I just wanted to thank you all again for the great suggestions. It's nice that there are so many options.

We flew last Friday. We almost didn't go, because my daughter seemed like she had a hideous cold as well as an ear infection. We ran her to the doctor, and luckily her ears were fine, so the doc told me to give her some Dimetapp before the flight. I think she had an allergy attack, because the "cold" cleared up mighty fast. Strange.

I ended up bringing the car seat on board without a bag, and I brought the "monster stroller" (Graco travel system) so I could use it as a luggage cart. When my daughter was in the stroller, it was pretty easy to balance the Marathon upside down and sideways on the back part of the stroller and we put our two small carryons underneath. When she was out of it, I just put the carseat upside down over the back and the seat (if that makes sense). It was a lot to lug around, but we had really tight connections so I didn't have to deal with it too much.

Because of the Dimetapp she slept LGA-DTW. The second flight of the first travel day (DTW-MLI) was pretty miserable. I was so prepared--snacks, stickers, crayons, new books, toys...and she kept saying "kick" and kicking the seat in front of her. It was an RJ, so unlike flight #1, her feet could reach when she was in her car seat. I leaned over and apologized to the lady in front of her, but I very truly did everything I could. She was annoyed and rightfully so. Luckily the flight time was only about an hour.

On the way back, only her toes hit the tray table in front of her, so she couldn't do much damage. She did get pretty fussy on the MSP-LGA leg, but it had been a long weekend and a long day. I did the best I could with distractions. Overall, she did pretty well.

We had a great time with the family but I'm certainly not sad that we're not flying with her again until December. We're going JFK-LAX, and we purposely booked the flights during her bedtime. Bad for my parents who have to pick us up at LAX at 12:30am, but great for everyone else involved, including the other passengers!

One tip I did get from other message boards re: the car seat. With the Britax, and I'm assuming most others, it's much easier to unbuckle it out of the airplane seat if you turn the buckle backwards when you install it. It was still a pain but not as bad as it could have been.

Thanks again!!!!