We flew out on Sunday morning and I have to admit that I was a little uneasy and sick to my stomach with worry on how Oliver would act on the flight. After our trip to Hawaii in February, I knew he could be BAD, REAL BAD on a flight. It was just me and the kids, so I didn’t have Matt around to help ward off angry passengers and to help quiet and angry Oliver. As luck would have it, I saw a segment on TV with a family therapist about flying with kids earlier in the week and I took some sage advice— People are quick to judge your parenting skills and “tsk” on flights and rarely offer any useful recommendations or empathize. They only complain. Tantrums are common, don’t worry about the other passengers, take care of your child, you are his parent and you know him best. It is what it is…it’s the means to an end (i.e. getting some place).
Armed with that advice, we set off on our 3+ hour flight. Of course, I armed myself with all the tantum-avoidance materials I could---toy cars, a chew toy that he could “bite” and the portable DVD player and every Baby Ei*nstein video in our collection. We did have a “breakdown” on the plane when Oliver got tired and I refused to let him “play” in the airplane lavatory (i.e. fill the sink with water, pull out every paper towel, flush the toilet 20 times and unroll the toilet paper) but he handled himself about as well as you would expect a 21 month old to handle the situation. In the end, we all survived, had no angry passengers in my face and touched down fairly unfazed. Even Chloe exclaimed when we touched down, “Hey Mom, Oliver was pretty good on the flight!”.
We had an awesome time in Dallas. Oliver really bonded with my Dad, “PaPaw”. We went to my father’s farm in East Texas and Oliver loved chasing the chickens and scaring the cows with his shrieks of joy. We were also able to see my childhood friend, Stacie, and her two daughters. Chloe loved playing with Stacie’s oldest daughter and has since declared that they are going to be best friends just like Stacie and I. We also went to the Lego Discovery Center and the Ft. Worth Zoo. I was born and raised in Dallas and it was my first visit to the Ft. Worth Zoo. We loved it and it left me wondering why I always went to the Dallas Zoo! We ended the week by swimming and having dinner with my nieces and nephew.
Oliver did even better on the return flight home, and we came back to NJ to discover the tulips blooming in the front yard and that spring was finally here! Yippee!
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