Born to travel

Perhaps because we had to travel in order to create our little J-dog, and indeed I was on a plane with "him" before he was even 3 days old in-utero, but I have to say that he is a natural-born traveler. Our trip to Italy was a huge success, and as suspected, he charmed the pants off of everyone he encountered along the way. Everything went very smoothly, and I was very impressed to see how many people were so helpful to me as a mom traveling by myself. I did curbside check-in, which was great, and the guy helped me with all my stuff all the way up to security inside the airport. (I was only checking one medium-sized suitcase, but then had to take with me to the gate the umbrella stroller, the car seat in a nifty backpack, a giant tote bag that also contained my diaper bag, my purse, and of course - the J-dog!) I initially had him in the carrier when going into the airport, but the Skycap recommended that I put him in the stroller because with the stroller in its bag, it looked like I had too much luggage. I was pretty sure I was entitled to all that stuff, but took his advice. That meant that I had to take J out of the stroller to go through security, and fold the stroller and put it on the belt. I was struggling to do this with him in my arms when a nice young woman behind me in line swooped in and took J from my arms. At first I was a little freaked because it happened so fast, but she was just standing there smiling and bouncing him, and I realized that she didn't speak any English but was just being helpful. So once I knew that this wasn't some international baby-snatching ring, I smiled in appreciation. And then the security woman came and whisked me through the gate - I'm not even sure if we went through a metal detector or not. We got through so quickly and the other security guys brought all my stuff over to another table where I thought they were going to inspect it, but they were just putting it there to get it off the belt so I could get myself re-organized again. Very nice.

I got to the gate 2 hours prior to departure because I had been told that to get a bulkhead seat and a bassinet, it was first-come, first-served at the gate. Of course no one showed up until about 45 mins before the flight. She was able to give me a bulkhead, but said that there was no bassinet on this plane. Let me just say that this was about the 5th different piece of information I had been given about bassinets. When I booked the flight months ago, they told me I could call reservations 48 hours ahead of time to request one. On a later call, I was told they were first-come, first-served at the gate. Then my dad, who actually took this same flight 5 days earlier than I did, called after he checked in to say that the woman at the desk in the Admir.als Club (yes, it was Am.erican) told him that they were now selling those seats and that I should call reservations to purchase one. I called and was again told it was first-come, first-served at the gate! So many different messages. So when the gate agent told me there was no bassinet on the plane, I just laughed. There was no place to put the car seat, so I gate-checked it. But I had brought it just in case there was an empty seat next to me. Plus, I did not want to risk the airline losing it, so did not want to check it. I'm happy with that choice. However, on the return flight I was told at check-in that it was a full flight and I went ahead and checked it. I knew that if I had to, I could use a car-service with a car seat to get home if they lost it.

Anyway, back to the flight. We got on the plane and got settled in, next to a nice enough guy who was pretty gracious about being next to a baby. When the flight attendants came for drink service, I asked if it would be ok to make a nest for the baby on the floor at my feet, since there was some extra room. He said, oh, let me get you the bassinet! Well what do you know! There was indeed a bassinet on the plane, right over our seat. He got it down, hooked it into the wall of the bulkhead in front of me. I had already fed the J-dog on take-off and he was getting ready to go to sleep (it was a little past his bedtime already). I rocked him a bit and tucked him into the bassinet, which was just barely long enough for him, and he fell asleep! He slept for pretty much the entire flight, until the sun started to come up and they came around with breakfast. So he was just great!

We were met at the airport by a dear old friend of mine, and he took us to his lovely apartment. We hung out, had a nap, and got settled into Italian time. I have to say that the J-dog got pretty well adjusted to the time change in about a day or two. It was great. We had a lovely long weekend in Milan with my friend and his partner (who by the way are embarking on their own journey to become fathers through an egg donor and gestational carrier here in the US, in California...that is another story in itself. But gay adoption is illegal in Italy, so this is their only option. More on that in another post.)

After three days, my friend drove us up to Lake Co.mo where we met up with my parents at an amazing villa owned by a colleague of my father. We had a lovely time the whole week, taking walks down to the town, going for a boat ride to Bella.gio, another to the town of Co.mo for some shopping (twice actually), eating lovely lunches out and having simple suppers at home in the evening after the J-dog went down to sleep. We got into a really nice rhythm and I have to say, it was hard to leave. I guess it would have been hard for anyone to leave, but I have to explain that I used to live in Italy, and at one point in my life thought I would stay there for good. I speak the language of course, and feel very much at home there. So coming home was bittersweet. Of course we both missed J very much and couldn't wait to see him. But a part of me felt it would be pretty neat to stay there for a much longer time.

On our last day at the lake, my friend came back up from Milan for the day and we just hung out, talking. I realized how much I miss him too, being able to just pick up right where we left off. (We have known each other for over 20 years, when he was an exchange student in high school. Indeed, he is the reason I started studying Italian in the first place, in college.) I told him that I was going to try to make more of an effort to get over to Italy more often, in the summers when I am not teaching. I would really like the J-dog to learn Italian, though it is difficult to speak to him in Italian at home since it seems strange to speak to him in a language that is not my mother-tongue (there is a reason they call it a mother-tongue, right??) But I did get him a bunch of books in Italian, and will make an effort to read them to him and talk a bit in Italian. I would love to be able to get an Italian nanny for him here in New York, but I'm sure it will cost me more. We'll see.

So, I will post a few pictures from our trip.

The Cathe.dral in Mi.lan

Chasing Pigeons

Getting ready for a nap


Detail of the villa. Our window is the one with closed shutters at the very top.

Our room. I love the sky on the ceiling. And they were very nice to provide us with a crib, though I'm not so sure about the color!

And someone didn't get the memo about no pillows or sheets for an infant, but I love extra pillows and made good use of this one for myself.

View of the lake from the waterfront of the town where we stayed.

Waiting for the boat.

He loved riding on the boats!

The Cath.edral in Co.mo.

Our trip home was very easy too, especially since my parents were making it with us. We were given 3 bulkhead seats together in the center, and also got a bassinet. He did not sleep very much on the way back though as it was daytime, but he ate a lot and got passed around between the three of us, so it was fine. I breezed through security in Milan, they even let him stay in the stroller, but "frisked" him under the seat, etc. I had several bottles of water as mothers are entitled to, but they made me taste it. Overall I have to say that traveling with a baby this age is pretty easy. It just takes some extra planning and strategic packing. I usually over-pack for myself but was very good about taking only 5 outfits for me for the 10 days. And only 3 pairs of shoes, which for me is unheard of!

That's enough for today I think. Next entry I'll let you know how feeding solids is going, and how I like the Bre.zza...(hint - very much!)