Monday, November 23, 2009

My Amazing Traveler

We left the house at 6am Denver time. We arrived at the Denver airport and got on our flight to DC. Jameson had some books, toys and a blank notebook with crayons. We also carried a portable DVD player with a few "Little Einsteins" DVDs. We had three hours in the DC airport. When we arrived in our concourse, it was empty, I mean REALLY empty. We got to our gate which happened to be right across from my favorite sandwich place, Potbelly Stove Sandwiches (or something to that extent). Jameson then proceeded to run up and down the "C" concourse for the next two hours, got tired and sat with his dad. I was hoping we would catch the lull and that he would fall asleep sleep pretty quickly. I was right. He fell asleep almost as soon as we were in the air, and I got to watch a whole movie (The Time Travelers Wife) and eat dinner without a child pestering me. About 5 minutes before the lights went off he woke up. He was awake the whole time the lights were off. Right around the time I was hitting my wall and we were a couple hours from Munich he fell asleep again, through breakfast so I got a mini nap as well.

Getting ready for the first take-off of the day. He was SO excited! To him being in a plane is like being in an episode of the Little Einsteins.

Feeling like a "Big Boy" in his own seat.

On our flight to Munich, waiting for Take-Off, intently coloring.

Getting very sleepy!


And he's gone.


Upon arrival in Munich we walked to the baggage claim, where our bags greeted us right as we walked out (I love when that happens) and we headed to the train ticket booth. I love that I greeted the young woman in German and she responded all in German! She put us on a train to Vienna via the East Munich train station and Salzburg. We assumed it would be something like that. We were on a very slow, late train to Salzburg. Luckily the conductor asked us where we were going, then told us to get off in Freilassing to catch the train we needed into Vienna. She said it was a much easier transfer. It was right across the track, and we would not have made it in Salzburg. We found out the train originated at the Munich Main station. Those computers, grrr. We could have just gone to the Munich train station where we would have had 30 minutes to grab a bite before sitting on a train and not worrying about a transfer. Oh well, it ended up working out. Jameson fell asleep hard on the train to Wien, and was zonked the whole time. I also hit my wall and Kevin passed me his Mamut fleece to lay my head on because my head kept doing that funny up/down nod/flop. Vienna was absolutely beautiful today!! It was so nice to be home.

When I was opening our front door I looked at Jameson and asked if he remembered this place and he said "JA!" (pronounced YAH!) I wish I got it on tape, because it was a mixture of elation and joy I assume about being some place other than a plane or a train, but there was so much memory in his voice and it was also like a "Duh! Of course I remember this place." He ran all around our apartment and headed straight for his toys. He pulled them all out and started playing with them. We all took an afternoon nap and had trouble waking up this evening for dinner. Jameson was done! A car horn woke him up and he was not happy. After 24 hours of traveling and not one bit of complaint from him I didn't mind. He had a mini-meltdown that lasted ten minutes, then my bribe of chocolate worked. It evened out his blood sugar, then he was interested in eating the sausage and french fries. After dinner he took a warm bath, cuddled a bit and was ready to go back to bed. Which is where he is now and where I am on my way.

Thanks for keeping us in your thoughts. Our traveling day went off without a hitch and I was so impressed with my 20-month-old. He never fails to blow us away with how easy he is to travel with, and how unflappable he manages to be, even under little sleep and barely any food. Sometimes I don't know how we got so lucky to get such an amazing boy in our lives.

4 comments:

Aimee said...

P.S. My husband has just pointed out that I MUST be tired. So please excuse the grammatical errors and the run-on sentences. I will probably be mortified that I actually hit publish tomorrow morning. This happens occasionally to me.

Jennifer said...

I'm glad everything went so well. I hope that continues!

Patti said...

Do you guys pay for a seat for him or did you just get lucky? :)

Aimee said...

We did buy him a seat this time, he is just too darn big and unwieldy to sit in my lap the whole flight. However, we WOULD have gotten lucky it was definitely not a full flight.