T-Minus 2 Days.

The thing is, I thought we were actually T-minus 3 days, but when I went to check our itinerary again, thinking it was going to tell me we left at 11 AM on Wednesday morning, I was shocked to see that we actually leave at 2 AM Wednesday morning... which really means we leave Tuesday night. Ummmmm... okaaaay. Change of plans for Mommy.

See, I thought we'd all get a good night's sleep (pretty crucial part of travel with a toddler... ahem, pre-schooler, according to Baby Center), get up at a reasonable hour, have a wholesome breakfast, and make our way to the airport with a happy boy in tow, ready for a big day of coloring and new prizes (more on this later).

Instead, I have to quick-change my mental plans to instead include me making a late dinner, getting Kaden to bed on time, or early if possible. Finish packing and cleaning (it sucks coming home from vacation to a messy house) and then wake him back up at 11 PM or so and head to the airport. I'm hoping we can be ready to walk out the door, car loaded, etc. and then I can just grab him jammies-and-all and put him directly in his carseat and maybe it won't disturb him much. Problem is, he's much like his Mommy and he doesn't want to miss anything, so I'm guessing he's going to be wide awake by the time we get to the airport and through security.

The next stage in the journey will be me hoping he can fall asleep on the plane (at 3:30 AM, after the serve "dinner") and stay sleeping until we get to London. If not, we're in for a lovely hop across the pond during what would normally be our regular bedtime. So, think good thoughts for us please! We're going to need them. :)


Because Kaden is older this trip, I'm hoping I'll be able to reason better with him and explain what's going on better than 6 months ago when we went to Italy. He was still barely learning to understand us then and was easily frustrated. Now, I can tell him things will happen "after _____" and he will patiently wait for whatever needs to happen first. Before, he would just scream because "after" meant "no" to him.

We took some precautions this time though with little gifts, as I mentioned earlier. We went to the store and bought 5 or so cheap, toss-able toys that I then wrapped in birthday paper for him. I read this tip on several websites dedicated to helping folks fly easier with babies and toddlers. The theory is, "hey! a present!" and both opening the new toy and then getting to play with it and revel in its newness will keep a child preoccupied longer than playing with their regular toys. Makes sense to me. So we're going to try that one!

Kaden is also a lot better about sitting through most of the length of some movies now too, so hopefully on the second flight we get a plane that has the screens at each seat. We're on Etihad to London so I know they will have them, but here's hoping the next one does as well. I know for a fact that he will watch Twilight start to finish, so if they have that, two hours of the flight are accounted for! :)

As far as Stu and I go, he hates fly no matter what and I love it. I love the food, the take off and landing, finding things to do with my time, etc. But I don't particularly like it with a screaming child (mine... I don't care if other kids scream). Stu would rather walk to North Carolina if that were an option. Hates flying. Nothing will make him happy about it. So I have to soothe his frustrations and crabbiness while keeping Kaden entertained. Needless to say, I'm just the teensiest stressed out about how this is all going to go. Lol. At least we're only on two flights this time. Last year we had three connections in the States and we were just dead after missing our final flight out of Salt Lake because of a previously delayed flight (in Denver? LA?). Kaden hated us for weeks after that turmoil. Lol

I just finished doing laundry for our trip, so hopefully we can be all packed and ready to go tomorrow and now running around like heads with our chickens cut off this time. We learned our lesson about packing on the day of last year (and we drove around searching for food at after 8 PM, grouchy and starving because of so much to do).

Anyway, I also wanted to mention that we are not taking our laptop this time (way too much extra crap to bring along, and we're not even sure we'll have Internet access for most of the trip) so I won't be blogging until we get back. Like Italy though, I plan to keep detailed notes of our travels and fun, and take plenty of pictures to share with everyone once we get back here.

I can't wait to see my family! It's been way, way too long.