The Friendly Skies

A couple of weeks ago, we flew down to Florida for the wedding of my dear friend Lauren.  I won't say Walden's first flight was a total breeze, but it went SO much better than I had imagined in my very terrifying pre-flight nightmares.  Walden was an angel, but there are just certain things that babies do that are more difficult to deal with when you're 30,000 feet up in the air. You see, Walden is a big fan of spitting up.  I know this and I plan for it.  The girl wears a bib even when she's not eating and we just pretend it's a lovely, chunky necklace.  And we have hundreds, if not thousands, of burp cloths within arm's reach at all times. And if spitting up was all that we needed to worry about on our flight to Florida, then we would have been so prepared.  So prepared!  But spitting up is not what Walden did.  What she did...well, no bib or burp cloth stood a chance.  There we were, flying along through the air, peacefully and without a care in the world...

when a sleeping Walden opened those sweet, beautiful, blue eyes, looked up at her adoring mother and Linda Blair'd all over the place.  And then went right back to sleep.  Leaving me no choice but to sit there and soak it all in.  What made this extra special was that this happened a mere 30 minutes into our 2.5 hour flight.  Ah, yes.

There is also the matter of diaper changing.  Walden declined my request that she 'hold it' until we arrived in Florida, so we were faced with the challenge of changing a diaper in a place that simply was not designed for such a thing.  People don't really take kindly to having their already-pretty-rank cabin air further polluted, so changing her in the seat wasn't an option.  But here's what I don't take kindly to: airplane lavatories.  They are nasty and not a place I want my precious baby girl hanging out for any amount of time.  But...and I still have a hard time talking about it...to the airplane lavatory she went.  With James.  I sent her with James.  The man who has actually walked barefoot in one of these airplane bathrooms (fortunately for him, i had already married him).  The man who thinks showers in hockey rink locker rooms count as real showers (they don't).  The man who thinks the lyrics to "Every Breath You Take" include "I'm a pool hall ace" rather than "how my poor heart aches" (perhaps this is unrelated.)  The point is, James is the least germ-conscious of the two of us and yet, because I was covered in baby puke and might have lost it if I'd added poop to the situation, I put her in his arms, armed him with disposable changing pads and watched them disappear to the back of the plane.  And so, I sat in my seat and prayed.  I prayed that the immunizations Walden had just gotten at the doctor included one for airplane bathroom disease and I prayed for forgiveness.  According to James, "Everything went fine.  I covered every surface and closed the toilet lid before I changed her on it."  Thanks, James, for closing the lid first.

Other than that, things really did go pretty smoothly.  And despite his questionable hygiene, James was a life-saver on this trip and I couldn't have done it without him ;)  The weekend in Florida was absolutely flawless...the weather, the wedding, the beautiful couple...everything! Here are some pictures from the past couple of weeks. Enjoy!

happy birthday, daddy

free babysitting

walden makes friends from india

walden and will's first date

wedding by the bay

college buddies + babies!

walden learns to fly

what's better than a pink tracksuit?  a pink tracksuit with ears.

sweet girl

sitting in her bebe pod

tummy time is getting easier.

can't resist an outfit with ears