Nearly a week late on my post, but better than leaving you hanging. :)
Our plane ride went very well all things considered. I realized on the plane that it truly does take a village to raise a baby. :) I am not sure what I would have done without my mom and sister on our trip home. Truly, it is way more stressful than you even think it will be. We left Almaty at 8:20 a.m. on Sunday, that meant we had to leave our apt. at 6:00 a.m. which meant we had to be up at 5:00 a.m. and when you get to sleep around midnight - 1:00 a.m. 5:00 a.m. comes fast. Did you get all of that? haha When we arrived at the airport, a gentleman helped load all of our luggage on to a cart and brought it inside for us. I thought that I was being more than generous when I gave him 1000 tenge, this is about $9.00 He then told me that it was 2000 tenge. What? That is ridiculous! Isn't that supposed to be a tip job? I guess that I know what job I will do if I ever live in Kaz. 5 minutes of work and he made nearly $20. Crazy!
On both flights, us 4 girls scored bulkhead seats! Total Score! Originally when we got on the flight from Almaty I was upset because the lady at the desk that spent nearly 20 minutes 'getting' us bulkhead seats, didn't really get us bulkhead seats. Not even Z and I had bulkhead seats, and to top it off, my mom and sister were way in the back of the plane and Z and I were up front in a normal aisle seat. Grrrr! But 2 wonderful flight attendants to the rescue, and once the plane filled, she had set us up in great bulkhead seats. So nice!
They brought the bassinet to us but didn't hang it on the wall; Z is just under the recommended weight limit at 18 lbs, so instead we just set the bassinet on the floor. When I saw how small it was, and knew how tall Z is, I laughed. There was no way she was going to fit in there nontheless sleep or be content in there. But, much to our surprise, when we put her in the bassinet to play, she was great! This kid is unbelievable! It really makes me think that maybe they have small independant cribs at the baby house. That is the only explanation for her content in this tiny little crib. She did end up sleeping in the bassinet during part of the flight too.. On the second flight, she even slept in the bassinet attached to the wall of the plane. Yikes! There wasn't any floor room on this flight to just put her bassinet on the floor so we tried out the traditional wall mount bassinet, and it was good. It was kind of funny though, on this flight, the bassinet was soft, so they put a carboard box in the bassinet to give it shape and then they filled it with pillows. My girl had to sleep in a cardboard box.
We also learned that Z is a flirt. She loves boys, from afar of course. She was smiling and peek-a-booing with several men on both flights. It was great! We heard several times that she was just beautiful and that we had a remarkable baby. She was a total doll on both flights, barely a cry out of her. (She did cry, but it was so little that we can say that it didn't count.) On the flight from Amsterdam to Minneapolis, there was a large, very tattooed gentleman that sat next to us in the bulkhead seats. When he saw that he was to share a row with 3 women and a small baby, he sighed outloud. By the end of the flight, he and Z were smiling and flirting with each other too. It was great!
Sad news, our flight from Almaty to Amsterdam was nearly 2 hours late, so we were not able to meet up with Kristi at the Amsterdam airport. So close but no meeting. That was disappointing to say the least.
Tip - If you are bringing Russian Vodka home for your man (or a friend or family member) pack it in your checked luggage. We had zero problem carrying 3 .5 liter bottles on the plane from Almaty to Amsterdam, not even a ? in Almaty, but in Amsterdam they wouldn't allow it. If it were up to me, I would have thrown away all of our bottles but my sister was determined to get this Vodka back to the States. Now, my sister is not a drinker at all, I have probably only seen her tipsy twice (not even drunk) but she had paid a lot of money for this stuff, so we just had to find a way. In the end, we emptied Z's backpack of stuff, wrapped mom's coat around the vodka and checked the backpack at the security gate. Z's backpack items just went into a plastic shopping back which we then carried on to the plane and all was good. I am happy to say that all of our Premium Russian Vodka safely made it back to our boys. Feweee!
Z had fun listening to the kid's cartoons on the airplane, how cute is this!
When we arrived in Minneapolis, we took Z through the immigration line (after standing in the wrong line for 15 minutes) and within a matter of 5 minutes and maybe 5 questions, we were given the good to go. Z is now a U.S. citizen! How awesome is that! At this point we only have a Kazakhstan Passport for her and a U.S. Visa, but her U.S. passport is underway! As soon as our little girl breathed that Minnesota air, she officially became a U.S. citizen.
Then it was off to baggage claim where we found all of our luggage along with our Vodka backpack. Score! Then through another security line with our luggage, and bam, we might have meat in Z's baby food so off to the scanning line. Just an fyi - no baby food with meat people. After having to put all of our luggage through the scanner, we found out the my mom brought a huge back of nuts back into the U.S. Yikes! Luckily they didn't see this, but it was a good laugh after the fact. You can bring these items out of the U.S. but not back in, even if you initially brought them with you and are bringing those same nuts back in the States, it is a no no.
After going through the immigration, customs and security hoops, we were greated by my sister's family just awaiting our arrival. Ty, Izaak and Elijah (my nephews, mom's grandsons and Becky's children) Dan (Becky's husband). It was great! They had big heart balloons and gifts for Z. What a great gift.
