We got up early this morning to leave for the airport, since my mom and stepdad offered to drive us so we could avoid paying a ton of $$$ in parking fees. (Really it was just a rather thinly--or not at all--veiled reason to see Charlotte, since my mom hadn't seen her in like, omg, FIVE WHOLE DAYS!!!!1!!!11! But...I digress.) We went through McDonald's and got my crack...coffee! I meant coffee! We got my coffee and puttered on out to I-4...and got about to 10 exits down before I thought to ask Brian if he'd remembered to get his wallet out of his car. Want to guess the answer?
So, around we turned...home we went...wallet we retrieved...and back to I-4 we sped. I'd felt so good about leaving not just on time but even a little early! I should have known better. We got to the airport, and as my mom and stepdad dropped us off curbside. Before we could get our two suitcases, stroller and baby out of the car, some TSA lackey wandered over and announced, in barely discernable English, that we had "TWO MINUTES" to leave. Thanks buddy, can I get my luggage out of the car? Otherwise, the airline might not be able to charge me $50 to check this bag!
We solved that little dilemma by having Ron circle the racetrack...er, airport (have you ever been to the Orlando airport? The idiots there race around like they're qualifying!), and my mom helped Brian and me schlep our belongings into the airport. Anyway, here is Charlotte and me (and Brian in the background) standing outside the Orlando airport. As you can see, she is very interested in photographically commemorating her trip.
And here is Charlotte, finally situated in her stroller (we still had about 30 of our TWO MINUTES left, so I figured I'd snap some pics). Notice the coffee cup. Remember the coffee cup...I will regret that decision shortly.
And finally, here is Charlotte, giving Mommy the "wtf" look:
Anyway. So Ron's circling, Mom's schlepping, and I'm stressing. We were running a few minutes later than I wanted to, and it was about 500% humidity, which really improved my mood, so I was ever so gracious to my husband when started issuing directions over my shoulder at the check-in kiosk. And about that time...remember the coffee cup? Yeah, Charlotte decided she didn't want it in her stroller anymore, so she dumped it out. All over the floor. At which point Brian took the opportunity to step up the kiosk and start fiddling with it, and I'm trying to clean up the coffee mess, so I'm not paying any attention to what he's doing as he checks himself in, but not me, his wonderful and patient and loving wife.
The kiosk proceeds to spit out boarding passes for Brian, me, and my two in-laws (who were already through security and at the gate, by the way. I'm SO glad our airlines are concerned with cutting costs and passing those savings on to you, the customer), and some US Air guy comes over, says our name, and takes one suitcase. I told him, "Mine will be under Webster as well." He made me repeat myself THREE freaking times, then proceeded to turn around and help the guy next to me. Did anyone mention to me that I hadn't been checked in? No, I assumed my husband had done it, or that they guy behind the counter would indicate to me that I had something left to do before he took my suitcase and $20 checked luggage fee. Finally I asked the guy what I needed to do to get my bag checked, and he checked me in.
That done, we say our goodbyes to my mom and head over to security. I'm thinking it's going to be ever so fun to take a baby in a stroller through security, and they didn't let me down. First, we walk up to the entrance, and there's a gaggle of teenage girls congregated around the line entrances, completely blocking anyone from entering. When I finally knock a few down with the all-terrain stroller and get through, the nice lady tells me I need an infant boarding pass for Charlotte.
Now, she was ON the reservation. She was IN the stroller the whole time I was standing with it at the check-in counter. Don't you think that in the time the stupid check-in kiosk printed 500 boarding passes, it might have printed one for her? Or maybe, in the whole time Mr. US Airways was dazzling us with his customer service skills, he could have mentioned that if the baby was going on the plane, she'd need a boarding pass of her very own? But no. That would make sense, and therefore is out of the question.
So I went back and got her boarding pass, and we were shown to a special family line. I'm thinking, "Nice, this is going to go quickly!" Yeah, they made me take Charlotte OUT of the stroller, fold it up, take her shoes off, and take the food, formula, and water out of the diaper bag so they could "test" it, whatever that means. I fed her some of that formula, and if she grows any extra arms or toes, I'm going to be very upset. (Then, when we were finally through, her shoe wouldn't go back on. She has one foot that is very anti-shoe, and it always falls off. I have no idea.)
We actually made it to the plane in time, so I sent Brian off to get me a Coke...and he came back with water. I'm pretty sure I breathed fire at the point, and somehow a Coke magically appeared. He's a saint, that man.
On the plane, we had the nice front row with lots of room, but had to put the diaper bag away, which was kind of a pain. The flight itself was actually rather uneventful. At Charlotte's 9-month checkup I asked the doctor for any flying advice, and she said to try and make sure Charlotte had something to eat during take-off and landing--it does the same thing for babies that chewing gum does for adults. Sounded like good advice to me, so I made sure to starve the baby all morning so she'd eat on the plane! OK, not really, but I did want her kind of hungry, because sure enough, the time you want her to drink a bottle is the time she won't want it--unless she's hungry. There's a method to my madness!
So she did really well. The flight from Orlando to Charlotte was a little longer, and there were a few times she whined a little, but it was really only for a second or two before she'd get distracted by something else (ooh, a shiny!!! she's SO my kid). She liked looking out the window with Jane, until she realized that Mommy was like, two whole seats away, and that was the end of that.
We didn't have a whole lot of time on our layover, so we grabbed a quick bite to eat on the run between concourses, and made it to our flight from Charlotte to Norfolk with minutes to spare. There were several interesting fashion victims on my trip from Concourse B to Concourse E, but mean old Brian wouldn't let me take a picture with my phone, so I'll just say: Orange linen pants, Blue paisley sportcoat, loafers with no socks...one man.
Our plane to Norfolk was much smaller, and they wouldn't let us sit in the front row, so we got very cozy very quickly. Let's just say that those seats are about 7 inches across, but Charlotte doesn't have a concept of the laws of physics yet, and determined that it is in fact possible to occupy two seats at the same time. It was entertaining, to say the least. She made lots of friends on the plane, probably for the sole reason that she didn't cry at ALL on that flight. I know what people think. I used to (and still sometimes am) one of them. "Oh great, there's a baby on this flight. FUN." But she was a champ. She flirted with the flight attendant, and made friends with the nice older lady across the aisle, and finally, just as we were making our final descent into Norfolk, she crashed. Hard. One minute she was up and looking around, then she literally flopped her head onto my arm and was asleep in seconds. She didn't even wake up when we bumped along the runway, or got off the plane, or any of that. She managed to sleep all the way until we got to baggage claim, which is pretty rare for her; usually she won't sleep while being held.
Anyway...it's super late, and I'm super tired, so that's going to end my rant for the evening. We made it here, and we're actually on the beach--I wish we had more time to enjoy it! Hopefully tomorrow I'll have some time to get Charlotte down to the beach or the pool. Our first plane ride was a success, and Charlotte has done really well since we got here, despite having a LONG day. She's getting some hard-earned rest, and I think I will join her!
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