International Travel with a Toddler: Not for the Faint of Heart

Murphy's Law: take your child for his 18-month well visit on Tuesday to have him declared in perfect health. (Stats: weight 26.5 lbs - 65th percentile and height 34.75 inches - 95th percentile.) Child wakes on Wednesday morning - day of international flight - with a runny nose (not the clear stuff... meaning infection) and horrible chesty cough.

And so began our travel "adventure." With inhaler medication in hand, we left for Detroit airport on Wednesday morning around 10:30 am. On the advice of Jack's pediatrician, we gave him children's Benadryl before our flight to Chicago. Many of my friends advised that we give him Benadryl to knock him out but I never seriously entertained the idea. I only give medicine if truly warranted. But when the doctor advised it - we listened.

The flight to Chicago was just fine and Jack weathered the 3-hour layover with no trouble. O'Hare airport had a great "Kids on the Fly" area which had plenty of play things and climbing pieces for Jack to use. He wore himself out and by the time our 5:30 pm flight to Manchester rolled around, Mick and I knew Jack was beyond beat and would SLEEP on the flight. We gave him an additional dose of Benadryl since it had been 8 hours since his first and he was alseep within ten minutes of takeoff. YAHTZEE! we thought! I immediately regretted packing my book in my checked luggage as I suddenly had hours during which to read.

But it was not to be.

Jack woke after about an hour of sleep and, with over seven hours remaining on the flight, was wild. I mean WILD. Apparently, while Benadryl causes extreme drowsiness in most children, it has also been known to cause extreme hyperactivity. Wonderful. So we had seven hours of wrangling a very energetic child, who was sick, and who mostly only wanted mummy. Mick had about an hour of sleep while I had none. But we made it and thought we were out of the woods.

Wrong.

Thursday night, we put Jack to bed around 7:30 pm. Granted, this is only 2:30 pm Michigan time, but Jack was beyond beat as he'd had so little sleep Wednesday and didn't sleep overnight at all. He went down like a gem and again, we were thrilled. Until he woke around 11 pm. And stayed awake - wide awake - until after 2:00 am. Mick and I muttered words of frustration to each other, reminisced on how easy travel was without a child, and threatened not returning to England until Jack is 16. But then Jack eventually fell asleep and we slept and the morning brought renewed tenacity: we wouldn't let Jack's sleep strike dictate our future travel plans! We'd be back this summer!

But then this morning we started talking about whether we should call the pediatrician back. Jack had been on his inhalers for over 48 hours and wasn't improving at all. Though his appetite and general playfulness have been good, his cough seems to be getting worse and he's been wheezing and having shortness of breath. Our pediatrician said, without hesitation, that we needed to take him into the doctor here before tomorrow morning. This was at 5 pm England time. UGH!

So, off we trekked to the local doctor (who was wonderful!) to be told that we had to pay (!!) for Jack's visit because, while he's a British citizen, his country of residence is not part of the UK. Bummer. I was impressed though with our first experience with the NHS. We called at 5:00 and by 5:30 we were in with the doctor! She said that Jack has a bit of a red (sore?) throat and a "crackly" chest - meaning chest infection. Due to his other breathing issues, he has to be on an antibiotic for the next five days. (Thank goodness for generic drugs - with our insurance not covered here, we had to pay out of pocket but the drugs were only about $7!)

The doctor wants to see Jack again on Monday morning at 8 am so we will have him rechecked then. This hasn't been easy thus far but I'm glad we're doing it (the travel, I mean.) I know some people who say they'd never travel with their kids because it would be too hard. I think about what we've done so far - with this our third international trip with Jack in 18 months - and am glad that we're not letting these hiccups get us down. Jack had some time with his great granny today and the expression on her face when she saw him -- "isn't he just lovely? he's precious!" -- was invaluable. Well worth the challenges - though we're hopeful for an easier trip home!

Snow... and Quarantine

Finally, Ann Arbor has had a nice snow. Not DC, 20+ inches nice, but nice enough. It was close to 10 inches and gave Mick the opportunity to shovel and Jack the opportunity to try standing up and walking in it.
Jack was lucky to be outside briefly today as he's been fighting a horrendous stomach bug since Saturday morning. The poor kid has never had the stomach flu before and I think he was frightened every time he vomited. In between heaving, he'd moan "mummy, MUMMY!" as if I could stop it or make him feel better. It was awful for all three of us. Luckily, today he's on the mend. He made a few stops to time out today for banging the fireplace doors, so that showed me that he is on his way back to his normal, mischievous Jack self. In any case, we've quarantined him from other kids and play dates for the next few days as we want him to be as healthy as possible for our flight to England on Wednesday.

We had a wonderful visit in DC last week and were able to see some, though not all, of our friends. (Congrats on your engagement, Ryan! Hope you're feeling better, Sabine!) Poor Mick toiled away at meetings all week-long while Jack and I made visits to the Natural History Museum with the Sorkins, to our former weekly playgroup (it was so neat to see how much the kids had grown in 3 1/2 months!), and to see our friends, Lee and Iain (and their dog, Cole, with whom Jack is obsessed).

Jack and Iain had a great time eating...

and playing...

and showing their fondness for each other.

Jack did okay on the flight though I think 18-month-old kids are meant to give traveling parents a run for their money. Fingers crossed for our trans-Atlantic flight.

Jack's 18 month well visit is tomorrow. I'll post his stats afterward.

The Wonders of Modern Technology

Wow... I didn't realize it had been so long since I last posted an update to our blog. I guess the few emails I've received from friends wondering if we were still alive should have been a hint. So here's to posting more timely updates!

The topic for this evening is, as the title suggests, how amazed I am by technology. Skype has been a part of our life since 2007 when I bought my (much loved) MacBook. Initially, it enabled me to peer in on Marcus and to read books to him from hundreds of miles away. Then, when Jack was born, it became the easiest way to communicate with family, especially grandparents, and to show his growth and progress. Now that we've moved, I use it to keep in touch with friends in Arlington. The older Jack has become, the more interested he is in talking to (and showing off for) the people on the other side of the screen.

Tonight though, Skype enabled me to accomplish new feats: home repair. As any renter turned homeowner knows, the absolute best part of renting is that phone call you make when something breaks or doesn't work as it should. If you have a good landlord, he/she comes and makes/pays for the repair and you're good to go. Not so as a homeowner. We've certainly already learned this as we have sunk $350 into a bathroom sink repair, $150 into a garage door repair, a LOT into a new refrigerator, and an as yet undetermined amount into a leaky window. However, being close to family has really paid off as my dad and Andy have done tons of odd jobs around here to save us money.

When Andy was here over the holidays, he would just FIX things as soon as he saw they needed some attention. One day, he told me he needed caulk for the basement bathroom. Off we went to Ace Hardware and Andy showed me all of the correct gadgets to get and then he came back to our place and sealed some leaks in the tub. The next day, he removed the door that leads out to the garage from its hinge and repaired the weatherstripping on the bottom (which we'd been saying we needed to do since we closed on the house in mid-October!). He fixed the ice maker in our brand new refrigerator (something that the fridge company couldn't help with) and got all of the wiring figured out in the family room so we now actually have decent sound when watching TV. It was blissful to have him around. Literally every question I asked him about something that wasn't working in our house was met with "oh, I know how to fix it" and then he'd do it. Amazing.

Tonight, as Jack and I were playing before bedtime, Sarah and the kids rang us on Skype. We talked with the boys for a few minutes (Jack says both Deagan's and Marcus' names now: "Dee-dee" and "Muh-meh") and then Andy came on to the screen. All of a sudden, I exclaimed "Oh, Andy, it's so good you're there! I need your help with something!"

I took my laptop over to the pantry and showed Andy the door. The handle came off this morning and I couldn't figure out how to reach inside the door (it's a bi-fold) to try to get the screw out of the back. The best I could figure out was that I'd need to take everything out of the closet, get inside, and then use a flashlight to see what I was doing. I'm so glad I didn't do that though because with my luck, I'd get stuck in there and then would have to wait for tomorrow night for Mick to get back from his travel to get me out. Not a smart plan when you have a mischieveous toddler running around...

Anyway, first, Andy had me hold the laptop up to the top of the bi-fold door. He instructed me how to get the door out of the track so it would then swing wide open (eliminating the need for me to close myself in the closet, flashlight in hand). I then showed him with the camera on my computer what the problem was. Of course, he knew exactly what I needed to do. However, instead of explaining it to me and having me struggle with figuring out what he meant, he suddenly took over control of my computer (I think he said he was able to "remote in" and then basically his screen showed on my computer) and drew a diagram of what I needed to do.

I was so fascinated by this form of assistance that I had to run and get the camera to record a bit of it:


The door isn't fixed yet as I don't have a fender washer (which is what Andy said I needed). That means I get to take a trip to the hardware store tomorrow which is great because hardware stores are my favorite (well, those and lumber yards!). However, I know that if I have any trouble re-installing the handle, I can just Skype Andy again and will get all the help I need.

I wonder if I've stumbled upon a new business idea for those do-it-yourselfers who need just a little bit of guidance without paying $100 for a service call...

Anyway, thanks Andy!