High in the sky...

Many of you have thought that our recent road trips to and from faraway locales was quite bold with a wee one in our midst. As I have blogged previously, we have enjoyed those sojourns, they have just required a bit of a different approach in their execution. A change in routine is good for all involved.

However, we just returned from flying the friendly skies for a wedding in Phoenix and a visit with Dave's family and it would be an understatement in saying that a plane trip with our lil guy was an exercise in patience (and deep cleansing breathes). Cole strapped in his car seat in the Volvo has no real option as to where to unleash his monkey like abilities. In a plane despite the most limited of space and oblivious to the darting glances of his fellow passengers (who were undoubtedly praying that he was a well behaved baby), Cole wanted to be on the move, standing, laying sideways, in the aisle, on the floor and come hell or high water, he was not going to be kept in one place. I had my distraction bag of goodies which I had packed with military like precision. I had memorized by feel so that I could reach any object in a split second to avoid the potential for vocalization as the building tension in his body grew and he arched his back in frustration at being kept on our laps.

We managed with the help of some angel above to secure the entire row going both ways. I cannot state more strongly how vital that was to keeping our sanity level below the boiling point. For the better part of three hours, Dave and I took turns attempting to engage, occupy, and entertain Cole to keep him from causing a melee. We were successful but it sapped every ounce of energy from us both. Each time we touched down on the runway, we were overcome with such a sense of relief.

Cole had his share of "cute as the dickens" moments as he waved to EVERY person who stood outside the lavatory (we were in the back row both times). He would get wide-eyed when the captain would come on and in his deep voice give us an update on our arrival status. He loved the blowing air vent above our seats and he enjoyed looking out the window. He would go back and forth from the two in our row like a spectator at a tennis match. I hung on to him as he darted between them and I hoped that this would last a WHOLE 5 minutes cutting into what time was left of our journey in the clouds.

I was able during one of my brief respites to watch him and I could literally "see" his little mind working, processing all the stimuli around him. It was during a realization like this that I found that looking at things from a child's viewpoint makes everything interesting. Using that logic I can better comprehend why he wants to explore, touch, sense and experience all that surrounds him. It helped me to take another deep cleansing breathe, take my son and find more things to help him learn about his world within the confines of an airplane seat!