A Noteworthy Milestone

This post may likely only be interesting to me, but.....I'm journaling....

After this last flight home, 2 weeks ago, I started thinking

"THIS MIGHT BE THE LAST TIME WE FLY WITH A LAP CHILD!"  

Oliver turns 2 in February, and I don't think we'll be flying before then.

This might not sound like such a big deal, but let me explain.   

This month Marks the 11th anniversary of our move from Salt Lake City in August of 2007.

In those 11 years, we have made many flights.  

I even counted them, because I thought the kids might not believe me when they get older, and they have children themselves.  I gotta get my due credit.  Maybe they'll beat my "record."

 I have made 14 Trips out West to visit the family (always with the kids) in the past 11 years.  3 of those trips were me flying solo without Scott.  One of those trips to Utah was via car, so no flight there.

Scott had 3 additional trips out West, but I didn't count those because they were sans kids (for interviews.)  Significant visits in their own right.  

(One ended up being prolonged for Grandma Brown's funeral, and we were glad Scott was able to be there due to some savvy airline attendants catching him in Atlanta or thereabouts, and sending him back to Utah.)

We've made other flights with the kids as well. 

All together, I can count 18 RT flights and 3 one way flights.  

That's 39 (1 way) flights with children that I have taken.  

31 of those flights were with lap children. 

(I'm not talking about layovers either.  That's not factored in.  

I'm just counting destination to destination as one flight.)

 Some of these flights have gone over really well and easy.  Newborns just nurse and sleep mostly.  It can be really easy. 

When the kids are over a year old, they get challenging.  Very challenging.  And we've had several of those flights with a screaming baby who is trying to sleep.  

Once Timmy dropped his binky on the flight, and cried and couldn't sleep the whole first 4 hours back to Michigan.  Once we arrived, a man handed us a binky and happily said "Oh - is this yours?"  (We had been asking all the people around us to please look under their feet for it 4 hours ago, but he had been asleep!)

I would rate the #1 worst flight with a lap child as our 11 hour flight from Frankfurt to Portland in July 2015 when we moved back to the United States.   Cora slept the first 2 hours after the stress of getting up early to get to the airport with our 9 suitcases. When she woke up, she was awake the other 9 HOURS.  Keeping her entertained and from crying those 9 hours was TOUGH.

This last flight (July 2018) though not nearly as long, rivaled that one.  It was tough to get Oliver to sleep both flights.

Scott swore he'd not do it again.  Well, he probably won't have to!  I think we might be done with lap child flights!  Hopefully, at age 2 next year, Oliver will be happy to watch TV.

Side Note: You might wonder why I wouldn't just bring the car seat and buy a seat.  It's definitely easier.  Well, if we spent an average of $250 per flight (which is the usual price per ticket when we fly in the US) than I have saved over $4000 by having a lap child on those 31 flights. 

An era has ended.

Now.....when Oliver potty trains....THAT will be a HUGE Milestone!