Back in California

After three long flights, navigating airports in Spanish, Portuguese, and English, and a five hour time change . . . we landed safely in Ontario, California, at 11:15 on Friday, December 3rd.

Leaving Asuncion on Thursday, we were overwhelmed with the heat and humidity that signaled the end of spring and the start of summer. Until then, the heat had been mild and we had enjoyed a long period of enjoyable spring-like weather. It felt like we were getting out just in time, though. In the time it took Brandon to load up our five bags and stroller into the car, he was drenched in sweat. Bailey and I hid out in the apartment until the last minute since we were both in pants in anticipation of chilly airplanes and winter conditions once we reached our destination.

The first flight, from Asuncion to Sao Paulo, Brazil, was the shortest of the three; only two hours long. After paying careful attention to the safety video, Bailey napped for most of the flight.

When we arrived in Brazil, though, we realized that we were never given boarding passes for the remaining two legs of our journey. We tracked down our gate using the information on our itinerary, and the flight attendants got us set up just in time. Since we had to wait for our boarding passes, we were the last people on the flight; we felt every eye on us as we boarded, and most rolled a bit with an "oh great" look towards Bailey. Thankfully we were seated towards the back of the plane, in the center section next to a very nice looking woman. But once we sat down, one of the sterwardesses (soon to be nicknamed "the warden") saw that we had a baby in tow and forcefully moved the woman to an open seat a few rows ahead of us. The woman was quite confused as to why she was being moved, but she obeyed the command and I'm sure she enjoyed her flight more than if she had stayed with us.

One of Bailey's many nicknames is "wiggle-worm" and that title doesn't just apply to her waking hours. Even during her sleep, she's tossing and turning, rolling from one end of her crib to the other during the course of the night. Trying to get her to sleep peacefully on my chest during the flight, then, what quite a feat. Every 10-15 minutes she would cry out in discomfort, shift her weight around and settle back in for another short bit, before repeating the whole process over and over and over again. Needless to say, Mommy didn't get much rest.

Daddy slept fine, though, for those of you who were wondering. Classic Brandon moment: during one of Bailey's fussy moments, he awoke to say to me: "why don't you just stand up with her, or something?" Being the obedient wife that I am, I fought back the snide comment welling up inside of me and stood up with Bailey. After pacing in the aisle for a few minutes, I returned to our row to see Brandon sprawled out across all three seats, sleeping soundly, unlike the monster in my arms. Anyone surprised?

Towards the end of the flight, Bailey was up and ready to play, so we set her up in the seat between Brandon and me. She enjoyed playing with our empty plastic cups and the few quiet toys we brought with us.

Once we arrived safely in Houston and got ourselves (and our bags) through immigration, we truly enjoyed our four hour layover. We treated ourselves to some REAL coffee at Starbucks (we don't have a coffee pot so all we have at home is instant) and some delicious breakfast burritos. Bailey got to sprawl out on her blanket and have some unconfined playtime before heading off to Ontario.

Wiggle-worm was true to her name on the last flight, too. Thankfully, though, she doesn't scream while she siggles, which means she's not a nuiscance to everyone on the plane, just to Mommy and Daddy. But we arrived safely and have adjusted quickly to the time change and 180* shift in the weather.