Flotation devices for toddlers? Yeah right, airlines.

Weird---I am having one of those moments when a word doesn't look like a word. Do you ever say a word over and over again in your head until it sounds weird? That's how I feel right now about far. Anyway, we're in Maine, which is so far away, in fact, that it took me one cab, two planes (with a 2-hour layover in Philadelphia), a hotdog, a spilled milk, and an extra hour and a half to get here. B drove with G-thing (all 27 hours) and I flew with the Toddler Monster, because, apparently, moms get to do the hard work.

Do you know I got up at 4:30 AM today? Our cab came at 5:40. Our flight was at 7:20. We sat for an hour on the tarmac. Thank god for the man with the teacup Chihuahua puppy. Loved him. The Philadelphia airport has a Gap that almost suckered me into buying something, until I saw that all of their t-shirt tees had the same wrinkle from where the supergigantic assembly machine malfunctioned and folded them incorrectly. I hate that all of their stuff looks like s-t-u-f-f. You know? They had this cute white and green jacket that drew me in until I discovered its price---could it at least have been lined? I scoff!

On the way to Maine, TM got her own seat. KARMA, PEOPLE. This is the second time it's happened, and she's a lap baby. Oh, I don't think I would have made it otherwise. She spent the first flight lounging dramatically across my lap, demanding, "I nurse! I nurse!" I'm sure at least 3 people saw my boob. On flight #2, she was only interested in the seatbelt. Somewhere along the way, she learned how to unbuckle and buckle it by herself. And was very proud.

Today was a good travel day, if such a thing can be said about traveling with children. And I don't think it can. We were asked at some point to move over to the other side of the plane so that we would have an extra flotation device for TM in case of a crash. Ok, really, if I am going to move, we are going to have a conversation about how ridiculous it is that you think my 22-month-old could survive a plane crash and then hold onto a flotation device. Boo.

We had a long layover, which worked out well because our earlier flight had been delayed. My bags were heavy, so I would have been stormy had I had to run like crazy with TM in tow. She needed that time. People were very friendly and accommodating and all of our airports had family restrooms (gotta have those!). I'm exhausted now and will probably wake up tomorrow with The Plague, but we made it---and that's really all that matters.