Leaving on a Jet plane...

Well, what a week!

We have just returned home from Reuben's first holiday abroad and I think we did ok.

Our flight to Tenerife was at 7.15am, which meant we had to leave our house at 4.30am. This wasn't as bad as I thought it would be as we just woke Reuben up, got him dressed and went out of the door.

Obviously we had to prepare Reuben beforehand about where we were going, what we were doing and what would be happening while we were away. I think he was fine with it all as he seemed quite happy.

Reuben loved going in the taxi (simply because it was just a different make of car ha) he spent the journey to the airport looking out of the window and telling Nanny and Grandad that we are all going on the aeroplane.

Once at the airport my heart sunk as the queue to check in was massive and the airport was really busy with crowds of people (2 things Reube hates)

Luckily the queue moved quite fast and Reuben only got fed up as we approached the front, by which time he kept sitting on the floor and refusing to get up, which was holding the people behind us up!

Going through security was a bit of a nightmare as Reuben had had enough by then and it was really hard to get him moving. He would sit on the floor and refuse to move, this deemed quite a challenge when carrying my own bags, Pip the teddy and Reuben's hand luggage!!!

I was a bit worried how Reuben would react to going through the beeper machine (don't know the real name ha) but he seemed to cope really well. That might be down to us telling Reuben that Pip the teddy was also going through his own machine to have a special photo taken.

Once through security we had just enough time to grab some breakfast. Reuben was so happy to get his morning cup of tea, it calomed him instantly. I have never seen him enjoy a cup of tea quite like it. Thinking back now, maybe I should have made him a cuppa in his travel cup to have in the taxi. It might have set him up for the day.

We were so lucky with the seats we had on the plane as they were right at the front and had extra leg room.

Reuben coped really well with getting on the plane and letting us put his seat belt on. I gave him a sticker book that was all about aeroplanes and airports so we sat and did this whilst waiting to taxi on to the runway.

Surprisingly, Reuben didn't care at all about taking off. There I was trying to get him to look out of the window as we sped down the run way but he looked straight ahead with is thumb in.

Even as we were up in the air and the clouds were visible from the windows, Reuben still did not seem to care or notice. It was as if he had gone into his own little world to protect himself from this strange new situation!

Once the seat belt sign went off, we were able to get Reuben's bag down from the locker and get his things out. He played for a while on his Leap pad, then got his cars out.

As we were half way through the flight, Reuben got a bit fed up. Thankfully we had a back up plan!

My husband had put quite a few episodes of Peppa Pig and Ben and Holly on his ipad. Reuben loves these programmes so we hooked his hearing aids up to the ipad using the special adaptors. These are better as the sound goes straight through to his hearing aids whereas normal headphones don't.

Reuben sat watching this for a good while and it seemed to calm him down a lot ( a very good idea by us ha)

Once the seat belt sign came back on and we had to tidy Reuben's things away, he got agitated again. This was simply because he didn't want his seat belt back on, he liked the freedom of standing by his chair and playing.

So, my husband and I spent the whole time until we landed holding his seat belt as Reuben had figured out how to undo it. This,  he did not like at all and so we had a quite a temper as we came into land. The sound of Reuben screaming and making a whole lot of noise could not be helpful for any nervous travellers on our plane...Sorry!

Our next challenge was the dreaded wait for our luggage. Reuben had had enough by now and really didn't want to do anymore waiting.

Luckily we got our pushchair quite quickly and he was able to sit in that and cuddle stinky blanket.

Once on the coach, we had to do the dreaded waiting thing again which meant Reuben was now doing anything he could to be disruptive and as awkward as possible. He was standing on the seats, shouting, pulling his Nanny and sisters hair and generally being a pain in the bum.

As soon as the coach started moving he was fine and sat and watching everything from his window.

Now for the holiday....