Wednesday, January 6, 2010

It's good to be home



Whoa...has it been almost 2 weeks since my last blog? Sorry, but when I'm at my parent's home in NJ the days just kinda blur together. Between the food and the constant visitors I'm all doped up like a bear in the zoo.

The most eventful thing that has happened in the past two weeks (besides Romolo's baptism which I will get to later) is that I flew back to Seattle alone with Max. Everyone thought I was crazy, but Max is a great baby and I had planned out each aspect of trip.

1. As soon as we pull up to the curb I strap Max into the Ergo-baby (it's like a Baby Bjorn)so I could have both hands free.

2. Check bags so that all I have to contend with is Max and one small carry on.

3. Once I get through security head to the nearest Starbucks and make a bottle for take off.

That's when I saw the yogurt parfait.

A pre-flight snack was not part of the plan but I was feeling a bit peckish (the past few weeks having conditioned to me to be eating every half hour or so), and Max likes yogurt, so I bought it.

For those of you who do not know me well I tend to run a little hot so at this point Max was starting to feel like a lava rock strapped to my chest, so I decided to just carry him.

The flight was full and when we got to the gate nearly all the seats were taken. Of course the only empty ones were in the middle of the row so it took some jostling and several "excuse me's" before we could settle in and take out our yogurt.

Now, I don't know how many of you have purchased the yogurt parfait from Starbucks, but to keep the granola from getting soggy it is packaged in its own separate cup suspended above the actual yogurt. You simply lift the granola out, dump it into the yogurt, and enjoy your snack.

But with one arm holding Max, and no table to put the yogurt down on this was proving to be a herculean task.

At first I tried lifting the ganola cup out with my teeth but it fit too snugly inside the main cup so I couldn't get a grip.

Then I came up with the brilliant idea to sqeeze the main cup so that the granola cup would push up and I could grab it.

So I gave the main cup a slight squeeze.

Nothing.

I squeezed a little harder.

With a barely audible pop the granola cup shoots 2 feet into the air showering everyone within 5 seats of us with granola.

For a moment everyone just sat there. It is amazing how throughly a small cup of granola could disperse itself once airborn. I was covered in granola, Max covered in granola, and about a dozen people I was about to share a 5 hour flight with were covered in granola.

And then everyone got up at once, as if they were choreographed, and performed the same moves. Shake, brush, untuck the shirt, fingers through the hair. One guy in an obvious toupee walked stiffly to the men's room. Max tried to eat a piece off the front of his shirt.

Most of them had a good sense of humor about it, a few looked like they wanted to kill me. I muttered some lame apology and we ate what was left of the yogurt parfait without looking up.

All in all, that minor episode not withstanding, the the trip went smoothly and fotunately we didn't have to sit next to any of the victims.

And of course we were both very happy to see Mommy.

4 comments:

Nana said...

Richie, you crack me up. It's hard enough handling a 6-month old baby on a plane, you had to add a yogurt parfait with granola on top od it. Sounds like you had a great trip. Wish I was there in Seattle with you guys.

Dad Solo said...

Before my daughter came along, I would have been one of those folks who stared daggers at you. Now, I completely sympathize and figure that after years of watching others bring babies aboard planes, IT'S MY TURN NOW, FOLKS. COOL YER JETS.

One Love Photo said...

oh man, thanks for the giggles! We fly A LOT and I am always checking out the people with babies seeing how they make it work, wondering if we will be able to pull it off. This summer I switched Jon seats just so I could sit next to a lady and her baby and give a hand. I asked "I'll trade you the retarded guy next to me for that baby in your row" and he went for it-SCORE! I am one of the rare people who like babies on planes, except I feel so bad when they cry during landing, I think it really hurts their ears. I love the picture of granola flying every which way and Max licking away. We need more dads on these blogs- I love your perspective!

Anonymous said...

ok. that was soooooo worth waiting to read. I haven't laughed that hard in a long time.