AKA first flight success!!!

Quick background: both of E's great-grandfathers were career Air Force pilots. My FIL's dad flew B-52s in WW2, and once prompted Eisenhower to issue a decree banning the buzzing of the Eiffel Tower, which Dave had done after Paris was liberated.

My FIL was also a career Air Force pilot, and D himself spent 3 years jumping out of planes in the 82nd Airborne.

So flying is in their blood!

I think the only way E's first flights could have gone better would be if he had slept 100% of the time. The first flight was 3 hours past his bedtime, on a day where he only napped for 45 minutes. We were praying he would sleep on the flight, and put him a sleep diaper and PJs before we boarded, but he tends to get really manic when he's tired, so it would be a crapshoot whether he slept or freaked out the whole time.

He stayed awake for about half an hour after take-off. He was on my lap then (well, pretty much the whole time) and spent take-off with his face glued against the window laughing. He read for a bit on my lap, then fell asleep--complete dead weight sprawled on me. Only cried once, when I had to stand up to de-board...I had woken him up!

The flight home was super stressful for us (at least the getting there--we got there 2.5 hours early and wouldn't have made our flight before a super lucky break in the security line), but E dozed through most of it. He only slept about 25 minutes of a 2 hour flight, but spent the rest of it reading, coloring or just chilling on my lap.

It was amazing. I was prepared for the worst, and he gave me pretty much the best!

For all that I've been stressing about it on here I wanted to give a happy update