Airplanes

When I go to the airport I get pretty anxious until I am on the plane just worried I am forgetting something or I will miss my flight, our flight wasn’t until 10:00 but we had to go to offsite parking and wait for the shuttle and had the baby and we were told to check in by 8:30, so by the time we were on the road it was 7:30 and then I freaked thinking oh my god, its Friday night and we are driving through San Francisco to get to the airport I forgot all about traffic. But to my amazement, there was no traffic and we were zipping through, we got there in like 20 minutes, and I was amazed. The parking was a smooth and warm butter and before I knew it the shuttle was dropping us off at the united terminal, then took out bags curbside and in 5 minutes we were ready for security. Holly was riding in the Bjorn, and I had her Birth Certificate, as the internet said I would need it, and Joel was carrying her diaper bag. I had a bottle with breast milk that I was anxious about, and we proceeded through security, they didn’t even ask about the breast milk, told me I didn’t need the birth certificate, and together we walked through the metal detector, then a woman patted us both down, and in like 5 minutes we were done with security. I couldn’t believe it, it was not even 8:15 and we were at our gate. That said, they told us the wrong gate and we had to trek all the way to the other side of the airport to find the right one that ended up being a good thing as we got to walk through the food court, and have dinner. There were so many children and babies everywhere we looked. I had a wood fired pepperoni pizza and Joel, in honor of saying goodbye to San Francisco had a yummy sushi bento box, as we were going somewhere where sushi is exotic food (and you don’t get it in the airport) his dinner was delicious and hit the spot. Also, they had a Just Deserts in the airport food court too, so I got Joel a yummy macaroon cookie, some mousse cake for later and a scoop of mint ice cream.

There seemed to be at least 4 other babies on our flight, and so many kids wherever we looked, we think this must be because like me they thought with an overnight flight they will sleep. Holly was having a blast looking around at everything happy to be in her Bjorn, and just soaking it in. She was getting sleepy and hungry but had not cried or fussed once all night. Just before boarding we changed her and made a bottle, and then boarded in the last group. During takeoff she ate, and in minutes she was on mommy’s chest, tucked into the Bjorn and fast asleep. She stayed like this until we were standing up to deboard the plane.

Mommy watched a movie, the American Girl, a Kit Kittredge Story, which was about a ten year old during the depression, who wanted to be a reporter and made friends with some hobos. With all the talk about today’s economy it was very topical, her friends were losing their houses, and her dad had to leave town to work, and they took in boarders to make ends meet. Kit was played by Abigail Breslin and she did a great job.

So while she was asleep, holly had a poopie diaper, I suspected she might, I hoped that riding in the Bjorn at the airport she would before we got on the plane when I changed her but she did not. Since I suspected she was sound asleep, and since I wasn’t sure, I wasn’t going to try and change her on the plane if she was sleeping, so I let it be, but once we arrived at Dulles, I knew she needed to be changed, well it was the worst poopie diaper I have ever seen, it got all over her belly, and when I was taking it off, she decided that she wanted to eat her toes so it got on her hands and her heel as she was trying to do that, the bathroom didn’t have a real changing table, and it was a mess everywhere. To top it off, I have trouble on planes with my ears, so my ears had not fully popped yet, only 1 did, so I was in pain. Also to try and get them to pop I had drunk a Snapple, 2 cans of cranberry juice and a water, so I had to pee like a race horse. I finally got her cleaned up and had to take her all the way back to the gate so I could give her to dad and go back and pee. I was lucky to make it to the bathroom just in time.

Once we were settled I was quite traumatized and ready for a break, Holly was hungry and just eaten, so Joel handed her t me so he could go to the bathroom, and she puked all over me. Yea!! Just my luck, first poop everywhere and just as I cleaned us all up, there was puke. She mostly missed herself, and I hadn’t dressed her yet because she was so sweaty from the plane, she didn’t get it all over her clothes, but she got it all over me. I cleaned myself up, and dried her off some and then we were settled back in. Our flight to Dulles was supposed to arrive at like 6:45 but it was early and arrived at like 5:30. Our flight to Charlottesville wasn’t until 8:57 so we had over 3 hours to wait in the airport. Holly was exhausted and after the pooping, eating and puking she fell fast asleep.