LA: Day 7

So Pig and I have been in LA at my parents for about a week now. It all came as a result of a daycare snafu. My dad luckily agreed to look after Pig the catch being that he couldn't leave his business affairs in LA. So after receiving permission to telework from LA, Pig and I packed our bags and made the trip out here.

That makes it sound like it was a smooth trip over...but it warn't. The week and a half before we were due to fly, I checked the airline website to see that the flights were fairly empty, and they were, even 6 hours beforehand. So K and I went ahead and picked up a gogokidz carseat carrier...which I highly recommend, although you're sure to get strange looks, more about that later. Pig is still battling a cold so her cooler bag and backpack were stuffed with things to help relieve the symptoms. I had toys galore and some lunchables in the bag for myself should I get too busy to eat a decent lunch.

At BWI, we got the news that in the one hour before we left the house, the flight to Atlanta had booked up. Color me skeptical. This was the day after Thanksgiving, so unless a sizable group of people had huge altercations with their DC based family and decided to hell with them and return posthaste to Atlanta...I thought the system might be mistaken. So at the gate I asked very politely again if there might be two empty seats together. The guy didn't even bother checking the computer this time, he said "nope, full flight." So I tethered Pig to me using her Scootababy carrier, shoved her carseat into the huge red carseat gate check bag and lugged it with me, prompting looks of dismay/horror/pity as I struggled by. Anyway, you can probably guess what happened, after the carseat had been stowed away under the plane, I looked around and saw several empty rows...wtf. In fact, the seat next to me remained empty.

Same damned thing happened from Atlanta to LA, three lovely empty rows in the back. I sat next to a lovely 10 year old who liked to sit with her legs planted in my seat area, never bothered to retrieve any items that Pig threw on the ground, kicked me in her sleep, and grumbled when Pig and I had to get out of our window seat to use the restroom. Meanwhile, Pig spent 2.5 hours settling in, kicking poor Moo as she squirmed in my lap. I sat and thought of the wonderful things I'd swear to do for humankind if God would graciously speed time up a little or at least place Pig and I into sleep hibernation mode for the remainder of the trip.

Funny airplane bathroom story. I went to change Pig's diaper. Thankfully, the bathrooms were equipped with changing tables. So after I finished snapping her into a fresh outfit, I realized that I ought to just do my business as well to avoid having to come out again. Should you decide to do this yourself, I recommend that you wrap your child snuggly in something to keep limbs from flailing, or better yet, resist that crazy urge and sit back down knowing that the weight of your child will render the lower half of your body numb anyhow. So I'm sitting there, Pig on my lap, most likely looking like we were waiting for a bus. Suddenly, Pig was struck by the crazy stick and her legs started flailing and somehow she managed to get her foot tangled up in my underwear.

My friends, untangling your child's foot from your underwear whilst sitting on the throne in a jostling plane is well....there aren't words enough....