Addison's Adventures: Our Red Eye Flight (by Mommy)

They don't call it a "red-eye flight" for nothing!
I think my eyes are STILL red from this flight!

We made it through the security checkpoint in one piece... literally... I had Addi in the Moby Wrap while we went through the metal detectors. The Security Officer scanned my bag twice and asked "Is it just the baby's drink?". I told him it was and he didn't even open my bag!

We waved our final goodbye to James and rushed over to our gate in order to pre-board the plane... Talk about a perk! Everyone was in line to board already and I just walked-ran to the front to ask if we could pre-board.

When we got on the plane, only the flight attendants were on board and one was kind enough to usher us to our seat and put my wheelie carry-on in the overhead bin. This carry on was filled with in case of emergency stuff - extra clothes, toys diapers, snacks. My backpack was filled with a set of Addi's clothes, dipes and wipes, snacks and drinks and plenty of "entertainment" (toys, books, magna doodle, crayons, etc.). It was very nice to be able to set up shop before everyone got on the plane! I took out some toys, snacks and her sippy, put her blanket over her and blew up my airplane pillow.

When I checked in the night before, I saw that we would have our own row... not! A middle-aged gentleman sat in the aisle seat, while Addi and I had the window and middle seat (which I used for Addi's toys and snacks). We also watched another mother and baby walk down the aisle... maybe someone for Addi to play with if the babes can't sleep?

It took about 15 minutes for Addi to get antsy. If you know Addi, you know that she loves to run around and be free of anything restricting her. I let her sit in the seat by herself for a little while - I didn't want her to think she could sit on her own for long periods of time. She had some raisins and cheerios and drank some juice water. She played with her magna doodle and we read a couple of books.

The flight attendant brought us some earphones so we watched the Backyardigans - Addi has never used earphones before, so she was totally trippin! I had one earphone on, and I held the other to her right ear. She kept looking to her right and turning her head to the right to see who was talking, not realizing that it's the headphone and she should just watch the monitor!

We were on the ground for way too long. The captain made an announcement that we had to stay there for 20 minutes so that we could land in Toronto after the 6am noise curfew. Addi kept trying to pull the man's hair who was sitting in front of us! It was such a struggle to get her to stop! She got into her NO, NO, NO whines because she didn't want to stay on my lap. The man sitting in the aisle seat started to sing "Twinkle Twinkle Little Star" and Addi was so shocked that she stopped whining immediately!

We finally took off and she started to doze off. I was waiting for this moment - I knew that as soon as we took off, the engine would slowly vibrate her to sleep. Suddenly, the other baby started to cry and scream at the top of his lungs - of course, this woke Addi and everyone else up! She got annoyed again and whined - she never actually cried - she just whined. I figured this would be a good time to change her wet diaper. We saw the Mommy and baby boy by the bathroom and Addi tried to get him to laugh... no luck.

I never noticed the changing table in the bathroom before. It's right above the toilet. It was a little difficult changing her in such cramped quarters. I think I made it more difficult by trying to hold her hands down too, so she wouldn't touch anything (gross!!!)

We made it back to our seats. We sat in the second last row - the last row was for the flight attendants. Unfortunately for us, they stayed awake with the reading lights on the entire time. Every single row had complete darkness except ours. I think Addi would have slept earlier if it wasn't for the crying baby and these lights.

Addi fell asleep about an hour into the flight (or actually, being on the plane). When I booked the red eye flight, I hoped Addi would sleep on the plane. It didn't even occur to me that I WOULDN'T GET ANY SLEEP MYSELF! It's difficult enough to fall asleep in the sitting position, but when you're holding a baby, there are so many other things to worry about too - like dropping her or will I hear her if she wakes up because the engine is so loud!

Addi even slept through the descent! She didn't wake up until I had to put her in the Moby Wrap again. I was able to hand over my sleeping Addi to a flight attendant while I put on the wrap!

Perk: An airline worker in a golf cart offered to drive us to customs. She said anytime you're with a child, you can ask someone to call for a golf cart and you can get a ride! It's a good thing too because we were at the complete opposite end. I actually turned down her first offer to drive us because I didn't realize how far customs was... She drove the other baby and his family. When she drove back, I flagged her down and she was happy to give us a ride after being rejected the first time!

This was the first time I've ever seen absolutely zero lines for customs. I even walked up to a personal conversation between two custom agents (He doesn't understand why he can't get girls... I think I said something witty and I think they laughed... but I was a zombie and I don't remember what it was). I gave him our passports and the NOTARIZED TRAVEL CONSENT letter for Addi and we were off to get our luggage.

A luggage porter approached me (easy target - baby, backpack and wheelie) to get my luggage off the carousel - 10 bucks to grab my 3 heavy bags AND load? HECK YEAH! He didn't realize that I was gypping him!

However, mom wasn't there waiting as expected, so he just loaded the luggage on a cart (so he could take his back) and we waited for her.

I felt like I just pulled an all-nighter. Numb and Dumb.