Day 7 as a Daddy

Hey Buddy,

You might have noticed that there was no day 6 posting. That's because after traveling 24 hours awake I needed a 24 hour sleep marathon to catch up. Never fear, I will tell you everything. Mainly how the past 48 hours has taught me so many new things. Things like:

Traveling is stressful

God places certain people in our paths for a reason

Certain places are meant for babies, and certain places aren't

You travel very well

Airplane bathrooms are stupid (but you can't use that word)

You have a lot of fans

You pretty much are cool with just about anything

People really shop for groceries at 2:30am

Baby stuff is made to be slightly cool so dads stay tuned in

Feeding you helps the whole family

You have a lot of fans

And your mom is the best!

Ok here we go.

Traveling is stressful. We never made it to Daan Park even though it was a nice day. Why did we not make it? Because we were packing and getting ready to travel. Why was it so hard? Because it is stressful traveling. Airlines have baggage restrictions and we didn't want to carry on much. We were trying to pack everything in three checked bags so we would only have two smaller carry-on bags. The game was to get all the things we needed into the carry-ons and everything else in the checked bags, but we had to make sure we didn't go over the weight limit. All the time we were also figuring out what supplies we were low on for the upcoming 24 hrs of traveling. Well we made, but our driver showed up 20 mins early (and can't speak any english) so we didn't have enough diapers to make it the whole trip, nor did we get any breakfast.

No worries, I was more concerned because we didn't have a ticket for you to get on the plane. When we originally booked ours, they took your information and just said to get a lap ticket at the front desk and that it would cost around $250 US. They being American Airlines, a company that does not have a counter in Taiwan. Our first flight was on Japan Air Lines. The ticket girl was no help. She said a lap ticket was over $500, and if we wanted to talk to American Airline we would have to call them from the pay phone. No prob, except the pay phone was Chinese.

Enter people that God places in our paths for a reason. My very persuasive wife went back and asked for a manager. We got Michael Huang (chief supervisor for Japan Air Lines). We told him what we were doing and why we didn't have a ticket yet. He immediately jumped into action. He pulled out his personal cell phone and called the manager of American Airlines. She gave us a deal at $175 after tax. He said "Please, have a seat, I'll be back in a few mins." He came back and asked a few questions about Harrison and then said, I want you to know I got you the a third seat on the bulk head row. Also, an attendant will bring you some diapers and baby food, OH AND I DON'T WANT YOU TO PAY FOR THIS TICKET. The man paid for our ticket out of his own pocket. He then made our luggage priority and gave us access to the business lounges with free food and drinks for me and April. While our bags were being checked he said, He believes God is very busy and thinks He sends people like us to take care of His business for Him. Wow, I was at the point of tears. I mutter insignificant things back to him, but later I realized God sends people like him our way to help us through life. Praise God for people like Michael Huang. Somehow I would like to thank him.

So at this point in our trip everything I was worrying about was taken care of. Now we could just sit back and enjoy the moment. The first thing we did was take advantage of that lounge with free food. How awesome was that. Mommy nearly threw up the dumpling, but she at least got some good ham and cheese sandwiches.

Then we found out that there are certain places meant for babies, and the business lounge was not one of them. There is one place on airplanes designed for babies. That was the awesome bassinets you slept in. Which you pretty much stayed in the whole time when not in our arms, making you a pleasure to travel with. Another thing on planes that is perfect for babies are the individual monitors you can put right up in your face. You tried for the 3D effect by almost putting your eyeball directly on the screen.But pretty much everything else on an airplane are not even designed for people to fit in much less a daddy and a baby. The worst is the bathroom. Which brings me to the next place on my list of places not meant for babies. When they originally designed a bathroom, they took the largest person on the design team and drew a circle 2 inches wider. Of course none of the engineers were dads either, or they would know that the silly fold out table is a joke. Just after mommy changed your first diaper, you made another more sinister one for daddy. Upon entering the bathroom, and tightly wrapping the door around me like one of those Ziplocs that doesn't want to close right, I unfolded the 2x4 labeled baby changing table (ha!). I removed the sinister diaper and found that you defied the laws of physics by depositing more material in the diaper than could fit inside your body. I'm not one to back down from a challenge, but let me just stop the story here and say, I was scared. I saw no happy endings or easy outs. First priority, get that dirty diaper wrapped up and out of they way, did I mention I was in an airplane bathroom. OK next, lets get you clean. Half a pack of wet wipes later and no place to put anything I started cramming everything into a disposable bag I found at my seat (we had handy plastic bags but didn't think it was that necessary, boy was I wrong.) Just when I thought I had everything clean, I look around and see where the diaper had not been able to contain everything while being jostled around in the ever smaller airplane bathroom. It was on the walls, the 2x4 changing table, the bag... and who knows where else. I just didn't want it on me or you. So I cleaned everything up and fought you the whole time because I couldn't reach the floor to pick up the stuff you kicked down there with the table down. So with one arm gently pressing you against one side of the sink counter, I was able to regain my ground. I had everything dirty in the barf bag that doesn't seal (that really doesn't make sense), I had a clean diaper on you and your onesie buttoned up. We lost one sock in the fray and your pants were still not on, but I retreated while I still had some dignity. I emerged from the sardine can and threw the barf bag in a trash can at the attendant's station. Now with you in one arm and your sock, pants, wipes, and changing blanket in the other I sought reinforcements. Alas I found mommy and briefly informed her of the ambush and advised her I couldn't fully inspect the You or your clothes to see if I got everything. Then I handed you over to her as she looked at me confused and laughing. Then I realized you lost your last bottle all on the two of us. How did you fit it inside you before dirtying your diaper I will never know? But there it was bonding us like glue and forming a nice string as mommy pulled you away. From there two things were clear. One I could finally wash my hands, two mommy was changing all the diapers for the rest of the plane rides.

*on a side note*

One really cool thing about flying with you is that we got better treatment than first class passengers. We were the first on every plane, and we didn't have to wait in security lines. We did however have to unpack all the baby formula and meds for TSA in Chicago. Other than that we were ushered thru like royalty.

After all the fun of flying for so long we finally made it back to Nashville and found that you have quite a fan club. Thank you to all those that came to see Harrison. Also, this picture of everyone turned out really blurry, so if anyone has a good one let me know.

From there you just needed to ride home in your new car seat. In Taiwan, they don't even know what a car seat is. We saw a family of 6 on a moped.

Nevertheless, you are pretty much cool with anything because you had no problem in the seat. You also had no problem with anything else. Like new toys, new foods, new surrounding, new people, new formula.... Ooops

Well, at 2:30 we realized we were most certainly out of Taiwanese baby formula so I went to Kroger to get some. This is when I saw perfectly normal looking people dressed in perfectly normal dress shopping for groceries. Huh? Here I am looking like I walked over from Taiwan and need sleep worse than Mommy needed American food and I figured I would be the normal looking one. OK, So upon returning home with the goods, we figured we would just have a JetLag party and eat some of the food a very nice and thoughtful friend brought over.

At this party I opened a few presents. That's when I realized baby stuff is designed just slightly cool enough to get the attention of daddies. We hooked up this monitor that you cousins sent you and we can totally see you on a little camera and tell what the temperature in your crib is at the same time. Also you have this frog humidifier that I played with for a good thirty minutes. And finally on my list of products to endorse you have this little sound machine that is a night light, lullaby player, and sound machine. It will make everything sound like your underwater (Or as mommy says "in the womb"), It will also play music from an ipod which I will try out tomorrow.

I also found out that feeding you also feed Mya and Chester, because eventually you will drop stuff and they love to clean up dropped food.

Your fan club has been forming a single file line to come meet you at your new home. We expect this to continue for some time.

Finally, I have to give your mommy a ton of credit. She is the best mom I have ever seen. She knows exactly how to meet all of your needs. She takes very good care of you. You are such a perfect baby, and a lot of that is because you have a perfect mommy.

Love,

Daddy