The holidays usually mean travel for the CrumleydotOrg Family. This year is no different, which is why last Wednesday D drove Fuller and me to the Atlanta Airport, dropped us off at crubside check-in and we flew direct to Dayton, OH to spend Fuller’s first Christmas with my family. (D will drive up tomorrow.)

The last family Christmas we had with my side was in 2000 in Germany, where McDad was stationed. This is very special to have my sisters, bro-in-law, Grandma, Uncle T and Aunt S, their kids and daughter-in-law, and Great Aunt M here to celebrate. SG & Nat will arrive today and begin filling up the house. By Wednesday everyone will be here.

Flying with an infant in my lap was something I swore never to do. (Oh the things we say when we are young.) But when someone else offers to pay, you kind of forget what you swore you would never do. In fact, it wasn’t until after the ticket was purchased that it sunk in that I would be flying with an infant and when that realization hit me I thought, “What have I done?”

Fuller doesn’t have a highly scheduled lifestyle. We don’t insist that we feed him at 9, 12, 3, 6, etc. We just make sure he goes through a “cycle” of sleeping, eating, playing (in that order) and that it all occurs in a 2-3 hour time span. We know from Thanksgiving that he doesn’t travel especially well. At home, he was getting to the point where he was consistently stretching his cycles to 3 hours but when we traveled he would suddenly shrink them back down to 2. The unpredictable variable is how long he will sleep.

So, with this unpredictable variable, I wondered how this travel experience would go. Would he be ok on the 2 hour trip to Atlanta? Would he be fussy through security? How long would security take? Once we were at the gate would he be ok and not break into a shriek fest before settling back down for another nap? Or would I be apologizing to fellow travelers as they looked at me nervously wondering, “How far away is that baby going to be sitting from me on the plane?” I wondered if Fuller’s ears would be ok and if I could hold off feeding him until takeoff so that it would help him with the ear popping.

Well, the answers were like this: Fuller slept the entire 2 hours to Atlanta, waking up when we took him out of the car and strapped him in the stroller. Instead of demanding to be fed, he cooed and smiled while we checked in and breezed through security. I felt such relief that he was being so good that I almost cried while making my way to terminal A.

As soon as we got to the gate I fed him and he was happy and playful once full. Then he dozed in the stroller while I took a stroll to find myself some lunch. We ran into my Grandmother (aka Grandma Great) who joined us.

When the Delta agent manned the counter, I went to see if there was an open seat next to me (so I could hopefully strap Fuller into the seat instead of holding him). The Delta agent said the flight was full, but she rearranged some things so Grandma Great and I could sit next to each other in a row of 3 and left the middle seat open so that Fuller could be there.

Fuller did fuss before we boarded the plane, but between me and Grandma Great, we held him off for eating until we got on the plane, making his take off very smooth. He then fell asleep for the rest of the flight. He even slept through the landing.

The only bump was when we reached McDad’s car. There Fuller decided that crying would be the best way to travel. But once we were a mile into the trip home, he calmed down, making it pleasant again.

So far our time away from D has been pleasant, though we miss him lots. Fuller is loved a lot and always has someone to hold him and giggle with him. I predict a very nice family Christmas.

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