On the plane-off the plane, our family will start getting used to this, as our dear friends and family now live hundreds of miles away. We just made our first trek back to Washington and was it an adventure. We have
never flown with children before and of course were very nervous at the thought of having two very active children confined to three seats amongst the four of us for four hours. In an airplane there are not many places to escape (except the bathroom- which I have to admit, I did a few times). We were very thoughtful about preparing Lucy for the flight with new special toys, a DVD player, and special treats. After much anticipation, we got on the plane and found the 3x5 area that we would be confined to for the next few hours. We stuffed our four bags under the seat (which took away virtually all our leg room) and prepared for take-off. About 10 minutes into the flight came Will's first cry. Unfortunetly it was naptime and he needed to be rocked to sleep, but this would be impossible seeing that we were taking off. There I sat with a crying baby in my lap who so wanted to just be rocked for a couple minutes to enter into dream land, but instead was helplessly crying and unable to soothe himself. I thought, well, surely he'll fall asleep once the seatbelt sign is taken off and I can stand up. This probably would have been correct if the seatbelt sign ever would go off. It was such a turbulant ride that seatbelts were a must, despite the fact that my child was crying and so wanted to be rocked. Finally, I decided- so much for the seatbelt sign, the stewardists are standing up, so will I. So, I stood up, and after a couple minutes Will was at peace and asleep in my arms. Will slept for a disappointing 45 minutes and I thought- what will I do for the next 3 hours of the flight? As Will was getting antsy I let him stand up on my lap and hold onto the seat in front of me. Though I thought he was holding onto the seat, it ends up that he was actually holding onto the woman's hair in front of me and decided to give it a great pull. I heard a yelp from the woman and looked in Will's hand to find a chunk of the woman's grey hair in his hand. Mortified I sincerely apologized for my son, she was sincerely upset. Then, here come drinks! Just what Lucy needs, some orange juice and mommy some water. She hands me some water first. I set it on the table while I was holding Will and in a moment Lucy's book accidently hit the water. There goes water all over the floor and in mommy's purse. Nate had me hold the juice while he cleaned up the water. I was attempting to balance too many things and Will knocked the juice straight in Nate's lap. Nate's jeans were covered in OJ. Given the circumstances I burst out in laughter- it was one of those times that was so ridiculous that all you could do was laugh. However, Nate did not find it quite as funny (given the oj was in his lap and not mine). So, finally we got all our juice mess cleaned up and had a nice chunk of time that was semi-relaxed. A little time later we heard the person behind us say: what the heck (PG version) is on my bag. Yes, the oj did not only end up on Nate's lap, but on the man's bag behind us too. I apologized and did what I could, but the man was not too pleased with the oj on his bag (I can't blame him). So, there you have it, the end to a very eventful trip that was full of sanctification opportunities- specifically humility. Words cannot express how thankful we were to feel land beneath the plane and all was reconciled when we were surprised with my sister's beautiful face as we walked into baggage claim and had a delicious meal at the Bellevue Club with our family.
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