18 Hours on a Plane with a 3 Year Old

Well, maybe not quite 18 hours. But including the 3 hour stopover in Vancouver, it was.

Michael and Jeremy got super excited going up and down all the escalators and elevators at the Calgary airport before we said our farewells. Michael enjoyed his first plane ride to Vancouver, especially being able to watch Thomas and Bob the Builder on demand and eating both our snacks.

By the time we reached Vancouver at 10:30pm, Michael was pretty tired and was tripping over his feet during the very long walk to the international terminal. Luckily, there were a few moving sidewalks, which he loved, although he landed flat on his face after trying to get off the first one.

As our gate was almost at the end of the terminal, I found a nice, secluded spot for Michael to lie down and sleep, where I thought I would still be able to hear announcements. Silly me. I did hear the first one, telling me that I had to switch our boarding passes. I ran over there, hoping to do it quickly so that I could get back to Michael. No such luck. So I watched and waited for the line to shorten. No such luck.

Finally, I went up to a grandfatherly type Chinese man and asked if he spoke English. "Little," was the reply. So, using many hand gestures, I asked him to watch Michael while I stood in line. There were five people ahead of me. The first person took ten minutes. The next seemed to be taking as long. So, I put on my most desperate, pleading face and asked the white man next in line if he would switch places with me, as my son was being watched over by a stranger far down the terminal. He sighed, but agreed willingly. It took me about three minutes to change my boarding pass, and then I ran back to Michael and did the multiple "Thank you"s to the Chinese man.

Until he boarded his own plane, the Chinese man kept on coming over to me, practicing his limited English, at one point showing me some official documents, and generally trying to be friendly. But, honestly, I had no idea what he was saying 75% of the time.

The next announcement I heard was "All passengers for flight BR009 should now be on board." What!?! That was my plane, and I hadn't heard any boarding calls. Michael was fast asleep, we had his backpack, my large purse, both our jackets and Michaels rain boots strewn around us, and we needed to get on the plane NOW? I hurriedly woke up Michael, shoved his boots on and dragged him to the gate. He was not impressed and was fairly wailing by the time we got there. Then he started coughing so hard I thought he was going to be sick (he was just getting over a cold).

Our seats were in the middle section of the second last row of the massive plane. By the middle of the plane, I had to stop as I was sure he was going to throw up everywhere and asked for a sick bag, which sent four stewardesses flying around trying to find one. We finally got to our seats and found that there was no one assigned to the seat beside Michael. The kind Chinese gentleman at the other end of the middle section suggested (using hand gestures) that Michael lie down across the empty seat, which he did and promptly fell back asleep, despite the same 30 second long, loud Chinese New Years music segment blaring until we took off.

Michael slept fitfully for about nine hours, waking up once for a fairly major nosebleed. We were right by the bathrooms, and it was the middle of the night, so at least we didn't have to wait in line, but Michael hates nosebleeds, and I hate airplane bathrooms which can barely accomodate one adult, let alone an adult trying to hold the bleeding nose of a crying 3 year old. I'm glad that he slept for so long, despite the fact that I couldn't because he was taking up his two seats, and most of mine as well.

As I was awake anyways, I watched a movie in English with the volume turned up so loud that I was sure I was causing permanent damage, but could still only hear about half the dialogue over the engine noise. Then, I decided to just watch foreign films with English subtitles so that I didn't even have to put on the earphones. So, I watched a cheesy Chinese Film "My DNA Says I Love You" (the title says it all), and a French comedy about three sets of parents who are trying to get their kids (in the tweens) under control by acting like kids themselves. The "Mirror Effect" according to the shrink of the movie. I'm sure it wouldn't actually work in reality, but it was entertaining nevertheless. I tried dozing between all of them and got a few minutes sleep in here and there.

Michael was pretty disappointed in the four kids TV selections (all Chinese, only one cartoon) so we spent the rest of the ride going through all the activities I had in my purse. He was also pretty disappointed in breakfast. As we were the last ones served, they were out of the western breakfasts, and only had congee with chinese vegetables left. He ate a bite of a bun and that was about it.

We were both pretty glad to arrive in Taipei after that.

Oh, and in case anyone else ever thinks to bring a Rubbermaid drinking box on a plane, thinking that it will avoid spills and mess, take it from me. Don't. All the pressure changes cause the juice to spurt out everywhere, even when I left it open. Next time I'll know to just bring a few straws.