January 13th, we set off to fly home from our extended trip in Sacramento/Reno. (Side note: January 13th was also mine and Kevin’s first date 5 years ago. Funny that we were returning to him on this day.) I haven’t flown commercial with Jameson in a while, so I knew we were in for an adventure. I also had to buy him his own seat for the first time. I got our bags packed, and also got our carry ons packed. Jameson had his Lightning McQueen suitcase full of books to keep him busy on the plane. I also scheduled the flight for 1:20 pm thinking he would nap on the way. Yah right!

Jameson insisted on pulling his suitcase throughout the whole airport. Plus, he also decided to run and not pay attention to anyone else around him. Luckily, most people laughed at him as he ran down the terminal yelling, “Mom! I find da airpane!” while pulling his luggage.

 

While we waited to board, we watched out the window at another plane getting ready to pull out. I looked up to see the pilot in that plane waving, very distinctly, at Jameson. I had to point him out, but Jameson did see him and waved back. I didn’t think they could see through the windows into us, but I thought that was so nice of the pilot. The guy sitting next to me was impressed, too.

As we boarded the plane, we were stopped right when we got through the door. The asked us to wait while they seated the lady in front of me who needed assistance. The pilot of our plane was standing there and asked Jameson if he wanted to see in the cockpit. Really? With all the security they still allow kids to do this? Jameson was all for it, till he looked in and saw all the buttons and got scared.

We started heading to find a seat, and I got to watch all the faces look at us like, “Please don’t sit by me.” I kept telling Jameson to head to the back of the plane where we wouldn’t bug anyone. We found some seats with a nice lady behind us. I was thankful it was not a full flight so we got our own row. Jameson was not ok with wearing the seatbelt during take off and landing. We had some tantrums, and I thought the guys in front of us would say something. They were too busy filming a documentary on the take off and landing of the plane. Luckily, once the seatbelt sign was off, he was in a better mood.

   

Jameson was also very interested in keeping up on the safety and evacuation of the plane. He mostly liked seeing the diagram of the airplane.

 

After we landed, the lady across the isle informed me he was very good. When I looked at her like I thought she was crazy, and he was horrible, she said, “He was good, and you survived.” Thanks, lady. I appreciated that she could look past the tantrums on take off and landing, and saw the effort I was putting into keeping him quiet and happy.

It took us forever to walk to baggage claim where Kevin was waiting. Not only did Jameson have to pull his McQueen bag, there are fish in the floor tile, that he had to touch. He would drop his bag, and yell, “A fish!” Then he would try to get them out of the floor. It took forever. We finally reached the escalators, and as we neared the bottom, I pointed out Kevin to Jameson. He almost didn’t wait for the escalator. He yelled, “DAD!” as loud as possible and went running. It was the best moment of the day.

For the next 24 hours, all we heard from Jameson is, “I ride a airpane.” and that he wants to go again. We had a great trip and are so grateful to everyone that let us use their rooms and beds and took care of us, but we are so glad to be home again.