Meeting the Family

Annalise and I had a little change of plans and left for New Jersey on Saturday instead of Friday, on a 6:45 am flight. If you think Annalise was happy about being woken up and rushed away into the night to be ready for said EarlyMorningFlight, you would be mistaken. She was distinctly unhappy. But I still remembered our last set of flights that went so well, so I imagined it couldn't be too bad.

I was wrong.

Annalise cried and fussed and screamed for most of the flight, squirming fitfully on my lap the entire time and refusing to sleep except for two fifteen-minute intervals. It was the most stressful 6 hours of my life. It was completely miserable. I was completely miserable. Apparently the most obnoxious 14-year-old in the world sitting in front of us was completely miserable. He turned around to give me a look every. single. time. Annalise cried. Which was maybe fourteen thousand times. Finally I loudly said, "So-rry!" in an entirely unsorry fashion, and hoped he wasn't catching the peep show Annalise was creating the entire time she nursed by flinging my nursing cover about like a baton in The Screamy Baby Parade. The only good part of the flight was that I was sitting next to a very kindly grandma named Jamie who not only refrained from obnoxious glaring but held Annalise for approximately 1/3 of the flight to free up my tired arms. Apparently when she was holding Annalise for me while I went to the bathroom, Annalise fussed and the rude kid turned around and now focused his rude glares on Jamie. "You were young too once," she told me she said to him, to give him a little perspective. To which he snottily replied, "Yeah, duh. We all were." Toward which the kindly grandma reported she aimed a certain rude hand gesture.

The visit was lovely and Annalise loved her grandma and great-grandma. That is, as long as I was in the room. If she couldn't directly see me she screamed her brains out. As long as I was there though she let them hold her a lot of the time. She met aunts and uncles and cousins and great-cousins and second cousins and who-knows-what-all cousins. She thoroughly enjoyed the massive amounts of attention, which she responded to by flirting shamelessly. That is, as long as I was in the room. If she couldn't directly see me she screamed her brains out.

Annalise and my cousin Eddie.

                         

Annalise and her Great-Grandma Estelle

Mommy and Baby

Grandma Laurie and Great-Grandma

I was horrified for the ride home. The flight there was so awful that during it I found myself swearing off future flight plans indefinitely at fifteen minute intervals, or more often if it occurred to me more often. For the flight home, I sat down with miserable apprehension. I apologized to everyone all around us in advance. I pretty much held my breath for the whole hour that Annalise was awake. That's right. ONE HOUR. AFTER THAT SHE SLEPT FOR 5 HOURS. ALL THE WAY HOME. It was shocking really. Incredible. Unbelievable. She woke up 15 minutes before we landed. Every time a person walked by they made a comment about what a great sleeper I had. Now that kind of ridiculousness doesn't even deserve the dignification of a response. Annalise a great sleeper? But it certainly appeared so to all of her flight-mates. There was just one downside. She slept so long that her diaper filled up and about halfway across the country I discovered she had peed through it, soaking not only herself but also my jeans and t-shirt.

It was a small price to pay.