Well, I have to say....I was really proud of how Anna handled it, and proud of how I handled it too.
 |
| "The Wheels on the Bus Go Round and Round...." |
We did, of course, have our difficult moments, as is to be expected when you take a three-year-old out of familiar surroundings and drag her on a long adventure to a distant place, far from home and routine.
Sometimes she was cranky. Sometimes she missed Mama Heidi and Kelsey and her stuffed animals that stayed behind and wanted to be home. Sometimes she ran wild in the airport because the wait was just sooooo looooonnnng.
But mostly - she was awesome and had a fabulous time.
Anna was excited to be on the bus eating the free pretzels and playing with her MobiGo. It was a two-hour trip but she did pretty well. She looked so cute wearing her little Toy Story backpack. She also had a blast in the airport picking out where we would have dinner and looking at all the cool stuff there was to see.
 |
| Yay, the airport has random painted "aminals"! |
Understandably, she wasn't happy about her teddy bear having to go through the big scary security scanner machine, but both she and the bear survived. Eating a Kit Kat and pretending we were going shopping in the market was super fun, as was playing "tickle monster." We had another two hours to kill, after all, and were happy to provide the other passengers with free entertainment.
The flight was probably the most challenging part of the trip down. Anna wasn't scared, but she had trouble sitting still and keeping her seat belt on, as one might imagine. She did enjoy looking at all the lights below us as we started our ascent into the sky and thought they were "beautiful."
Thankfully, the flight was only an hour and a half or so. She promptly passed out in the car on the way to my parents' house and slept the entire night, given that she hadn't dozed at all on the bus or the plane. Whew.
While we were there, Anna enjoyed playing with Grandma and Granddad. She handled meeting new people and being in a new place very well. She especially enjoyed drawing and playing with her cousin, Brandon, who's 4. We both had fun, but after a couple of days, we were ready to be back home.
I was nervous about the trip home because we had to get up at 4:00 a.m. for a 6:30 a.m. flight. That's what you have to do to get the good deals.... Anyway, by some miracle, Anna had passed out at 5:45 the night before so she was pretty well-rested - unlike me.
She enjoyed some toast courtesy of Grandma, and then we hit the airport, where we had some juice and a snack and got through security (this time it was Aaron the Alligator's turn to go through the scanner) with no trouble at all.
The cool thing about this flight was that Anna was alert and it was light outside, so she could see out the window. When we got up high enough for her to move, she sat on my lap and marveled at the clouds right beside us in the air.
"The clouds are so cool, mom! Can we bounce on them?" she asked excitedly.
 |
| Photo from free-extras.com |
I laughed. "No, honey, we can't do that, but they do look fluffy, don't they?"
This time, Anna sat perfectly still almost the whole trip, mesmerized by the clouds and sky, and as the trip came to an end, the water and land below. We played and read stories for an hour until it was time to catch the bus and then she slept the whole bus ride back home. You can't ask for better than that!
On the whole, Anna did an awfully good job of handling all that travel and routine change for a restless, active toddler. And honestly, I was proud of myself for handling her and all 3 of our big bags with no help, and managing to stay sane.
So, the moral of the story (besides reciting what may be a boring play-by-play to some of you) is that if you're afraid or nervous about bringing your toddler on a long trip with you....well, maybe you should be, but don't let it stop you. It just might be better than you imagine!
No comments:
Post a Comment