We landed yesterday at Dulles International with no problems. I won't lie that I felt like I was going to cry every time I thought about never living in Rotterdam again. Who knew I would fall in love with a city so much that I didn't want to leave. But I remember when I finished college I felt the same way about Princeton, I went through my mourning period and grew to like Rotterdam (I can't believe when I first moved there I hated it) But now I must go through my mourning period again. I'm pretty sure by the new year I'll be better, but for now I think our family is going to experience some extreme culture shock.
I think we already had our first shock while driving to the hotel last night. It was 7:30PM and the roads were jammed with traffic. I seriously asked Paul why people are out this late (you see most stores close at 6 or 6:30 at the latest.) He laughed at me and told me people were either coming home from work or shopping. It's so weird to know I could go back to the old ways of shopping after 6PM any day of the week. But unless it's 100% necessary I think I'll stay home after 6 to keep up with that tradition.
The flight yesterday was great. We got to the airport 3 + hours ahead to make sure everything went smoothly. The man we checked in with was very strict about luggage weight so we ended up shuffling around some items in 3 suitcases that were over. We JUST made the weight limit. Then we parked ourselves in the KLM lounge for business and elite members. OMG that lounge was 1/2 the size of the airport. It had everything to relax and all complimentary. I forgot how nice it is to fly not in economy.
The flight was fabulous, I managed to get Brandon to sleep during take off AND landing. During this 8 hour fight this was pretty much the only sleep he got. He was a little ball of energy that he forced Mama and Papa to play with ALL day. But luckily we had the flight crew at our hands if we needed any help, they just loved Brandon, and he played it up with laughing and smiling at anyone who gave him attention.
Once we landed the unloading crew didn't notice our stroller needed to be brought to the gate, because it was in a canvas bag, so they put it with the checked luggage. I was ready to report someone, thinking they forgot my stroller base in Schipol and now I'm going to have to carry my baby around in his baby bjorn carrier for the next 2 weeks. BUT that was not the case. It was with all our checked luggage.
We hired a skycap to take our luggage to the rental car agency (thank god we did that, because the carts for you to do it yourself were to small for our 10 pieces)
Last night we had these great plans to go get dinner, go to the grocery store and then get cell phones. But felt my jet lag hit once we got to the hotel. Paul just got more hyper as we got to the hotel (I think he's very excited to be home) I told him we would skip everything but dinner and I would stay in the hotel to but Brandon to sleep. I thought it would be better to put him to bed at 7:30PM than later. I didn't need my baby to be awake for almost 24 hours, he did a 19 hour day with only four 30-45 minute naps.
It's now 3:30AM and Brandon is still sleeping (I <3 him for that) but Mama is wide awake because in Europe it's 9:30AM....that's sleeping in for me, Brandon normally wakes up for his day around 6:30-7. I'm curious if jet lag will hit him???
Now it's time to let the craziness of settling into American living. We're so excited to be back, and even more excited for everyone to meet Brandon in the next couple of weeks!
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