Airport Delay 11 of 31 #sol16

We close the car door and kiss Daddy goodbye.
My little cutie, wearing his bright green zoo animal t-shirt and jeans, struts up to the ticket counter with his lady bug backpack and matching rolling ladybug suitcase. He's so proud of being a good helper and traveler. He helps collect the tickets as they slip out of the machine. He rolls his own suitcase all the way to security.

"Mom...it's like a corn maze!" he exclaims with joy. "You're totally right!" I reply. We wind up and down, back and forth throughout the security line. "How many suitcases do we have all together?" I ask. "Let's count them!" "One, two, four" he rattles off. "Nice, let's do it together," I say and we do it again together "One, two, three!" "Will you help me remember how many we have so that we don't lose any today?" "Ok mom. Yep. I can do that." We slowly inch our way towards the TSA employees. "Hey! How many shoes do we have? Wait...how many do you have?" He answers without needing to count. He just knows by looking down quickly, "Two!" "And, how many shoes do I have?" I follow up. "Two!" "Now let's see how many two and two together are." With a playful spirit we count our shoes. "One, two, three...four!"

We arrive at the security line and my little traveler enters through the machine first and I follow behind him. We walk and roll and race to the gate only to arrive to a three hour delay. "There is wind in San Francisco and so we can't fly yet" I tell him. We put down our bags and hold relay races. We ride the escalators. We go to the bathroom. We fill our water bottles. We look out the windows together and talk about the machines. "Why are those conveyor belts different colors?" he asks me? In my mind, I can't help but be a little excited about his academic language. "Well, maybe it is because they are from different places. Maybe the white one came from the airline company United and maybe the blue ones are from the airport and maybe the metal ones are from a different company. Or maybe they were all made at different times and that's why they have different colors. What do you think?" He stares out the window pondering possibilities. He comments on the worker guys and what they are doing, on planes taxiing and taking off, and then stops and says, "Hey! Why is that normal guy down there!?" with a little chuckle. His little mind is nonstop and I actually love airplane delays so that I truly get to enjoy it. I get to set my to-do list aside, set his legos aside, and use our true imaginations and powers of observation. We have so much fun my kiddo and I.