flight 601

we made it to california. and it was quite the journey! probably the longest and most tiring 11 hours of our lives (mayyyybe. there have been some other intense non-airplane-related 11 hours in our lives, but all with much more leg room).
our flight was over booked and they had switched planes at the last minute, and the seats they gave us weren't the ones we asked for, so the super star flight attendants did their best to accommodate us+baby. unfortunately, the best was kinda sucky.
but its actually all quite humorous as im thinking about it now.

clay (remember, a 6'4", 225lb grown man), sitting in a middle seat across the aisle from me, next to an old man who slept 90% of the time, thus leaving clay to do a pretty impressive pole vaulting manoeuvre just to get out to use the toilet or to help me with willow, after being made aware of my distress by my flailing arms or throwing of a crumpled something.
me, sitting in another middle seat with a baby cot in front of it, next to a teeny tiny little man who said he had diabetes and therefore could not switch seats for a lady with a baby (who needed to get up and walk around with said baby/pee approximately 300 times) because he needed to be able to stretch his legs, even though his legs didn't even reach the aisle, nor did he get up and stretch his legs bar twice to use the bathroom. yes, he didn't even bother to get up when i needed to get out, leaving me to crawl over him whilst holding a baby and bending slightly to get past the baby cot, my bum in his face.
and willow, who was the greatest  in spite of everything. only a couple of very short lived breakdowns, she was like the flight mascot, with all of our walking up and down the aisles, making faces at the people looking, ladies grabbing at her toes and fingers, giggling at all the people telling her how good and cute she is, sleeping her best in the cot even though it was noisy and bright.

BUT redeeming moment of the entire flight: about halfway through the flight, when i was starting to reach my end, the lady in the seat next to me (in her broken english with a dutch accent) told me that i was a great mom, that i was kind and patient and sweet and that i have a great little girl because of it. she told me that her daughter said the same thing and that we were "a family for the future". needless to say, that gave me the super strength to get through the rest of that flight.

after all that though, we made it. and it was so worth it!