Planning Ahead

You'd think that after more than two years of this parenting gig, we might be a little better prepared for, I don't know...HAVING A KID.

We routinely go out to dinner, take road trips, and go places without anything to keep our active toddler occupied.

Until today. Today marks a vast change in parenting strategy. I went to the store and bought an assortment of toys and treats and stuff to keep the little Pants occupado on the airplane on Friday. More for our own sake than for the sake of the other passengers. (I figure that a flight to Orlando is bound to have its fair share of small, noisy children.)

This is Avery's third flight. The first was when she was two months old and we went to Key West and Miami. Then, last spring, we went to New Orleans. That was a memorable flight. I was dressed in a suit, because the minute we landed, I had to be at a television station to be interviewed for our Hurricane Katrina project. Tim was dressed a lot more casually. He was wearing jeans and taking care of Avery for most of the trip. (I kept referring to him as my "manny" -- which he was a lot more okay with than when I kept referring to him as my "baby daddy" early in Avery's life.) About mid-way through our flight, with Avery on his lap, Tim realized that Avery's diaper was leaking...and he had a huge wet spot on the front of his jeans. Of course, he did not want to get up and go change her and have the entire plane see his pants. So, in my suit, I took the kid back to the airplane bathroom in her soaking wet clothes and proceeded to change her diaper and her clothes -- while trying to prevent her from touching anything and working in that ridiculously tiny space.

These are the things that no one tells you about before you have a kid.