Time for some tips on flying from a bit of a veteran...

-Understand Murphy's Law of flying: After flying across the continent upwards of 12 times, I've yet to fly once where some little kid was crying most of the time (except for one, because it was a business commuter flight to Seattle). Basically, you have two options.
1. Learn to ignore them.
2. Have something loud enough to drown it out.
Make good use of any form of music you have.

-Bear in mind that the flight's around the country are shorter than the one across the pond, so it won't be as bad.

-Time seems to go a lot faster if you have an active distraction, like a book or Gameboy. Makes the 5-6 hour flight to Toronto go by a lot quicker for me...

-If you have a headache on the plane, especially if it's due to not sleeping, then you could try asking for some of those little bags of snacks they have. It might just be me, but having something to eat kinda takes my mind off it.

-If the airport you're in has those little sideways escalators that get you places faster, make sure to ride every one of them...

...nine times. (You can walk at like, 25kph! How is that NOT an invitation for fun?)

-I find that one of the main enemies on a plane ride is boredom, so I carry at least 3 different things to do. That way, I not only have something to do, I have a choice too.

No idea if this will help at all, but worth a shot.