My Little Flyer

So the days finally ticked by, it was December 27th - not a day that stood out for your average guy or girl - but for my little guy it was a big day.  A BIG day.
Jared was scheduled to take his first ride in the Friendly Skys - at least the first ride that he has been old enough to remember.  You wouldn't think this was too big of a deal and up until about a year ago it wouldn't have been.  But for some reason, approximately one year before this fateful day - Jared decided flying was dangerous and he wanted none of it!  "Can't we just drive to Washington??  Can't we take a train?"  And while those are certainly worthy options in their own right - they are not options as long as his little brother is under the age of 5!
I have known since the moment I heard his declaration that eventually he was going to have to come to terms with his fear - some people can get away with not flying, I'm not one of them.  I fly.  I fly all the time.  I've been flying for as long as I can remember.
And so it came to pass...
Jared made plans to spend a week up in North Texas with Grandpa!  Time to do some shooting, four-wheeling, hunting and carrying on!  Manly-Man stuff, you know?  Unfortunately, and as normally happens around here, plans changed and alternate travel arrangements needed to be made.
2 options:
1.)  I drive him half the distance - about 4 and half hours - and we meet in the middle.
or
2.) My little guy gets over his fear of flying.

Yep - we opted for #2!  I worked on this boy for a week.  We went through the day, what was going to happen, how it was going to happen.  No, your not going to roll backwards out of your chair when the plane takes off.  No, it's not going to fall out of the sky.  No, it doesn't hurt when you land.

We got him a "flying" bag.  We packed it with snacks and gum and a DSi and some quarters (just in case there was a candy machine).  We got a solar powered, blinking "JARED" key chain to attach to said bag - so everyone would know it was his.  We were ready, we got through security without a hitch, we were 30 minutes away from him boarding that plane...and the flight was delayed.  By an hour.

Dear Lord,

Please do not let the next hour derail the train we are so steadily and bravely moving forward on!!

Amen.

See, the thing with Jared is that he is a thinker.  To heart.  To a fault.  He can out think the best of them and left to his own devices you would be amazed what he can come up with.  I knew that any second I would hear the well thought out, well said words of wisdom come out of his mouth..."I can't get on this plane because...." and it would be all downhill from there.

So I began scanning the airport - must be something to do, to eat, to buy, whatever, JUST SOMETHING!!

And then it happens, he stands in front of me, looks deep in to my eyes - with his most serious face mind you - and says, "Can I DS download with that boy over there?"

"Can you what???"

"DS download.  With that boy.  Over there."

And I look up and see a little curly haired guy, DS in hand, pleading with his eyes...please let him play, please let him play.  And so I did.

They spent the next hour playing the same game on different machines - in fact, the older kid on the right joined in about 20 minutes later and all 3 were playing!  There was a lot of trash talking, "I beat you dude," "you're so slow dude."  And I still don't fully understand the art of DS downloading, but for an hour it kept my dude busy and  I am forever thankful!!

When all was said and done he did get on that plane and he did fly to Amarillo, with a brief landing in Dallas,  all by himself.  And you would think there would be a picture of the plane taking off in to the sky here, but mom was busy, crying as her first born flew away.  That was one heck of moment for this mom.

And yes, he landed safely.  And yes, he called mom as soon as he was turned over to Grandpa.  And when mom asked, "So how was it?"

"It was awesome mom, it was so awesome.  Can we fly everywhere now??"

Oh yes, we most definitely can.