A Visit with the Family - A Fun Tale of Planes and Vomit

Before we head out for Georgia, Dave and I were planning on visiting my grandparents in Alabama, then driving down to Florida to say good bye to all of our family and friends there. With the graduation postponed by a week (gotta love the last-minute government changes) we had to change our travel plans, and unfortunately, that meant not being able to visit my grandparents.

I am very close to my grandparents. I adore them - grampa will be 96 this May. Grandma just turned 88 in January. They are probably not going to be around too much longer so I try to spend as much time as I can with them. I was very dissapointed by the travel plan change. This was my last chance to see them before we move and since we will be in Georgia for 2 years I don't know if they will still be here when I get a chance to come back to the states.

Dave suggested that I fly with Blaine to Alabama while my parents were there visiting with my grandparents this past week. We looked and found a decent airfare and we made the reservation. I was a bit nervous about flying by myself with a toddler - Blaine can be a handful at the best of times - and I had no idea how he would like flying. But I arranged for my dad to pick me up at the airport in Birmingham and bravely hopped on the plane with Blaine.

Blaine LOVED the plane trip. Just as we started racing down the runway for take off from Reagan airport, Blaine turned to me and said "Are you ready Mommy?". He was fantastic. The second leg of our trip - from Charlotte to Birmingham - he fell asleep just as soon as the wheels lifted off of the ground and he slept for the whole flight. I was regretting packing so much crap for him and not including a single book for myself.

Once we got to Birmingham he woke up and was super cranky - he had a hissy fit about getting into the car my dad drove to the airport - screaming "NO RED CAR! WANT BLUE TRUCK!". I tried to explain to him that the blue truck was still at home with daddy, but reasoning with a half-asleep toddler at 10PM in an airport parking garage is really futile. Eventually, we got him in the car and headed out to my grandparents' home.

The next morning (after a restless night where he slept maybe 2 hours at a time) he woke with a fever. He was sick for our entire stay at my grandparents' house which really sucked. For him and for me. Poor guy just felt like crap and I didn't get a break from him AT ALL. Usually he loves everyone. This week it was all mom all the time. Grandma wouldn't do. Grandpa was a big no no. If Dave had been there, I am sure Blaine would have let daddy snuggle him - but without daddy, I was on duty. From Monday night until we left on Friday I think I had a total of 8 or 9 hours sleep. I was exhausted. He was exhausted. We both just wanted to go home.

Friday morning our flight was at 7:55am. We had to be at the airport 90 minutes before departure. My grandparents live about 90 minutes from the airport. So we had to leave at 5 AM. That meant getting up at 4 AM. That was no problem. Blaine woke up about 1:45 and never went back to sleep. He was miserable. Eventually, around 3:30 or 4:00 (it's all a big blur now) he asked to go "rock rock" in the living room. I took him in, we settled into the rocking chair and I started rocking him. 30 seconds later he sat up, looked at me and said "OH NO" and puked all over me. And puked. And puked. Then he laid his head down in the puke on my shirt. My mom and dad came running in, and we got him cleaned up, I cleaned up and I called Dave. I was so exhausted I didn't know what to do. Do I cancel our flight? Do I change our reservation? Do I suck it up and get on the damn plane? Dave said to try to change the flight, and if I couldn't, to suck it up and fly home.

I couldn't change the flight. I had no time to shower at this point, so I gave myself a quick sponge bath, gave Blaine a sponge bath and a dose of motrin and headed to the airport. He was fine on the first flight and slept for the second flight. We both smelled a bit like vomit and we both looked like we had not had any sleep for ages. People gave us wide berth in the airport and the flight attendents took pity on me and helped with his carseat and stroller on each flight.

We are home. I am still tired but I did get to sleep last night from 9 PM until about 7 this morning. Blaine did the same. We took him to the doc this morning and he has a double ear infection. YAY. He is on antibiotics for the next 10 days. Hopefully he will feel better quickly.

As for me, I am just thrilled that my next plane trip will include my husband.