Let’s talk about that plane ride

Jessica:

We have been back from our trip for about a week now and I’ve been collectively gathering ideas about what my next few blogs should be about because there is so much to talk about. That being said, how about we start from the beginning?

The airport. I am more familiar with Atlanta Hartsfield Airport than most people probably know. It was my favorite place to go as a child and having traveled internationally before, I was prepared for the early arrival and long lines, my tot….not so much. He was actually really great but security was very stressful when it came to being quick. Toddlers aren’t quick about anything. He paused longer than he should have to cross the detector and getting his shoes back on wasn’t without many questions of “why?”. Overall, he loved the tram and once we got to the terminal he began his usual toddler play. He and his cousin Eleanor loved the sticky suction balls on those big airport windows, I would say the activity bag was a win for the little time they played with them.

I did not anticipate how much my son needed to be by my side and quickly realized that dad was not going to be my partner in crime unless we and everyone else at the airport wanted to hear a toddler screaming “MOMMY!!!” for the hour and a half we had before boarding on the plane. So off we went to the bathroom together, to the store together and onto the plane together.

We were very lucky to have a whole 3 seat middle row to ourselves while the hubs had a chance to ride first class. That’s okay….he can keep his fancy food and swag bag and down comforter and bed-like seat and champagne and heavenly quiet…what was I saying? Oh yea, Abe and I loved our extra room and were ready to take off. After a total of 9 minutes in the air Abe said he was ready to get off and I quickly realized that I had forgotten to mention that we would be spending the night on the plane. He didn’t take the news so well. I am always listing out our next steps to him, even since baby I would tell him what our next few actions would be and for some reason I never told him that step of spending the night on the airplane. Thankfully he got over it quickly but I will never make that mistake again. I trust him and he trust me and I have always taken on the model of honesty when it comes to our time together in hopes that when he is older he always respects other peoples time.. whatever the case may be.

Flying to London is an overnight trip so we really only had a few hours to settle in and watch a show before going to sleep. He slept great. He’s always been a great sleeper and snuggled right next to me. Did I mention all this room we were lucky to have? Yea, he was on top of me most of the night. I don’t blame him though and honestly didn’t mind until I had to use the bathroom and quickly realized that I had no one to watch him. It never crossed my mind what most people do when they are alone with their sleeping child and need to use the restroom. Thankfully we had a lovely steward, who didn’t want to wake my husband up, and sat with Abe.

I believe that we had about an hour or so from waking up to landing and it went pretty smoothly. Overall my little tot did great. No crying or major breakdowns until we got to immigration. That was the time that he decided to run into a metal pole which made him start to howl and cry . It took about 2 minutes before the immigration officers pulled us out of the long line and straight to the front of the line. No one wants to hear a screaming child while waiting in the most boring line in the world and on that fateful morning we were the lucky ones to have that child.