Traveling Home

We had an eight hour layover in the Narita airport. It was tough, but I think it worked out well because both of our flights were at night.

After we got off the airplane, we had to go through security again to get to the connecting international flights. They only had one lane open when we got there, so it took a long time to get through it. Tut was getting a bit restless in the ergo, but he didn't want to walk either.

After we got through the checkpoint, we headed to the dayrooms in the terminal. I reserved one in advance, but they didn't seem busy. We had the room for five hours and it worked really well to have one person walk around the airport with Tut while the other one slept. I dozed off first and then took Tut to see the airport. He was getting hungry but still wasn't interested in any of our snacks. I found a McDonald's and nearly cried with relief when he ate half of a medium fry. I guess every kid will eat fast food.

That satisfied him for a while and we walked around some more. Robby was sleeping when we went back to the room and Tut wasn't happy to stay there so we went back out and I got him some chicken nuggets. He ate two of them and seemed a bit more comfortable walking around. I took him back to the room to pack things back up and changed him into his pjs for the next flight.

He likes to put on his shoes.He enjoyed playing in the room and figured out how to take several things apart before we left. Robby figured out how to put them all back together. :) We went back to McDonald's to get some more food for ourselves and then headed to our gate.

This was our plane to Houston!

Tut was being more playful by the gate and more comfortable walking around. We were both tired and hoping that he would sleep on this plane too.

We got on the plane and he was happy to play in his seat while we waited for takeoff. He pulled everything our of the seat back pocket and piled it on this seat. He also liked opening and shutting the window. He was great until it was time for takeoff and he did not want to leave his seat or put on the seat belt. I held him while he threw a tantrum, but he fell asleep even before we got into the air. I put him down on his seat and he slept the entire twelve hour flight. He only woke up a little bit while re-positioning and once for a bottle. Once again he ate nothing of the kid's meals.

After we got to Houston, we sat in another long line at immigration. It must have been at least 45 minutes and it is hard to make a bottle and get a child in an ergo when the line keeps moving. A nice guy behind us helped us move our bags when we were trying to get the ergo on. After we made it up to the officer, we gave him the visa packet and he told us to wait and someone would some process it. We stood there for at least 15 minutes until another officer came to escort us and some other people to secondary. Then they told us that only one parent could stay with Tut and the other had to wait beyond the inspection area. I was in there waiting for at least 30 minutes, probably more and the officers were not very nice. Tut had to use the restroom and we had to all be escorted as a group to the bathroom. I know why, but it was still annoying. Finally they gave me the stuff back and said have a nice day. I never told them that I work for CBP, but I was not proud of my agency. Robby's parents went through immigration last week in a different place and everyone was very nice and they didn't have to wait long or be separated or anything. I guess it was just that office.

By the time we made it to our gate, there wasn't much of our three hour layover left. We got sandwiches and Tut ate another chicken nugget for dinner and then we headed to the last plane! It was a repeat of the last flight with Tut enjoying his seat until someone had to hold him. Then he fell asleep quickly on Robby's lap and slept the hour and a half until we got to El Paso. We were happy to be home, but too tired to celebrate. We got the luggage and the car and drove 20 minutes to the house. :) 

Tut wasn't too sure of the house at first. I don't think he was happy that we stopped traveling. We didn't do too much other than show him around and get ready for bed. We put his futon at the end of our bed in case he wanted to sleep by himself. He moves around a lot. He fell asleep pretty easily at first and slept about four hours. Then he was up for about an hour and a half crying. I finally took him out of the room and he quieted down quickly and then asked to go to bed and pointed at his bed. He slept until noon after that. :)

It is good to be home.