Coming Home

On our last day in Texas, we woke up at 5:30 AM in order to make it to the airport on time. Fortunately, the kids are awesome travelers, so they didn't complain about being rudely awakened well before their normal time. In fact, the sun wasn't even a slight sparkle in the sky, yet.

I left the children in their pajamas, and they slowly woke up during our ride to the airport.

Thank you again, All Things BD, for braving the early morning to drive us!

As the kids and I boarded the airplane, the stewardess pointed to BoopaLoop's booster seat and said, "You know boosters are not allowed to be used on the airplane?"

Me - "Uh, we used it on the trip here."

Stewardess - Immediately defensive, "Then someone on trip here allowed you to do the wrong thing. If you just look on the booster I'm certain you will see in red..."

Me - Interrupting, "No, that's fine, actually. The booster forced my daughter next to the window, and my son wanted to sit next to the window this time. So, that works out quite well."

Stewardess - Looking at me warily, expecting me to throw a temper tantrum any moment

Me - Smiling at the stewardess as I walked gingerly past her.

Is it just me, or are airline stewards getting a little grumpy of late? If I'm the only one experiencing this perhaps I come off a tad grumpy, so they are just responding in kind. But I'm nothing but a gorgeous beam of light, DARN IT, so that CAN'T be it.

I remember one incident (the last time we visited Texas in 2008) where the stewardess asked me what beverage we wanted.

Me - "I would like a Diet Pepsi, and kids would like water."

Stewardess - Goes to fill out our order

Now, LittleMan was drawing an elaborate picture - taking up all of his tray table space, and BoopaLoop was using my laptop to play some Dora the Explorer game.

The stewardess returns with my Diet Pepsi, which I put on my tray table. She then hands me two cups of water.

I realize that cups are normal procedure, but on our trip out to Texas, I was given two water bottles for the kids. For anyone who has traveled with young ones, bottles make the difference between disaster and a little mess. You can put a cap on the bottles. You can't cap these very wide-mouthed cups.

I look at my laptop on one side of me and the artist-in-training on the other side of me, and I ask the stewardess if I could please have water bottles instead.

Stewardess - No.

Me - (Are you kidding me with this attitude? What do you mean no?) I'm sorry, but I don't think having two open cups of water with my two children is very wise, do you?

Stewardess - It is against airline policy to offer bottles.

Me - This same airline gave me bottled water on the trip here!

Stewardess - I can't help you with that. They shouldn't have.

Me - Can you please help me out? I don't want to get water all over the place, especially in my laptop. I have two sippy cups for my kids. Could you transfer the water from these cups to the sippy cups for me?

Stewardess - It is against airline policy for me to do that.

Me - You have got to be kidding me?! What is your name, so I know who I'm complaining about when I call the airline?!

Okay, by now several ROWS of passengers are watching this interchange with avid interest.  I mean, what else is there to do on a plane except sleep?... oh and watch as a frazzled passenger dukes it out with a grumpy and unpleasant airline stewardess?!

Me - I have two children I am trying to keep happy, and you are quoting regulations at me as if there was a booklet I was supposed to have read before boarding so I would know all of this.

Stewardess - (Fuming, she grabs my sippy cups and walks away.)

I'm too irritated to say thank you, but I should have.

Stewardess returns with sippy cups full of milky-water since she didn't bother to rinse the cups out for us.

My kids complained about the water a little bit, but I reminded them that they should be thankful to have that. I also had to explain that both mommy and the stewardess were tired and grumpy, and we weren't being very nice to each other.

The flight was about 3 hours long.

When there was 45 minutes left to the flight, the stewardess came over to me, handed me a water bottle, and said, "I'm sorry for my attitude earlier. Please accept this. It is my personal water bottle."

Me - Thanks.

Yeah, thanks a lot. My kids have been sucking down milk-water for 2 1/2 hours, and you bring us fresh water now! Sigh... don't worry. I smiled at her and accepted the bottle without any attitude. But, come on!

Anyway, back to our return trip this time.

We touched down, and it was still morning for us. We spent most of the day vegging out and napping.

That evening we went to the kids' favorite restaurant, Islands, where they sang songs about how awesome I am and the heaven that is Islands.

LittleMan

BoopaLoop

We had a wonderful trip, and I didn't get into a fight with a stewardess. All in all it was a successful trip!