On the road, plus one

We flew east yesterday for our first trip with the little man. We learned a lot about flying with an infant, such as how infants need a boarding pass even though they don't need a ticket. We thought a couple pillows might make the flight with him more comfortable so when we boarded Eric went to ask the flight attendant at the back of the plane if we could have a pillow or two.

"No. We have no pillows in United economy," she declared in a thick French accent.

"Really? No pillows at all?" Eric wanted to be sure.

"What do you want me to do? Manufacture a pillow?" she said extremely Frenchly.

No pillows for us.

Later on, when Eric got up to go wait in the bathroom line for a while, this same flight attendant was passing through the aisle with a bottle of water and a stack of cups. She was wearing black gloves. I have no idea why. I had just started breastfeeding Emerson which for some reason provokes instantly the sensation of having been stranded in the Sahara desert for several days: there was no way I was going to let that water walk by, in spite of having no free hand with which to grab it.

"I'd like some water," I said, "but I need you to help me because I don't have a hand free." I nodded towards my occupied hands.

"I don't have a hand free!" she protested, eyebrows raised, waving the water bottle and cups.

I was clearly not going to win this argument.

Emerson was a champ and barely made a peep on the flight. The woman sharing our row was a grandmotherly woman from Berkeley who offered to help us with him if we needed it. I think she was disappointed we didn't.