We Fly High, No Lie

You know this, MOMinggggg!

I remember back when all of my milestones in life were all celebrated with cake: my christening, all of my birthdays, my graduation, dance achievements and so on. Now, I long for a candlelit dessert to commemorate the mini, magical milestones that I’ve achieved or witnessed as a mother: my baby holding his head up on his own, rolling from tummy to back and back to tummy, introducing solids, the first time he slept through the night and most recently completing our first solo airport experience together. And when I made it here to Atlanta, my Mom unknowingly took me to one of her favorite spots here, Piece of Cake, and I did in fact get a sweet, celebration slice or two (that red velvet was slammin’…and the coconut, OH BABYYY!). Anyways, our traveling adventure was one for the books!

We arrived at the airport around 11:30 am for a flight that left at 1:15 pm. Sage took a nice long nap in the car as we played deep sleep sounds on the hour long drive. My husband and I had a very pleasant and playful convo hanging together up front. Once we got to the airport, we said a family prayer and parked in the Terminal D short term garage so Jimmy could help us get all checked in. We cruised into the airport as I ran through a verbal checklist to be sure we hadn’t forgotten anything. I did my best to take my girlfriend’s advice of not overpacking but I already knew that suitcase filled with both Sage and I’s necessities was well over 50 lbs (and believe it or not he had way more stuff than me). Sure enough, as we stepped up to the counter and checked the base of our Doona first then the suitcase. Our luggage came to a little over 57 lbs. The compassionate gentleman at the ticket counter must’ve been a part of the not-so-secret society of parents because he so graciously uttered, “I can see you have the baby there so I’m not going to charge you for the extra weight. I know how this goes.” We expressed our deep gratitude for not having us open up the suitcase and shuffle things around or pay quadruple for it. These warm acts of kindness continued throughout our entire travel experience. Jim walked us up to the security entrance, kissed us both and off we went through TSA PreCheck. Thank God I didn’t have to take off my shoes but I did have to lay my jacket, crossbody bag and baby bag on the conveyer belt and remove the 2 bottles of breastmilk from my parent bag. Finding out that those little white poker-like chips go under the nipple and prevent liquid from leaking out was one of the greatest discoveries I recently stumbled upon. They came in handy when the TSO ignored my instructions and laid the bottles on their side after I had placed them in the tray upright. I didn’t let it phase me, however I did ask her not to flip the stroller upside down as it had stuff in it (a blanket, burp cloth and pacifier) and sure enough what did she do? Flipped it over on to the belt then proceeded to come over to me to hand back his binky that was covered in hair and little dust bunnies and said “you might want to sanitize this because it fell out of the stroller."I took a deep breath and said to myself, “she wasn’t rude and it probably wasn’t intentional, Deja. You will not let this ruin your easygoing, joyful trip.” I was determined to move passed it and I felt that Sage was feeding off of my energy as he kept smiling and curiously taking in his environment around him, so we kept it pushing. The woman behind us in line offered to help me with our stroller and handed me some of our things off go the belt while proclaiming “you are a trooper. I don’t know how you’re doing this.” Truthfully, like most life challenges, I believe it’s all about your attitude, perspective and mindset, and I felt like I’d shifted mine in a pretty positive direction that morning. As I proceeded to my gate with him on my hip, pushing the rest of our items in the stroller, I began to narrate to him what we were doing and what he was seeing. We stopped by the bathroom to change his diaper (I already knew the plane bathroom was not ideal) and I had the urge to go too. Sage was in active motion mode, meaning he needs to be moving nonstop or he gets pretty fussy (this happens quite often probably because I did a whole lot of moving around throughout my pregnancy). I started formulating a plan to pee fuss-free as I changed him. 2 minutes later there I was, squatting over the toilet wiping myself with one hand as I steadily pushed Sage back and forth in his stroller with Sophie, his teething giraffe, in his hands. I stopped on the way to the gate to grab a snack and bottled water, then fed Sage as we waited to board our flight. We checked the stroller at the end of the ramp and boarded the plane. So many friendly passengers offering to help us and stopping to talk to my sweet son. And God definitely knew exactly who to sit us next to. This lovely couple from St. Lucia who were parents of two older kids, warmly welcomed us into row 16. Sage finished the the rest of his bottle as I cradled him in my arms simultaneously chatting it up with the fellow Mama next to me about all things babies and motherhood. He dozed off before we even departed from the gate and slept the entire flight. A DREAM that miraculously became my reality. I thought he would surely awaken as we landed, especially after his 2 hour slumber, but he remained asleep so I began to formulate another plan of action in my mind for deplaning. Then just before I could jump into action, the kindhearted couple next to me offered to carry all of our stuff as we exited the aircraft. I was ecstatic and so grateful to not only have them escort us off of the plane but to stand waiting with us until the stroller arrived. Several passengers walked by complimenting how great he was on the flight. Had me feeling like Missy Elliott in the middle of the Pass That Dutch MV “…thank you, oh thank you you all are so wonderful! Hoody whoooooo.” Our new flight friends helped us open up the Doona, got our belongings stacked in it and then I thanked them, wishing them continuous safe travels as they headed off to their connecting flight. Truly a wonderful, practically seamless experience and we hadn’t even gotten to my family yet. I carried Sage on my hip to the tram and we rode the elevator up to baggage claim where my Mom and StepDad were gleefully awaiting our arrival (well Sage’s really lol, my Mom bypassed me completely to scoop her grandson out of my arms and this Mama might as well had grabbed a drink at the bar on the way out because my parents were officially on duty).

There is some unique sense of comfort and safety I feel when I’m with my family. This great fondness evokes the ability to drop all of my guards and just relax, and oh how I needed this time to alleviate stress, stack up on sleep and enjoy myself. Since I’ve been here, I’ve been going HAM on my Mommy’s cooking, got a mani/pedi, went to a group fitness class (S/O to my StepDad for holding it down with the baby), took multiple trips to my happy place aka Target, got smoothies and shots, spent tons of time soaking up the sun (P.S. my little guy is totally loving the outdoors), strolled through a park and both Sage and I are getting incredibly, peaceful rest here. I was just telling Sage’s Godparents before I got here that if I could walk into a store and purchase anything right now, it would be SLEEP! I would literally waltz into the local pharmacy, grab a basket and swipe every box of what they had on the shelf no matter the cost. I imagine they would sell it encapsulated, like aspirin, and I could buy them as packs of 100 tablets. It would be safe enough to ingest while breastfeeding and I’d probably take 2 every morning with the rest of my vitamins at breakfast to replenish my body with the amount of energy that a full night’s sleep normally would. You know, as much as I heard from other parents to gather up all of the siestas and snoozes I could during my pregnancy (which got increasingly more difficult at night the further along I was due to not being able to find a comfortable resting position) …I just couldn’t have fathomed this kind of sleep deprivation. I mean NOW I know why it’s been used as a means of torture over the course of history.

Last night, we kicked off my little sister’s 30th birthday celebration week at this cute little Italian spot. As I sit here eating these last few bites of left over cake, my heart rejoices in lieu of this internal high I’m feeling. It’s like I’m throwing money in the air making it rain on myself cause it’s been win after win, justifying these multiple slices of cake I’ve had here, LOL!. For some reason, it’s giving me 2006 Jim Jones summer shades and a baggy suit vibes. Definitely too hot for the suit today, but I will be rocking a fly green set with my shades as we head to the the aquarium today continuing the birthday week festivities.This Mama is signing off to resume basking in bliss. Stay tuned for the rest of my trip recap next week!