The Lone Star State

In August, Kaeden and I got the chance to hop on a plane to visit my family in Texas.

Jeff stayed home to manage our growing home business which meant that I was left flying alone with a two-year old.

This flight marked Kaeden's fourth trip on a plane, and all the other times he's flown it had been not too big of a deal. But that was with a two adult to one child ratio. And said child wasn't in the midst of the busy two-year-old wiggles. You could say I was a little nervous to be undertaking such an event by myself. I figured Kaeden and I would fare just fine, I just worried about all the other passengers surrounding us.

The night before, while packing our bags, Kaeden seemed to think it was most helpful to pull out everything I've packed and repeatedly inspect our luggage.

See that bottle in the background. Well, that's not the last time we'd be seeing that bottle in the proximity of the luggage. After getting all packed I searched everywhere for Kaeden's bottle so that we could go to bed. No where to be found. Not surprising because Kaeden is always leaving bottles behind for us to find later. It's like a fun filled curdled surprise every time.

Not that bottle though. Apparently that bottle was hidden in our luggage, zipped away in it's own secret pocket. When I started unpacking in Texas I noticed some of my stuff was a little wet. I figured my hairspray had leaked or something, but when I followed the trail of moisture, Aha! Missing bottle found. Thanks baby.

So we get to the airport and Kaeden gets a little confused when Jeff disappears as we entered security. I just told him daddy went bye-bye, and he seemed okay with the explanation. Kind of sad though.

But once we were on the plane and he realized he had his own seat [no longer a valid infant in arms!], he was down for our adventure.

On our first flight of two for the day, Kaeden was pretty good. He played with some Texas stickers and overall kept himself rather quiet.

At that point I was thinking Mommy - 1 Kaeden - 0. Oh, but we hadn't landed yet, and there was plenty of time for everything to go wrong. As we were descending into Albuquerque, Kaeden was playing with a straw. He made a little wrong move, and accidentally poked the roof of his mouth with the straw.

Nothing that hurt him too bad, but being in the weird situation we were in, and a little bit sleep deprived, the water works started. And where there's tears with Kaeden, there is often throw-up. Thank you asthma. So Kaeden is crying drawing a little bit of attention, and then all the sudden he just starts puking on me. Five times. At first I just tried to catch it in my hands. I didn't have a plan after that. But when it kept coming I quickly reached into our bag and used the only blanket I had packed to catch the rest.

When he was calmed I rolled the blanket up, cleaned what I could off myself, and then prayed that no one else smelled the horrible sour smell emanating from our seats. It was hell.

The guy next to me decided to speak for the first time on the entire flight and say, "That's why kids shouldn't play with straws." I swear I would have kicked him in the teeth if I my leg would have reached. He's lucky there's not much leg room on planes.

I wanted to cry, but I knew were were descending and then I could get off the plane, clean up, and start over. I feel really, really bad, but when everyone was boarding the plane, there was this one freaky looking guy that boarded and sat right in front of us. He was a younger ethnic looking guy, had crazy hair, and an eye that either had cataracts or something wrong with them because it was all cloudy and looking the other way. I say I feel bad because as he came near us, I thought to myself, "What a creepy guy."

Well you know what? Shame on me. When Kaeden was throwing up [and I was basically dying of mortification], do you know what that creepy looking guy did? He was the ONLY person on that plane that stood up and turned back to my row of seats and asked, "Are you okay?" I think I was so flustered I muttered something like, "Yeah, he's got asthma. I'm sorry. Thanks though." Then he looked down and me, took off his sweatshirt and offered it to me. He said, "Do you need this?" I was like, "No, I think I got it all in the blanket." He then said, "I know," looked down at my soaked clothes and said, "Do you need this for you?"

Ugh. How nice is that? This total stranger, the LAST person on this plane I expect to show me any sympathy was willing to give another total stranger his sweatshirt so that she could have a little dignity in her throw up clothes.

I politely thanked him and told him that I'd be okay since I could get off the plane in a few minutes and clean up. When he turned around the tears I'd been holding back started. WHAT A NICE MAN.

Anyway.... so we continue descending, and the captain comes on and says, "Welcome to Denver, the current temperature is....."

ERRRRRR What?!?!?

Did he say Denver?

My tickets say Albuquerque. Wait. They say Albuquerque, right? He made a mistake, he MEANT Albuquerque, right?

I didn't get on the wrong plane did I? Wait, is that even possible? They scanned my ticket at the gate. Why the hell am I in Denver?

We were in Denver.

Turns out Southwest actually snuck an extra little layover on us. But they don't tell you about it because it's not an actual layover. Because you don't actually get off the plane. Those going to Denver do, but the rest of us wait until the people we are picking up board, and then we are off again. To Albuquerque.

So all you puke soaked moms going to Albuquerque. Yeah, keep stinking it up. You've got another 30 mins at this gate, and another 2 hrs to Albuquerque.

I contemplated getting off the plane anyway at least to throw away the blanket that was the main source of sour smell [secondary only to myself]. But changed my mind when I realized what more of a hassle that would be. So when the flight attendant passed by with a garbage bag, I handed it to her wrapped up in the tightest ball ever, and she gave me a weird look as I tried not to cry a little tear of defeat. That was the first blanket I had made for Kaeden when I found out I was pregnant. And all I could do was throw it away. Sad.

Good news is, we made it through the last two flights without incident, and we finally made it to Texas where there were many arms there to hold Kaeden. After our long day I was so weak with morning sickness because did I mention I was six weeks pregnant during all of this? Yeah.

We had a nice visit in Texas. No crazy plans, so we just got some time to sit back, relax, and enjoy our company.

We went out to eat a few times where Kaeden was able to enjoy such things as:

Riding a motorcycle with crazy-eyed determination:

And discover the fun of temporary tattoos:

And then make sure everyone else at the table scrounged up enough quarters so that they too could understand the fun of temporary tattoos:

Kaeden also enjoyed himself doing many other things on the trip.

He liked to play outside in the atrium:

Catch up on some Barney:

Take baths:

And extreme close-up pictures:

Brush his teeth with Annie:

And hang with Grandpa:

Kaeden was a very lucky boy with so many people around him who just couldn't get enough. Mommy was lucky because she actually got to take a break! It was nice all around.

Our five days were up, and it was time to face the day long adventure heading back home.  But I was prepared this time. The day before we left I had my step-mom take me to Target to buy some cheap towels. That way, I'd have ones to catch any throw-up should it reappear.

It was a GOOD idea, because wouldn't you know it, the first flight Kaeden gagged a little on a cracker, and Throw-up Central it was.

But it wasn't nearly as traumatic at the first time because by now I was a throw-up-catching-and-hiding-queen of the airways. It's an elite status.

I was prepared for the extra "layover" this time, and didn't have to panic about being in the wrong city.

Just had to mentally prepare for the long flights home.

Made even longer when we made our first stop in Austin, and we waited as some people departed and others boarded. The captain came over and said something about trying to get back out as quickly as possible due to something or other, but I was too busy keeping Kaeden busy to really pay attention.

And then, after about 40 minutes he comes back on and says, "Well folks, we didn't make it out in time. The airport has now been temporarily shut down for the landing of Air Force One. Once everything is situated, they will reopen the airport and we'll be on our way. I'd say about 45 minutes."

Oh joy.

Luckily Kaeden handled it well, and I had a good seat to pull some tricky stuff with my camera and get some pictures of Air Force One. Check out all those cars leaving the plane behind. I think I counted 32 in all. Which one do you think had the President in it?