Leavin' On A Jet Plane

When Elise was about 12 weeks old, we were supposed to fly to California to attend a wedding of some good friends of ours. Elise was a...shall we say...finicky...baby and the idea of taking her on a five hour plane trip gave me nightmares in the very rare instances that I was asleep in those days. With her distaste for sitting, her uncomfortable skin and allergy issues and her disdain of fast movement (car trip = scream fest), there was just no way that she wasn't going to cry the whole time. I got a lot of advice from other parents who basically said "Who cares? So she cries! You'll never see those people again." And I get that rationale, I do. If she were my second child I might have even been confident enough to just do it and let her cry for hours (although my second baby had a completely different temperament and I would not have worried about flying with him). But I get so stressed out about that kind of thing (and it was even worse when I was a new mom) that I would likely give myself an ulcer worrying about her disturbing everyone for FIVE hours. It's one thing to put up with a crying baby for 45 minutes. Five hours is a whole new ball game. So I didn't go to the wedding. I was disappointed in myself for not trying, but ultimately relieved that I did not put myself through the horror.

Fast forward to 3+ years later I had still never been on an airplane with my little girl, who only within the last year stopped having a fit every time we got into a car and began to sit still for more than 5 seconds. In August, my best friend from college, Shoshana, and her family stopped by our house on their way up to New Hampshire and Elise and her daughters, Regan and Lauren, had an absolute blast playing together (Regan is one year older than Elise and Lauren in 9 months younger). It made me so sad that we live so far apart (they live in Raleigh) and our girls don't know each other very well, especially since they are so close in age and obviously have a great time together. Shortly after their visit, I got an email advertising cheap flights to Raleigh, and decided it was a sign! How fun would it be take Elise on a weekend trip to visit with the Sumy's?! Since Lucas was born, Elise and I haven't had tons of one-on-one time together, and lately she's been itching for some Mommy time. So I thought that this could be a great way for us to bond together, and also have a fun visit with friends. Plus, it was a great way to introduce her to flying since the flight is only about an hour (and we probably won't be making the 8+ hour car trip down there anytime soon).

So this Saturday, we packed our bags (Ellie has a Hello Kitty suitcase that she has become completely obsessed with since we bought it last week), said good bye to the boys and headed to the airport to begin our three day adventure. There was lots of excitement from the very beginning since we parked our car in long term parking and rode the bus over to the airport (Elise LOVES the bus). Elise expertly rolled her bag through the airport, was thrilled to take her shoes off at security, was delighted to see our plane roll up to the gate and enthralled with watching them load the bags on the plane. I was nervous when we were boarding the plane - I mostly worried that she would have problems with her ears on the flight since I had that issue when I was younger - but she was nothing but completely excited. She was great during the whole flight and never seemed to have any problems with the flight.

However, we did hit one hiccup on Elise's first ever plane ride. As we were going down to land in Raleigh, our plane was caught in some wicked wind gusts and we experienced some really nasty turbulence. It was so bad, in fact, that the pilot didn't feel that he could land the plane safely, so he brought the plane back up, circled around and tried to land again. Yet again, we experienced terrible turbulence, and once again the plane went back up. At this point, I (and most of the other people on the plane) was a little green and feeling like I was going to vomit. All of that bouncing around, combined with the rapid and repeated altitude changes had me completely sick to my stomach. However, Elise didn't seem phased (although at one point she casually mentioned her tummy hurt) and enjoyed watching everything get smaller and bigger again and again out of the window. Finally on the third try, the pilot landed us safely and everyone burst into relieved applause, which Elise thought was great.

Our visit with the Sumy's was a ton of fun. At the Sumy's house, the girls had many, many dance parties, played dress up, rode bikes, pushed strollers, made Rice Krispie Treats, played hide and seek, and bounced, jumped and tumbled all over the place. We also went on a few outings including the Children's Museum called Marbles, dinner at Cracker Barrel, and a moonbounce place called Monkey Joe's. Like the last time they were together, the girls played well together and had a blast. Elise was a little too demanding about being called Elise NOT Ellie (see previous post) and at times she was a bit bossy but for the most part she did really well all weekend - especially considering that she didn't take many naps, went to bed well past her bedtime, got up just as early as she usually does and was running, dancing and on-the-go non stop while awake.

On the way to the airport Monday, we stopped in to visit my friend Jen, who lives very near the Raleigh airport, and got to meet her son, Nathan (7 months) and visit for a little bit, which was great. Apparently I wasn't really thinking when I booked the flight home, which was a 3:30pm, typically the middle of Ellie's nap. I was bracing for an airport meltdown since she'd had such a busy morning and not much sleep all weekend, but she did a pretty good job holding it together. As we were going through security on this leg of the trip, someone went through a door they weren't supposed to, so all sorts of alarms went off for about 5 or 10 minutes. Elise cried for a second (she hates loud things) and then put her hands over her ears and shouted "That hurts my ears Mommy!", which all of the airport staff thought was hilarious and adorable. This flight was relatively uneventful (especially compared to the first one) although this time she was feeling more comfortable and we had to have several chats about why she needed to keep her feet off the seat in front of her. Poor guy.

We had a really wonderful weekend, but by the time we walked into the house - about 6:30pm Monday - we were both happy to be home and we crashed in exhaustion. She is already asking when we can take a trip on a plane again and when the next time she can see her buddies Regan and Lauren. I'd say the trip was a smashing success and I am excited to take more trips like this in the future!