Lucy’s first plane ride
Appearantly John has blogged about Lucy’s first plane ride, perhaps casting a negative light on the entire experience. I don’t know what he published, because in Hanoi we cannot access our blogs accept to post things-so I will have to read his observations when we return to the States.
I just want to document that Lucy has now officially traveled away from her birthplace, she has begun her “move” so to speak. None of my children have lived in their place of birth for very long before we’ve made a move. I find it kind of interesting that Lucy is no different. Ironically, we had to do a lot of moving (moving heaven and earth that is) to get over here, get Lucy, and get her moved home. She did pretty well on the flight; accept for the last 15 minutes she was a dream. Knowing I will likely travel many many many hours with Lucy in the coming week or so, I tried to keep thinking; “o.k., she is going for my lunch tray, how will I trouble shoot this from Hanoi to Osaka?” or “better be sure to pack the diaper bag under the seat in front of me. I’ll never be able to get to it from the over head bin with Lucy in my arms…” and so on. It was a good trial run, even though I handed off to John to eat the plane food (a mistake, should’ve passed on that one…) and had him help when I made her a bottle (those seats don’t leave much wiggle room, do they?)
Lucy is not the first new born I’ve flown long distances with. Bryn will nare remember the flight from Chicago to Salt Lake City to surprise her Grandparents with a visit from their newest granddaughter. Madi was about 8 weeks old when we flew her to Costa Rica, accompanied by her parents, to see some wonderful friends of her dad from his missionary days there. Madi also flew over the ocean to Sweden and Back before she was even a year old. And Porter made his first flight when he was about 2 months old, going from Dallas to Salt Lake for our first annual cousin camp. I’ve made the rounds with our kids in the air before, you’d think I’d feel like a pro. Some of them traveled better than others, but they’ve all traveled and I l survived to tell about it. Bringing Lucy home will be no different, I’m sure.
posted by Katie @ 4:48 PM
1 Comments:
Katie, I hope you receive this because you really shouldn't miss John's rant -- it's priceless. I just went to his blog and cut and paste. Here it is:
"OK, this picture is horrible. It is backlit and you can barely make out the subject. But I had to snap it. This guy is a total moron. Actually, moron doesn't begin to do it, but I hesitate to use the more descriptive terms that come to mind. He thinks I'm taking a picture of Katie, but I had to get his picture so both people that read my blog could see what a moron he is.
Because I've zoomed in to try to get his features, he looks much closer than he really is - kind of like your rearview mirror. You can see Katie in the foreground, holding Lucy. She's in the left-hand seat in the middle aisle of a large airplane. It is one of those three-three-three layouts. Moron is in the left hand side of the right hand aisle. So they are an aisle and two people apart.
On our descent into Hanoi today Lucy lost it for a minute or two as Katie struggled to help her get her eardrums to pop. Anyone that has traveled with babies knows the routine. If you are lucky, you can get her to suck on a pacifier or bottle and they clear right up. If you are unlucky, you can be in for a real screamfest. Lucy was cool; two minutes and she was out like a light.
Everyone knows that traveling with children is the modern-day version of leprosy. You get on the plane and people start to moan and squirm and say a silent prayer that you walk on by, hopefully all the way to the back. Except for the guy in the back; he thinks sitting by the bathroom is enough punishment for one day. Everyone that has traveled a lot has also had the bad fortune of sitting near a child that screams for three hours straight.
Like I said, Lucy was actually very cool. She cried for maybe two minutes. But this guy was like that driver behind you at a red light that honks within three milliseconds of the light turning green. He felt so enlightened that when Lucy started to cry he leaned across the aisle, established eye contact with Katie past the two polite people sitting between them and gave her some sort of waving motion and hissed, "Shut that child up." I'm quite grateful I did not see any of this happen. Katie did not know how to respond. I'm quite sure I know how I would have. In retrospect, I wish he was at least sitting next to Katie so I could silently pray that he is now contracting a nasty case of scabies from touching Lucy's feet.
When Mason was three we were traveling to Salt Lake from Chicago and he was sitting beside me on the plane waiting for people to board. As he played with his toy tiger he started to quietly sing a children's song he learned at church. After a minute or two, the woman in front of us turned around, and with fire shooting from her eye sockets, hissed, "I'm going to go crazy if he does that the whole way there." I just looked at her with that blank stare that can only mean, "Lady, with all due respect, I believe you're already crazy. Turn around." I thought she was the only person like this in the world. Maybe they are restricted to one per continent. I've now known one American and one European.
No one enjoys a screaming kid. Especially the mom taking care of said kid. That is if she is not one of those moms that seems to not notice and does nothing. But is chivalry dead? I'm not asking for world peace. But I have wanted to give the peace prize to a few men in suits I've seen in my day that when a mother and child sit down next to them, they've turned without missing a beat and started playing with the child or ask how they can help. That is true manhood.
If there was a way to identify and mark morons like this guy, it should be a NSA regulation. Then when I saw this guy coming down the aisle with his scarlet M, I would surely squirm in my seat and silently pray that he keeps going to the back of the plane, hopefully very close to the bathroom. Or perhaps if anyone under 12 is traveling on a plane he should not be allowed on board for his own safety. What a moron. You can tell I'm not going to sleep well tonight... "
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