The Free Radicals: Elevation 坐飞机

High, higher than the sun

You shoot me from a gun
I need you to elevate me here,
At the corner of your lips
As the orbit of your hips
Eclipse, you elevate my soul

-U2

The day we leave she woke up happy

I have heard about those babies. You know the ones that fall asleep in their cribs with minimal fuss then wake up eight to twelve hours later. Or if they do fuss, a few soothing pats and “sshhh” will settle them back to dreamland.

Not my Dumpling. For the most part, she is very content, happy, and personable. That is until she realizes she's tired. The light switch turns off. The clock strikes midnight. Amiable Dr. Jekyll becomes evil Mr. Hyde. My Dumpling’s adorable coos suddenly become inconsolable crying. We don't bedtime story or lullaby, Dumpling's bedtime and naptime routine is a jaunt in the Ergo around the neighborhood.

So the thought of a 14 hour flight across the Pacific from Beijing to California was daunting. I imagined that we would be walking a screaming --or at least a very tense six month old baby-- up and down the aisles, circumventing the meal cart and sufferers of restless leg syndrome. I hoped beyond hope that my nap resistant Dumpling would nurse/sleep the whole way and I could catch up on six months of movie watching.

Neither case happened. Dumpling neither screamed or slept. OK, she slept a bit. Thankfully, she fell asleep during takeoff and stayed asleep for the following hour and half. Then she woke up. Bright eyed. Curious. Smiling and flapping her arms in excitement. Entertaining the stewards and fellow passengers.

birdMAN and I spent the transpacific flight taking turns amusing Dumpling, walking her up and down the aisles, attempting to rock her to sleep and succeeding in a few fitful naps, and chatting with friendly elderly Chinese ladies. By the time we arrived in Seattle, Dumpling’s time asleep totaled about four hours and her exhausted parents zero. Even so, birdMAN managed to watch a good portion of TV and I sort of watched “Florence Foster Jenkins” and “Lego Batman Movie.”

For Dumpling, the novelty of flying wore thin by the time we started the last leg of our travel. From Seattle to Sacramento, our tense-wide-eyed-sleep-deprived-wild-child threatened total meltdown. Yet, she still managed to smile and flap her arms in excitement at fellow passengers. That's my Little Miss Personality. She just can't turn it off.

Dumpling finally did fall asleep in her first ride ever in a car seat from the airport to Moomoo’s house. She slept the next two days like a corpse (or normal baby?), after which she returned to usual sleep resistant self. Turned out not sleeping for the majority of the plane flight made adjusting to the jet lag a cinch.

So we got one China-to-America flight down. And many, many, many more to go. We'll all be pros soon.

Chinese Word of the Blog: 坐飞机 zuò fēijī (literally, sit airplane)

English translation: to take a plane flight