Alexis's First Plane Ride

Grandpa sent us to Florida in STYLE!  Uncle Jeff, Alexis and I flew first class to Tampa while the rest of the Mannion crew, except Daddy who stayed home to work a few days, made the trek to Florida.  I was a nevous wreck the night before!  I know all you Mommies can relate!  We have these horrible visions of our child throwing a World War II temper tantrum, people staring and getting kicked off the plane!  I spent the whole week prior to Spring Break talking up going to Florida and riding on an airplane and made a big deal about Alexis helping me pack her toys and clothes.  It seemed like she just might have understood me, but of course, you never really know what is going on in the mind of a stubborn 21 month old who is on the verge of the terrible twos! 

Friday night I made a last minute Pinterest craft out of a garlic powder jar.  I put her crayons in it and I never would have thought that it would be the hit of the plane ride, esecially since I had dolls, her computer and ipod and movies.  Oh to be young again!!  However, this brought on what I was sure to be the beginning World War III, and yes, people were staring but mostly they were looking at me with pity.  We had to put the crayons back in the jar and close the lid. We didn't say she couldn't have the jar, we just needed to close it up.  She threw herself on the ground and started crying!!  She cried all the way through check in until we got to our seats and I could pull the jar back out!  The stuartesses looked less than thrilled to have us sitting in first class.  I'm sure they wanted to ask us if we had the right seats!! 

But, Alexis did great!  She just wanted to climb up and down her seat.  I had plenty of snacks ready to go, so she was constantly eating.  Not the best lunch, but it did the trick.  She started to get restless the last twenty minutes of the plane ride, but I can't complain about that.  She was trying to decide if she wanted to be held, crawl around or go to sleep, so she was getting cranky and couldn't sit still.  As I'm trying to hold her and sing to her, the lovely, not so young stuartess says to me, "ma'm, you're going to have to hold her," ad if I'm not trying hardest to calm her down!  Thank goodness this wasn't the lovely lady who had been so kind and understanding during the whole flight. I just smiled and nodded. 

We left the plane, along with the iPad.  I didn't realize until we got to baggage claim that I had left it on the plane.  This is where we witnessed the kindness of strangers!  One man traveling with his family helped me watch her while we both looked for our luggage and the phone number to United.  Then one United worker told me that I needed to wait in a line at the end of baggage claim to place my lost belongings claim.  After five mintues of seeing me wrangle her and not moving in the line, he made a quick call to the terminal, and they went back onto the plane and found my iPad, which was waiting for Uncle Jeff to pick up.  Crisis averted after a ten minute panic attack!!