Up all night

The family flew to Germany on Tuesday, which means we arrived on Wednesday, but weren't coherent until Thursday.  It is now 6 a.m. Saturday, and having been unable to sleep since about 3:30 a.m., because that's what international travel does to me sometimes, I decided to write a little about our adventures flying across the Atlantic.  *Edit: this turned out to be quite long, so grab a glass of lemonade.*  Oh, I am typing on a Germän kezboard, sö if things löök a little fünnz, it#s becäuse söme öf the kezs äre bäckwärds. 

The flight from Salt Lake City to Atlanta (three hours) went just fine.  Of course Delta is now charging real money for anything more than pretzels and apple juice on domestic flights.  Caveat emptor!  An announcement about menus over the P.A. in the terminal reminded me of the new food-for-cash policy, so I quickly dashed to the nearest food counter to purchase two $2 bagels and two $1 bananas before boarding the plane.  Yes it was pricey, but I thought they would be more filling than one $8 dollar sandwich on board.  We also brought two water bottles and some granola bars with us from home. 

Once we were airborn, William slept in Mirjam's sling for most of the flight.  Of course he's so curious, we had to let him get up and look around at all the interesting people.  He cried only briefly a couple times, and take off and landing went fairly well.  The plane had three seats on each side of the aisle, and the woman who booked our seats tried to give us some extra room by putting my seat on the aisle and Mirjam on the window, in the hopes that no one would want to book the middle.  Didn't work.  The guy who got the middle seat graciously offered it to me in return for my aisle seat so Mirjam and I could sit next to each other.  He had an iPod, so I would have agreed to just about anything at that point.  After his initial attempts at small talk couldn't distract me from sitting next to my favorite 3-month-old, he started listening to a John Grisham audio book.  Oh, Delta also charges two dollars for headphones on domestic flights so you can listen at dangerously high volumes to the bad in-flight movie on the five-inch screen above you. 

The flight from Atlanta to Frankfurt was a little harder on us all.  Hey, you try flying east for three hours and then eight more and see what that does to your mind.  This time, the in-flight meals and movies were all free, probably only to avoid any allegations of international imprisonment.  I just remembered, Delta lost $2 billion in the last quarter.  That was announced the day we flew.  Anyway, we got pretzels and apple juice, we got a tray full of airline "food," we got movies at deafening levels, and in the "morning" we got a nice little pre-packaged wet wipe instead of my favorite "hot towel?"  I was really disappointed about that.  I also look forward to being asked if I would like to scald my face first thing in the morning.  Alas, $2 billion is a lot to lose in one quarter.  Oh, for breakfast we also got a warm croissant, four ounces of orange juice and a cold banana, which probably also cost me a dollar, but I forgot to ask for an itemized bill at the airport, so I couldn't say for sure.

At the gate in Atlanta, I asked if we could get a bassinet for William, but was told they were already reserved.  I went back later and asked if we could get our seats moved a little further forward, and I was told that the coach class starts only five rows in front of us.  With a smile on my face, I returned to where Mirjam was sitting and shared the good news, when , a few moments later, I was called back to the ticket counter. 

The woman who paged me took my boarding passes, scribbled something on them, and after I asked if there was a problem, she informed me that she was changing our seats so we could have the bassinet that we had reserved.  It took me a couple of seconds to understand that apparantly, she wasn't able to match up the name from her printout with my face immediately after seeing me for the first time in her life.  Clairvoyance, people!  It's a great thing! 

Our new seats were directly in front of the class-dividing wall and William's bassinet was connected to it after takeoff.  The wall's always a nice place to sit because you don't have another seat inches in front of your nose, but you give up some toe room.   The seats on the plane were in a 2-5-2 arrangement, and Mirjam and I sat by ourselves on the right side.  From our position in the first row behind first class, we could see that it wasn't even close to being full, so you know what we were thinking from Nova Scotia to London.  William cried a little more on this flight, but that was probably because the contrast between the classes was more prominent--it was oh so close.  Also, he was a little more tired.

Mirjam's parents picked us up from the airport in Frankfurt.  We were all very tired at that point, not having slept much the last 24 hours.  The four-hour drive home was especially hard on William.  It was a warm day, and the car didn't have A/C, which is still considered a luxury in Germany.  Between the heat and the long drive, William relenquished his role of being the model child for a while.  He cried and cried until finally we had to pull over at a rest stop. 

We nibbled on some food that Mirjam's mom had made.  I had forgotten how good German bread, meats, and dairy products are.  Oh, man, I'm glad I'm here.  *Drool*  Anyway, after a little cooling off, we got back in and drove at an exhilerating speed (love that Autobahn!) for a while longer until William just couldn't take much more.  Another rest stop.  This time, a deli was selling bratwurst, so of course we had to have one.  These aren't your dad's Johnsonville brats, mind you, these are the real thing--Thüringer Roster--and there *is* a difference. 

After a brat and a walk with William, we got back in and zoomed off again.  We were so close to Zwickau, and there weren't any more rest stops, so Mirjam had to (*warning* close your eyes while reading this next line) take William out of his car seat and hold him in the sling to quiet him down.  

That evening, William went to bed around 6 p.m.  He didn't wake up until about 8 a.m. the next morning.  There he goes, doing that perfect baby thing again.

Family photos

We had our first family photo session yesterday at Sears.  I told my dad and he laughed and said he used to go to Sears with the family, too.  I don't remember that, but he's got the pictures to prove it, so I'll believe him--this time.  You were right, Dad, they do a good job for a good price.  It's the price that attracted him, I'm sure.  To be fair, we had a coupon, too, otherwise I probably would have grumbled a lot more about it.  In the end, it was worth it, and we'll be sure to get more pictures professionally taken, probably from Sears, as soon as we have more kids.   I'll let the pictures speak for themselves. 
 

 

The games people play

When William is lying on his back, I take both his feet, pull them up in the air and let them drop while saying "kaaa...boom!"  At first, the corners of his mouth twitch upward.  With each "ka-boom!" his smile widens, his mouth opens, and sometimes I even get a laugh.  He seems to like it; either that, or he's already learned to just humor me once in a while.  It works best when he's well rested, otherwise he doesn't find it as amusing.  It's always good for a distraction from crying.  
 
He also likes it when I bicycle his legs, faster and faster, while exciting my voice.  I also like to bounce his hands and arms around, or try to tickle him under his chin and on his chest, which I think he's starting to understand is supposed to make him giggle.  He's still learning.

 
While I'm on the subject of smiling and such, I've heard that smiles from newborns are usually just gas.  Well, I am going on the record right now to state unabashadly that gas and other internal discomforts produced a completely different facial and aural reaction in my newborn.  He wasn't laughing, I can tell you that, and neither were we. 
 
Being three months old, he now has less gas, or at least has learned which muscles to flex and which muscles to relax in order to produce the most relieving effect.  Ahem.  He also smiles a lot more lately.  I wonder if the two phenomena are related. 

Favorite noises

I think my favorite squeak that William does is this: "nnn-G!" That's with a hard "G" on the end. Mirjam said her favorite is "mmm-MA!"

Tonight when I came home from work, Mirjam said he had been crying for hours, but he wouldn't fall asleep. Sometimes when he cries, his chin tenses up really tightly, his lower lip sticks way out, and he frowns so hard it looks like his cheeks might fall off. It's terribly sad and terribly adorable at the same time.

I guess that qualifies as more of a favorite facial expression than a favorite noise. But there is absolutely nothing more adorable than when he stretches when he's just waking up. His little body slowly contorts this way and that, fists clenched and arms up by his head. It's so cute I could just eat him up. In fact, sometimes when I'm holding him close to my chest, so that his ears are just at my mouth's level, I take a nibble or two.

First post

This will be a space where I will keep the world informed of the latest news regarding William. I'm hoping to set up a family site where we can regularly post pictures, this blog, and other stuff. I also thought about having Mirjam write a blog in German. Two perspectives, two languages. More to come.