June Cleaver Nirvana

A friend let us borrow this cool contraption that created a stroller out of crazy baby's car seat. It was brilliant. We flew all over the airport with the greatest of ease. When boarding, we breezed through first class and then...STOP! The aisle through coach was not wide enough to accommodate crazy baby and his car seat/stroller contraption. Quick thinking resulted in crazy baby, car seat and contraption hoisted over head by two adults like a traveling sultan parading to his assigned window seat. The contraption required removal for airplane seat placement, but soon crazy baby was nestled sweetly in his window seat strapped into his car seat and attached to the plane by the seat belt. The 30 degree recline in the car seat made crazy baby's feet sit squarely on the back of the seat back in front of him. I was looking forward to the time when we could recline the seat so we could scoot the whole thing back and relieve the poor traveler to our front from continuous crazy baby exuberance. When we were in the air and able to recline, I adjusted the plane seat the generous additional inches of recline which release some, but not all of the space between the car seat and the seat back. I then tightened the seat belt to reflect the adjustment. The flight was enjoyable with crazy baby realizing that he was a confined passenger and not a circus performer. When the flight was over and our fellow travelers were deplaning, blog-Stedman went to the task of releasing the car seat from the plane to attach to the handy roller contraption. Tick, tock, tick, tock, tick, tock, tick, tock...there was blog-Stedman still trying to release the carseat...tick, tock, tick, tock...I step in to solve the problem...you may have noticed in the plane educational lecture that the seat belt can be released by lifting the metal tab to a 90 degree angle. You may have also noticed at some time that if you stick your hand into the car seat channel that holds a seat belt that your knuckles get skinned and it in no way will accommodate opening a stiff metal hinge lodged into the middle of the channel to a 90 degree angle. Great! Crazy baby is now destined to a life of plane travel from here to the next stop and beyond. Too bad for the poor person assigned to his seat on the next leg of the trip. In an effort to capture more time with my baby, I continue to push, shove, pull, stretch, twist and rotate the car seat in an effort to release it from the grips of the archaic metal hinged seat belt. In a helpful, supportive announcement, the flight attendants then announce that we HAVE to get off the plane so the cleaning crew can come aboard. Yeah, that is my main concern now...the cleanliness of the plane that has eaten my car seat. Finally, after reclining all the seats and wedging the car seat between my leg pushed against the plane window and my arm twisting toward the middle seat, it releases. My sweaty body rejoices that crazy baby can continue on our journey and not be at the mercy of American Airlines. This further proves the point that my suburban angst is on a road trip.