Flying

If you are all caught up, you know we just arrived in California this weekend. We've been trying to prep Xander and Josie for the big move. Well, Josie doesn't really get it. She knows things are different and she knows she doesn't like it and she knows the best way to communicate this is to scream. However, I can have two-way communication with Xander and took steps to help him adjust.

One thing that I did was talk up the airplane ride. We had it marked on the calendar and for the last two weeks we would count how many days until we flew to California. Xander already loves airplanes (and trains and helicopters and fire trucks) thanks to Hard Hat Harry, so he was very excited by the idea of going to the airport and getting on the airplane. He would walk around with his arms out and beg to go to the airport.

On the big day we were fully prepared with a bag of new toys, most of which did not make noise. There were sippy cups and Goldfish crackers and little cups to hold the crackers. I did forget the bibs, but the world didn't end so we moved on.

We arrived at the airport in time to enjoy breakfast looking out the window at one particular airplane. Xander spend breakfast standing in his seat saying we need to go on THAT airplane. He did start to get upset when the airplane left, but we talked him down by explaining there was another airplane for us.

When we boarded the plane, Xander was allowed to step into the cockpit and say hi. He was so excited when he sat down, but Chris and I were too busy trying to figure out who would seat where. The first flight was a 2 seat-aisle-1 seat plane. Xander took a window seat, Chris sat next to him and I sat across the aisle with Josie (who still had no clue what was going on, but Mom was holding her so it was okay). We were then informed the baby could not sit on that side because there was only one oxygen mask. So Chris held her and I sat all by myself.

You can not imagine Xander's grin when we took off. We were going "really, really, really, really, really fast."

Josie's short attention span became even shorter after take off. We were actually letting her sit in the aisle and Chris would pick her up whenever someone walked by. It soon became apparent that she needed Mom again, so we did the great seat shuffle and trusted a nearly-three-year old to sit by himself. We proceeded to go through every book and gizmo in the arsenal to keep Josie happy. By the end of the flight she was just exhausted but would not fall asleep in our arms.

She fell asleep as soon as we were off of the plane and had her in the stroller. We went and ate and headed to our next flight hoping to get seats switched. Two seats were together, the third seat was several rows back on the 3 seats-aisle-2 seats plane. We arrived at the gate to find that they had already boarded nearly everyone. So we had to ask the nice lady in our row to move (and she had already moved, I had guilt).

The second leg was definitely harder. Josie's nap wasn't long enough and she would go from happily playing Peek-a-Boo with the people behind us to needing to be walked up and down the aisle in a blink of an eye. And I won't even go into all of the diaper changes. By the end of the flight even Xander was squirming and whining because he didn't get a nap in either.

When we arrived we were happy to see all of our luggage and quickly strapped in the kids' seats to the car and set out. They were asleep within minutes. So Chris gave me the tour of the town and we headed to our temporary home.