Tuesday, July 19, 2011

Traveling alone with a 22 month old...

Over Memorial Day weekend, I took Rylan to see Em and Gabo in Mexico. Ryan is so awesome for even considering letting his 6 month pregnant wife take his precious boy to a foreign country without him. He was nervous though Gabo assured him he would keep us safe.

We flew over night Thursday night. Rylan did pretty well with the traveling and the waiting for a full hour while AeroMexico experimented with their new system and worked to figure out how to collect the fee for Rylan to fly without a ticket. They "let me go" after the hour to go wait for the plane. We got in line at 10:15pm and sat down at the gate at 12:00am. Rylan was still ready to run at that point. The plane was full. I was in the middle seat with Rylan on my lap and two non-English speaking gentlemen on either side of us. The one on the left seemed nervous about flying and the one on the right was very nice saying (in spanish) Rylan could put his feet on him if he wanted. I was thankful for that and Rylan was really fidgety. I was just beginning to pray that Rylan would settle down and go to sleep when the flight attendants came up to talk to the man on the aisle. I thought they were asking him to change seats with me so I would be on the end, but they were asking him to move to the only other empty seat on the plane! What an answered prayer. I seriously almost cried. 5 minutes later we were moving and Rylan (and I) were headed to sleep. He slept the entire flight, taking full advantage of the empty seat!

Now it was Friday. We got to Emily and Gabo at the airport with very little incident and went straight to sleep at their house when we got there. Later that day we went to the park and Rylan played in a fountain while we took turns enjoying frozen yogurt. Em and Gabo bought him an airplane blow up toy from a balloon lady. It is hanging above his bed in his new room...more to come on that later.

Saturday we went to the zoo in the morning. Rylan was, at this time, taking baby steps out of his "scared of animals" stage and seemed to enjoy it though he spent much of the morning in Gabo's arms. It was a very nice zoo. It was also hot! Later that afternoon we picked up Gabo's dad and headed to Coyoacon to walk around and eat churros. Gabo and his dad also got coffee from one of their favorite spots, and Rylan made some new Mexican friends while playing in another fountain. We also went to Chili's for dinner. We knew we were pushing Rylan's bedtime, but his need to play in the kid area pushed him over the edge. Again, we took turns holding him while the other two were eating, and sweet Gabo climbed in the germ filled kid area so Rylan could try to play. He was really too small. Needless to say he went to sleep quickly.

Sunday we relaxed most of the day and Gabo's sister-in-law came over to cook us lunch (3:00pm). She made chilaquilas, hamburgers, and noodles. It was all very good. In order to be polite, of course, I ate it all. Ryan would have loved the chilaquilas! I should really learn to make them. Rylan slept most of the way through lunch with 20 of Gabo's family members. It was fun being able to see them. They want us to know they are taking care of Emily without us there, that's why his sister-in-law cooked for us. So nice!

Monday we went to the children's museum and hit up every spot for kids under 3. Rylan had a great time at each spot as well as a screaming fit every time we were ready to move to the next one. He went to sleep quickly on our return trip home. On the way home, we picked up Angie at a gas station, and saw a very large man toweling off (remember it is hot) while sitting in his car. Later that night we had a girl's + Rylan night with Costco pizza and girl talk.

Tuesday morning, after another stint in line with AeroMexico, we sat down on the plane 2 minutes before it was scheduled to take off. I had already cried with Emily, was rushing, nervous about going through security, and sweaty. When I finally was settled on the plane and Rylan was happily yelling at the other planes out the window, I started to cry. It could have turned into the ugly cry again but this nice lady sat down next to me and we were instant friends. That helped me so much! We chatted most of the way. Rylan did well again and said "I unt to ride a airplane" as soon as we landed.

I'm so glad we were able to go! I love seeing them. I have no idea when I (we) will get back there with the new baby coming soon and Rylan turning two and having to have his own seat. I'm thankful for this trip, and the hospitality. Despite the fact that I got a viscous stomach bug when I got home. Parasites and amoebas were ruled out yet it lasted two weeks! It wouldn't have been so bad had Ryan not caught it from me! Oops!




1 comment:

Teri said...

Wow, you're a champ to travel alone with Rylan! Sounds like you guys had a great visit!