What One Year-Olds Do on Flights

Cliffs: Time may fly when you're having fun, but it sure does crawl when you're flying with a baby.

When you travel with young kids, you feel every minute of the trip.

Sunday we took two domestic flights back home from the north east of Brazil, and these are some of the things my one and a half year-old and I did to pass the time.

(I'm not going to claim that all of these are good activities, but maybe our experience will help you form your own list of inflight dos and don'ts.)

• play with the folding tray (3 minutes)
• play with the window shade (2 minutes)
• eat fruit snacks brought from home (3 minutes)
• play hide and seek with Daddy's face and the safety instruction card (3 minutes)
• climb up Daddy to try and touch the air vents (3 minutes)
• climb up Daddy to try and turn on the lights (2.5 minutes)
• climb up Daddy to try and push the call button (1 minute)
• inflate and deflate the airsickness bag (4 minutes)
• put on (i.e. attempt to eat) lip balm (0.75 minutes)
• open now-pressurized CamelBak water bottle and accidentally spray woman across the aisle (0.25 minutes)
• try not to laugh out loud (1 minute)
• play with stuffed animals (5 minutes)
• press button on stuffed animal that initiates animal noise and causes flight attendant to make an announcement reminding passengers that electronic games are not allowed at this time (0.25 minutes)
• "feed" stuffed animals (1.5 minutes)
• put airline headphones on animals (1 minute)
• attempt to eat headphones (0.5 minutes)
• throw animals on floor repeatedly (2 minutes)
• "read" airline security card (3 minutes)
• kick seat in front of us (1 minute total)
• kick off shoes (0.25 minutes)
• "sing"(4 minutes total)
• eat seatbelt (0.5 minutes)
• sway back and forth (1 minute)
• rub noses with mommy and give sweetest laugh ever (0.75 minutes)
• play with hands and give high fives (3 minutes)
• eat feet (1 minute)
• eat--or play with--airline snacks (6 minutes)
• drink and see how long we can go without spilling airline juice (1minute total)
• walk laps up and down the aisle (12 minutes)
• play hide and seek with the stuffed animals in the airsickness bag (4 minutes)
• wave, blow kisses, play hide and seek, and generally flirt with older boy in row behind us (3.5 minutes)
• play with water bottle (1 minute)
• drink from water bottle (1 minute total)
• spill water from water bottle (0.25 minutes total)
• change diaper (8 minutes)
• repeatedly search for and find the monkey and giraffe on brother's Paul Frank headphones (2.5 minutes)
• make monkey noises at the Paul Frank headphones (0.5 minutes)
• attempt to eat the Paul Frank headphones (0.5 minutes)
• look out window with brother (2 minutes)
• play with brother (3 minutes)
• fight with brother (2 minutes)
• squirm and avoid sleep (12 minutes total)
• cry because mommy would not allow Babe-A to ______ (Fill in the blank with things like "eat entire Snickers bar," "stick both feet in mouth at same time," "walk up and down the aisles while taking off," "throw iPad on floor,"or "scratch brother's other eye.") (8 minutes total)
• play with headache medicine and natural sleep aids that mommy always carries in a ziplock bag (1.5 minutes)
• sleep! (34 minutes)

Total time = 151 minutes

And that was just the first flight.

Student E-mails

Cliffs: Vacation could not have come at a better time.

In Student's defense, (s)he did admit to the the plagiarism, apologize profusely, and redo the work without prompting. Plagiarism issues don't always go so well.

Not a Good Combination

Another great pic from my SIL

Cliffs: Entropy learned an important lesson today.


"Mommy, I chewed gum, and then I drank water, and then the gum was not good."

Whirlwind Mile Run to the States

Cliffs: The good outweighed the bad, and it doesn't hurt that these tickets were outrageously cheap and we all earned lots of miles.

(Thanks to my SIL for taking all of the pictures.)



Bad: We get to the airport in Sao Paulo and discover that we left my residence card at home.

Good: The check-in agent checks with the federal police and says that I should still be able to leave and enter the country without it.

Bad: The federal police could give me a ticket when I leave and another one when I come back.

Good: I leave and return to Brazil without getting a ticket.

Bad: Our first flight leaves at 1 AM, everybody is tired, Babe-A cries a bit, and nobody gets much sleep.

Bad: Though we arrive in Miami at 6:30 AM, our second flight isn’t scheduled to leave until 9:45 PM. 

Good: We have only carry-on luggage and are able to fly standby at 9:45 AM.

Good: Because of our early arrival, instead of getting a hotel by the airport and driving 4-5 hours to Virginia the next day, we rent a car, drive an hour and a half to Maryland, and get to spend the night with K’s second oldest brother and his family.

Good: Staying with K2’s family means that we get to sleep more, eat homemade food, play with more cousins, see another aunt who happens to be visiting, and drive only 3 hours to Virginia the next day. 

Good: We arrive in Virginia just in time to eat some amazing homemade Indian food and then go to my nephews’ fall festival. Entropy gets to play games, jump around, and ride a horse. After all that time stuck in a seat, Babe-A is happy just to walk around.

Bad: K1 and my SIL have to work and their kids have to go to school.

Good: K gets to sit in on one of K1’s university classes.

Bad: We don’t have much time for visiting or shopping.

Good: We do manage to get pajamas and shoes for the kids and a few small things for us to eat and use around the house.

 

Good: In addition to Indian food, my SIL also makes delicious sushi, cinnamon rolls, mulled apple cider, and pumpkin brownies that rival these.

Good: Virginia is beautiful and still very colorful.

Bad: This makes me miss fall and the holiday season in the U.S.

Weird: While we’re in the U.S. we run a few errands at the post office. In front of me is a potbellied man with camouflage loafers and a hat that reads “SOB.” He tells me the story of his last tax return, curses the IRS, and swears that the government is trying to charge him double. Behind me is a younger, thinner man whose certified mail is telling him that his license is being revoked. He then proceeds to tell the story about how he and his friends forced the cops set up a road block in order to stop their reckless driving.

Bad: Our wonderful stay in Virginia is followed by a 5-hour drive back to Philadelphia, a flight to Miami, and another overnight flight back to Brazil.

Good: Entropy is a seasoned traveler. He loves flying, he pulls his own backpack, and he even helps us with one of our small suitcases.

Bad: Babe-A is only one, and she still has a ways to go until she is at this point.

Good: We get home safely and have the afternoon to clean up and rest before returning to work the next day.

A Round of Applause

Yesterday in my small elective writing class, an employee delivered something to my classroom, and I said something simple to him in Portuguese. My students almost never hear me speak Portuguese, and they're usually surprised to discover that I can communicate a little bit. One girl paid me a nice compliment on my language ability, and then one of the boys piped up, "Let's all clap."

And they did.

Nine, cute little 10th graders clapped for me because I said a sentence in Portuguese. And they were being sincere. And it was adorable.

Now if I could just get them to follow me around and greet all of my efforts with such enthusiastic praise.

Red-Eye

Cliffs: Time I probably won't be blogging.

After a night in a hotel (if the stand-by thing doesn't work out) and a 4 - 5 hour drive, we should have a wonderful time with family--which I'm really looking forward to--until the 15th, when we turn around and do it all in reverse.

Manga Me

Cliffs: I'm much cuter in comic.

I have a sweet Japanese student who has been in my class for the last three years (bless her heart).

Last semester she started coming to class early and drawing pictures of me on the board, and every now and then I'll get a new one on paper.

This is me with my standard school materials: messenger bag, pencil case, laptop, reusable Starbucks cup, kitty key-chain (yes, I have a cat on my key-chain), class novel, and a bar of Lindt chocolate. (Last semester our class met right after lunch, and I just may have an addiction that she's picked up on.)

This year everyone was encouraged to dress in costume for Halloween. I did not come in costume, so she took the time to draft out some possibilities for next year. I can't decide which one is my favorite, but I do really like the Vampire teeth, the cat paws, and the random pumpkin head. Maybe I could combine those three while eating a Lindt chili bar?

This last one is a family portrait. I think you can guess what I'm holding, even though the iPhone inverted the letters.

The feline family is sweet--and maybe it's just that I've been teaching too many comic books--but I can't help but notice that my likeness is the largest one in the picture, and instead of holding the baby like a good mother would, I am proudly waving a chocolate bar.

"That's Some Dream"

Cliffs: Oh yeah? Well I write for The Sporadic Post.

Today, as part of our school’s Book Week program, I got to accompany my 12th graders to a presentation by Matt Shirts.

I had never heard of Shirts before, but it turns out that he’s an American journalist who has lived in Brazil for over 25 years. He currently edits National Geographic in Brazil, and he writes a column for the Brazilian magazine Veja.

I envy Shirts for multiple reasons: he’s an American who can now speak, write, and edit Portuguese; he grew up surfing in southern California; he has his own column; he works for National Geographic.

If it weren’t for the fact that he is also a friendly and engaging storyteller, I might have spent the hour-long lecture stewing in jealousy and self-loathing instead of listening in rapt attention. 

In the end I left inspired but also a little discouraged by my comparative lack of worldly achievements. I’ve done a lot that I’m proud of, and I have a lot to be thankful for, but I’m also feeling spurred on to do more.

But while I try to find the time to take care of my current obligations, and invent time to pursue loftier ones, I’ll attempt to comfort myself with the fact that Shirts is my parents’ age, and he’s lived in Brazil since before I started school. Maybe I can be editing National Geographic within the next 25 years.