Yay, we made it!

We finally made it back to DC. WOOT! Even though it's about 40 degrees colder here than San Diego, I'm glad to be home.

Our plane arrived about 40 minutes early this morning, around 5:25 a.m. Jeremiah was the best baby ever! We got him strapped into his carseat on the plane (such a lifesaver... That flight would have been so much harder to do without it...) and he just sat there and waited patiently for the plane to take off, even though it was 3 hours passed his bedtime, and had been almost 10 since his nap.

There were babies EVERYWHERE on this flight. There was a one & a half year older sitting in front of us, and he and Jeremiah had a great time waiting for the plane to take off. It was the absolute cutest thing to see--this kid would peer over the seat and look at Jeremiah, and Jeremiah would just start laughing hysterically! They were "talking" back and forth, and it was just so cute...

That went on for a good five minutes, and then it was time to start moving. They cut the cabin lights, and we began taxiing towards the runway. As we moved, you could see Jeremiah's eyes blinking heavily and we knew he would be out soon. By the time we were on the runway, Jeremiah was fast asleep.

I can't say he got great sleep while on the plane. He was in his chair, which isn't the most comfortable way to rest, as his head kept bobbing forward, and his body wanted to roll over, but he couldn't. So a few times, I saw him wake up for a sec, rub his eyes and face, and go back to sleep.

Can't say the same about the other babies on the plane. One baby in particular (her poor mother...) just would NOT fall asleep, and you could hear it in her cry, she was sooo tired. She was about 11 months, and was sitting across the aisle in the row in front of us. Her mother tried and tried, and finally, after about 30-45 minutes of crying and fighting, she fell asleep. And there was much rejoicing.... (yay!)

I tried to snooze a bit... Once the cable shows switched to infomercials, I decided to give it a go. I think I snoozed for about 45 minutes, but was worried I wouldn't wake up in time to get Jeremiah's EarPlanes in his ears, so I ended up staying up the rest of the flight.

For those of you who don't know, EarPlanes are the greatest invention ever! There're these ribbed ear-plug type things that you put in an hour before landing, and it regulates the air pressure so your ears don't pop as the plane decends. This was always very painful and uncomfortable for me as a kid, and I wanted Jeremiah to be as comfortable as possible, so we tried them out, and by golly, did they do their job well! They also block about 20 decibels of sound, which was helpful for a sleeping baby. One of them fell out just as we were touching down on the runway, so for them I would say, "Great Success!" He was the only baby on the plane that wasn't crying when he woke up--he was actually smiling! Did his little "BIG STRETCH" and then looked at us as if to say, "I'm ready to start the day!"

All in all, a good flight. I must say, too, that the whole "bring candy for the flight crew" really was great. We brought a Whitman's sampler on each flight, and on both flights, got free drinks (the alcoholic kind.... Y'know, $5/pop? Yeah... Jeremy took good advantage of that for both of us. :) unlimited drinks and snacks, whatever we wanted. I will say that it did work better on the first flight where our attendents were mostly women, and a (possibly) gay man. This flight, it was all guys, and only the attendent we gave the box to seemed very appreciative (none of the others said anything to us about it, unlike the first flight.) I should point out that this man was pretty flaming (possibly gay... :) I think that's the key. Not that we did it to get stuff out of it--it made my day just seeing their shock and appreciation on their faces when we gave it to them. They kept asking, "Are you in the industry??" and under their breath, "do you work for another airline or something???" They just couldn't believe the fact that a "civilian" would bring them something--"no one EVER brings" them anything.

:)

Needless to say, we'll be bringing candy for the crew from now on.

So we're back! We got home around 7 this morning, changed and fed Jeremiah, and he's been asleep ever since (woke up for a little bit, but went back to sleep.) Jeremy and I got about 8 hours of sleep (thank you, Jeremiah!) so we're feeling okay now. And it looks like our Z Pizza just showed up, so I'm signing off. Will write about the trip itself soon!