All right. Let me tell you a story, a story of kiwi
mateship….
Our flight to Auckland from the east coast was something I had been dreading for
months. I did extensive internet research hoping to find secret answers to the
question of how to deal with and entertain an almost 1 year old for over 24
hours of travel time. I stayed up nearly all night the night before we left,
downloading iPad apps that I thought might catch her fancy and packing fruit
snacks into tiny containers. As it turned out, time was on my side. On the
drive to Newark, she took her morning nap most of the way. She found making her
way through the airport quite entertaining. Sadly, when we got on the plane we
found that we were not in Economy plus seating (which we had sprung for out of
fear). A discussion about this with United was unfruitful, to put it mildly. Speaking of which, United Airlines is the worst, and I recommend that you never, ever choose to fly the unfriendly and bitter skies with them. The lack of extra space meant that for most of the flight, our daughter was struggling, fussing,
and kicking the back of the seat in front of her – although we probably got
about 1 hour or so of her in a glazed, swaddle-burrito state. The iPad apps which I paid several hard-earned dollars for were met with an initial stare of wonder and then shortly thereafter, pounding on the screen with an open palm.
Once we arrived in LAX and fought our way through the crowds
and the chaos, we got aboard our real long haul flight to Auckland. There was
some early struggling as we climbed towards cruising altitude, but once we got
there, a kindly flight attendant (who was very solicitous towards baby and
toured her around the plane to give us a break, what a saint) put up the
bassinet on the bulkhead wall, and we were able to settle her down for a
“night’s rest”. It nearly blew my mind when she slept for over 9 hours. I was
able to watch 2 movies (“The Butler” and “The Beach”) and even sleep myself for
several hours, and get some true enjoyment out of my luxurious “spaceseat”,
which was a futuristic shell-like seat with a little foot pillow and a curved
back allowing for easy head-resting.
Upon arrival into Auckland, after a brief encounter with a
fruit-sniffing beagle (due to my having just disposed of an orange prior to
crossing through customs), we were on our way, into the blue skies and sun! We
adhered to family tradition and the first stop was One Tree Hill to survey the
beautiful city, which felt windy and timeless, like we had just been there only
a short while before, when in fact it had been 3 years.
After freshening up, we became presentable enough to visit
Grandma. We found her in the nursing home, sitting at a table in the
common area. She seemed pleased to see us, more so husband and baby since
she seemed unsure as to who I was. “What a heavy girl!” She exclaimed (in a
kindly way, I suppose), and I did catch this on video in case baby ever
wants to know what her great grandma’s first impression of the meeting was, although I fear what impression this may make upon her possibly sensitive psyche. We
showed off all baby’s latest moves, from toddling across the floor
unassisted to yodeling. Having exhausted all possible means of impressing Grandma, we then departed to ensure baby's new reputation remained unsullied by crabbiness and fussing. We would soon spend our first baby-free week in almost a year, and we were awed by the prospect...
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