the day....it came

this past weekend, landon and i went to california to see my family there for a few days. the flight from phoenix to burbank is a short one, less than an hour and a half. i was as prepared as i could be....i had bottles and toys and snacks, binky and blanket. this would be the first time he and i had traveled together alone. i arrived early in the terminal and checked in with the gate attendant. as i sat down, i could see that look on all the other passenger's faces..they were all thinking to the themselves "oh no, there is a baby on this flight". i couldn't pass judgement on any of them because it was just a short time ago that i was one of those paranoid passengers. i would size up the baby and the parents, analyze their terminal behavior and make my assumptions about how bad this was going to be for us all. a slight roll of the eyes and an hour with headphones on wouldn't be so bad i guess.
so they all sized me up, looking at my blonde haired blue eyed charmer. he had all the travel essentials and was behaving well.
we boarded the flight at about 8pm and this was a delight to me, hoping that the flight would coinside with the time he usually fell asleep and it would be smooth sailing.
he gave a great ten minutes...sat quietly, appeared to be sleepy, and cuddled up on my lap. i was starting to put the big ha! ha! to everyone in the plane and say "how dare you assume just because he's a baby he would be loud and disturb your flight." just as i got to that confident level, my little landon popped up, took out his binky, and started yelling. we had got to cruising altitude and his ears hadn't popped. he cupped his hands over his adorable protruding ears and cried and cried. i felt so bad. it was obvious that he was uncomfortable. i tried to soothe him with a bottle and a game of peek a boo but it wasn't working.
i was suddenly having flashbacks of a bill cosby segment about jefferey who was three years old and everyone on the plane hated jefferey. i laughed at the time, but i imagined i looked a bit like the mother he described, hair a mess and a long drawn face from the stress.

it was the longest hour ever!

just as we started our descent, landon curled up with his favorite blue blankie and fell asleep. i breathed lightly so as not to jostle him awake.
the plane landed and everyone deboarded and although the passers by all commented on how cute he was and handsome, i knew they ended those comments in their mind with "while he's alseep." i gathered up my sleepy bundle and headed out, knowing that next time, it was going to be better. i had survived my first baby flying experience and figured since no one had asked us to spend the duration of the flight in the tiny lavatory or worse, never return, it had been a success.

today, we flew back. as before i mentally prepared myself and packed everything, but the over confidence. i knew that things could go wrong again despite the toys and bribery of playing with my cell phone.

it happened again. ears wouldn't pop, snacks didn't work, binky wasn't helping, except there was no nodding off at arrival. we gathered our things and walked off the tiny plane. the yelling and agony continued the whole way home...another hour's worth.
i was exhausted, he was exhausted and wet and we were both hungry.

as i laid him down in his room to change him, he looked around and stopped crying and started to laugh. he knew he was back home. it almost erased all that stress and drama to see him happy in the home that jordan and i have given him. he gave me a slobbery raspeberry and called for his dada and then he took a bath with all his rubber duckies and toys.

i guess when we fly to pennslyvania next month, a good four hour flight, we'll head off with the "what are you gonna do? he's a baby afterall" mentality and just take the dirty looks as they come and remember that we used to be the annoyed travelers once too. we'll just smile and aplogize and go about our way.