Enroute To An International Introduction

Once upon a time, long, long ago, people could fly and travel and go all over the world and breath the fresh air as the pleased.

There was a new father and mother living in that kingdom and they’d planned to journey across the lands to introduce their new son to their friends and family, but the rulers of the lands had other ideas and the young families plans were postponed for many, many months…

Now things are a little different & travelling, is a lot more work.

Oh, & now we’ve got to travel with an almost one year old and all of his paraphernalia as well,  so that’s some additional effort as well 🤪😅

Packing with/and for a child was a slightly different experience. Having to keep everything off of the floor and out of reach and getting much ‘help’ when the task was Lake level 🤪

Our flight didn’t leave until 5:00 pm which was a nice change and meant we didn’t need to awaken at a stupidly early morning hour and have a good chunk of time at home to accomplish all the last minute tasks whilst also tending to Lake.

The different family members stopped in at staggering time slots, wishing us a nice trip and sending us off with their love and notes.

The check list was struck off, task by task and at 1:30, our chauffeurs arrived and everything was loaded into the truck.

I’m the type of person that gets stressed when I have too many bags 🤪

It freaks me out to think I could have so grossly overpacked, so I had to keep telling myself that it was ok, and the reason we needed both carry on’s was due to the fact that we had a suitcase within a suitcase, which took up a decent chunk of its space.

(We were returning a piece of luggage the mother-in-law had left at our house.)

The drive to the airport should have lulled Lake to sleep but instead it was one of his whiniest drives yet, causing a deep feeling of foreboding to settle upon me 🥴

Once we arrived at the airport, we went to the area that does the c-vid tests and got that over with.

It was a swab up the nose for 5 seconds per nostril. The lady was very nice and though invasive, it was merely an uncomfortable feeling and not painful in the least. We waited for those results and then went on to checking in, which took a very long time 😅

Perhaps it was in part due to new protocols and health measures, but it also seemed like it was all new staff and with so few travels, how does one become competent in one’s  job of checking travellers in I suppose?  They were all very polite and friendly though and that’s a pretty big plus and the airports renovations look nice, fresh and bright  😉

Mother was busy in doing her grandmotherly duties of trying to keep Lake occupied 🥴👍🏻  

Meanwhile, us travellers hunger was growing rather large, as we had literally nothing left at home to eat before we departed, aside from the three blueberry muffins my sister had given us the previous day 😅

So, with boarding passes finally in hand, the hugs and adieus were shared and we began our first family trip to The Netherlands.

Security took awhile due to all of the baby substances of course, but once again the staff were all very friendly and kind and Lakes food pouches of 124 ml, water bottle, thermos of warm water and half drank bottle, all made it through without incident 👌🏻

With one finally wave through the glass wall, (which I find an entire wall of windows kind of depressing… seeing your loved ones but being able to neither touch nor hear them 😒) we went to Tim Hortons 🤪

Lake used his wave to win over the cashier and she produced a free chocolate Tim bit for him.

#Parentperks… cause Lake shouldn’t eat a ‘hole’ Tim bit himself pre flight, sugar rush am I right? 😜

Kidding, he got it all.. he eats tons and we haven’t noticed sugar rushes yet and we were so hungry we didn’t leave much of our sandwiches to share 😅🙈  Mike walked with Lake to get another bagel so Lake could stretch his legs as well as have something a little more filling to eat. He won himself another tim bit 🤪

We were seated in the very first seats on the plane to Calgary, allowing us room but not allowing us to keep our bags nearby so the perk was a little deflated in that aspect.

Mike did most of the mini human wrangling, as Lake did not sleep a wink.

He did drink his bottle during take off and that alone was a shock as he’s usually much too noisy to eat his bottles in public settings. He quickly began waving to all of the stewardess’s and played peekaboo with them. Peering from around the corner to where they were seated facing him. The one stewardess had a little granddaughter with the same birthday as Lake ☺️

He did really good, though he hardly stopped moving and we landed in Calgary sans crying fit/blowout/or whatever else a baby may do to cause upset and or angst 🤪

After walking what seemed like eons through the Calgary airport, we found our area and let Lake loose from the stroller.

I really dislike the travel between gates in the Calgary airport, it being what seems like one long, endless hallway with nothing to see and feeling more like a bare mall hallway or parkade walk, rather than any sort of airport.

Lake got VERY relaxed during that walk but he didn’t succumb, so crawling around ensued.

He’s begun this thing were he tilts his head a little sideways and slightly downward while he speed crawls and it looks so dangerous 🙈 If he’d even slightly trip, it would mean a faceplant on the unforgiving tiled floors of the terminal, but there’s naught to be done about it but watch with eyes half closed until he safely reaches his destination 😂

We grabbed a meal and Starbucks, changed the small person into pjs and administered the drug combination Lake’s doctor had advised for a greater chance at in flight sleep.

A pleasant couple seated behind us offered to hold something for us and we thought they said they’d hold Lake, so that’s what they got! 😂

He was very happy with them and they with he though, so it worked out well, while we got ourselves situated.

‘Luca’ and the in flight safety video distracted Lake during the remaining boarding time and then we laid him down on the seat between us with his bottle, hands at the ready to give him the paci the moment he finished and, thus, he slept 😳

For 6 of the 7.5 hours of flight!

Praising the Lord for this little but actually not so little, miracle 😅

(I’m placing the reasoning of why that happened on all who said they’d be praying for him to do well during the flight. So I’ll be reminding everyone of our departure date so they can pray as they did pre our trip 😅💗)

Mike may have slept a little more than me, but that’s not saying much as I slept for maybe an hour.

Though Lake is only a mini person, he stretched out on the extra seat/overlapped onto us a fair bit. Causing much envy as I looked at all the other folks who had rows to themselves to stretch out on 😬

The airplane snacks provided were nothing special (are they ever really?) yet I still can’t help but love the little boxes and specifically packaged items, pleasing my ‘eat a single item at a time and let nothing touch’ personality, every time 🙈

Mike was allowed to walk around with Lake once he awoke and maybe since it was a night flight they were a bit easier, but there were multiple times I left my mask down or had it below my noise and no one came to reprimand me 👍🏻

Neither of us recall ever having had a 7.5 hour flight before, so that was a pleasant change to the usual 8.5 boarding on 9.

Passport control was a pretty long and people packed process. The whole walking onto a plane with 9 rows of people and then standing in line with so many afterwords, did actually feel pretty foreign compared to what the world’s been advising… I don’t miss the barrage of odours  that come with being by so many humans 😂

Finally, the oma and opa were spotted and once bags were located, we walked out the little VIP 😉

As we stepped out of the airport into the parking garage, a wall of humidity hit us 😅

It felt like the tropics and during the drive home the rain began.

Lake and I dozed a bit and due to traffic, something we’re again not used to,  it took little longer to get to the in-laws home.

We also paused at a snack bar so Mike could begin the trips food indulgence, almost immediately 🤪 I too partook, as I forgot that I also liked a specific snack rather a lot 😅

Nasiballen met mayo & bereklaw met pindasaus.

After settling in and letting Lake stretch his little limbs for awhile, his oma took him for his first bike ride 😉

We unpacked and put our things into drawers… not something I’d typically do, but when staying a month, it felt right 🤪 All the while being serenaded by the birds atop the nearby trees.

We settled in for the night around 8:30, uncertain as to what our night would hold…

 * I ask that you do your best to ignore any spelling mistakes, as on my iPad the set up is different and I can’t find an easy way to do a spelling / grammar check. Thank you for your understanding 🤪