and away we go again Grand Rapids to Baltimore

I can’t say enough how chill I finally am for a trip coming up.  I

have my list of things in my head and am just packing as things get washed and handling things without any stress.  After this much travel and not leaving the country, a direct flight to Baltimore from GR, no foreign language and no exchange rate to bother with, I’m not that worried.  Even though we’re flying without John for the first time, I’ve now decided that anyone can put up with a screaming child for an hour….our plane

 leaves before John’s which is good because he can still meet with the students and stuff while we’re getting on the plane.  But the added bonus is with GR, he’s checking in right next to us, his gate is B5 while we’re B4 and we get to go through security together which makes everything much easier on me.  It’s the little things like the last diaper change while lugging all this stuff around that is the hard part and at least I have daddy for that part.  I did wonder if we were going to make it when 

Oscar started to cry when we first got on the shuttle bus at GR to go to the terminal.  He’s been so excited about a bus, that I didn’t think that this would freak him out, but it did.  John pointed out to him that people go to the “airport in buses and in cars” which is from one of his books and we were good after that.  Although, it did seem like our shuttle bus driver took some really long route to the terminal and those of you who know it, know that Gerald R. Ford airport is not that easy to take time around because it’s so small.  But

we were at our gate, ready to go and boarding in no time flat.  We left John at GR and Oscar carried his backpack and doggie onto the plane himself.  We found seats and he didn’t want to sit by the window, but went right about putting on his seatbelt and situating himself with doggie and his sippy cup and started flirting with the woman in the next aisle.  He ate his peanuts, my peanuts and both sets of pretzels too.  Had some apple juice, refused to rest and didn’t make a peep the entire flight except to ask for things he wanted.  We got compliments from the man brave enough to sit in the window seat of our row and everyone around us.  When we landed after a very bumpy descent, Oscar clapped and everyone around laughed.  He put on his backpack and carried doggie off the plane and so ended the easiest flight I’ve ever had with Oscar.  Thank you Southwest, thank you Oscar, and good job me on preparing him for this….