Excuse me sir...

Cash has never been on a plane before so I was extremely nervous about our long flight north. We boarded the first leg of our flight and the flight attendant, seeing our small child, blocked off the rest of the row so we could have it to ourselves. Cash was mostly fuss free but he let out a few good wails from boredom toward the end. We got some dirty looks from the single passengers around us (karma for the dirty looks I shot to parents with young kids) but I smiled at them knowing one day, they'll likely be in my shoes. For the second leg, we were misinformed that the flight was completely booked and were not able to get a row to ourselves. More kids boarded, all at least a few years older. People would start to sit in our row, see the young baby, and move toward the back of the plane to take their chances with older, better behaved children. Something I have done many times myself. An older gentleman sat near us, looked at Cash, and said, "I've got six sons and three grandsons. Feel free to let him wail. Won't bother me a bit" as he wedged large earplugs into his ears and started to doze before the plane had even begun to taxi the runway. As soon as the plane wheels left the ground, Cash snuggled into my arms, and fell fast asleep. 10 minutes after takeoff, the 'safer bet' older children started screaming and running up and down the aisles. Fits were thrown, passengers mumbled. Cash continued to sleep. I wanted to shake the man next to us, "Excuse me sir? You can remove your earplugs. Since my son is being the world's perfect baby right now, I desperately need a witness." But he slept as deeply as Cash. The plane landed with a thud, the engines noisily revving, the man and Cash snored. We gently had to shake the man, he smiled, picked up his bag and de-boarded the plane. I panicked. "Um. Can someone PLEASE noticed I had a small baby and he was awesome?!?! Cause it's kinda a big deal!!!" But the only comments I heard were about the devil children at the back of the plane. Now I know how all the people feel who have seen Elvis since his 'death'. No one believes me and there are no witnesses.