We have made it home. We arrived in Pittsburgh on Friday around 6:30 pm. It was quite a long trip home. The flight from Moscow was full, not an empty seat on the plane so little one had to sit on my lap the whole way home. Considering the circumstances I would have to say he did quite well. He only slept maybe 3 hours of the 10 1/2 hours, cried for about 4 hours of the 10 1/2 hours (in about 10-20 minute increments until I started feeding him Cheerios - I am so glad someone had the good mind to create Cheerios) and then ate and played for the remainder of the 10 1/2 hours. I felt so bad for him because it was such a long flight and he couldn't get comfortable, there was no where to play and grandma and I tried to entertain him as much as we could. He flirted with the lady sitting next to us quite a bit and the Russian gentlemen behind me took pity on me and tried to amuse him when I stood him up on my lap. When we finally landed at JFK they could not get the walkway over to the plane so we had to wait probably about 30 minutes until we could get off, he did what most of us felt like doing - cried. When we finally got off I went to get my stroller only to find out that I would have to claim it in baggage claim - it needed to clear customs, so I had to lug a diaper bag, computer, backpack and 25lb baby through the airport. Grandma and I were rushing because we only had 1 hr 35 minutes to catch our next flight. We finally got to customs to see a long line and then realized that was for non-US citizens and there was no line for US citizens. We cleared there and then had to take Alex to Immigration where there was a wait of 5-10 minutes. I saw a lady that was also at the US Embassy the day before and was talking to her and told her we had a flight to catch and were really running late. Mom said that one of the immigration officers heard me and came right over and cleared Alex in less than 5 minutes, YEAH he is a US Citizen! We then had to run about 3/4 of a mile through the airport and only had about 10 minutes before our plane took off to find out that they plane was delayed because they down-sized the plane from a 70 seater to a 50 seater and were rerouting people through other airports. Everyone had to get back in line to find out where they were being sent to, Mom and I prayed so hard that we would still get our original flight and our prayers were answered. Once on the plane there was a mechanical problem so we had to wait until that was fixed and then little one decided to really stink up his diaper, I apoligized to the people around me and then changed his diaper. About 10 minutes later mom started laughing really hard because little one peed all over her, I guess it was all the juice he drank earlier. When we finally took off we were exhausted and he fell asleep right away. Finally landed in Pittsburgh and his daddy was calling to see where we were, he was anxious. Daddy, Grandma, Grandpa, Papa, Aunt Carol, Uncle Chris, Aunt Karla, Anna, Sydney and Claire were all there to welcome us home, it was such a site to see. Everyone was so excited and Alex was not really sure what to do and after about 15 minutes he was down and running around the airport.
On the way home, Mama and Alex both slept until daddy woke us up, what a good site it was to see our house. Alex came in and just walked around from room to room looking at everything. Eventually he fell asleep, but we are still messed up with our schedule. We have been waking up about 1:00am until about 2:30am and then waking back up around 5:00am. Mama and Daddy are both really tired, but as I sit here and type this both of my boys are sleeping and snoring, what a good life I have!