Joseph's First Airplane Trip

This week, Joseph set out for a quick trip to Palo Alto. He'd never been on an airplane before, so we didn't know what to expect.

Mommy was already in Palo Alto, so it was going to be just Daddy and Joseph versus the world for this leg of our trip.

The Airport
First of all, Joseph loved the airport--except for the part where the stroller had to be taken away to go through the x-ray machine and he couldn't go after it.

All Joseph needs to be entertained in public is something to push. (In the grocery store, he wants out of the cart so he can push it.) So, naturally, at the airport we spent a good part of an hour and a half pushing the stroller around.


There were plenty of people and airplanes to look at and all sorts of trash cans to examine, and that kept us very, very busy.

Joseph's other new game is to spin in circles until he falls over. He doesn't go very fast, and it doesn't take long for him to fall over, but he loves it. He entertained quite a few fellow travelers with that routine as well.

Boarding
It turned out that our flight wasn't full, so instead of having to sit on Daddy's lap for the whole flight, Joseph was able to sit in his car seat, which likely made the experience much, much easier.

We flew on Southwest, which means free-for-all on the seating. About the half the passengers had already boarded when we made our way on to the plane. I saw plenty of anxious eyes as I came lumbering down the aisle with a car seat, and it was kind of fun to be on other side of those glances (It doesn't take much for Daddy to go on a power trip).

The section that can be skipped if you just want to read more about Joseph
Southwest recently changed their boarding process. It used to be that anyone with small children could pre-board, but it seems people in the 'A' boarding group got all uppity about not being able to get their favorite seats because too many people with kids would get on the plane before them.

In response to these complaints, Southwest now has people with small children board in between the uppity A-group and the (apparently less-uppity) B-group (unless the parents get into the A-group by printing out their boarding passes far enough in advance, but most parents of small children are too busy cleaning up after their small children to remember to print out their boarding passes early enough to get into the A-group, so this isn't much of an issue).

So here's the thing: If I have a small child with me, I really don't care when I get on the plane (as long as I have my child seated next to me, of course), so getting on the plane in the middle of the group doesn't really affect me.

HOWEVER, if you're not flying with a small child, don't you want to do everything in your power NOT to be seated anywhere near a small child? Doesn't it behoove the A-groupers to allow the small children to take their seats first and then be able to pick the seat as far away from these kids and as close to a different time zone as possible?

Alright, that's over. In a future post I may write about those people seated in the back of the plane who try to get off the plane first, but, for now, let's get back to talking about Joseph.

Joseph, the in-flight experience
Here's Joseph's initial impression of being on an airplane:

Joseph loved pretty much everything about the plane ride. He laughed and smiled and giggled the entire trip. He's an easy going baby generally, but it was unbelievable how great he was throughout the journey.

Once we were seated on the plane, a nice lady came and joined us on our row. During the flight she'd sometimes forget to look at Joseph so he'd hit her on the arm until she put down her in-flight magazine and played with him again.

Joseph also loved the overhead lights. He'd point at them and giggle each time Daddy flipped them on and off.



We were worried about how Joseph would handle the changing air pressure on the flight--I remember how awful it was when I was little--but it turned out not to be an issue at all.

I've heard that it helps to give kids something to eat or drink during take off and descent, so he had a sippy cup and snacks on the way up and then polished off a bottle as we prepared to land.

Daddy's in-flight experience
Remember how I said, Joseph loved "pretty much everything about the plane ride"? Well, there was one moment that he didn't quite enjoy.

Mid-way through our 90 minute flight, I decided to give him a drink of water from his sippy cup. For this trip, I brought our high-tech, non-spill sippy cup with a straw. When I flipped the lid to give him a drink, water shot out of the straw like it was a fire hose--I hadn't thought about the air inside of the cup remaining at sea-level pressure.

The stream of water nailed Joseph in the face and got in his eyes. This made him really confused, and he scowled and rubbed his eyes as he tried to figure out what on earth was going on.

Daddy quickly tried to stop the geyser while simultaneously assuring his son that he hadn't acted with malice when he shot him in the eye. Joseph didn't cry and a couple of fruit snacks later seemed to have forgotten the whole messy affair.

It was at that moment that Daddy looked down and realized that damage that he'd done to himself:


It may not be obvious from the picture, but it was very obvious to anyone who saw Daddy walking around the San Francisco Airport that Daddy may have struggled on the plane ride.

(What's even more amusing is the image of Daddy trying to nonchalantly take this picture without anyone around wondering what he was doing).

Landing
Within moments of the plane's wheels hitting the ground at SFO, Joseph decided that he had seen all there was to see on this trip and went to sleep.


All in all, I'd have to say that it was a pretty successful adventure.