*sigh* This post is late. You know what that means.... I must be getting back to the "real world" of teaching! It has already consumed my life and I don't officially start up again until tomorrow. Chase and I went to Boise for about a week to visit my brother, Jeff, and his family. My parents also met us while we were up there, so it was a week full of family reunions! We got back on Tuesday and I spent the rest of the week unpacking my room at my new school. Phew! Anyway, here's a little recap of our trip.First, family photos were in order. Here is the Grandparent/Grandkid photo (from L-R: Dad with Alex, Rhianna, Mom with Chase):
And here is the Aunt/Uncle/Cousin photo (from L-R: Jeff with Rhianna, Me with Chase, Julia with Alex):
(Sorry, Chase ruined the pictures with his balloon fascination!)The cousins had so much fun playing together. Rhianna spent one night with us at the hotel and Chase thought that was so cool:
After Rhianna went back home to her mom's, Chase got to spend some quality time with his cousin Alex. I say "quality time" in quotes because at first Chase was not so sure about Alex. OK, that was putting it nicely. Truth is, at first he didn't like him at all. Alex kept taking his toys (the nerve!) and... are you ready for this?... touching him (gasp!). So until he learned the "bait and switch" tactic, and the fact Alex couldn't yet open doors (which meant he could hole himself up in a room with all the toys he wanted), he wasn't feeling the love for his baby cousin. But they did have some good moments, nonetheless.
Personally I'm not sure how anyone could resist this face!
Anyway, Chase was very good despite the fact his schedule was completely thrown off and he was exhausted. He was very good, I should say, until the trip home.On the first flight: Angel. Second flight: Devil.
And I mean devil. DEMON. I was that mom on the plane... the one who does not know how to control her insane child. The one you look at and say, "Some people should not be allowed to have kids." The one that makes you thankful for your own angelic children. Let's be honest, folks, we've all done it. We've all looked at that raving lunatic child out in public and thought negatively about the parents and their obvious lack of parenting skills. I will never look that way at another mom again. That flight was the longest three hours of my life. Nothing I did helped. He wanted to kick the seat in front of him. I would stop him and he would scream bloody murder. He wanted to color, and then he didn't want to color. He wanted to throw the crayons instead. He didn't want to stay in the seat. He wanted to buckle his seatbelt but then as soon as it latched he would scream at me to take it off. At one point he was literally screaming at the top of his lungs, "DON'T TOUCH ME, MOMMY!!!!" over and over. Toward the end of the flight I took his face in my hands, tears streaming down my face, feeling completely helpless, and said, "Baby, please. Don't do this. Please.... For Mommy??"
(Yes, I know guilt trips are bad, but I was desperate. I'm human! I didn't know what else to do and I was going to lose it at any moment.)
He just looked at me, smiled, and then slapped me in the face.
It was the worst place to be because I had nowhere to go. I had no time out to put him in. I was stuck in close quarters with a lot of glaring adults. I know the kid was exhausted. And on top of that, he fought his nap that day in all the excitement of travel and he just lost control. He did finally go to sleep... 5 minutes before our wheels hit the ground (Ooooh.... That really pissed me off)!
When I got off the plane I literally handed Chase over to Brian and then broke down crying in the parking lot.
Thank goodness he is usually like this:
(He's listening to Peter Alsop on my iPod. I did try this on the plane, too, and it worked great until he pinched his finger in the headphones and burst into hysterical tears.)Overall, we had a very nice trip. It was so great to see my brother and his family again. The last time we saw them was at their wedding (when Chase was 8 months old)! Hope to see you guys again soon! Thanks for having us!
More photos are in our Photo Album. My parents took all the photos up until they left and I'll add theirs as soon as they share them with me!
3 comments:
oh no!!! So sorry to hear about your rough flight home. I can't even imagine! We were debating going to Florida this fall for wedding and part of the reason we didn't was just my fear of how the kids would be on the plane - even if we just took the baby. I didn't want to be "that Mom" with the screaming baby for 2 hours!
Oh...and to do it all by yourself? Glad Bryan met you at the air port and you didn't have to drive home alone and upset, too!
OMG Christine!!! That is AWFUL!!! I must admit that I did laugh at the part where he slapped you. But I think it was because if it had been me and my child that would've been the moment where I opened the emergency escape hatch and threw him out! I've been there. Not on a plane, but I can imagine how you were feeling and I'm so sorry. For some reason Noel tends to do that to me at the grocery store. In the check out line. They always tell you to take your child and walk out of the store. But my cart is always full and I've spent close to an hour filling in it and have been waiting in line to pay for the last 15 or something. There is no way I'm walking out of that store without my groceries. So I become "that mom" with the too tired, too hungry, screaming child in the grocery store.
The flight may have been awful, but you lived to tell! Traveling with kids is not easy - our cross-country and cross-Atlantic flights this year have proven that. But it's much better to give it a shot than to stay at home feeling trapped! And the best part is that you'll never look at another parent and think "why can't you control your child?" especially when on a flight. (Tip: I always apologize to the people seated around me for Jack's potential tantrums BEFORE we take off; then people tend to be more forgiving.)
Loved the video. I think Jack has the same pjs as Chase is wearing. Do they say Mr Fix It?
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