Since
the wife and I are both pretty bad procrastinators, we didn’t start packing for
our trip to Kota Kinabalu until 8 o’clock the night before. That’s when I
realized that we might have a problem with Caitlyn’s passport. She was born in
Taiwan, but we’ve only applied and gotten her American passport so far. No Taiwan
passport.
As I said, we’re pretty bad procrastinators. It seems there’s a stipulation that babies born in Taiwan that have a Taiwanese parent, like my wife, have to use a Taiwanese passport to leave the country. Worried about this, we contacted the airline, and the person on the line assured us that it would be OK to use her American passport.
Our boarding time was 9:10 a.m. so the wife decided we should wake up at 6 a.m. and leave at 6:30 to give ourselves enough time. When we went to bed, we hadn’t finished packing yet, so I really didn’t know how on earth the wife was going to get herself ready, get the baby ready, and finish packing all in 30 minutes. But I figured it would be pretty entertaining to see her frantically running around the next morning trying to do so, so I didn’t say a thing.
As expected, we didn’t actually leave until 7 despite our best effort. And because of traffic, we didn’t get to the airport until 8. And because there was a huge line at check-in, we didn’t get through the security check until about 8:50. And because you should never listen to what a random airline person tells you on the phone, we ran into a problem with Caitlyn’s passport.
Thankfully, all we had to do was fill-out a visa form for her, but that ate up quite a bit of time, so we didn’t get past immigration and to our boarding gate until close to 9:20. The gate closed at 9:30. Now that’s what I call cutting it close. I suppose the lesson learned here is to not procrastinate, and to make sure you get to the airport at least 2 hours beforehand like they always tell you to.
The thing I worried most about flying on the plane besides the fact that I didn’t think Caitlyn could sit still for more than 5 minutes was the cabin pressure causing her ears to pop and hurt. The last thing I wanted was for her to cry the entire trip and have everybody on board ready to strangle us for having made them suffer through it all.
I had heard that sucking on a pacifier helps, which is kind of one of the reasons why we haven’t exactly weaned her off of it yet. At least that’s the excuse I’m using. I also heard eating would help alleviate some of the pressure. So during take-off, we start shoving pieces of bread in her mouth, and when she had had her fill, we popped that pacifier in.
Amazingly, she didn’t cry the entire flight over, which completely surprised me. I thought she might be scared of the new experience, but I think she was really too immersed in and curious about all the new things around her, that she never got scared.
One thing that I feared would happen did happen, however. And that was not being able to sit still. Thankfully, the flight was not very full, so we actually had a couple rows to ourselves, which was nice. When Caitlyn would get tired of one seat, I’d switch to another, and then to another. I’m just worried what we’ll do when it’s actually a full flight and we’re no longer able to play musical chairs.
I don’t want to heap too much praise on her, but I am definitely proud of how she did. Now the true test comes in the summer when we plan on going back to the States. A 3-hour flight is completely different from a 14-hour flight with layovers. But enough worrying for now. Time to enjoy some sun and surf!
As I said, we’re pretty bad procrastinators. It seems there’s a stipulation that babies born in Taiwan that have a Taiwanese parent, like my wife, have to use a Taiwanese passport to leave the country. Worried about this, we contacted the airline, and the person on the line assured us that it would be OK to use her American passport.
Our boarding time was 9:10 a.m. so the wife decided we should wake up at 6 a.m. and leave at 6:30 to give ourselves enough time. When we went to bed, we hadn’t finished packing yet, so I really didn’t know how on earth the wife was going to get herself ready, get the baby ready, and finish packing all in 30 minutes. But I figured it would be pretty entertaining to see her frantically running around the next morning trying to do so, so I didn’t say a thing.
As expected, we didn’t actually leave until 7 despite our best effort. And because of traffic, we didn’t get to the airport until 8. And because there was a huge line at check-in, we didn’t get through the security check until about 8:50. And because you should never listen to what a random airline person tells you on the phone, we ran into a problem with Caitlyn’s passport.
Thankfully, all we had to do was fill-out a visa form for her, but that ate up quite a bit of time, so we didn’t get past immigration and to our boarding gate until close to 9:20. The gate closed at 9:30. Now that’s what I call cutting it close. I suppose the lesson learned here is to not procrastinate, and to make sure you get to the airport at least 2 hours beforehand like they always tell you to.
The thing I worried most about flying on the plane besides the fact that I didn’t think Caitlyn could sit still for more than 5 minutes was the cabin pressure causing her ears to pop and hurt. The last thing I wanted was for her to cry the entire trip and have everybody on board ready to strangle us for having made them suffer through it all.
I had heard that sucking on a pacifier helps, which is kind of one of the reasons why we haven’t exactly weaned her off of it yet. At least that’s the excuse I’m using. I also heard eating would help alleviate some of the pressure. So during take-off, we start shoving pieces of bread in her mouth, and when she had had her fill, we popped that pacifier in.
Amazingly, she didn’t cry the entire flight over, which completely surprised me. I thought she might be scared of the new experience, but I think she was really too immersed in and curious about all the new things around her, that she never got scared.
One thing that I feared would happen did happen, however. And that was not being able to sit still. Thankfully, the flight was not very full, so we actually had a couple rows to ourselves, which was nice. When Caitlyn would get tired of one seat, I’d switch to another, and then to another. I’m just worried what we’ll do when it’s actually a full flight and we’re no longer able to play musical chairs.
I don’t want to heap too much praise on her, but I am definitely proud of how she did. Now the true test comes in the summer when we plan on going back to the States. A 3-hour flight is completely different from a 14-hour flight with layovers. But enough worrying for now. Time to enjoy some sun and surf!
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| Ready for take-off! |
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| Open up, Mommy! |
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| Daddy needs some, too! |
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| Feed me! |
.JPG) |
| Watching videos on the iPad |
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| Safety first |
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| Keeping busy |
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| Stretched out |
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| We did it, Daddy-O! |
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