(I’m listening to “Detlef Schrempf” by Band of Horses)

To the parents of the child who screamed the whole flight…I feel you and I wasn’t at all annoyed. As a fellow parent, I can empathize. You couldn’t have known your child would react that way to his seatbelt. Let’s face it, we have no way of knowing how a 3-year-old is going to react to most things. With that said, when your child was crying so hard he made himself throw up and you tried to cover his mouth with your hand…well…yeah. I don’t have the words, just empathy.

Littles and I took a trip to Lynden, WA to see family and go to the fair!  It was our first time traveling with just the two of us.  We traveled without momma and Tiny because they were in Minnesota helping out Auntie Amber start her awesome new job!
Since I was in charge of getting us out of the door, I had planned to get up extra early so we would have plenty of time to make our 7:50am flight. I set the alarm for 4am. I woke up to it and forgot to hit snooze. Miraculously, I woke back up at 5am and the scene from “Home Alone” ensued. I was getting everything ready at the last minute. Sound machine? Check. Wonder Woman? Check. Sparkle pups? Check. Toiletries? Check. Electronics chargers? Check. Birth certificate? Check. I remembered to take Littles with me too.  (I’d like to take a moment to thank my awesome wife for making a pack list for Littles. We had everything we needed and I probably would have left half of it behind.)

With me wide awake from the stress of the morning and Littles a little groggy from her sudden wake up, we made it to the shuttle lot and I got a text on my phone saying we were delayed an hour. I welcomed the delay since we were cutting it close. We caught our shuttle and arrived at the baggage counter. We breezed right through. We went to security and breezed right through. We made it to our gate with an hour an a half to spare! There was nothing left to do but get some breakfast.

Sausage McMuffin’s with egg, hash browns, milk and Diet Coke…the breakfast of champions! Littles and I had bellies full of McDonald’s and we were ready to go, and we still had more than an hour to kill.

You or I would just happily put on headphones and listen to music, check out social media, or read the news on our phones and relax, but a 3-year-old isn’t wired that way. Despite the 5:30am wake up call, Littles was ready to go!  For her, it was time to explore, time to play, and throw out the occasional “I can’t wait so long,” whenever there was a dull moment.  Luckily, a gate agent at another airline saw us hanging out and gave us crayons and a coloring book (an airport angel)!  That killed quite a bit of time as we colored and played tic-tac-toe.

As with most 3 year olds, her attention soon drifted and another, “I can’t wait so long,” came out. We needed to find something else to do. After a quick trip to the potty, I got the dreaded text that our plane was delayed another half an hour. I did have a tablet with me, but that was for the flight or for “break glass in case of emergency” moments, so I didn’t want to show all my cards just yet.

That’s when we found it. The moving walkway. Littles was amazed. We did a lap. Then another. Then another. She would jump on, hang onto the rail, ride it all the way to the end, jump off, turn around, and do the same thing back the other way. She laughed and counted the whole time. We must have done 30 laps and she was drawing a crowd. We’d jump off and she would yell, “Another one, daddy!”  So, we’d take another lap!

After a half an hour on the moving walkway, our plane showed up and we boarded. We were almost home free. She had been such a good girl up until now, so I couldn’t wait to get on the plane and reward her with a movie from her tablet. Watching anything on her tablet is one of her favorite things to do.  It’s also very rare.  Anyway, we buckled in, took off, I got the tablet from her bag, turned it on, and immediately said, “oh crap!”

 

Littles wasn’t going to be able to watch her movie. We had downloaded “Beauty and the Beast” to her tablet a while back, but hadn’t “renewed the license” because tablets are for trips only. With no internet connection, we were in trouble. The movie would not play. I began to break out into a sweat. A two and half hour flight with a 3-year-old who had been on her best behavior because she was waiting to see a movie on her tablet? Oh man. The horror! The humanity!

I told her I had some bad news. She just stared at me with huge eyes and an open mouth, expecting the worst. I told her we weren’t going to be able to watch a movie because the tablet is broken. I stopped talking and waited for the fallout. My face scrunched up and my head tried to shrink into my shoulders like I was awaiting the impact of something that was about to fall on my head. I expected the reaction of a disappointed 3-year-old, whatever that could be, but her reaction was anything but. She really didn’t acknowledge what I just said. She just turned from me, took out the safety pamphlet and said, “It’s okay daddy, we’ll just read this.” What??? Who was I to argue? So, that’s what we did. She made up stories about the people in the pictures, which was interesting since they’re in emergency situations. It made no difference to her. She talked about how they were going on a trip and how their special plane could land in the water. I even caught the lady next to us giggling at Little’s imagination. Then Littles said some magic words, “I’m tired, I’m going to take a nap. Will you cuddle me?”

I was going to dodge this tablet bullet!! Of course I would, and that’s what we did! I put my jacket over her, my arm around her, she used Wonder Woman as a pillow, and she slept until the puking boy woke her up. Her response, “I had a great nap, but that boy is having a rough flight.” I replied, “Yes he is. Thank you for being such a good girl.” She smiled.

Littles did get a little antsy toward the end of the flight, but it was nothing a little milk I had stashed away from McDonald’s couldn’t fix. We had made it through without a hitch and Grandpy and cousin Tara were waiting to pick us up!

 

We got in the car and made our way north to Lynden. I even fulfilled my movie promise. Littles was able to watch “Trolls” on Netflix during the 2 hour drive to Grandpy and Grammy’s.

You just never know how kids are going to react. One kid flips out about a seatbelt another takes a broken tablet in stride. The roles could have easily been reversed; and I would have actually expected them to be. That would make sense, but then again, does anything make sense with 3-year-olds?

Anyway, I’m looking forward to the rest of our trip. The fair and family await; plus, I have the best traveling buddy one could ask for.