Does it really take 7 years?

We're back from our trip and we had a wonderful time! I'll post some pictures later on.

But for the sake of documenting silly stories, I wanted to post this before I forget.

Lauryn has ear trouble on airplanes. She doesn't seem to be able to "pop" them, so they start to really hurt. She asks for gum before we even get on the runway, then she chews it furiously the entire time we're in the air.

This trip was no different, and my mom and I spent the last 20 minutes of the flight trying every trick we knew to help her ears. I guess her "complaints" were becoming a little loud. The guy in front of us turned around and told us to have her hold her nose and blow. I suppose we were willing to take any suggestions at that point!

Once we landed, she finally said they didn't hurt anymore. Feeling the relief of being over that hurdle, we were nearly home free as we gathered up our things and stood up in the 4 inch space in front of our seats. And waited.

Why does everyone stand up just to wait? Can't we all just wait while sitting down? I don't get it.

Anyway, after about 5 minutes of standing with our noses pressed to the back of the people in front of us, the pilot announced that there was a problem with getting the ramp thingy to attach to the plane.

Clearly I was not in the best frame of mind at that point, since I can't even remember the technical name for the ramp thingy. But that announcement just meant more waiting.

Soooo, what happens next? Yep. People continued to stand there. Just standing next to each other in the aisle, invading all kinds of personal space.

Finally the guy came on the loudspeaker again and politely implied that it could be a while so we might as well sit ourselves down. And he also mentioned that we might want to lower the shades on our windows to keep the plane as cool as possible.

I wonder if they sit up there and plan out what they are going to say, trying to make it sound as nonchalant as possible. Asking us to kindly draw the shades, when what they meant to say was that we could potentially be here another hour, and with the searing rays of the sun beaming through the windows, suffocation was a likely possibility.

About that time, Lauryn started to cry. Wailing would actually be a better description. She looked up at me and announced, "I swallowed my gum!!!!!!"

I guess since the only thing we've ever told her since she has been allowed to chew gum is that it is NOT for swallowing, she had every reason in the world to panic. For all she knew, swallowing that gum meant the end had come.

I calmly explained to her that she would be ok. The gum was in her tummy but it would not hurt her. At that point, she provided some much needed comic relief to everyone on board.

"But how will the gum get OUT!????"

I'm not sure about the rest of you, but I don't find it pleasant to have multiple airplane passengers staring at me with grins on their faces waiting for me to give my sobbing 4 year old an intelligent and compassionate answer.

Unfortunately I was lacking in both, so I just whispered to her that it would all be fine once she went to the bathroom.

I can only hope she forgets about the whole thing and doesn't spend the next 7 years waiting for her gum to show up.