And we're off...

It amazes me how much we are taking and how little we are taking. I mean, 7 suitcases can hold our entire lives - the lives of 3 people for the next 4 years (or at least until Christmas)?

Andrew was AWESOME on the flights.

On our flight from ORD to LAX there was a woman who had 2 small kiddos. The younger one squirmed and screamed for most of the flight. I was sooo glad Andrew had a seat - even though it was very cramped. His carseat ended 2 inches before the next seat - yes, I measured it. We had just enough time in LAX to go potty.

LAX to SYD was a 14 hr flight. Andrew fell asleep shortly after we got on the plane. He woke up a few times, so we walked the cabin and changed his diaper (there is a baby changing station in the back toilet. Who knew?? I had not been looking forward to changing him in a cramped airplane stall.) When he woke up for good (about 2 hrs left), we played with his airplane (flying from mommy's tray table to daddy's), read books, sang songs, colored, and played with stickers. STICKERS!!! They were a lifesaver. I love stickers!! He would have been content sticking stickers for the entire flight, but we rant out of the boat stickers. (Tip for any parent of a toddler: Stickers form the $ store + a cheap notebook = hours of fun!)


Other advice I pulled from the days of having a newborn:

"sleep when the baby sleeps"

Of course, as soon as Andrew settled in, I tried to sleep but my eyes kept popping open to watch the monitor. It had the picture of the airplane on the path to SYD. I know it wasn't changing, it had only been 30 secs, but I still had to look.

Our landing was straight out of Albatross Air Lines...but we made it.