Soooo.... we woke up before the sun came up and Stella had no idea what was going on. We got on the Airport Express in her new "airport stroller" and off we went. We checked in at Cathay Pacific. She screamed her head off in the security line, as people are known to do. But, we made it to the lounge with plenty of time for me to feed her breakfast and wolf down a bit of my own. We boarded the plane and the flight attendant politely asked, "Mrs Dillon, are we waiting for your husband???" to which I replied, "No that seat is for my baby..." I nearly cried that my camera battery had run dead because Stella looked so funny sitting in her giant business class seat with all of her toys spread around her. She was an angel on that flight. Though I did give her Calpol before takeoff hoping it would knock her out. It did for about 20 minutes. Then she suddenly woke up in that "I want to rock right now.....hit it!!!" kind of mode. But, it didn't matter. She watched Mulan while I watched Knocked Up. I even ate lunch and had a few glasses of wine. She was completely fine, but who wouldn't be in business class on a Cathay Pacific 747?
Then, we arrived in Tokyo. We switched to Japan Airlines as they were willing to provide a toddler type car seat for her from NRT-LAX which, I think, now that we've been through the drill, isn't "required" as I was told. The lounge was fantastic. They had highchairs and unbelievably good Japanese food. We basically hung out for 3 hours (I requested a long layover so I could feed her with no rush). The highlight for Stella was this booster seat type thing attached to the wall in the bathroom stalls. It's clearly for mothers traveling alone who need a place to put their kid when going to the bathroom. I love Japanese heated toilets but this contraption that I stuffed her in was the bomb. I handed her a toilet seat cover and she literally laughed her head off. It was funny.
Then we got on the JAL plane. I love their business class because it has shiatsu massagers in the seats and more room than Cathay Pacific, though the flight entertainment is far inferior. Anyway, Stella's seat this time had a car seat which she hated. She refused to sit in it which made for a miserable flight. Her seat served as expensive toy storage. She was tired, I was tired. She got super cranky. She fussed a little, but most of the time I had to hold her face up to the Disney channel and keep rewinding this one Mickey Mouse cartoon which was the only one that held her attention. Miserable. The one drawback to business class is the distance between the seat and the TV so I was literally on the edge of my seat. She desperately tried to sleep on my chest, straddling my legs with hers but we were both so uncomfortable. It was awful. Though the food was good and the staff was super nice. They kept bringing her toys every few hours and even made her fresh mashed veggies. I felt badly that I didn't let her eat them because I had no idea what they were. I hope that I can request no car seat on the flight back. Cathay wouldn't let us fly long haul without me hauling on a heavy convertible car seat which I just couldn't do by myself.
We made it to LAX, tired. Mom and Dad picked us up and at about Oceanside we hit traffic. Stella hates traffic. She screamed her head off so hysterically that she gave herself a nose bleed and we had to pull off to a random gas station on Leucadia Blvd. And then the next week or so she had jet lag and had no idea where she was. That was fun...not.
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