3/26/11: Home

Both of our International flights were on time and we made it home Saturday night. Grandpa had booked a shuttle service for the ride home from the airport and that came in handy after I did not sleep at all on the flights home.

The trifecta of puke by the kids actually occured as we were landing at Newark. It was very turbulent and the food had been so-so at best. Carter started the parade and did a minor burp/liquid splooge followed 5 minutes later by more globs of food and liquid. While we were scrambling to clean his up without unbuckling our seatbelts, Aril started crying. April had been complaining her stomach hurt for 2 hours. We turned to see April had woken up and thrown up large quantities. Her left hand (attempted landing spot) was covered, as were large parts of her sweatshirt, pants, and seat. For future reference, check seats 42B and 42D on CO 98 have new seat covers.

Bennett informs us he is not feeling too well after witnessing this in sensaround. I hand him a barf bag and review the rules on where he can throw up if he gets sick. That bag is soon used.

We scrape off the worst of the debris and fluids while completing landing and taxiing. As soon as the plane is at the gate we grab the spare clothes out of the backpacks and change April & Carter, barely finishing in time to deplane when it is our turn. A very nice man a few rows back takes the bags of urp & soiled napkins/wipes from me and puts them in the trash in the rear of the plane. (I cannot get back there since everyone is standing waiting to get off the plane).

Things start looking up when the kids actually make it past a bathroom (if I remember correctly) and we make it to the immigration line (unlike the two long poops by the kids after deplaning in 2009 while 3 more planeloads got in line in front of us).

We can go into the foreign passport or U.S. citizen line when we have an immigrant with an IR3 visa with us. The lines looked about equal and the agent put us in the U.S. citizen line when we asked. The line moved fast and about 10 minutes later we were by the agent who tells you which window to go to. I show the agent the famous brown envelope (the culmination of months of paperwork - you get this from the U.S. consulate with your child's visa) and the agent sends us to the Diplomat / VIP line (which has 5-10 people in it and we could have gone to without the 10 minute wait in the commoner's line). No big problem.

The agent at the window says we need to go to the room downstairs (not a good sign - last time the agent at the window handled it in 5 minutes at the window). No one comes when he calls, so he takes us down in the elevator himself and hands us off to another agent. The new agent takes our paperwork & Carter's passport and tells us to sit down. Lisa heads to the bathroom with the kids. Before Lisa even gets back the agent returns, congratulates me, and hands me Carter's passport with the U.S. entry stamp. Carter is now a U.S. citizen!

The agent opens the automatic door to baggage claim manually (very entertaining) and we join Grandma & Grandpa in time to get our luggage and queue up in 2 very short lines for customs. The nice custom agents only ask once why we have 5 passports and 3 people while Grandma & Grandpa (in another line next to us) have 2 passports and 4 people and let us through without delay. All in all a pretty quick and painless experience on landing. Review with the guilty parties why the passports need to match the lines next time.

We recheck our bags for the next flight and take the airport tram to our terminal. The security line at our terminal is very short and we are through quickly. Unfortunately there is no USAir Club in our terminal and we wait at the gate. After some crappy and pricey muffins we wait for our flight while Carter proceeds to run & climb everything in sight despite our best efforts. Our prediction is Carter will break an arm (or leg) a lot sooner then the 3 years after getting home that it took Bennett. Lisa buckles him in his stroller so we can eat, he nibbles on a muffin, and promptly falls asleep again (at least I think he did).

The gate agent lets us board first and we are soon off after a slight delay due to weather at our destination. There is some confusion and anger in the baggage claim area when we arrive and the conveyor belt is stopped, but our bags are already on the conveyor belt. We grab them and exit, connect with our shuttle bus, and head home!

Aunt Linda and Uncle Mike are back in town from FL but leaving Sunday morning, so Aunt Linda meets us at home for a quick hello. Mommy and Daddy get to sleep about midnight Saturday.

It is now almost noon Sunday. Lisa, April, Carter, Bennett, and the cat are still sound asleep in our bed. It is very good to be home!

Carter was not with the program to go right to sleep last night but was happy enough for most of the time. Bennett went right to bed after kissing his bed and pillow and bedroom floor. April was crying loudly when faced with the reality of sleeping alone (Carter's crib is in Bennett's room and she evidenly expected to sleep with us in our bed like we did when she came home in 2009). We have another bedroom for Carter but it is next to the stairs, so we decided to bunk him with Bennett.

After taking a shower, I crawl into bed and pass out while Lisa is chasing Carter around (hey, she slept a little bit on the plane). I wake up shortly and Carter is now crying when being held in our bed. Lisa moves Carter to his crib and he stays there this time instead of doing the "Up Please" routine. Blurry recall of Carter crying at different times and April waking up crying from nightmares (which we translate to "drama" from being told to sleep alone in her bed). Somewhere around 4 or 5 a.m. we just put April in our bed (not at all our normal parenting approach to bad behavior, but this fell into the treat this as adoption related category and let slide). After this easy to rationalize decision to quiet April down so we can sleep, Carter starts crying again but this time moves happily from his crib to sleep on top of Lisa. Lisa, April, Carter and I crash quietly (finally!) in our bed. The cat curls up on top and all is good.

Bennett's radar alert goes off and he comes into our room. Fine, get a blanket and lay on the floor, just be quiet. We definitely need a larger bed (do I hear King size?). Murphy (our dog) will be very put out when we get him today and he finds out there is no room left for him to try hopping on the bed wth us in the morning tomorrow (his usual routine).