Zoom, Up in the Sky

Nicholas loved each and every part of our trip to Philly last weekend. As Joe said at one point on Monday, reflecting on the weekend, "that boy did not stop smiling the whole time." Nicholas is generally a pretty happy boy, but there was something different. He was giddy. And why not? He got to fly on an airplane, see Daddy, and spend a whole weekend at Alice's house! The last of these was the highlight for him (no offense, Joe). Seeing Alice was exciting, but getting to stay at her house and share a room with her? Now that was a huge treat.

But, to start at the beginning, we had to first get to Philly. I was very anxious about flying alone with him, especially driving myself and so having to get from long-term parking with all his gear. When I learned that he didn't actually need a carseat on the plane and that we could borrow Alice's spare carseat and pack n' play, my life got 100 times simpler. Actually the most stressful part of the travel was dealing with Logan. I miss BWI.

First of all, there is no way to get to Logan without going basically through Boston. On a Friday afternoon this meant we hit a ton of traffic. Nicholas kept telling me to go faster. I'd tell him that I wish I could, but there were cars in front of us and I couldn't hit them. Of course he then repeated all about not hitting other cars. And then 5 minutes later ask again. This went on and on and on. Finally we got past a place where an off-ramp was causing the delay and seeing open road in front of me I say, "Nicholas, ask now." "Mommy, go faster!" I floored it and we took off. "Yay, Mommy. Good job. You went faster." I couldn't help laughing.

Parking wasn't too bad, although the lack of signs to direct you to the only crosswalk across the insane lanes of deathly fast traffic meant I wandered around a bunch. The only problem with parking is that it is $24 a day! Insanity! We got our luggage checked, got through security, and set about finding dinner. Here I encountered the next thing I miss about BWI. The food options were crappy and even those required quite the trek and some sketchy hidden elevators. I miss the amazing food court in BWI. Nicholas and I had a routine--get through security and then eat. He would get McDonalds and I could get anything I wanted. But we made it and really it wasn't too bad.

Nicholas loved watching the planes, as usual.

From 2011 September

But once we got on the plane it was a whole new thing. In the past he has loved watching the planes but didn't have much interest in the idea of actually being on one. This time he got it. He was so excited and was mesmerized as we took off. You could see in his eyes that he thought this was so cool. And then something changed after we got a little higher up. A shadow came over his face, his eyes changed, and he turned to me with a face that you could just see was about to fall apart. He did get it now. And he was scared. But he was belted in so I couldn't hold him. What could I do? Elmo! I grabbed Elmo from his bag and handed him to Nicholas. "Squeeze Elmo really tightly every time you feel scared." You could see the relief pass over his eyes. And he squeezed him hard. Then he looked back out the window. 5 or 10 seconds passed and he sqeezed Elmo again.

From 2011 September

Thank you, Elmo!

Nicholas spent most of the flight (well, all of it where electronics are allowed) watching a Barney DVD on my computer. This was absolutely fabulous. It was past bedtime so he needed to just chill, he sucks his thumb while he watches tv which I bet helps with the ears, and I got to sit and read a novel and decompress myself. It worked so well that we did the same thing on the way back. Books on the runway and during takeoff and landing (seriously, I don't know how many more times I can read Courdoroy's Christmas Surprise), and then Barney while we're in the air.

I'll write more about the visit itself later.