Back in the US

For the first time in eighteen months, my family and I are back on U.S. soil.  This is our son's first trip to the United States.

Our day started at 3:30 AM in Jakarta.  Our travels took us from Jakarta, to Singapore, to Tokyo, to Los Angeles and, finally, to Phoenix.  Five cities, four security checks, three planes, two children, and zero sleep.  My son is not a good flier.  He doesn't sleep well, he shrieks like a bored parrot and he needs to be in constant motion.  His favorite activity on the flight?  Climbing the stairs.  On the plus side, all of the flight attendants lavish him with attention, which means we're well taken care of.  I'm leaning towards the reimplementation of my rule about not flying with kids under two.  It's brutal.

Our flights were mostly uneventful.  Turbulence on the Tokyo to Los Angeles leg, delays from LAX to PHX.  My mom, her fiance, my grandmother, my sister, and my sister's fiance met us at the airport.  This was the first time my mom and grandmother were able to meet our son.  He did not disappoint.

We went directly from the airport to the rental car company, and from the rental car company directly to Chipotle.  We intentionally skipped breakfast on the flight to LAX so we would be hungry enough to finish our Chipotle meals.  After dinner, we crashed.

My son has decided he wants to be on Jakarta time even though we are in Phoenix.  We all went to bed at 9 PM, he woke up at 2 AM.  I woke up with him.  Finally went back to bed at 5 AM.  The only meal I had for the day was a Chipotle Steak Fajita Burrito in the late afternoon.  Two meals, two Chipotle visits.

It's now 5 AM Sunday.  My son is just now going back to bed after waking me up at 1 AM.  I am NOT going to miss my full day of NFL football.  Not going to happen.  I may just have to start drinking coffee.

Oh, and my son's first birthday party is this afternoon.  I should probably be awake for that.  After the last two nights, he should be happy he is able to celebrate it!