Traveling Family

It's half-way through January and I'm getting antsy.  February will mark our first major vacation since 2009 and flying with Jude is going to be a whole new experience.  Last time was cake.  We'd prepared ourselves for a nightmare, flying with an eight month old, but in reality is turned out to be super easy.  He was such a good natured little dude, no crying or fussing or yelling.  We had people on both our flight in and out of Oahu commend us on your well-behaved and happy little mister.  Everyone always dreads being sat next to the infant on the plane, but Jude proved their fears misguided.  I was so proud of him.

This time we're not dealing with an infant but a full fledged little boy.  Given, he's a very reasonable child as it is, and he's old enough now that we can use logic on him... as well as bribery and threats, so there's that.  I guess I'm less worried about how this will effect others as much as I'm not looking forward to the stress it presents us.  Don't get me wrong, two weeks in paradise will be well worth a few hours of potential hell, but that does not prevent me from thinking about it.

Thank God we have both an i-Phone and a Kindle Fire to help entertain him.  We're also have some color packs and I think buying him a new toy specially for the flight might also help.  Make it special.  I think he'll be in awe of the planes, he was too little the last time to remember being that close to them.  It will also help that both Tutu and Pap will be there.  He loves spending time with them and they're very good at distracting him.

My lord he's a lucky little boy.  This is actually one of the reasons I'm 95% sure I don't want another child.  You know, after the physical crap, and my beliefs on overpopulation (and irresponsible breeding), and my relationship with Jude and a strong desire not to see that change... there's the simple fact that with another child there would be less chance of Jude getting to do all these great things so frequently.  The cost of another child alone would make it less likely, then the added stress of traveling with more than one child.  Really?  I want to give Jude every opportunity.  I want him to be able to go places and see things and experience life to it's fullest.  Another child would lessen those chances.  Not to sound callous about it, but them's the facts.

So yeah, just thinking about vacation.  Thinking about beaches and sunsets and fresh fruit and the smell, god the smell is the best.  The flowers, the markets, the locals, the absolutely awesome time we're going to have this year.