Adventures in traveling part 1: The Airport

If you are my friend on Facebook, you'll have seen the few dozens of pictures I posted of my recent trip to visit my best friend in San Francisco. So if you've already gotten your fill of pictures, check back later for a fresh post on something else, or pay attention to the text of this entry :)

First, Daniel and I rode to the Vegas aiport together with our little man in tow, but that was where the joint parenting ended. After we made it through security, I was all on my own. Daniel and his friend were headed to Seattle for the International Dota tournament (nerd alert) and Jack and I were headed to the great San Fran.

The drive to the Las Vegas airport was fortunately uneventful and Jack slept part of the way. Downside, over prepared mama me decided that we needed to be at the airport two hours early to make sure we had plenty of time for parking, security checks, etc. OH WE DID. Have plenty of time, I mean. My flight ended up being delayed for an hour. Parking and security only took about 30 minutes, so Jack and I had to wait at the gate for over two hours. That was NOT awesome. He was fussy from the get go because he wanted to run around the airport. OF COURSE HE DID.

He wanted to touch all the cool signs, crawl around on the icky floor and of course, LAY on said floor. Just for kicks. Ewww. 

Trying to wrangle a toddler in an airport (or really anywhere) is like trying to wrangle an entire heard of cows. Well, maybe not, but it was still pretty extreme. I tried every distraction technique. I'd brought coloring supplies, snacks by the pound and even the iPad! None would sway this child to sit. So I decided to hit up one of those super over-priced food stands at the gate while we waited. A cup of grapes, Powerade, sandwich and a whopping $20 later, I finally got him settled. Until he spilled the $5 cup of grapes everywhere. Then he decides to pick up the Powerade (which I'd put a straw in thinking he'd drink it that way, but nope!) and spills it all down his cute, brand new outfit. Whomp, whomp.

So we hang out in the bathroom for a while getting cleaned up.

Finally I get him in my Mei Tai baby carrier and he nurses one last time and then he's out. Just 10 minutes before departure. I couldn't have planned that part any better.

You'd never know I'm breast feeding here! Baby wearing, FTW!!

Luckily our flight was maybe 80 minutes and not much time was spent boarding and getting off the plane so he slept pretty much until the very end. It was glorious.

Then Nur picked us up from the airport and we started our grand adventure!!

Waiting for Nur! 

Check back later for more on that.

But finishing up the airport side of this story, the return flight was far less eventful. This time I was prepared for a crazy-wanting-to-run-around toddler and had a stroller that I'd bought while on the trip. This, with the Mei Tai definitely helped me wrangle him in. Plus, we had a slightly shorter wait time in the airport. He was awake for the entire flight but enjoyed it, and thank GOD it was short. He then fell asleep while in the Mei Tai as I tried to find where I parked. Since Dan's flight got in much later, he hitched a ride back home with his friend and Jack and I trekked home together. He slept almost the entire way. It was perfect!
xoxo

Sam