Flying High

Thursday night marked our first airplane trip since:
Becoming a family of 4
and
Airlines deciding to get more annoying by now charging for baggage.

For our particular flight on Northwest, that meant our first bag cost us $15 each way. So, of course, we were bound and determined to take only ONE BAG. Let me repeat, we have a family of FOUR. One of our four is only four months old and any parent of an infant knows that the smaller the baby, the more stuff is "needed" to care for her.

We are lucky in that Ben's parents had a pack-n-play and toddler's car seat waiting for us. (Both would have counted against our baggage allowance had we needed to bring them.) That left us needing only a car seat for Baby Tal. (Talya has already acquired a plethora of nicknames including Taly, Tal, Baby Girl, Taly Bear, Baby Bear - Thanks to Pop-Pop for the creative Taly Bear, it has stuck!) So, we "edited" our pile of things we needed until we could fit everything in one bag. Success!

We paid our $15 and boarded our evening plane. It seemed like a great idea to fly at night. Why? Because when we booked the flight, Taly was still at the sleep anywhere, no need for a real schedule, stage of life. Let me tell you, she is no longer at that stage. She is now at the "I'm not going to sleep no matter how tired I am when there are plenty of new things for me to look at" stage. If you are parents of youngsters, you know that that is an actual developmental stage. I'm sure my sister-in-law with the early childhood experience and education can verify - right Christina?

We arrived in New York after a little family vacation in the Detroit airport consisting of a train, a fountain, and a tunnel of lights. Simon loved it, although he couldn't understand why the train didn't say "Chugga Chugga Choo Choo." Upon arrival in New York, things took a downhill turn when we realized our bag was still in Detroit. Yes, the same bag we paid $15 for them to check. Customer Service, we'll be calling you for our refund.

We finally got to Amma's and Appa's house after a not-quick-enough stop at CVS for pull-ups at 1:30 a.m. One look at my son and you would swear I had him hyped up on something stronger than diluted apple juice. Here he was, 8 hours past his bedtime and he hadn't stopped talking, much less closed his eyes.

And now, they nap. And tomorrow, we do it all again, except this time we only have a half-hour layover with all other flights into Ohio completely booked. Can anyone see a car rental in our future? To be continued....