I'm tired of hearing about how hard life with a baby is. Yes, of course it's hard, but it's also awesome, and people need to not be inundated with horror stories about all the ways in which your life will change once you have a baby, because this may cause pregnant women undue stress and vivid nightmares (hypothetically, of course) which is just not worth it.
I just needed to get that complaint out of my system while I still can because my New Year's Resolution 2013 #1a is Complain Less. This is a corollary to Resolution #1, Be More Grateful. In the spirit of my intentions for the New Year, I bring you The Unofficial YAY! List of Cool Things About a Five Hour Flight Delay With A Baby.
We had an 8:25 am flight from Providence to Denver, which meant a wake up call of 5:30am. Yuck. Have I mentioned I'm not a morning person? I hit refresh on the Southwest app on my phone, under the warm cozy covers, hopeful that there was a delay that would justify hitting the snooze button another time or two, to no avail. As it turned out, I could have hit the snooze button about 45 times and still made the flight, but we didn't know this until 9:30 am, at which point we'd been sitting on the plane on the tarmac for over an hour. We were informed there was a safety issue and that we would be leaving at 1:10pm. Which turned out to be 1:35pm, but whatever.
Because we didn't pack a lunch, we ate at an airport restaurant. I should have known my glass of Savignon Blanc would be ridiculously expensive, considering a) it was purchased at an airport and b) the menu did not list the prices. However it wasn't until we got the bill that we realized it was a $13 dollar glass of wine. For the record, I don't buy bottles of wine that cost more than $12.99. Anyway, not knowing what a rip-off the wine was, I savored it happily.
YAY #1: Enjoyed stupidly expensive glass of wine
While drinking said glass of wine and eating lunch, we discovered how much Sweet Pea enjoyed oyster crackers. They were complimentary, which makes me feel better about the wine. You know what I liked better than watching my daughter feast on her new treat? Scooping her out of her high chair and finding 80% of the crushed crackers on the floor and knowing someone else was going to clean them up. Maybe the glass of wine was a bargain after all.
YAY #2: No cleaning up the high chair or the kitchen floor
Not realizing were embarking on what would become a 12 hour journey, we neither packed lunch nor an adequate diaper supply. The night before our trip, three disposable diapers seemed like plenty. But by the time we lined up for family boarding (for the second time), with one lonely diaper in the diaper bag, I feared our rations were insufficient. I saw a lady with a slightly older baby and asked if she had extra diapers. She said she did although they were a size too big. A roomy diaper would be better than no diaper so I thanked her for whatever she could spare. Before the handoff was complete, The Diaper Fairy appeared in the form of a bearded stranger who happened to overhear us. He came bearing two size 2's and to him we are so grateful. This small act of kindness reinforced my faith in humanity.
YAY #3: Visit from Diaper Fairy
As far as what we did for four hours at the airport... There was a lot of walking with Sweet Pea in the Ergo Carrier in an attempt to get her to sleep. Which was successful, though it resulted in a sore back for me. It was totally worth it, however, because sleep she did. I even successfully performed the Super Stealth Ergo Carrier to Airport Floor Manuever, which resulted in 30 minutes of this: