The Flight

5 a.m. Post. Good way to make myself useful during the wakeful effects of jet lag. Last night I was just waking Brian up all the time.

Eli was amazing. He definitely got antsy and didn't sleep much, but our supply of movies, candy, toys and books kept the crying at bay. I was happy he liked using his homemade backpack (filled with his lightest toys: foam plane, felt book, tiny plastic animals and cars) so he could be like mom and dad. On the plane people kept saying how good he was. He loved running through the airports to make connecting flights, so it was fine that I forgot the stroller. The planes, escalators, and these moving sidewalks were super-exciting.

It was the home flight Friday that I was worried about. Two hours longer because of the jet stream, no Brian to help, stinking customs, and it would require us to fly all night. Again, the little man was an angel, but had reached his limit after the 9 hour flight when we landed at the now-dreaded JFK airport. I'm sure everyone around me was feeling sorry for themselves as his whimpers slowly turned into a screaming tantrum, poor boy had been so patient and couldn't understand why the plane had landed and was still but we couldn't get off for another half an hour because our gate wasn't open. I'll blame it on pregnancy, but I started to cry at the thought of telling him we still had to get on another plane. Then, as we got off he thought we were going to see Bri. (I was very careful not to mention that we were going home or going to see Bri until we were walking off the Salt Lake plane because he doesn't understand time and it would have made him less patient, so I don't know where he got the idea.) Sore and tired and sweaty, I made it across the poorly planned and slacker-staffed airport holding the maximum number of carry-on items (a bag, a purse, and one personal item, in case anyone's wondering) for two people and only carrying Eli like a football while running when I heard my name on the intercom.

I am staying on the ground for a long time.

But then we saw Bri and we came home to a clean house, beautiful new floors, and a warm dinner on the stove. It was Christmas at midnight in September when Eli was reunited with all of his toys.