Planes, trains, and automobiles

September 29 marked our 2nd international trip with Carsten. This time, Carsten could walk and I was pretty nervous about the flight. Mom and Dad Huisman were brave enough to fly next to us on the way home. And surprisingly, Carsten did amazingly well. He slept for the first 30 min (he had missed his morning nap because we were traveling to the airport and going through security), and then pretty much played happily. He was a bit wiggly, so we walked up and down the aisles a few times and waved at other passengers as we walked by. Most people were very nice except for the older man directly in front of our seat. Anytime his seat was touched he turned around and glared at me. I think Carsten inadvertently touched his seat about once every 30 minutes, which for the record is pretty good because economy seating is super close together, so we were actually doing a pretty good job of keeping his legs and arms in check. Anyway, the guy made the trip a little more stressful for me, but I can honestly say the more he glared and was a jerk the less inclined I was to try to keep Carsten from touching his seat (although I did so anyway). So, for the future when you fly, it pays to be nice to people, especially those who have children because most likely, they are already doing their best with a difficult situation.

Carsten started looking a litlte sleepy, so we gave him benadryl because we had heard that it helps kids sleep. Total mistake. He pretty much just woke up and got a bit crazy. So, we walked the aisles and tried to watch a TV show. He finally fell asleep with about 45 minutes left of the flight and slept for 30 minutes. The last 15 minutes he cried mostly because I think he wanted to sleep, but couldn't. And it was super late in our original time zone, so he was tired. We finally got off the plane in Chicago, made it through customs, and back in through security to our gate. Our flight was slightly delayed, so I took the opportunity to put Carsten in the Moby wrap and he fell asleep in about 5 min. It was SUPER windy (Windy City huh?), and we had to walk outside to get to our small plane to Grand Rapids, but he still managed to stay sleeping. Carsten slept the whole plane ride, which helped me out because I was feeling pretty tired. We arrived and all our bags made it, which is always a relief. Friends of Mom and Dad picked us up at the airport and brought us home, which was amazing. Carsten woke up during the transfer to the car seat, but fell asleep shortly afterwards and continued. At the house I put him to bed and he still went back to sleep, which was wonderful. What a kid :).

In one long day, we traveled by plane, train, and automobile. :)