Journey to the other side of the world

We made it! 24 plus hours of travel and we arrived. Lillianna was a total trooper and Air New Zealand get high marks for being a super airline and very kid friendly! United on the other hand- not so much. When we got to Chicago to check in they had the three of us in three different rows. Lillianna was 20 rows ahead of us (I have to admit it was tempting to leave her there). We had some time in Chicago so Lil got to play in the children's museum and have lunch. The first flight went smoothly and we got great comments about how well behaved she was. We didn't have a ton of time in San Fran, so we just wandered to our gate and let the munchkin run a bit.

As we entered the plane there were greeters there just for children who handed out goodie bags to them. Lillianna was thrilled! Then we got on the plane and got situated. We were excited out video selection in the screens in our seats was enourmous. Not only did they have great movies for mom and dad they also had Barney and the Wiggles for Lillianna. She got into her movie and not too long after we took off she fell asleep. She didn't even wake up when they turned the lights back on to serve dinner. She missed her special kids meal- chicken nuggets. They even had a treat for her. About 4 1/2 hours later, just as I fell asleep, she woke up and wanted to be OUT of her car seat. So, she slept on mama for about another hour then decided she wanted to be up. So Mike and I took turns trying to entertain her- thankfully Barney was a help here. She was in a great mood though and wasn't too loud. She slept a little bit more here and there, but there was another little one who would cry from time to time and that always woke her up. She was very concerned about the baby crying and being sad. She even offered to share her blankie (not something that is ever shared.)

When we finally landed 13 hours later we told Lillianna, "You made it!" She responded by yelled "I made it!" Our whole section of the plane laughed. When we were getting off, one person asked me if she was the I made it girl. We also had several people comment at how good she was. Let's hope the return trip goes as well.