Peach Orchard Project: First Airplane Ride

We're home from North Carolina, where we were visiting cousins John, Abbie, and Carly. They moved a year ago and it took us this long to get down there, shame on us. So we finally got to see where they've been living this past year and hang out in their new territory. Dang, we miss those guys up here in New England. But they've made a nice little home in the South.

This trip was also a chance to get Desmond used to traveling. It's about a 2 hour plane ride to NC, so it's a nice quick trip to get us started, since we have some longer rides in our future. I had no idea how nervous I would be, even for this short get away. Visions of toddler tantrums in a tiny tin can airplane cabin ran through my head. Followed by the inevitable mommy meltdown, where I'd be pulling out my hair and raiding the drink cart for mini bottles of vodka.

I work with people who travel frequently. I hear some of them complain about kids on planes often. And I know I should be all "Eff 'em," but I'm not going to lie... I feared that we would be those people. The ones people would go home and tell their friends about.

"Oh my god, on the flight there was this kid who would NOT. SHUT. UP. Kicking the seat, crying, and the parents just let him do it! I mean, if you're going to take your kid on a plane, learn to control them, fer chrisakes."

Commence nail biting. And not sleeping. And pooping my brains out.

But seriously? I'm learning to just say it... Eff 'em.

Des had a few breakdowns, yes. On take off and landing mostly. The tell-tale grabbing of the ears told me the pressure was getting to him, poor kid. We did all the things they say are supposed to help... drinking out of a bottle (he doesn't take a bottle, so a sippy), sucking on a paci (he doesn't take a paci, so his thumb), eating lollipops (which he flat out rejected, who is this kid?). The only thing that seemed to help was chewing on snacks of Cheerios and dried fruit. But still. He screamed. And I silently apologized to all the passengers around us. And then I quickly stopped caring about anyone around us because my kid was in pain. And all we could do was try our best to help him.

So some people were inconvenienced in 3-5 minute increments a couple times on their flight. Amazing how much worry I put into it, and yet how easy it was to just GET OVER IT.

Oh, and then there was that time in the middle of the flight when he choked on a pretzel, freaked out, freaked US the hell out, and then vomited the contents of his stomach into my hands. So that was exciting!

But I have to say, when all was said and done, it went amazingly well. He was mostly in great spirits, slept for a good chunk, was kept entertained by the DVD player, and happy to sit in my lap. We could not have asked for anything better.