Saturday started a bit early when Celeste woke up and dinna want to go back to sleep. In hopes that Evelin could get some more sleep, we went downstairs and tried to play quietly on the couch in the back room. I think it was 4:30 a.m. or so. Of course, trying to keep Celeste quiet isn't always possible, and my mom came out for a little while to see if she could help, which gave us a little time to talk and to try to keep Celeste occupied.
Our flight wasn't until 11:30 a.m., so we had time to enjoy a leisurely last morning, chatting and futzing around while finishing up the packing and making sure we hadn't forgotten anything before I had to resume my time as a member of BODCCATA.
The MSY–IAD flight was Celeste's eighth flight segment in her life, and considering that I guess we did pretty well. When we first got on the plane, she was a little hyped up because there was a little boy about the same age as her in the seat next to me (with his mother). I took the middle seat while Evelin and Celeste shared the window seat. Celeste spent most of the time before takeoff opening and closing the window shades and trying to reach over for the copy of Pajama Time! the boy was reading.
Soon after the flight attendants were told to crosscheck and verify, one of them stopped short in front of our row. Apparently there are only four oxygen masks above each row, which meant the mother and boy needed to move to another seat — three adults and two babies were too much for the row.
With Pajama Time! out of eyesight, Celeste settled down and ended up falling asleep for most of the flight to Virginia ... however, when the pilot came on the PA to say that he was turning on the fasten seatbelts sign and that we'd be landing in about 15 minutes, she woke up. And she was mad. For most of the rest of the flight, we were that family all the roadwarriors hate: intermittent screaming mixed with sobs and moments of silence. She was still tired and just couldn't take it. Once we were off the plane, she did pretty well, although she wasn't to keen to get back into her carseat.
[ASIDE: Even though Celeste didn't have her own seat for this trip, we still used the Britax Roundabout–Go-Go Kidz combo we used on theMontana trip. We needed a carseat in Louisiana and this way we didn't have to carry a stroller, too. Since we were checking the Roundabout/Kidz, I bought a big carseat bag, thinking I could keep the Kidz attached to the Roundabout and just check the whole thing. It took some wrangling, but I did manage to get it to fit; however, when I opened the bag in New Orleans after the first flight, one of the wheels had popped off the Kidz. It all snapped back together and worked fine, but it was a little disconcerting. When I opened the bag in Dulles, I encountered the same problem, but this time I knew to look for the little cap and washer that held the wheel to the axel. Again it snapped back together fine, but I wish there were a way to ensure that thing could stand up to checking at the gate — maybe the bag itself stresses the wheel too much and we'd be better off without a bag or just a plastic bag to protect the fabric on the seat.]
Technoarti tags: Thanksgiving air travel carseats
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