going east

The trip started on Sunday evening, March 25th. After a quick lunch, final packing, and a half-an-hour search for Elijah's sippy cup, we were off to the airport. We each had a seat, as Elijah is too big for the bassinet (known as the skycot) provided by Air France for children under two years of age. We did not want to hold Elijah on our laps the whole time, so we had to pay up and get him a seat. We were hoping to be seated in the front row so that he wouldn't kick the back of the seat in front of him, and so that he could stand a little if he got tired of sitting in his car seat. It turned out that those front seats are pretty much impossible to get even if you are flying with a baby, although all the airline agents I spoke with before the flight assured me that they are reserved for people like us. Yeah, right. After having been stuck in the middle of a plane both ways, and a couple adventures during lay overs in Paris, Air France has ceased to be our favorite airline.

Elijah normally doesn't go to sleep easily unless he is in his crib. The trip to Russia was no exception. Instead of going to "bed" around 6 pm as he would at home, he didn't fall asleep for a while. He ate dinner shortly after we boarded, and then signed that he was ready to go to sleep. We confirmed with signs and words that it indeed was time to sleep and Daddy even sang our regular night time song into his ear. However, it turned out that when Elijah signs "sleep," he means something like, "Take me to my crib, lay me down, turn off the lights, and leave me in a quiet room." He continued to sign "sleep" and look at us inquiringly for several hours.

At some point during this exchange of "sleep" sign, when Elijah seemed ready to actually fall asleep, our dinner arrived. He smelled the food and wanted us to share. We did. He liked the chick peas. But the second dinner gave him extra energy and it wasn't until 9 pm that he actually fell asleep. In the meantime, he happily cooed, played with his feet, and played a French version of "peek-a-boo" with the flight attendant, who had a 15-months old at home.

Once Elijah fell asleep, Ryan and I turned on a movie and watched "Casino Royale." As soon as the movie was over, Elijah went into the REM phase of sleep. He tried to get comfortable, arched his back, realized that he was strapped in, opened his eyes, saw the dark airplane, and... SCREAMED. He screamed for quite a while. A few minutes into it I picked him up and walked towards the bathrooms where there was a little more space to stand and move around. The area freaked him out. He screamed louder. After about half and hour he calmed down enough for us to return to our seats. He then sat and eventually fell asleep in my lap, while the car seat happily continued the journey empty, occupying the expensive spot we paid for that no longer carried its intended passenger. Elijah slept for the rest of the trip, while flight attendants went by and pointed him out to each other. No surprises here, he is adorable when he is asleep. :)

Our layover in Paris was only an hour long, so we hurried to get to our next plane. If you've ever had to switch planes in Paris, you'll know that you have to take a bus to go from one terminal to the other. Not my favorite. Standing in line with a squirmy kid in my arms for 40 minutes to get through security wasn't my favorite either. Neither was dealing with an overtired child for the first hour and a half of the flight to St. Petersburg. Fortunately, he fell asleep and slept for the second half of the plane ride.

And so it goes that we landed in St. Petersburg around 3 pm on Monday, March 26th. All of our luggage made the transfer during the one hour layover in Paris.