The joys of travel

For some time now Jamie has been an excellent traveller. He has been clamouring lately for a plane ride, so while the reason for our recent trip up north was very sad, he was looking forward to the flight. Jamie is generally thrilled by transportation, so the fact that we get to ride the polka dot parking shuttle bus as well as go up in the airplane is great. Also, being on the plane, he has quickly come to understand, tends to mean that the normal rules regarding show watching and treat limits are considerably relaxed, if not altogether waived. But beyond this, his ability to find interesing things in almost any circumstances makes him a traveller of very good cheer and adaptability, and he is often complemented by other passengers. He is also very into helping with the luggage, which, to be honest, can actually make a real difference at this stage, as he goes from someone to be carried, to someone who can carry.

On this last trip, however, he did get a sense of some of the downside of travel. First, as we rode in the back of the polka dot bus early Friday morning and got bounced around he complained of a headache. He was pretty cranky as we got into airport and stood in line to check-in. We thought this was just tiredness and Sarah prepared a dose of the magic herbal rescue remedy that we have used for calming effect with some success in the past. In a sense it worked. It seems to have been the final straw for Jamie to throw-up from lingering car-sickness, which he did on the floor and my shoes. Once we cleaned it up though he felt much better.

On the way back, with just Jamie and I, we were comfortably seated playing with some new dinosaurs I'd gotten him for the trip when the plane encountered some fairly intense turbulence. This went on for much of the flight and for the first time Jamie was a little afraid. He handled it very well, though. When it would start to get a little bouncy he would immediately put away his dinosaurs, "so they don't get hurt." I think it was his way of sort of reassuring himself that he, put away in his seatbelt was safe too, and a way of controlling a situation, which clearly was beyond our control. I realized very soon that my constant reassurances to Jamie may have been doing much the same for me, as well as the person sitting next to us for that matter.

For his part, Connor slept for much of the trip back with Sarah yesterday. When they landed he picked up his head and exlaimed "Yook Mommy! We're on EARTH!!!!"