Kids Say the Darndest Things: Elijah Flies a Plane

The highlight of our flight home was definitely when Elijah sat with the pilot in the cockpit of the airplane before take off. It happened like this:

Elijah and I are walking onto the plane and he quickly peeks into the cockpit before following Dan to our seats. He catches the pilot's eye and starts to chat.

Elijah : "Hi! I'm Eliiiiiiiijah. What's your name?"

Pilot : "Well hello Elijah. My name is Pilot Joe."

Elijah : "Oh. Hi Joe. Fanks for driving the plane."

Pilot : "Oh sure! I love my job. Do you like airplanes?"

Elijah : (nodding intensely) "Yeah, I do!"

Pilot : "Hey, Do you want to come in here and have a seat next to me?" (he then kicks out the co-pilot so Eli can sit in his chair)

Elijah : "Yeah. Fanks! Well, this is my dog, Kipper the dog. (smacks his lips) Yeah. And we flewed a airplane once at the Science Center and my mom crashed it in the water. (now with a sad face and hand gestures) We didn't fly it under the arch because she crashed it."

Pilot : "Well, I won't crash this plane into the water. I've been flyin' planes for a looooong time."

Elijah : "Yeah, that's right. (suddenly excited again) And you have a lot of buttons!"

Pilot : "All these buttons help me to fly the plane. Elijah, maybe you can be a pilot one day. Would you like that?"

Elijah : "Yeah! I would! Aaaaaand a football guy aaaaand a monster truck driver aaaaand a space guy with space goggles in outer space....aaaaand, a pilot!"

Pilot : (he laughs) "I tried talkin' my daughter into flyin' airplanes but I think she's more interested in boys. She's 13." ( he looks at me and I laugh. then I say something stupid trying to be cool)

Elijah : "Heh. Yeah. But Iiiiiiiiii'm intreted in flying airplanes. I'm am." Eli points to himself then turns to me and says "Look mom! I'm a pilot!"

Such a proud moment.

Other conversations on the plane took place.

Elijah : "Hi. What's yer name?" he says to the older man sitting behind us.

Man : "My name is Scott. What's your name?"

Elijah : "Oh. I'm Eliiiiijah. Where are you going?"

Man : "I'm going to work. I live in Seattle but I have to work in St. Louis. Where are you going?"

Elijah : "I'm going home to St. Louis. But I was just at my grammie's house in Seaaaattle. She has white hair. Like you!"

After the entire row laughs, a woman next to Scott asks "Elijah, how old are you?"

Elijah : "I'm three!" he responds while holding up 3 little fingers. "How old are you?"

Woman : "Oh, ummmm.....I'm 10". She obviously didn't want to give away her age. I don't blame her.

Elijah : Wow! That's really BIG!" 

The row of people start laughing again. I'm glad my son was the source of entertainment for so many people on that flight. He brings us so much joy every day, but I love it when others get to share that joy with us.