Yiu Yiu and the plane rides

The trip to Taiwan was partly to fulfill Yiu Yiu wishes of sitting on an aeroplane as she always asked to sit on an aeroplane whenever she sees one flying overhead. We went to the airport early as our flight was to depart at 10am. After checking in, we went to the lounge and had breakfast; noodles and nasi lemak for hubby and I, and fish porridge for Yiu Yiu, which she didn't take much. She then immersed herself in the children's play room while we waited to board.

In the plane, she kept looking out the window and pointing to planes outside so I'm not sure if she realized she's actually sitting in one. During take-off, I was surprised that she obediently sat strapped in her seat. I guess she must be fascinated seeing the puffy white clouds below us. Soon after, the crew brought her pre-ordered kid's meal which came in a special box with a tear-off aeroplane model. Inside was spaghetti Bolognese, a muffin, a bun, Kit Kat, fruits and mango juice. She finished the fruits and managed to eat some spaghetti as well, making a mess in the process. Thank goodness for wet tissue and large serviettes.

After eating, she busied herself playing with the console and when she got tired of the "toy", she wouldn't sit still and climbed over to disturb her papa who was enjoying a movie. We then whipped out our secret weapon, my brand new MP4 player (a gift from my company to all its employees for breaching RM 200million sales last year) on which I had painstakingly downloaded several episodes of Barney and Thomas and Friends. She was more interested to press the different buttons than actually watching the shows but as long as she was quietly sitting down, I was happy.

I can't remember now but I think she didn't sleep at all in the plane and the moment we got into a taxi at Taoyuan Airport in Taipei, she dozed off to la-la land, and didn't wake up until two hours later, when we have settled in nicely into our modest room in Good Ground Hotel near Ximending, a major shopping district in Taipei.

The trip back was uneventful. We left the hotel at 5am as our flight was to depart at 7.40am. After several hectic days, Yiu Yiu must have been soooo tired out that she didn’t even stir when I picked her up from bed and she continued sleeping all the way to the airport. She woke up for a while when we were about to board, and promptly dozed off again after take off and didn’t wake up until 2.5 hours into the flight. We didn't wake her up for her meal but instead asked the crew to bring it to us when she woke up. It consisted of pancakes with chicken patty, a muffin, a bun and fruits but by then, the pancakes were hard, so she only ate a little bit of chicken and finished the whole muffin.

Our baggage came out promptly from the conveyor belt but we were kept waiting as we had checked in the stroller and it had to be retrieved by the oversized baggage team. And my little princess fell asleep again in the taxi on the way home.