Nature-Free Zone and a Christmas Miracle

 

Emily (pink) and Madeleine (purple) baking Christmas cookies.

 Granted I am by no means a mathematician, but according to my calculations, Madeleine and Emily have flown nearly 100,000 miles in their seven-and-a-half years of existence (This is what comes of living far away from family while still desiring to see them on a periodic basis).  So, imagine my surprise when Miss Emily, who had "called" the window seat a generous 24 hours in advance, began to totally lose it during take-off from Dulles on Friday afternoon. Yep, it's the holiday season and we are traveling over the river and through woods courtesy of Southwest Airline's fleet of 737s.

Emily and Madeleine are pretty cool customers.  They handle their boarding passes with ninja-like dexterity and can shove their backpacks under the seats in front of them before you can say, "overhead bin".  They review the safety card and tell me, with great enthusiasm, they are fully capable of holding oxygen masks over their noses and mouths while waiting for me to put my mask on and then adjust the straps on theirs.  In other words, my biggest concerns are strategically doling out the activities so they last the duration of the flight, collecting wrappers and other forms of refuse, and making fun of the products in Skymall Magazine.

Side note of background information for the following....The first grade classes have been celebrating Winter Holidays Around the World.  Apparently, they get to their various destinations by "flying" in a plane in the classroom (I'm picturing desk chairs in rows with the teacher pretending to be the captain).

Friday we push-back from the gate on time, we get to the runway, we are cleared for take-off, the flight attendants have a seat and buckle-up, we start to accelerate, and Emily goes monkey-ear crazy!  Her eyes pop open, her whole body goes rigid, the tears start and I'm pretty sure her little fingers were gripping the armrests hard enough there are now ten small dents in them.  She whips the window blind down with lightening speed and announces, "We are going too fast!"  Cue Madeleine to object to not being able to see out of the window.

Are you kidding me?!  Is this real?!  These two kids used to love take-off.  We had a whole "Pat, pat, pat, blast-off!" routine, stolen from Little Einsteins,  we used to do during take-off because it was thought by some to be the "fun" part of the flight (take-off is still my favorite).  Now I have a genuinely panicked white-knuckle-flier in my row.  I leaned over Madeleine and told Emily she was fine, she had flown lots of times before, we were safe, and we have to go fast to get into the air.  As we hurtle down the runway the tears stream down her face and she announces, in her pitiful little voice, between sobs, "I like the airplane in my classroom better."  Sorry.  Yep, that's it.  You pushed too far.  I don't have enough maternal nurturing for this.  At the point my daughter, who has a few brain cells and a pretty solid ability to reason, announces she prefers "flying" in her classroom "plane" as opposed to the real plane, I had to turn my head and look at Till across the aisle so I wouldn't chuckle in her sweet little face.  We finally lift-off the ground (oh yeah, we weren't even in the air for all of this) and the captain banks the plane to the left, Emily is by the right window, and Emily's eyes manage to grow larger.  I told her it was okay because he was just straightening out the plane, that they don't go straight up.  She was fine with this, but an assertion was made, "...he better not tip it my way," which is of course when the captain banks to the right.  Emily experiences minor heart failure.  I asked Emily to think about watching big birds fly and how they bank from side to side when they are riding the wind with their wings outstretched.  I even held out a hand and demonstrated.  This is when I was informed, in rather acerbic tones, "Mommy!  I really don't want to hear about nature right now!"  Okay kid, you're on your own.

Our connection in Denver was fairly long, but I will take that over too short.  We were able to stretch, eat something, refill water bottles, etc. etc. etc.  We even found two overpriced American Girl magazines, complete with complimentary "how to draw..." mini-books, in a gift shop and plunked down our $16; worth every penny at that point.  However, between the pre-holiday pace we've been keeping, the anticipation of Christmas, the four hour drive to D.C. just to get on the plane, the time zones, etc; we were pretty much starting to melt at about 7PM Denver time and our plane didn't leave until 8:55.  Then Southwest held us for a good 40 minutes waiting for connecting passengers (I have no problem with this act of kindness, but would appreciate it if we can be the recipients on the return trip when we have a whopping 45 minutes to connect!).

It was on the flight from Denver to Spokane that we experienced our Christmas Miracle.  The girls slept!!!  I mean they really slept!!  This wasn't the 10 minutes they nod off, I think it is safe, I doze off, they wake-up and we are rolling again, trickery they have pulled on me in the past.  They really slept! Madeleine was out before take-off (Thank God as it was her turn with the window seat over which she was in tears...No specifics could be given as to why she didn't want that seat, she just didn't. Alternative arrangements were provided and rejected, so sit by the window she did.) and Emily was starting to go soon after.  I traded seats with Emily so both girls could lean against me, and off to Slumberland they went.

Emily asleep!!!  Not the best picture, but I was excited to have grabbed the camera in the first place.

Madeleine asleep!  Woo hoo!

Yesterday, the girls cut out sugar cookies and gingerbread men with Grandma, Uncle Paul, and Aunt Liz and watched part of a movie with Grandpa.  They also made some pretty phenomenal crafts and did a science experiment with Aunt Liz.  The whole family went out to dinner and managed to leave the restaurant intact.

Today we have ice skating with Uncle Kyle and Aunt Chessy followed by an overnight at their house on the docket.