I'm a traveler. I love love love to board that airplane and head somewhere new.
Because I'm also a mother, I take my kids on my travels.
This means I've had my fair share of flights with babies, toddlers, tantrums, diaper blow-outs, kids throwing up, etc. When we lived in D.C. for six years after we got married we'd travel from there out here to the West a lot. Max and Elle are only 14 months apart and I remember being sick to my stomach for days before my flights alone with my two babies for hours and hours trying to get them to stay happy, nap, stop whining, etc. I'd go to the dollar store and buy all kinds of trinkets to keep them busy. I'd pack all kinds of new treats to keep them happy. Then Gracie joined the mix and I did it alone with all three of them, nursing her while trying to juggle the others. We packed all our kids back and forth to China. We've taken them on flights all over the place.
I say all this because even after all those adventures for so many years on so many different flights with so many different combinations of babies and ages and needs, I'd like to announce that Lucy won the award last night.
The award for making the worst flight yet.
I'm not sure why I doubted she'd do it. I knew she had all the potential. Feisty, strong-willed, unable to communicate needs, an awesome and well-practiced scream...she had all the right ingredients.
The trouble is that I didn't prepare enough in advance. I got cocky. I thought I'd seen it all. I thought that after all those years that really, building towers with plastic cups from the flight attendant would to the trick. Or trying to find pictures of dogs in the sky mall magazine.
Nope, didn't work.
The fact that we were parked on the tarmac de-icing in Detroit for an hour before we even took off didn't help.
Enough said.
I'll just say she sure was delightful when we finally got OFF the plane at home at 11:30pm (1:30am Boston time) and she hadn't slept one wink. She got the hugest grin on her face and insisted on doing her run-walk-leap thing through the airport which just makes you smile no matter how naughty she's been...mainly because it's so funny to watch her try to lift up that much weight in a little jaunty skip. Man she can be funny. And it was extra funny since she had no pants (diaper blow-out thing) and her chubby thighs compliment her crocs very nicely.
The girls at home couldn't wait to get their hands on her. They missed her SO much and I wish I could have captured their expressions this morning when I told them they could go get her up.
(I tried to make them re-inact it after they already got her out but it didn't really work.)
So, she won the award, but she's got herself wrapped around our hearts so tight that we forgive her...and love her even more.
More about Boston tomorrow...
It was so great that I'd still do all the flights all over again to get to be there.Labels: lucy, travel
The girls at home couldn't wait to get their hands on her. They missed her SO much and I wish I could have captured their expressions this morning when I told them they could go get her up.
(I tried to make them re-inact it after they already got her out but it didn't really work.)
So, she won the award, but she's got herself wrapped around our hearts so tight that we forgive her...and love her even more.
More about Boston tomorrow...