Flying

Rob, Breanna and I were lucky enough to fly over to Colorado on Thursday. Rob stayed only til Friday night and then flew back for work...I know, quick trip. Breanna and I will be here til Thursday. We're very excited to be with family and visit my parents. My dad is healthy enough right now to have visitors and Breanna is actually healthy too (AMAZING) so we jumped at the chance to come.

Now, I don't know if you know, but my dad works for United Airlines and so we can get "buddy passes" VERY CHEAP to come on a flight last minute. We have to fly standby, which always is interesting. So, my dad looked up the flights and the only "for sure" flight was the one leaving Seattle at 5:44AM. Now, this meant we had to get up at 2:30AM and leave by 3:00AM for the airport.

Breanna decided to make life interesting and did NOT sleep a wink in the hour drive up to the airport...fun times. Now, she was pleasant in the car and just looked out the window, but she was tired by the time we entered the airport.

You can guess how well the trip went after that. Breanna was fussing in the line for tickets, she fussed and cried in the security line and then threw a MAJOR tantrum in the bathroom when i was changing her out of her pajamas into an outfit. "Socks, socks" she screamed as tears streamed down her cheeks. For some reason she thought I was stealing the socks away for eternity when I took them off to change her. She threw herself all over the bathroom floor screaming and flailing. Not only was I grossed out, I was sweating b/c I was trying to calm her down and get her dressed while people stopped and stared at us....Come on, have you never seen a toddler throw a tantrum, give me a break.

She calmed down when we went to the gate and took her to the window to see the planes. She LOVES airplanes, so she screamed plane every time she saw one, over and over, I'm sure the people trying to rest loved that this early in the morning, but I was thrilled that she wasn't crying :)

Then we were lucky enough to be called to get our tickets from the gate agent. We were super lucky and got first class. I would normally jump for joy, but my heart sank as I saw Rob would be 6 rows behind me and I would be dealing with Breanna on my lonesome, sitting next to people who paid BIG BUCKS to sit in a luxurious seat and SLEEP on their way to their destination. Little did they know they would be in an enclosed environment with a exhausted baby girl.

So lucky or not, you tell me. Now, i know this sounds really selfish and rude to not be excited, I just didn't want to upset everyone around me, you know?

We were okay until the plane started to take off and then Breanna screamed bloody murder for 15-20 minutes until the seat belt sign came off. She did not want to sit on my lap, that's why she threw a tantrum. I tried everything i could to get her to calm down, yet nothing worked. I was definitely almost crying, lots of tears in my eyes, but still trying so hard to settle her down. I'm sure some of you have had this experience before, i just felt even worse b/c we were in first class, at this point i would have given anything to be in the back of the plane in the last row, so barely anyone would see me.



Before the seatbelt sign went off a male flight attendant came and asked me if i was okay and if he could help get me anything. I said no and apologized for her behavior, he was SO KIND and said, "we've all been there." Apparently he has a daughter who screamed and cried for almost an entire flight one time and a woman on the flight said, "can't you control your child." WOW. He said he was just here to help and he was just so nice.

As soon as the seatbelt sign did go off I left with her to the back and gave Rob the evil eye, or the HELP ME eye, and he came to help. I was at my breaking point and he calmed me down. He went and asked the lady i was sitting next to if she would like to trade seats with him (they both had window seats) so that she could have a quieter flight and he could help me. She was very helpful and switched, thank goodness. We played in the back of the airplane for a good 30 minutes then Breanna started getting cranky again. I tried rocking her and bouncing for almost 20 minutes and she almost fell asleep, but then flight attendants got back from passing out drinks and woke her up :( I feel very hopeless b/c even at a 3AM wake up I still can't get my daughter to sleep anymore....any tips would be heaven from anyone who knows how to do it!

After this we decided to go back to our seats and try it out again. Well luck was in my favor and Breanna was an angel the rest of the way. She played by our feet for awhile with all the toys/books i had brought. Then she sat on Rob's lap and stared out the window and pointed at things while we descended for at least 20 minutes!

This was only a 2 hour flight and I had my husband with me. Let me tell you that I am so grateful he was there b/c I had lost it by the time we had just gotten in the air.

I don't know how she was such a good girl on our 6 1/2 hour flight to Hawaii...it must have just been ALL the prayers we had prayed for months in advance!

I'm just glad we're here. (PS- these are pictures of when we visited in June...haha, haven't taken to many here yet :)