Hey everyone! Thanks for all of your well wishes and prayers. We are in fact home and adjusting. I was going to do a post that just said
Jet Lag Sucks!!!
But, by now, I think I owe you a bit more information...
We left on time to catch the bus to the airport. We arrived in plenty of time to check in, have breakfast, and say our goodbyes. Yeah....best laid plans....
I handed over our passports to check in for our flight. The very nice lady says, "I can't find your daughter in our system." I kindly told her to check again. :o) She asked for my paper ticket. Well, I don't have one of those. You see, I DID have one, but I changed our flight. We were supposed to come home in May, I switched it to July. I was told I no longer needed a paper ticket because they had updated their system and everything was electronic. It was almost a year since I originally booked the flight, so this is highly possible. Airport lady must not have gotten this memo. She gets her manager who again kindly explains to me that my precious baby girl is not in their system. Um, yeah, I get it, but I need to get on this plane, I bought a round trip ticket, and your system is not my problem (well, apparently it is...). I asked to call the 1-800 number to talk to one of their representatives. They dialed the number. I wait the 8 min it takes to talk to a real live human, who listens to my problem and then tells me he has to transfer me to someone else. After another wait, I get Caroline. Caroline sounds sympathetic and puts me on hold...for at least 5 min. She comes back and says, yeah, you do need a paper ticket. There is a location 3 hours away (I kid you not)...I stopped her there to explain that I am
IN the airport and need to
GET ON THIS PLANE!!! She didn't realize I was actually AT the ticket counter. She tells me to hold on again and she will try to get a ticket number for me. I am on hold at least 5 min again, and by this time we have been at the counter for almost an hour. The manager and my husband were getting very nervous. They want us to purchase another infant ticket. How much?
$450!!! Are you kidding me?!?! You want me to spend $450 for a ticket I already bought for my infant to not even have a seat?!? I was livid and perhaps making a bit of a scene. My level headed husband says, "I'm buying the ticket." me...."NO!!! I'm not spending that kind of money.....blah, blah, blah...!!!" still waiting for Caroline....Patrick turns over the credit card. You better believe Northwest will be getting a call from me!!!! And that money better be back in my account
or....
or.....okay, let's take a deep breath and move on...
All this drama left us little time to be emotional. We had quick kisses and goodbyes, and Adeline and I were off (with our ungodly amount of carry on baggage) to race to catch our flight. This was not the start I planned. Don't worry, the story gets better from here. We made it to the plane in plenty of time. Adeline had too much fun pointing out EVERY airplane she saw out the window. It was very cute. We flew to Tokyo...empty seat beside us...perfect place for Adeline to play. Quick layover, then the LONG flight...Tokyo to Detroit. This is where I KNEW people were praying for us. I had a window seat and AGAIN, there was an empty seat beside us. Praise the Lord!!! I knew there was an empty seat there the day before when I reserved my seat, but I was trying not to get my hopes up that it would still be there. It was!!! Before I go further, I just have to tell you about the guy beside us who had the aisle seat. Oh my, I so wish I had taken a picture....he was probably in his late 60's. He had this HUGE briefcase filled with pills (which he took every few hours), business cards, about 50 cards that looked like credit cards, and various other flight related things (oh, just wait).... He said "hi" but not much else. He had that "Oh shoot, why did I have to get the seat beside the lady with the kid?" look, and proceeded to put in his earplugs and start on his crossword puzzle. There was no eye contact again for a very long time. Adeline was standing on the floor playing on the empty seat between us, sometimes reaching for things on the floor. Since my astute mom radar sensed that he was not fond of little people, I tried to keep Adeline away. I apologized when she would bump his leg or reach for his shoelace. He said it way okay but in that "I have to be polite" way not in the "she's cute, and one, and is probably not going to sit completely still and be quiet for an entire 13 hours and so I will cut you some slack" way. I got the message. Can I tell you how AMAZINGLY well Adeline did. She cried very few times and for such a short time, I don't even think grumpy crossword puzzle man could even complain. She slept on the floor between us for about an hour and a half. Then her little head popped up and she wanted to play again. I knew she was sleepy. They brought dinner which was one of the things I was concerned about. I was going to let her continue playing, but I was afraid she would reach for something on aisle guy's tray, and we all know that would not have ended well. Adeline was sitting in zombie mode on my lap, and (clearly as a direct result of your prayers) stayed there through my entire dinner without begging for food or trying to reach for ANYTHING!!! Chalk one up for the mommy...
After dinner, they turn off the lights for sleep mode. Aisle guy gets out his eye mask, face mask (yes, people, he wore a mask over his mouth), blow up neck pillow, remember he had the earplugs in already, and blanket. He is dead to the world. Adeline is playing and then there is that oh so familiar not so fresh smell that means we need to get out of our seat. I don't want to disturb or perturb aisle guy, so I debate for some time how this scene should play out. I stand and look around for someone who may help. I lift Adeline, and one of the men across the aisle holds her while I climb over the seat. I get smiles and cheers from all around. I give Adeline a COMPLETE change (we went through 3 outfits during our journey), and then we walked around the plane for a while. I went past our seat and aisle guy woke up and started to stand. I explained that we were going to walk around for a bit and I just wanted to drop off the diaper bag. Adeline is pulling my hand, and I am fumbling to reach over aisle guy to place the bag in the seat. I feel something wet on my foot, but I don't really process what is happening. About 10 seconds later, it occurs to me that I may have just spilled wine all over the guy who already doesn't like kids and clearly does not want to be disturbed. I decided it would be a LONG time before we went back to our seats. He went back to sleep, and we climbed over him again. I put Adeline to sleep, and she slept for the rest of the flight!!! I mean like 6 hours!!! I watched a movie, was able to get some sleep, and work on my needlepoint chair covers. When he woke, I apologized to aisle guy and offered to buy him a new drink. He was very kind and assured me that it was fine. By the way, I think the drink landed on the floor, not on his lap...shew!!! He took his time getting off the plane, which was fine with me since we had a 3 1/2 hour layover. When he finally got his bags, he held up the aisle for a ridiculous length of time while he put away all of his flight accoutrements, all the while getting dirty looks from the people stuck in the aisle behind him. He gave me a smile and a nod and headed on his way. The flight attendant catches my eye, rolls her eyes, and says, "He was kind of in his own world, huh." Yes, yes he was...
While waiting for our last flight, I spread out some toys and let Adeline have some fun. Another couple arrived with two kids, and then another family with two more kids. We had a regular playgroup going on in the middle of the airport! It was great! It made the time go so much faster. The last flight was only an hour, and Adeline again slept through most of it. My parents were beside themselves with excitement to see Adeline, and she didn't disappoint. Her cuteness factor was registering very high.
Jet lag has been a struggle, but more on that another day....
Below, you will find an entertaining picture of a monkey reaching through the bars to get a cracker from a man who clearly could not read the English sign saying "Don't feed the animals." The quality of life is not the same here as it is for animals in the US. We were disappointed by how run down some of the areas were. When he started feeding them, the monkeys went bananas! ;o)
So on a totally different note, this adjusting to jet lag thing has been hard! I have been doing pretty well, but my baby girl is strugglin'!!! The first night, I had a hard time going to sleep and was wide awake by 4:30. Adeline dozed off and on in 1 hour increments for the first two nights. I have been waking her from her afternoon naps after three hours to try to get her back on track, but I think she is just crazy exhausted by this point. She has been waking up at 3:30 every morning. Yesterday, my mom and I decided we should let her sleep as long as she needs to for her afternoon nap to help her try to catch up, and we would put her to bed a bit later if she woke too close to her bedtime. Well, she fell asleep in the car on the way home from visiting a friend today, and so I put her down in her crib when we got home. She has been asleep since 2:30...it is 10:30. I am hoping that this will help her to get back on track. I am hoping she doesn't decide midnight is a good time to be awake for the night. She usually sleeps 12 hours, and one night a few weeks ago she slept for 14 1/2 hours after a particularly busy day. Here's to hoping this will get her back on track. I'll keep you "posted."
