Happy 30th Birthday to Dan!

Dan is finally 30. Yes, to all of you who thought he was older, now he finally is. Leaving his 20's behind, he looks expectantly to the future. (Insert Obama-inspired-Dan-Art here) Gone are the days of fancy free living, jaunting around the world. Now are the days of waiting until the children are old enough to jaunt some more. (We are waiting for Alex to learn about being addicted to cartoons on the portable dvd player. Maybe March or so.)

As part of Dan's life, we forced him to go to Disney Land before he turned 30. Thanks to Liz, Mike, Meghann, and Hillary for joining me in this endeavour. It was a time of sparkly joy.

Dan Using his new camera to document departing the Mickey and Friends parking garage.

Yeah, this is the escalator from the parking garage to the tram stop.

Actually in Disney Land
You know this because we are posing while standing in line.

Same line, different people posing.

Still the same line, Dan posing with snakes.

Dan spinning on the teacups.

We went on lots of rides, primarily looking for those that had height restrictions or didn't allow pregnant women. We also got to experience the unending sparkly joy of "It's a Small Christmas World." We did, however, skip Splash Mountain as it was chilly. This was a choice we were happy about later as we were not damp at dinner.

We had dinner, and birthday Mickey Mouse oranges for Dan and Hillary, at Yamabuki. Dinner was very tasty. Dan and I hope to go back to Yamabuki should we get a babysitter in the future.

Happy Birthday Dan (24th) and Hillary (25th)

Dan, Angela, Hillary, Meghann, Mike, Liz

Posing outside restaurant

On Dan's birthday, we continued the party with the Indiana Jones' cake.

It included an actual rolling boulder.  

LOLKID

You've already seen this picture on our blog, but now it has been lolcat'ed.

What?! No December Posts?!  

It's an outrage!

In order to remedy this situation, we will be posting December photos shortly.

Also, everyone should harass Dan to post about stuff.  Like maybe his birthday.  Or his iPhone. 

Alex's First Hair Cut

Dan thought the baby curls were cute. However, he doesn't hang out with Alex all day and have people ask how Will likes his baby sister. He didn't go trick-or-treating with Alex and have the neighbors ask "Does she want a treat too?" And, when Will says, "Alex", it usually sounds like "Alice." Plus, Alex can be both a boy's name and a girl's name.

So we took Alex for his first haircut last night. Will didn't have quite as much hair as Alex and managed to wait until 13 months to get a hair cut. Alex was more than ready at 10 1/2 months. He remained calm throughout the entire procedure.

During

After

Other random Alex developmental facts:
I put Alex in real shoes today, not just those soft soled leather ones. He did ok, wandering around the playground and not falling over too much.

Alex has six teeth with 4-6 more coming in. His sever teething pain gave us a long, loud weekend of refusing to nurse. He feels better now.

Alex's favorite word is "down." Yes, most babies learn words for objects around them. Alex decided to go with the action concept. He drops things off his high chair and says, "down." He listens when I tell him to sit "down" in the bathtub. He holds things up, then throws them down and says, "down." Can he say other words, yes. He does ma-ma, dad, banana, melon, hi, bye, apple, more, duckie, ball, and blanket (sort of). But really, the best one is "down."

Dressing up Boys

I have 2 boys. There are advantages and disadvantages to this. One particular disadvantage is that I don't get to shop for ruffled, cute, sequined outfits to dress the kids up in a cute way (or was this an advantage?). That's really the primary reason we "celebrate" Halloween. It is my chance to dress up the super cute kids in super cute outfits.

But then there is a problem... I'm not terribly creative. Yeah, sure, I could browse the internet looking for cute costumes to buy that complement each other, or I could depend on Robin, the more creative one, to figure it out for me.

When Will was 6 months old, Robin made him a cute little ninja costume. A year later, we re-did ninja, but he wouldn't wear the ninja hood. This year, he was a crocodile (if you ask him) or an alligator (if you ask Robin), or a lizard, dinosaur, Godzilla (if you ask the neighbors). And what does a crocodile need for a companion? A little bird. It seems Robin had a very nice multi-colored feather boa, complements of Shawnee's wedding, that wasn't being used on a regular basis. As Robin doesn't have a child of her own, she provided it for Alex's consumption.

Crocodile ready to go Trick-Or-Treating

Little Bird realizes there is an entire bowl of candy already at our house

For some better pictures, check out the ones we had taken at Sears.

Fortunately, the alligator and bird costumes arrived on October 30th. Unfortunately, there were 2 dress-up events prior to that. One was at the kids' school and one was at the YMCA. They went as tourists.

The costume parade at school
(primarily for the benefit of the parents, not the kids)

Tourists

Just Your Average Super Baby

As you may know, Alex was nearly 11 lbs when he was born.  So you might think that he would maintain this absurd size into his toddlerhood.  Oddly, he is average-sized now.  In fact, he is below the 50th percentile in weight and height.  

Back when Alex was nearly 4 months old, we realized that he was "behind" Will developmentally.  He couldn't sit on his own, couldn't stand next to an object, and he didn't care for sippy cups.  The only reason we point this out is for the sake of comparing our two children.  Because that's why you have more than one, so you can constantly compare the younger to the older and develop their oldest/youngest children syndromes.  

We weren't concerned about Alex's development since very very few babies can do anything before 4 months old.   Plus, he started sitting on Mother's Day which was when he was about 4 months and 1 week old.  He waited until about 5 months old before he started standing next to objects.  Then he surprised us by starting to stand without support in mid-September.  As we learned from Will, it takes a month between standing on own and walking.  Will started standing in mid-January 2007 and started walking in mid-February.  

Alex Standing in mid-September

Alex did not disappoint our expectations.  About a month after we found him standing on his own, he started walking.  Yup, he beat Will's record of 10.5 months old and started walking at 9.5 months old.  Roll Tape...

Alex Walking and Performing Feats of Strength

Our First Family Vacation

At the beginning of September, we took our first, and probably last for a while, Family Vacation. We went to New York City. Why "last for a while"? You see, traveling with an infant is a problem after they learn how to crawl and are no longer happy sitting on your lap. Traveling with a toddler is good as long as they are entertainable with a portable dvd player and you actually remember to bring dvds.

There are some advantages to traveling with both a toddler and an infant. And I'm not just talking about getting sympathy from other travelers. No, it turns out that the toddler can push the infant's stroller. And that's about the extend of the advantages.

Will pushing Alex on moving walkway

We didn't have a brainstorming session and decide to go to New York. Like many of our trips, this one was to attend a wedding. Dan's friend Tamara got married on Staten Island.

We just happened to run into Tamara downtown

We went over to the island on the weekend, but during our time in NYC the week prior, we rented an apartment in Harlem. We shared it with Dan's friend Rich, his wife, Amanda, and their 10 1/2 month old daughter, Nora.

Group Shot of Vacationers

(thanks to Deuce for the picture taking and the visit)

Notice Will is resisting. He resisted photos for just about the entire vacation. The only time he was happy taking pictures was when we met up with Grandma in Central Park.

Angela and Alex, Grandma and Will

in Central Park

Alex in Central Park

As Alex was only 8 months old at the time of our trip, we were a little surprised that the 3 kids played together. Primarily it was Alex and Nora crawling around after Will.

Natural History Museum

Rich Explains Ancient Egyptian Stuff to Nora

Alex sleeps after Dan's Explanation

As you may know, "llama" was one of Will's first words. Here, he gets to fulfill a lifelong dream of feeding a real llama at the New York Zoo in Central Park.




We rode the subway a lot. Usually it was pretty useful and convenient. However, sometimes it was kind of crazy and tiring.

Oh why are we on the subway!

One place that we visited after wandering around Chinatown and Little Italy was the Children's Museum of the Arts.

Will Builds "The Chrysler Building"

Of course we visited the Statue of Liberty.  This was an event that I had been explaining to Will for weeks.  I showed him YouTube videos about the Statue.  I explained that we could go inside and go all the way up to the top.  I pointed it out everytime we could see it from a high building, ferry, or the airplane.  Will was terribly disappointed when we told him that we couldn't actually go inside the Statue.  He kept explaining that we should go around to the back and go in the doors and go to the top.  

Someday I will implement closed captioning on kid videos

Kids Crawling around on Liberty Island

How did the actual wedding go? Well, in our efforts to move all of our stuff from Manhattan Island to Staten Island, plus a "we are really tired and can't communicate well" episode on my part, we managed to get to our Staten Island hotel with all of our stuff and all of our children about the time the wedding started.  After the quickest change into formal wear ever, Amanda and I continued our prep by putting makeup on in front of a hotel lobby decorative mirror while waiting for our cab.  We got to the wedding as it was finishing and went to the area for cocktail hour as the most prompt cocktail hour guests.  The cocktail hour room was next to the room where the wedding ceremony took place.   The guests without children who actually made it to the ceremony started filtering out the back doors through the receiving line.  After a few moments of thought, we entered the side doors, then walked through the receiving line too.  The bride's comment as we carried the tired kids through the receiving line, "The kids were great, I didn't hear them at all!"  So, if Tamara ever gets around to reading this blog... by the way... we didn't make it to your wedding ceremony and are very sorry.  :)  

After wandering through the receiving line, the jet-lagged kids decided that cocktail hour meant naptime.  Fortunately, Rich and Amanda's stroller was nearby and Nora had decided to party while the guys were asleep.  The stroller provided a place for Will to sleep and it also prevented people from walking on Alex.

Cocktail Hour at the Wedding

What about the reception?  Nora and Alex tried to dance.  With help since neither one could walk yet.  Will... it could have gone better for Will.  Let's just say he ended up wearing a pair of Nora's shorts by the end of the night and stealing Alex's socks. 

Babies Don't Really Need Socks

Overall the trip was a success.  We had the amazing experience of not getting sick of our travel buddies.  You know how if you go somewhere with people for more than 4 days, you start to get annoyed with them?  Oddly, even though we were there for a week, we still enjoyed Rich and Amanda's company at the end of our time there.  Even with 3 cranky kids between us.    

Will and Alex's First Photo Contest

We finally did it. After 2 and a half years of hearing from others that I have cute kid(s), I finally took the first step in exploiting their cuteness by entering them in a "Cutest Tiny Tot" photo contest.

Actual Contest Photo Not Shown

Now, I know I missed the exploitation window with Will. He was the cutest baby and would smile every time we put him in front of a camera. He probably could have sold ice cubes to an Eskimo by holding them and smiling. But now he is a cranky 2-year old who resists most things.

Oddly, he did great at the photo contest, smiling and being calm and everything. I don't know what got into him. Of course, he is just getting over a cold and was kind of red and blotchy in the face, so no chance of him winning. Plus, there was this cute girl about his age with pigtails who will probably win anyway.

So how did Alex do? Yes, he was kind of suffering from the "I'm just getting over a cold look too." Plus, he had just woken up from a nap. And he is growing his incisors right now. He was cute, but wouldn't smile. This is what typically happens during his pictures. He has sort of a blank look. So even though he has grown cute curls in the last month, he doesn't make the most of it by smiling.

Ah well, there's only about a million other cute kid contests. Maybe we will try one again. Got to do something with the cute green-eyed guys.

It's Not A Mini-Van!

During this time of increasing gas prices and limited gas supply, we decided that our best move would be to buy an SUV. Yup, that's right, after 3 years, we are once again a 2-car household. It just didn't seem right to live in the greater Los Angeles area without a car to driver ratio of greater than or equal to 1. It's just anti-LA-culture.

This is the first car that Dan and I have purchased together. As you may know, I have had small cars in the past. My last car was a 2-door Saturn Coupe. The car before that was a 2-door Fiero. Now, with more seats than both of my previous cars combined, we have a 4-door Honda Pilot. You see, it is a rule that if you are a Kroboth, you have to buy a Honda.

Lots of Seats!
The Pilot has eight seats available! That means we can go places with Scot and Tammy and baby Zimry (or various other couples with a kid or two). It works to fit 3 car seats across the back seat, Dan and I can sit in the front, then Scot and Tammy can fit in the second back seat, with one seat surplus. (Obviously Scot and Tammy need one more kid so we can take full advantage of all of the seats.)

Lots of Cargo Space!
We can also move lots of things. Yes, in fact, a few days after we got the Pilot, Dan dropped off our extra dresser at Hillary's house. It fit inside the Pilot... with both kids! The third row of the Pilot folds down, which is the default state for it these days. So, if you need something moved, we are now those people who you call to harass. Act now before the novelty of having a big car wears off.

Dresser in Pilot

We can also go to Costco and not try to figure out where to put all of the large items. In the past, sometimes the giant package of paper towels would end up in the passenger compartment with the kids trying to see each other around it. No longer! Everything we could possibly fit in the Costco cart now fits in the Pilot. It's not even challenging anymore to figure out where to put everything.

Un-challenging Loading of Costco Stuff

Above the Crowd
It's a completely different experience to drive an SUV. You can see farther down the road. You can actually reach the window at the drive-thru Starbucks.

Camera Phone Picture of Starbucks Drive-Thru

Notice the poor, low car at the window receiving coffee in an awkward manner.
That used to be us. Now we can reach!

Fortunately the Pilot drives a lot like our Accord. It also has a great turning radius. I'm still working on parking properly with one turn, but other than that, it is surprisingly not like driving a mini-van.

Not a Mini-Van
For a while, Will decided that he would call the Pilot a minivan. Of course, I addressed this terrible error immediately. "It's not a minivan" became the phrase of the week. I'm not sure where this came from as he had spent the 2 months prior to the Pilot acquisition saying, "Our car is dirty, we need to get a Pilot-Car" and "Our car is broken, we need to get a Pilot-Car" and "Our car has a dent, we need to get a Pilot-Car" and "We need to go to the car store to get a Pilot-Car." You see, at the end of July, Will, Alex and I went to test drive the "Pilot-Car." It kind of stuck with Will. So now we call one car, "The Pilot Car" and the other one "Dan's Car."

So, come one, come all, see our Pilot-Car. Now, if you visit us and need to be picked up at the airport, we can do it! If you want to engage in some sort of household project with us while you are here, we can go to Home Depot and buy large amounts of wood! Yea!

Alex's First...

...Yuppie-Environmentalist Vacation

Dan and I finally got a chance to get away from LA on a mini-vacation. We left our focus-intensive 2-year old at home but brought the less-difficult-during-the-day-but-doesn't-like-sleeping-away-from-own-room baby. Thus the premise for the "Vacation" part of the "Yuppie-Environmentalist" adventure.

Why "Yuppie"? We went to a winery in Mendocino county, a bit north of San Francisco. Now, we didn't actually set out to go to a winery in Mendocino county. But thanks to Ralphine, we ended up with a weekend get-away package for four. And thanks to our inability to accomplish anything in a reasonable timeframe (blame placed on children here), and to Liz, we ended up with a booking that we could take advantage of this year instead of when I was pregnant last year. The yuppie wine vacation included events such as wine tasting and boating. Here are some pictures and videos:

Dan, Angela, Alex, Liz, Mike near the Tasting Room

Alex Boating while attached to Dan

Dan Tubing
(Don't worry, Alex isn't attached to him here, he stayed on the boat)

Water Skiing
The most successful of Mike's attempts,
he was the only one daring enough to try.

And finally to explain the "environmentalist" part of the event. The winery was a carbon-neutral organic place. Great for tasty grapes, not so good for recycled biodegradable bottle labels that come off when you refrigerate the wine.

So will Alex have another "Yuppie-Environmentalist Vacation" in his life? Probably not soon. If we get another chance to go away on this sort of adventure, I think we will leave both kids home. Will had a good time with his friend Asha. They played pretty well, then kind of got tired of each other after about a day.

Collecting Things

We have too many things. However, it seems that we have started a new collection of things. We have "state-themed" stuff. This originally came about during the business trip that Alex and I took to Minnesota at the end of July. Robin and Daniel were going to meet us near THE MALL for dinner, but first they were stopping at THE MALL to get a travel gift for Will. They tried to find the state bird of Minnesota, allegedly the loon, but could not.

However, when I got to the airport, I found a stuffed loon. So Alex ended up with a bird to take home with him. As for Will, he likes magnets, so we got him a magnet with the state of Minnesota in the background and a loon in the foreground.

Kids with Loon Video

So if you must provide the kids with some sort of gift, think about the state you live in. Perhaps some day Will and Alex will be the proud owners of state-themed stuff such as:

State Stone of Michigan - Petoskey Stone
State Soil of Oregon - Jory
State Muffin of Minnesota - Blueberry
State Marine Mammal of California - California Gray Whale
State Amphibian of Arizona - Arizona Tree Frog
State Insect of Alaska - Four Spotted Skimmer Dragonfly
State Carnivorous Plant of North Carolina - Venus Flytrap

Of course, it is probably better to stay away from the State Soils as Alex would probably eat them. He further demonstrated his desire to eat dirt today when he found some sand that had been dumped from Will's shoes on the kitchen floor.

Oh, and please, no decorative spoons. The decorations come off when the kids try to use them. And they aren't really for eating anyway, but try to explain that to an 18.5 month old (the kids' average age).

Squash Mud

As a parent, you learn about many "Things-You-Didn't-Know-Existed"

Today we learned what Squash Mud looks like.

Every once in a while when we don't feel like cooking dinner, we grab deli sandwiches for Dan and myself. We get random fruits and vegetables for Will from a salad bar. Then we go to the beach and have dinner while watching the sun "go to the other side of the earth" (That's what we tell Will when he asks his nightly question, "Where did the sun go?")

As Alex is now eating solids, we brought some baby food squash along. The only problem: Alex decided, as soon as we put him down on the beach blanket, to lunge forward and bring a fist full of sand up to his mouth. Dan didn't stop him since normal babies typically grimace after putting sand in their mouths and stop doing it. Alex just reached for another handful, and another. So we tried to wash him off, but really only succeeded in washing the sand in his mouth down his throat. At that point, it really wasn't worth trying to get him clean, so we continued to wash the remaining sand down with squash. This caused much "Squash Mud" on his face and probably in his tummy.

Our First California Earthquake

We felt our first California earthquake today! Ok, so we have felt little tremors a few times already, but living in California on the 1st floor of a house is different than living on the 14th floor of an apartment building in Tokyo. In Tokyo, we felt a little shaking about once a week. Here, not so much.

I wasn't even going to blog about it until I received a concerned call from a friend. So, here I am posting saying that we are ok.

What happened? I guess there was a 5-point-something earthquake about 40 miles from here. Things started wiggling, there was earthquake noise, things kept wiggling, so I recalled my PBS "Preparing for a Quake" instructions and went under our table since I didn't know how long it would last. Things wiggled for a little longer, then stopped.

Dan was at work on the 3rd floor. I guess things were a little more exciting up there.
Will and Alex are at school. I'm sure Will thought it was funny. I'll ask him later.

Merry-Go-Round Videos

Plywood Test

Yes, Will gets to be the 1 boy in the tap dance class.

Rotation Test

A new, unapproved use for the Bumbo chair

Spinning Wheel of Doom

As the parent of 2 boys, I probably don't have to go out of my way to find a new activity they can injure themselves with. And now, with the addition of the Spinning Wheel of Doom to our backyard, I don't have to look far at all...Yup, that's right, we now have a merry-go-round in our backyard. How many other people can say that? Why do we have a merry-go-round? Well, one day, my dad thought, "Why don't I build a merry-go-round?" So he had some metal worker friends create this awesome merry-go-round shaft with super strong bearings that are similar to those found in cars.

Merry-go-round?

Of course, Will wasn't quite sure what the merry-go-round shaft was. However, his Grandpa involved him in the entire creation process.

Receiving wood supplies

Yup, we continue to insist on using our car for tasks that it was not designed for. We will get something else eventually, don't worry.

Measuring

Power Saw Use

Inspecting Base

Rotation Test

Dan Gets Involved Too

Just Needs Paint (Robin?)

Don't worry, videos are coming soon.

Kids on a Plane

I think it is funny that parents who travel with small children figured out the zip lock bag collection the quickest. I'm just glad that Will is finally at the stage of his life where he can be entertained by exciting new toys packaged in plastic bags. And Alex is at the stage of his life where he doesn't know the joys of mobility, so he is perfectly content to hang out on my lap during long flights. Those are the secrets to traveling alone with 2 kids on a plane.

Here are the kids enjoying their hats on a plane...

Will thought Alex looked hilarious

Eating makes Will happy, and funny looking

Crazy Trip
Of course, while the actual travel on a plane part went splendidly, the rest of the trip was pretty much a disaster. Here is the rundown...

Original flight: Saturday from LA to Denver to Charlotte. We arrived at the airport with plenty of time. However, the Denver weather did not cooperate. Our flight to Denver got delayed longer than our Denver layover. We stood in line for over an hour at the customer service desk with very little line movement since some flights to Hong Kong were messed up and a couple of people were taking all of the time of the 2 representatives at the desk. Finally, closer to our flight, we were able to talk to the agent at the gate, Sean, who helped us figure out that it would be better to leave the next day and fly through Chicago. Although my suitcase was already checked and probably would beat me to Charlotte.

Next day: Sunday flight from LA to Chicago. After flying a few hours, the pilot announces that the amount of delay to get on the ground in Chicago is at least 2 hours (the amount of layover time we have). Since we don't have enough fuel to circle for that long, we are going to divert to Indianapolis to get some more fuel.

Collect Information: After we land, I give Dan a call and ask him what is up. Since Dan knows many things, he tells me that it looks like, yes, I will probably miss my connection in Chicago, and that the rest of the flights from Chicago to Charlotte seem to be full. It is possible that I will get stuck in Chicago overnight. To get even more information, I also speak with the flight attendant to ask if it is possible to get re-booked from Indianapolis to Charlotte. She says it is possible and that I should speak with an agent in the airport to figure things out. However, the news from the pilot is that most likely people won't be allowed off the airplane. But, a survey is taken to determine who is interested in getting off in case it is allowed.

Sudden Deplane Event: After hanging out on the tarmac for a little while, the flight attendant comes up to me and says, you can get off now if we are quick. So, myself and 5 other passengers quickly deplane. We get off in the middle of the tarmac as there was not a gate available and get into a non-airconditioned van for transport to the terminal.

Crazy government agency rules: The driver of our van takes us over to a gate that leads to the terminal. However, a certain government agency representative says that we can't stay on this side of security because we have "luggage." You know, our pre-screened carry on bags. He directs us to another gate that leads outside the airport. We get dropped off near baggage claim.
Oh where are the airline representatives: The kids and I go to the airline counter where ticketing takes place. No one is there. We stand in line for a while, no service. So, I decide to talk our way to the concourse even though I don't have an Indianapolis boarding pass. Government agency allows us to go through security. However, on the other side of security there are no airline representatives except for one stressed out gate agent who is very rude and can't help me. So we go back out of security and ask what line we should be standing in, Check In or Ticketing. We are told Ticketing. No representative shows up.

Poor Kids: By this point both kids need new diapers, both kids need food, and I need to use the bathroom. However, I don't want to lose my place in the line that doesn't move on the chance that a representative will actually help me. So I try to call the airline and talk with someone on the phone who might be able to help. First call... busy signal. Next call... actually get a representative after being on hold for more than 15 minutes. She is working on the issue, then... I reach down to try to comfort poor Will who is tired and trying to rest his head on his car seat and I lose the cell phone signal!

Re-Book Success: Soon after the phone attempt to get re-booked to Charlotte, I am told I am in the wrong line and that I need to go to the extremely long check-in line to get help. So, I go to the end of that line, continuing to try to call the airline representative to see if something happened before I got disconnected. I finally get through and they tell me that they re-booked me on the 5:15 flight with another airline, but that I need to check-in to get boarding passes before going through security. However, it is 4:55 already. Once I get up to the agent at the other desk, they say that the plane door is closed and that they have to rebook me. Unfortunately the person who does re-booking found out that my first airline incorrectly re-booked me, so it is kind of a mess to fix. However, seeing that I had two hungry children on my hands, and knowing that I had spent more than an hour standing in the other airline's line, she said she would take care of it while I went to take care of the kids. I could come back once they had their needs dealt with.

So we go through the dealing with kids needs process and return to the counter much happier. We go through security once again (the 4th time of the trip) and get food on the other side of security, then hang out and play with toy Hummers near the gate. All else goes smoothly.

Will loves his backpack and moving walkways

Actually in Charlotte
We made it to Charlotte! I worked at a customer site during the week while the kids hung out with Grandma, Grandpa, Uncle Tim, and Aunt Debbie. Except for a few backwards diapers, they had a great time!

Um, Disney picture and diaper tabs go on the front
Silly new-fangled diapers!

Dan arrived for the weekend. Here are all of the Kroboth boys.


It was really hot during the trip, so it was good that the kids got to go swimming...

Will sporting a hot pink life jacket and a pink noodle to help him float

Alex swimming with Grandpa

Alex hanging out at customer site during testing

We hope to avoid any long trips between now and Tamarra's NY wedding in August, but you never know. Perhaps one quick trip to Minnesota for work before Alex starts crawling, thus ending his happiness at hanging out on my lap in a plane.