Siennalee isn’t quite sure what to make of it all.
"Are we goin' to Klamath Falls?" She asks, watching me scurry around the house with armfuls of clothes, blankets, and those miscellaneous better-not-forget-me things which threaten to take your luggage over the magical airline-imposed 50-pound-limit golden rule.
"Nope, we're going to Idaho. We're going to leave tonight and then get up real early and get on an airplane" here I say the word airplane with the same hallowed, breathy voice I save for princesses and Santa Claus "and we're going to fly over to Idaho to see family."
Being 3, she accepts this and goes on with her day, until the next odd thing I do that she just can't quite figure out.
“Why you putting all those vitamins in there?” she asks, quirking her daddy’s eyebrows at me, “Are we goin’ eat them all now?”
“They are for this weekend – for the trip we’re taking.” I answer, putting the baggy resolutely out of her reach.
She accepts this and goes back to her shopping cart over by the dining room table. She’s got her own errands, after all.
Jason and I have spent the past few days explaining to Siennalee about the first part of the trip we’re leaving for today and, most imminent-importantly, about tomorrow – when the airplane will come into play.
“It’s going to be big,” I tell her, “like a bus."
"Where is it now?" she asks.
"I'm not sure," I shrug, truthfully, "but it will be ready for us when it's time for our trip."
She spends a few minutes theorizing about where she's pretty sure it is right now.
"It will probably be very loud.” I casually remark to her after she's settled on where the plane most likely is at this very moment.
She gives me the eyebrow again, “I don’t like loud noises,” she reminds me.
“I know,” I assure her, “but the plane has to make noise just like our car has to make noise. It’s going to take us waaay up in the air, through the clouds, and maybe we’ll be able to see mountains waaay below us.”
She considers this, and I can see her weighing the plane’s transgression of being loud with its ability to fly us waaay up in the air. “Okay,” she agrees, with a look that tells me “for now.”
Look out, Alaska Airlines. We’re headed your way.
3 comments:
My daughters have never been on an airline airplane but Eric's grandpa (a pilot) took us all on a ride in a little personal aircraft last year. At first Beth loved it. What delighted me more than anything was that she actually quoted from a favorite book to describe her experience--she looked out the window at the world far below and then said the same thing Curious George says when the balloons carry him up and away. "The houses look like toy houses and the people like dolls!"
And then we hit a little patch of turbulence and she started screaming and wouldn't stop until we landed.
Lucy, on the other hand, fell asleep.
Let's hope Siennalee's experience falls somewhere inbetween :)
You should give her some gum just before takeoff. I know, I know. Gum for toddlers? Yes. Gum for toddlers on airplanes.
Then play the fun game of plugging noses and sealing mouth while blowing. Fun. Right? Yeah, it helps those little ears. At least it helps mine.
I'm so excited for her!
Post a Comment