I am so glad I am not a pioneer

I have no pictures today, but just a story.  A story that would go a long with that book that my mom read to me as a kid "Alexander and the terrible, horrible, no good, very bad day". Traveling with Isabella used to be wonderful when she was a little baby and I could swaddle her up in a blanket when she was tired and she would fall right to sleep.  When people would stop and comment on how cute she was, they would ask if it was her first flight.  I loved this question because we have had the opportunity to travel a lot to visit family.  I loved this question because I loved seeing the look on their faces when I would say that it was probably her 15th flight.  And they would comment on how well she was doing and how I was brave to travel by myself with a kid.  And I would smile because I felt so confident and pleased with my perfect traveling skills.
Now fast forward to last Wednesday.  Isabella no longer lets me swaddle her, she is a very independent person when it comes to sleeping.  Which normally is a wonderful blessing.  I lay her in her bed and she always goes right to sleep and never fusses.  But when we are out and she has to fall asleep on my lap, it is not good.  She can't do it, and that is where we were last week.  We had gone to Utah for a week for me to get an enhancement on my PRK eye surgery (the doctor did it for free since it was a touch up).  Anyways, so Wednesday we were flying home.  Our first flight left at around 4 pm, and Bella was awful.  And she was loud, and she screamed, and she wiggled, and the only time she stopped was to shout "HI" to the people in the seats behind us.  And I was blessed to sit by this sweet lady who never looked at me with judging eyes and wondering why I couldn't get my kid to be quiet.  She just smiled.
And on top of all that, I couldn't have eye makeup on because of the surgery I had.  I had some foundation and blush on, but no eye makeup.  You can judge me if you want, but I don't have a good day if I can't get ready in the morning and take care of myself and look my best.  It just makes me feel gross if I think I look frumpy.
So first flight down, last one to go.  I gave Bella some Benadryl because she sounded like she was starting to get a cold and she had a runny nose, and I was secretly hoping that it would knock her out.  And we walk down the long airplane, all the way to the second row from the back in the window.  I like the window seat because if Bella is going to wiggle, then at least I feel like she has more space to do so.  Or I can try to occupy her with looking out the window.  We sit down and I pray that someone nice sits down next to me.  But lo and behold, here come two college guys who look very self absorbed. They sit down next to us and Bella smiles and I tell her to tell the guy hi, and she does.  Mind you, most people love that, but he didn't even so much as wave or acknowledge her. I knew this was going to be a long flight.
Bella did surprisingly good. She didn't sleep, but she didn't bother anyone else for the most part.  I however was a human jungle gym, and my hair was a climbing rope.  And even though I was not enjoying it, at least she was happy and she wasn't bothering anyone else.
But then  I could tell she was getting tired.  She was having a hard time settling down.  I was almost in tears because I didn't know what to do to help her, and I just prayed she would go to sleep.  Then, there she was facing the window (thank goodness) and she threw up.  Frantically, I started looking for the throw up bag, only to remember that I had hidden it away from Isabella because she kept throwing it at the guy next to us.  So I grabbed his and tried to catch what I could.  I then had to try to clean us up in our seat, because if I went to the bathroom I would have gotten it all over the guys next to us. So thank goodness I had made sure I packed a lot of wipes! I stripped her down into her onsie, and started giving each of us a wet wipe bath and tried to clean up what I could.  Before I could finish, she had curled up on my lap and fell asleep.  And I realized my pray had been answered, definitely not the way I would have chosen for it to be answered, but answered nonetheless. She was so peaceful and beautiful.
I asked for a bag from the flight attendant so I could gather all of our thrown up items  and hopefully minimize the smell that I knew everyone was smelling.  I told him the situation and he asked me if I wanted napkins.  I told him no, because I thought to myself I don't know what good a napkin was going to do.  As I was packing our stuff in the bag,  the stirring woke up Bella.  And then she threw up again.  Luckily I still had my cup from my drink and tried to catch it in that, and then she fell back asleep.  This happened two more times.  She woke up, threw up, and then went back to sleep.  And I ran out of places to catch it, so I ended up being covered in throw up.
 I could tell the smell was getting bad because I looked over at the guy next to me and he had his headphones in his ears and a blanket over his head.
I was starting to feel sick as well, we must have gotten the flu from somewhere, but I still can't figure that out.  It was taking everything inside of me to not throw up.  I wanted to run to the bathroom so bad, but I knew it wouldn't be possible. So I tried to find the positive in the situation, and all I could think of was that I am so glad that I am not a pioneer.  Because if I had been a pioneer, I would not be sitting in the air conditioning, I would not be on an airplane, and I would not have had my wet wipes.
Finally, after what seemed like an eternity we landed, and I told Bret to come inside and help me.  We were the last ones off of the plane and I offered to help clean it, but the flight attendant told me the cleaning crew was going to take care of it.  I felt so bad, I wish  I could find out who they are and write them a thank you note.
On the walk out I kept reassuring Isabella that we were almost there, but I think  it was more for me than it was for her.  And there he was.  My knight in shining armor standing at the end of the hallway.  As soon as we got to the family bathroom, I cried. He kept telling me it was ok, that I was a good mom and he helped me clean her up and he did everything I needed him to. He helped me get everything to the car and cleaned up after she threw up again. He gave me a big hug and let me talk to him the whole way home so that I could keep my mind off of how sick I felt. He never complained about how tired he was or that our flight didn't get in until 1:30 in the morning, or that we didn't get home until 3:30 am. He was everything I needed him to be.
The next day Isabella was perfectly fine.  She slept a lot, but when she woke up she was happy. I was so thankful that she is a self-entertaining kid because I was so sick I didn't even have the energy to get off of the couch, and Bret was at school all day studying.  But when he came home he brought me Sprite. My go to comfort when I am feeling sick, because that is what my parents always gave me.  And I miss my mom more when I am sick because she was always there to take care of me, and I knew she would have been there if she could.


And that is my story.