Traveling Together
As I am typing, I am sitting up on a brand new memory foam mattress in the dark, listening to my son breathing deeply and cars driving down the neighborhood roads. I have a dull reminder of a horrid headache that I had earlier, but am, myself, very comfortable. I am home, in my other home. The home I was brought home from the hospital to. The home with my Mom and my Dad. And I am there with my son, the first grandchild, my first miracle. It feels great.
Earlier this evening, I was able to sit in my parents’ living room and watch my son lead my mother through the house by her hand. Walking, babbling, thoroughly enjoying himself. At one point, he stood at the edge of the sofa, with a cracker in one hand, watching my father play the guitar and whistle. His dancing brought joy to all of us. He watches my parents with the same warm smile on his face that I get from him. What a joy it is to him to be surrounded by so much love. And that was only the beginning.
His other grandparents have been visiting him in Houston, but for the next ten days, he and I will be spending our time with my side of the family. I am beyond excited. You see, my family pretty much all lives in the same general area, many in the same town, more in the same city, still more in the same state and others on the same coast. Very few have traveled farther away and my sister and I pretty much take the records for going the farthest.
When I left town to move to Alaska, it was an emotional time in my family. My grandfather had been struggling with terminal cancer for years and wasn’t doing well and I was very attached to my younger cousins. The next year, my grandfather passed away and my family, in my opinion, hasn’t been the same since. In many ways, it feels like everything is different than it was before I left. In many ways, everything is. But that can be a good thing too. My relationship with my family is ever growing and having my own little miracle dude definitely adds to the fun. I am truly blessed.
Now that we live in Texas, visiting my folks on the East Coast isn’t nearly as difficult, or expensive, as it used to be. In fact, it’s very reasonable, and the flight is very short. One thing that I am still getting accustomed to, is my young traveling companion. The first few times I flew wiht him, we nursed up, nursed down, changed diapers on my lap and he spent the flight right there. This time, since he’s getting so much more mobile, and so much bigger, we purchased an additional seat for him. In the photo above, you see me, the little dude and all of the stuff that went with us on the airplane. That is a HUGE carseat, backpack, purse and diaper bag, all on a portable hand truck purchased specifically for this purpose. Can you say… wow!?
This morning, we started our day at 6:30, 4 hours before our flight was scheduled to depart. I got him dressed, myself dressed, walked dogs, prepped kennels, loaded luggage and hubby drove us to the airport at 7:30. We parked, he helped us stack up and get our boarding passes and kissed us goodbye at security. Then, I had to take out the computer, put it in it’s own tray, purse in tray, shoes in tray, take backpack & diaper bag to be scanned, take car seat off of hand truck and have both scanned, take off jacket and baby carrier to be scanned. Then we got to go through the metal detector and begin gathering all of our gear. I’m so glad my little guy loves his ergo! Once I re-packed our cart, and resituated the little dude, we made our way to the news shop to buy bottled water and gum and then went to our gate.
At our gate, we had almost 2 hours before flight. Now, many parents won’t let their children play in airports because, well, let’s face it… they seem pretty filthy. That said, how can you even think that keeping a toddler-ish baby still for two hours prior to a flight and then expect them still during flight is a possibility? I didn’t… therefore, I let him run. He walked along the seats, he ran holding my hand, he crawled, he climbed, he flirted, he tried to steal newspapers, and coffees. He crawled, he played, he snacked, he peed, we found the family bathroom, changed him (with luggage in tow… sigh…) and played some more. About ten minutes before boarding, he fell asleep.
I flew through Southwest this time and I have to say, it was certainly different. There is pre-boarding for wheelchair-assisted folks, then the A section (folks who paid more to have first dibs), then family boarding, then B and so forth. No assigned seating means that the first crowd takes mostly windows and aisles and towards the front of the plane. By the time I boarded, I was pretty pooped from waiting for the first round and holding my munchkin… again, SO thankful for the ergo. Then, I learned that the Britax Marathon carseat is the EXACT width of the aisle on the airplane. I VERY carefully got it down the aisle, much to the frustration of many folks behind me, I’m sure, and made my way to the very back row of the airplane for the sheer purpose of trying to get out of everyone’s way. Announcements were made that our flight boarding was running behind and reminders to hurry were frequent. I clipped in the carseat (which I later found was a very lucky thing that I didn’t get it as tight as it should have gone… I’ll explain in a bit,) put our handcart up above, put our bags below and transfered the sleeping dude to his carseat.
Now, if you’ve ever had the opportunity to deal with a sleeping child / car seat combination, you’ll know that waking a child to put them in a seat, or putting them in sleepy when they don’t want to be in there are tricky situations. Needless to say, he was a little crabby. Thankfully, my little dude doesn’t have a war cry like many babies do. His cries are more obviously frustration cries, and though I had real tears happening there, he wasn’t making the sounds that make most folks’ ears ring. He was loud enough, and upset enough, though, that the flight attendant gave him crackers ahead of time. He loved them… very much. I was so delighted when he fell asleep… which happened after much singing and rocking of the carseat. Once he was out (about an hour or more into the flight), he stayed out. Really out! He stayed so out that I couldn’t wake him for landing. I actually had to hold his head up because it kept falling forward. He was so very tired.
When I went to remove his carseat, I found that I couldn’t undo the seatbelt clip without really manipulating where I had the carseat. I BARELY got it out. I was almost to the point of having to have the flight attendants help me get it out (they would have loved that). Then I learned that although the carseat and my luggage fit going down the aisle… they no longer fit going the other way. How frustrating. The flight attendant took the very heavy carseat and carried it out while I struggled to get the rest off of the plane. Then she actually came back for the luggage because I was cut off so many times by random folks that I was taking too long to deplane. Oh well… I did the best I could. Once I was off of the plane, I got all of the stuff up against a wall, restacked, moved the dude onto my back and went to baggage claim. The photo above is from there. What a trip! I was so relieved to be done. And so tickled that I made it through.
After our traditional crab cake dinner (I ate two… I shouldn’t skip breakfasts before flying), we visited, the little dude played and played and then my aunt and her “clan” came over. She has 5 children from preschool to college ages. I love that bunch very much. 4 out of the 5 (+ a boyfriend) were able to come over- and my aunt and uncle. My little dude played for so long with all of them. He got to the point where he was so tired that he was making the face you associate with a sob, but with no sound. That’s my angel. He was just flat out done. Until they left… tee hee hee… Then he played and played with my mom and I as I got situated in our room and got his things ready for bed. Finally, around 9:30, I was able to lay him in his crib asleep. And here we are. Getting ready to skype with my husband and get some rest.
What a day. A long, stressful, challenging, filling, fulfilling, relaxing and wonderful day. Thanking God tonite for wonderful family and an awesome little boy!
