Day 13 (& 14) Home

Possibly one of the greatest travel ideas ever is the airport adjacent hotel.  Are they overpriced?  Yes.  But there is something wonderful to be said for stepping out of your hotel room, walking down the hall, and checking in at the flight counter.  Especially when you are flying out of Hong Kong and it it takes almost two hours to check in, go through security, and go through customs.  By the time we got to the plane, it was mostly loaded.

The flight was smooth and on time, but that's about all you can say positive about a 14 hour flight.  Oh, and the movies were good and mostly appropriate for the children.

The last leg from Chicago was also smooth and without incident.  Unless you count Jack screaming for most of the hour-long flight.  He did great on the big plane - all the kids did - but the last leg put him over the edge of his I'm-so-tired-I-just-want-to-cry meter.

We got home safely, stuffed some Chick-Fil-A into our faces, took baths, and went to bed.  We had decided to put Jack in a pack-n-play next to our bed for the first few nights so we could comfort him if necessary.  It didn't take long for me to realize that it was going to be a loooong night.  We ended up putting him in bed with us simply because it was faster to pat his back and put him back to sleep than any of the other alternatives.  Jet lag does not make for patient parenting.

After being up half the night, he ended up sleeping until 1pm.  The rest of the day he was in a fairly good mood, and he eats really well, but after dinner it was clear he was ready to crash.  I kept pushing him to stay up longer, in hopes that he would sleep through the night.  We shall see how that works out for me.  I keep dozing off at random times myself, so I understand how he feels:)

I know it looks like he is upset in this photo, but he was really excited about throwing every single Little People doll we have across the room.  His smile face and mad face are pretty similar, but he was laughing and saying, "Ah!" over and over again (short a sound, not ahhhhh) which is of course his favorite noise. 

I have to give one last thanks to all the people who have prayed us through all of this.  Jack is doing very well (I hope to write about that later, when I have had enough sleep to do more than simply write down what happened each day - for now, see Tim's blog), and I have gotten to focus on him because I have such a great support system.  Mom and Jacob took care of the kids, Tara and Vanessa took care of the blog, and when we got home I found that Christa, Tia, and Sarah had been at work in my kitchen, buying me milk and freezing meals.  (Yummy chicken pocket thingies, btw.  Will says I must make them for him again sometime.)  I cannot thank all of you enough.  You're the best!