Eric is going to travel!!

Over the last few weeks, we've been trying to decide what to do during Mauri's time off for the biological fishing stop.  He won't be fishing from Janurary 15th to February 15th, so we had been trying to decide whether or not to use that time to plan a trip.  It's been over three years since the last time I made it back home to the US, and I really wanted to go.  On the other hand, just the thought of trying to manage a full day of travel with a hyperactive, temper tantrum throwing, never-sitting-still baby/toddler makes me sick to my stomach.

Eric likes to sleep in unusual positions

Not helping matters was the news of the Costa Concordia accident.  I know, it is a cruise ship, and has nothing to do with traveling by plane to the US.  Still, seeing the accident on the TV made me put myself in the position of the passengers who were on board the ship.  In doing so, I realized how much has changed since Eric has come into our lives.  I can't say that I wouldn't have been frightened in that situation if it were just Mauri and I on board, but having Eric with us just makes the idea that much more terrifying.  In fact, I had little mini nightmares for the next couple of nights after seeing the news.  I imagined trying to get down the long ladder towards the lifeboats with Eric in my arms, and trying to keep him from getting too cold and wet.
That said, I can't let fear keep us from traveling nor can I deny Eric from having new experiences.  So, we decided to take a look at how much going to the US would really cost us, and to seriously consider going. 
It turns out that this time of year it is much cheaper to fly to the US.  We started out looking for flights to New York or Detroit, but, because of a special offer, found a much better deal on a flight to Chicago with Iberia airlines.  It was too good a deal to pass up, and, after hours of looking for a deal, we were buying two adult tickets and one baby ticket to Chicago.  (We were quite happy with our purchase until the next day and offer came up on their website for 100 euros off the flights!!)

With Iberia, babies under two years of age have to buy a special baby ticket which costs 10% of the adults’ tickets.  Unfortunately, they don’t have to pay only one tenth of the taxes and extra fees.  In the end, Eric’s ticket was about a fourth of the price of ours.  It’s nice to get a bit of a discount on his flight, but seems a bit ridiculous to have to pay that amount when he isn’t entitled to an actual seat of his own. 

Buying a baby ticket entitles you to a special baby seatbelt that buckles on to your own for takeoff and landing.  If you have a baby that is under 8 months of age, it also entitles you to the use of a special baby crib on intercontinental flights, so I’m starting to wish that Eric was under 8 months old.  The only other thing that your money is paying for, really, is an extra allowance for baby baggage such as a stroller which you can bring right up to the entrance of the plane. 

They state, that if there are extra available seats, that they will try to give you preference to it, for extra comfort.  Hopefully we will be lucky enough for that to happen.  If not, I can’t imagine trying to make Eric keep still in our arms for the entire flight.  I don’t know how they expect you to eat or otherwise function of the plane otherwise.  Thinking about it really stresses me out.  I am looking forward to our trip, though.

Traveling with a baby actually adds a lot of extra stress during the planning process.  Not being able to travel with a car seat made me wonder how, exactly, we were going to be able to leave the airport.  I read that you could rent car seats from car rental companies, but most people seem to say that it is not worth it.  Not only are the seats pretty universally old, dirty and ugly, but they come without installation instructions nor the knowledge of what the seats have been though in the past, making their safety quite questionable too. 

I decided that I would prefer to order a new, inexpensive car seat online, to have it ready for us when we get there.  It is probably at least as cheap as renting one, if not cheaper, and it has the advantage of being available for more than one trip should we manage to get back to the US before he outgrows it.  It will be cleaner, safer, and ready with a bit less hassle. 

Eric now loves to drink from glasses; the bigger, the better

Other than that, I still haven’t decided what else we might need to bring with us.  I have a little less than a week before our trip to try to decide.  I’m wishing now that I had gotten to making Eric a cloth quiet book, something I’ve been wanting to make Eric for quite some time now, because it would have been perfect for bringing on the plane with us.

Starting to build a mini-kitchen

Forgetting about the trip, there are other things that I’ve been meaning to make for Eric.  One of the main things is a play kitchen.  I had seen several ideas I liked online that were made from upcycled old pieces of furniture.  So, I spent several weeks keeping my eye out as I passed the trash containers for pieces of furniture that would work.  Of course, as things always go, the week I gave up and bought wood to make one from scratch, I saw 3 different pieces of furniture thrown away that would have worked for my project!!!

I’ve patterned Eric’s using a leftover chunk of counter that was cut from our own countertop.  I think it was actually from the hole we made to either fit in our stovetop or our sink.  Using the same countertop means we will have matching kitchens, which will be nice because I’d like to put his kitchen in mine, hopefully distracting him from my cupboards which he loves to constantly open and shut, and take out Tupperware containers, and wine glasses  and teapots (which he breaks)…

Helping papi mow the lawn!

With our trip coming up, though, I’ll leave that project alone for now.  It’s nice to have something to work on outside because Eric loves to play there in the morning, and I get bored if I’m not working on something myself. 

I got a Christmas gift in the mail from great aunt Carmen

I’ve also been working on adding some pages to the blog to better display in one place some of my baby projects thus far; mostly already mentioned earlier in the blog.  I’ll put up a quick version right now, and little by little will update, fix it and add better photos.

Well, I guess I’ll sign off for now.  I need to start to work on planning for the trip, and will write some better entries when I get back from the US.  I doubt I will write any from there, but you never know. 

For now, I’m trying to get the last minute things in order with a now feverish and clingy baby.  Today Eric woke up with a fever and hasn’t wanted to do much of anything all day except be in my arms.  That makes it harder to do everything I need to do in preparation for our trip.  It also makes the new idiotic travel waste of time and money, aka the stupid ESTA application from my favorite department of “Homeland Security,” that much more, well, annoying.  Thanks Obama administration for annoying the heck out of me on this matter; for coming up with one more stupid way to waste my time and steal my money (and disregard the big “L” on my forehead as I type that).  Spain already does such a great job at that, but even in the land of “Let’s tax and re-tax absolutely everything you do and own,” there is nothing as ridiculous as the ESTA as an excuse to take tourists’ money.  At least I was lucky enough to have accidentally come across the fun fact that I even needed to fill out an ESTA application in the first place; otherwise, I would have traveled as usual and possibly arrived to the surprise of being denied entrance into the US after having travelled some 15 plus hours with a baby.  I can’t even imagine!!!! (Or can I?)

It’s sad that being an American travelling with a baby for the first time, that the actual arrival into my own country is one of the things that freaks me out the most.  It always has, especially after marrying Mauri, and I always feel a bit sick to my stomach as I arrive at customs and immigration.  Hopefully things will go better this time than they did last time. (long story)  I’ll be sure to let you know…