Claire's First Airplane Ride

Last Thursday we headed off for a long weekend in Michigan.  Getting to the airport was a little difficult since the roads still had a lot of ice, but thankfully the airport was back to normal.  We parked at a lot near the airport and took the shuttle over.  Claire had a lot of fun on the shuttle bus.  I guess just being somewhere new and getting held while we moved was fun for her!

We got to the airport, checked our bag, and then headed to security.  Matt was wearing Claire in the baby carrier.  We made it through security quickly with no incidents.  I was busy taking the laptop and liquids out of our suitcases and making sure all the stuff got through that I didn't even get a chance to see if Claire had any reaction to walking through the metal detector.  Guess she probably didn't.

At that point, we realized that we had plenty of time to kill before our flight, so we went to a TGI Fridays in the airport.  Claire sat in a high chair and was so very very happy--I'd almost say that she was even hyper!  She loved seeing all the people; interacted with our server and one other that kept walking by.  We fed her the "jarred" (really it was in a little plastic tub) baby sweet potatoes while we ate our lunches.

After lunch, we still had some time to spend.  We found a little waiting area with some seats and big floor to ceiling windows looking out to the airplanes.  It was separated from the rest of that waiting area by some low partitions.  We let her crawl around, and she had a blast going up to the windows and pulling up on the seats.  We let her burn off energy while we waited to board the plane (BTW: scooting around on one's knees on airport carpet makes the pants filthy!)

By the time we got on the plane, she was getting cranky because she had been awake for so long.  We ended up sitting on the runway for awhile and tried to keep her distracted by puffs and toys.  Finally we took off, and I fed her.  Thankfully, this did exactly what it was supposed to, and she fell asleep in my arms.  She didn't sleep as long as I had hoped--maybe 30 minutes?--the PA system, a SCREAMING toddler (Claire wasn't the worst on the flight by any means), and the beverage service kept disturbing her.  It was enough of a nap that she was then happy to play and go back and forth between the two of us for the rest of the flight.  She did great!

We landed and met up with Matt's parents, had some dinner, and drove to Holland.  Claire slept through the night in the pack-n-play we borrowed from Matt's cousin Jodi. Oh, and we learned that some car seats don't need an expensive base - you can just seatbelt them in through little loops! (we always wondered what those loops were for until now)