefers it if these vessels are empty, she pulls back if any water comes out of them and it goes all over the place. The seat belt, she got her own seat on two of the flights and she loves her seat belt. The scary thing is that she can almost unbuckle it by herself. They did not design these with keeping children seated in mind. The safety talk, Keira may have been the only person on our flight paying attention during the safety talk. She loved it, she was smiling at the flight attendant the whole time. A bag of chips, really any wrapper will do but the bag of chips was great because it was puffy from the altitude. Keira snagged it as we walked by a snack cart on the way to the bathroom. It was a score for one of her random fishing expeditions. Other people, generally other people are cooperative with this and make all sorts of crazy faces and noises to entertain the baby, they are rewarded with a smile and will continue for a good amount of time. At one point she was entertaining the people behind us, this was on the 16 hour flight from Atlanta to Johannesburg, I said to them, "Remember how cute she it right now." They laughed and even though she did let her frustration be known a few times on that flight, they were still friendly at the end of the flight. A napkin, really this works anywhere, it can be a napkin, a tissue, a magazine, anything she can tear up and throw makes her happy.

All in all we kept her entertained and she was happy. The hardest part for me was that she really wanted me to hold her most of the time so I got very little sleep. For the long flight, they kept the seat belt light on most of the flight so walking around with her was a limited activity and this was the best way for Mike to keep her happy. If she couldn't see me then it wasn't a problem. We all got a few hours in at the end of the flight when Keira passed out and we both followed suit, I even slept through the landing and all the people getting off the plane. Mike woke me up and we were in Johannesburg on an empty plane.

Now we just have to survive the plane ride home...