Adventures in Flying

We had quite a trip.  It was a whirlwind, including way too many hours of airplanes, but luckily our child is pretty much the greatest kid ever, as you already know.

Saturday we caught a flight at noon.  Before we left we got 23542 notifications that our flight was delayed 30 minutes.  Not a big deal, except for when you have a 45 minute connection in the Atlanta airport and are planning to check bags.  Thank goodness for Carmen's fancy Delta status (thanks to my Poppa) - they rebooked us on the later flight long before we even left for the airport so we knew we'd make it to Florida that night.  It meant a looooong day, but at least we'd get to the hotel.  We ended up landing at about 11:30 pm, which, by the time we got our bags and our car and drove to the hotel, we didn't get to bed until about 1:00 am.  We also didn't get dinner.  Also thanks to Carmen's fancy Delta status, we were able to stop in the Delta SkyLounge and get some snacks (and wine!) before our second flight.  I don't think I could have convinced Jayden to eat a meal at that point anyway, so it was probably for the best.

As my Dad said, "I thought Jayden liked white wine?!?"  And as I responded, "yes, usually, but he couldn't pass up a good Pinot."  And to anyone potentially worried, I promise the wine was for me and only me.  Jayden actually knows very well that wine is for grown ups and not for kids.

The next day we were up at a decent hour and made it to breakfast before church.  Carmen, Jayden and I have not spent a lot of time in church so I had no idea what to expect from Jayden.  But he (once again) was great.  He enjoyed the "moo-zick" and the minute he could tell the last song was ending he turned to me and asked "Mama, are we done?!???"  Luckily no one else really heard, and when we told the Pastor later on he even laughed, saying it's probably what everyone was thinking.

We spent the afternoon at Grandmother and Grandfather's apartment.  I took a few pictures of pictures so that I could have some copies.

Grandmother, Poppa, Aunt Bonnie and Grandfather.  And dogs, of course.

A drawing of a photo of Grandmother, Grandfather and the three grandkids.  I had no idea they'd had this done, but I love it.

I found a way to get Jayden to nap on the floor of one of the bedrooms, which was fine until he woke up by himself in a strange room and freaked out.  I walked in and he was standing in the middle of the blanket on the floor, crying his head off.  I sat with him and reassured him and soon he was fine again, especially when he remembered he could go find Gramma!

One last picture with Gramma before bedtime.  This was Jayden's "smile."

Jayden and I went back to the hotel, got him in bed by 9:30 and me in bed by 10!  I got something like nine hours of sleep that night - unheard of.  But so necessary, especially this weekend with all the stress and emotion.  Monday was the memorial services at the church so yet another chance for Jayden to practice his whispering and patience.  And once again, he was amazing.

All dressed up, "like Daddy" in the hotel room.  Mommy, where's your tie?!?

Family photo  before heading into the services.

The ceremony was wonderful.  People had some very nice things to say about Grandfather and the person who he was really came through.  He was such a kind, caring, thoughtful person, with such a great sense of humor.  The individual who gave the eulogy (Cater) told a great story of meeting Grandfather for the first time at a dinner, where the table where they were sitting decided to go around the table and compare one of the wines they were drinking to a symphony.  Cater started to panic because he knew nothing about wine and nothing about symphonies.  My grandfather leaned over to him and said "compare the cabernet to Beethoven's sixth."  Cater was feeling good until he realized he didn't know why - and then my grandfather said "just say they both left a bad taste in your mouth!"  He just had those little jokes always ready to go, to lighten the mood and alleviate anxiety.  And he looooved to have fun.  And the services really emphasized that and really was a celebration more than anything, which was wonderful.

Holding on to Mommy's leg and Auntie's leg while we walk to dinner.  Voluntarily touching Auntie - a huge leap forward!

Tuesday was a whole other adventure.  Our first plane left at 7:20 am to fly us to New York.  We were lucky enough to be on a private jet, so we only had to arrive by 7.  Which was good, since Carmen, Jayden, Ellen and I arrived at about 7:15 or 7:20.  Somehow I couldn't get everything together as quickly as I thought.  The flight attendant offered for Jayden to see the cockpit with the pilots, but Jayden declined, sort of politely.  He did enjoy the freedom, but I don't know if he really knew the difference between a commercial flight and a private jet.  He did like the shuttle we got to take from the plane to the "terminal" in Teterboro (NJ - where we landed after being diverted from White Plains), and I explained to him that this was probably the first and last time he'd be on a private jet, if I had anything to say about it!  The whole crew laughed.

Walking with Daddy to the airplane.

Stretching out with Gramma on the airplane.

The fleet of planes at the Teterboro airport.

We drove from the airport to the church in Scarsdale, NY.  The church is beautiful and is very peaceful.

Running at the church.

Aunt Bonnie and Poppa in quiet thought after the interment.  

After the burial we visited the other family graves and then headed over to lunch.  It was the same place we ate after my Grandmother's burial.  The weirdest thing about all of this is that I kept expecting my Grandfather to be there.  I expected him to be sitting at the table with us, or waiting for us when we got back to the apartment after lunch one day, or just generally around.  And that's exactly what the pastor in Florida said - it's so hard to let go of the expectation that you'll see the person in the place you've always seen them.  For him it was the same pew in church every Sunday.  For me it's a different setting, but that's exactly my sentiment.  And honestly, I don't know when we'll next go back to Palm Beach - my grandparents were really the only reason we went.  So who knows.  Just such a weird feeling.

After lunch we made our way to the airport.  We were really early for our flight, but we decided it made sense to ensure we didn't stress out.  It turned out Jayden was exhausted (not surprisingly) and he passed out on my lap for about an hour and a half.

He woke up a little bit before it was time to get on the plane, so it was perfect timing.

Once again, Jayden did a great job on the plane, reading books, playing around and eventually settling in to watch "pinguinos," also known as Happy Feet 2.  Of course our first flight was slightly delayed and of course we had a 45 minute connection so we were worried.  We ended up landing only about 5 minutes late. And then when we were deplaning people just stopped.  For no reason whatsoever that we could see.  So we're stopped in the middle of the plane, watching the minutes tick by, knowing we need to get off the plane, run upstairs to catch the train, go around three terminals, go back down to the terminal and then walk six gates to our plane.  We finally got off the plane a little after 8:55 and our next plane was supposed to leave at 9:25.  Jayden was great.  He walked/ran with me the entire time, not requesting to be carried once.  It helped that we were going up and down escalators {"es-ca-vators"} and catching a train.  Once we got off the train and down the escalator we had about 15 minutes.  We hadn't eaten dinner (again) and Jayden's pull-up had managed to completely leak and he was wet all over.  We didn't feel comfortable stopping so I convinced Jayden to run with me to the gate so we could "catch ow-eh aih-pwane!"  We got the gate and the boarding area was empty but it looked like the door was still open, thank goodness.  I ran up, probably a little more crazy than I needed to be, and said "please, please, please let us on!"  And the guy looked at me funny and said "you're fine..."  In any case, we ran on the plane, I tossed our bags in our seats and ran Jayden back to the bathroom.  Thank goodness I threw a change of clothes in his bag at the last minute.  We got him changed and were back in our seats before the last two people ran on the plane about five minutes later.  We sat down and took off and were on our way!  Jayden finally passed out on the plane towards the end and really didn't wake up again.  We got him in his bed by 11:30 pm, which was pretty good since we'd landed at 10:30 pm.  We let him sleep until 7:30 am the next day and have been trying to give him a few extra minutes here and there ever since.  Hopefully we'll get him down at a reasonable time tomorrow and let him sleep until he needs to on Saturday.

In any case, Jayden was (and IS) just an amazing kid.  Everyone was impressed with him, at church, at the services, on the airplane, etc.  And he's cheerful and having fun too, so it's not like we're having to convince him minute by minute to be patient, etc.

And now we're home and back to normal-ish.  Jayden was happy to see Jasmine on Wednesday and has been having a bunch of fun at Juju's, getting to see his friends again.  He saw kids when we were at church on Sunday and kept asking where they were when we were back there on Monday.  And he also saw kids at the church on Tuesday in New York and wanted to go where they were to play.  So I think he was having withdrawal a little bit!  He was also jammin' on the piano at the lunch after the services on Monday.  Carmen has those pictures so whenever he sends them to me I'll share them on here.

And finally, here's the picture from CarsLand at Disney's California Adventure.