Erinn's Trek Home with Oliver: Wee, wee, wee all the way home.........

As we mention below, because of Erinn’s flight cancellation, she and Oliver had to fly to Chicago on Tuesday, stay in a hotel, and then fly to Arizona early the next morning. That was challenging enough. But she also had the additional challenge of doing this while having to cart around two very large suitcases, two sizeable carry-on bags, a stroller, and a baby-carrying backpack (not to mention a restless and squirmy baby himself). Here are her highs and lows from the trip back:

Highlights: traveling with a handsome guy who is always up for a snuggle; fast tracking it through Heathrow due to my little handsome guy; letting Oliver wander through the wasteland of the United terminal (no flights = no people = lots of space for little toddler to roam and not cause trouble); sitting in economy plus in the bulkhead between two lovely ladies who were flexible and endured a tug and a swat or two; Oliver sleeping pretty well on the second half of the international flight (no screaming fits); being surprised that the hotel I was staying at wasn't a dump; sleeping on a nice mattress in that hotel; enjoying nice American chatter on the shuttle to the airport in the morning (have missed the chit chat with strangers); having my flight from Chicago actually leave (I kept bracing for an announcement otherwise); Oliver enduring another four hour flight without totally losing it; ah, and seeing my lovely husband waiting at Sky Harbor's baggage claim............ support and love had arrived!

Lowights: gimping it through my two-day travel experience: you see, I literally wore my lovely boots to their death this semester. Because we had no friends, and therefore no fashion accountability, I felt perfectly comfortable wearing the same outfit every day. I pretty much rotated two pairs of jeans and wore the same boots every day. Time to cut out that nonsense. The boots were wussy, but I literally (and I'm using that word correctly here) wore them to the point that there were holes in the soles). So, all that to say that it was like walking with a flat tire (that no one could see -- that's what matters, right? :)); witnessing countless emotional meltdowns between people and airport employees; being "wee'd" (as the English say) on at least five times between these two flights. I had purchased the cheapest and most poorly made diapers in the universe before leaving London. So I'd be sitting there, holding Oliver, and just feel this warmth spread across my lap. I actually felt a lot like I was wee-ing all over myself but had no ability to stop it whatsoever. So, I kept changing him and eventually had to just hope the outfits would dry out on their own. I'd rotate one icky outfit for another, just to feel like I was doing something. For myself, I'd just wet wipe my jeans down and hope that pee from a baby who lives on milk wouldn't smell too bad; a crazy cab driver (who took me to the hotel in Chicago) who had a swearing match with another airline worker and seemed totally put out to take me anywhere; hanging with a wide awake Oliver from about 1 a.m. to 5:30 a.m. in our hotel room; and finally, another four hr. flight of going through countless cycles of my "bag of tricks" with Oliver while being peed on and mauled here and there with "kisses" that morphed into bites and hair pulling (when he was sort of losing it too). All in all, could have been so much worse, so I'm thankful for God's grace to me in this experience.