Travelin' With the Bubster

This week was quite a doozy for the Waite household. It involved Brett's last finals week EVER (HOORAY!) and an impromptu flight to Vegas for me and Michael. My sweet, sweet Grandpa Andrews passed away a week ago today, and so Bubsy and I flew out for the funeral. Now, those of you who know me realize that I am a planner and am not fond of last minute decisions/excursions. Needless to say, I found out about my grandpa last Sunday and was on a plane the next day. Impressed? So was I.

This was the first time that I would be traveling alone with the Bubsy. The previous times we've flown, he's done exceptionally well, so I was hoping that would continue on this trip. Luckily, when we checked in the nice lady let Brett be my "male escort" (we had several chuckles about his new title) to help me get through security. So, that was SUPER nice because security was the part of the trip that I was dreading the most. The flight also went super well. It wasn't a full flight, and I had a nice, older man a seat away from me. He was very kind to me the whole flight, and even opened my peanuts for me so I could eat while I was feeding Mikey. So, flight to Vegas: AWESOME.

The funeral for Grandpa Andrews was beautiful, and being with my family was amazing. I got to hang with my almost-new brother in law, blow a very secret honeymoon location to Sara, see Meg for the first time in FOREVER, and hang with my favorite aunt and cousins! We had one mishap on Thursday night where Bubsy had a complete melt down. We were playing Catch Phrase, and apparently, got a tad too loud for the little munchkin. He was HYSTERICAL for about 20 minutes before my cousin, Brian, was able to lull him to sleep. (PS-- Brian, I could definitely use your skills today... drop by when you get a chance!) So onto the trip home!

Friday started out well. The two hour trip back to Vegas was great. He slept for most of the trip, and woke up cute and happy! Then we hit the security line. Meg and I thought we could go through together, but had to split ways. So, there I was in line (and it took FOREVER!) trying to hold my baby, get all of my carryon stuff into the cute little containers, and collapse the stroller and get it onto the X-ray belt. This is not a super easy task when you're by yourself! I figured that one of the security people just standing there might offer to help, but no, I had to do it myself. This led to dropping the stroller several times, and almost dropping my baby on his head. Sweet. After finally getting through security, I got to my gate and was ready to relax. Too bad Bubsy had other plans. Another "the world is ending" fit happened right before we were boarding the plane. He wouldn't take a pacifier, he wouldn't take a bottle, he was just crying and crying and crying. Luckily, I met an incredibly nice woman named Joann who saved my life on this flight. She carried my bag for me, collapsed my stroller for me, sat on the plane by me, and held Mikey whenever I needed to do something. She was a LIFESAVER. After one more serious breakdown on the plane, the Bubs finally fell into a blissful slumber and stayed that way for the rest of the flight.

SO, after this long, rambling mess of a story, it all comes down to this: Thank you, Joann and the nice man that sat by me on the plane. Your help was appreciated more than you can know! Someday, I hope to pass it on when I see a struggling single mom trying to travel with an infant. Always an adventure!