August 11

On August 11, I celebrated my 14 month birthday by flying to Seattle. I started the day by catapulting myself out of bed and landing right on my head. backwards and upside down. ouch. I cried but I wasn't hurt. The sad part was my mom had to wait until I moved on my own to be sure I didn't have a spine or neck injury. I have since done this again.

The day was busy and my sister came over to play with me while my mom packed up and tried to get organized for our trip. Our flight left at 5:55pm so we adjusted my nap schedule to ensure that I would sleep for at least part of my flight. We learned our lesson about pre-boarding. The airlines allow families with babies to pre-board thinking that this is some kind of huge favor. It's not. What it really means is you will sit on the airplane for an extra hour before it even moves. bad deal for a wiggly toddler. We learned on the way back to get on the plane no sooner than the final boarding call!

I was an angel on the plane, though. I slept. I played. The saving grace was a pack of stickers my sister gave me. I put them on the back of the seat. took them off. moved them to the back of the next seat. repeated this over and over and over for an hour or more.

The added bonus was that the person sitting next to us was a nanny so I sat in her lap for the last part of the flight. You know when you are flying into Seattle and you pass by Mount St. Helen's and Rainier and the trees and all of the beautiful scenery? That is about when I climbed into the nanny's lap and enjoyed her window seat.