This be the first post from Dubai, UAE, where Kodi and family are currently parked, enjoying the grandparents’ attention, a whole lot of good food, and a little too much sleep.

I had every intention of writing before we left, and even woke up super early the day we left so I’d have a few extra minutes. However, the little bundle of trouble woke up with me, which meant I didn’t have a moment to spare.

Our journey here was anything but smooth. Let’s see, how many things could possibly go wrong…

*At Chicago airport security, we got pulled aside for special treatment. They sifted through every item in our neatly packed hand luggage, body scanned both of us to made sure we weren’t hiding anything in the guise of a toddler. Said toddler was upset at the whole routine and wanted to run to me, which he wasn’t allowed to, till the procedure was complete and he was left crying.

* We were all boarded and ready to go, except for one family, and we had to wait 10 minutes for them to show up. That 10 minutes snowballed into 180 minutes. When we were ready to take off, we couldn’t, because it had snowed and the plane had to be de-iced. We were put at the end of the line for take off but shortly before our turn, some flight computer rebooted, we missed our slot and waited till eternity for it to restore. By the time it came back alive, it had snowed some more, so we returned to the gate to de-ice. And waited in line again for our turn to be de-iced. At the end of this saga, THREE whole hours had passed, and we were still on the ground. We finally took off 3.5 hours past our slotted departure time. Lesson learnt: NEVER, and I mean, NEVER fly American Airlines for international flights. If it weren’t for their operational inefficiency, we could have got away with a half hour delay instead of over three hours.

* Kodi was at his crankiest best. What do you expect? For a very long time, he kept saying The plane is going to take off now. It will go like this…Bzzzzzzzz.  Complete with an arm zooming upward. That seemed to never happen, so he started kicking the seat in front of him and opening-shutting the food tray to entertain himself. Besides, he’d woken up so early, and skipped his nap, so he was hyper and being very difficult. Then he went and hugged someone else thinking that was his father (!) and ended up crying when a total stranger hugged him back. That cry worked up to a wail and finally he zonked off an hour before the plane took off.

* Food was too little and horrible. Yes, this is important, for a preggie traveling with a toddler. I had backup brought from home, but at that altitude, it tasted worse. I ended up eating Kodi’s; he was sleeping anyway

* Two thirds into the flight, Kodi woke up and ate some cut up fruit. And threw it all up on me. Oh joy. We had 10 more hours of travel to go, and I was left with one vomit stained, stinky pair of pants. Lesson learnt: before packing spare clothes for the kid, pack extra pants for self.  

*We missed our connection in London, lost our perfect 3 seat together arrangement that I had reserved months in advance and our meal selection.

*Our flight from London was delayed and we waited some more. Altogether it felt like we waited as many hours as we actually traveled.

But it wasn’t all bad….

* The second leg of the flight was a breeze. Emirates was excellent about rebooking us, got us seats together, middle seat, but still, and even last minute meal requests.

*They have superior in flight entertainment, and about 100 movies to choose from. The three of us were tuned in to a movie each and half way through his, Kodi fell asleep again.

*Food was fantastic and more than enough – I didn’t have to steal from Kodi’s plate this time.

*They are so kid friendly – he got  an activity book and a set of pencils, and another kit with a puppet that he was supposed to build. When he wasn’t watching the movie, he was busy messing with his kit. Thanks to this, I didn’t have to dig out the activity book or the DVD I had packed for his entertainment. Lesson learnt: Always fly Emirates on long distance flights, always.

*He was a much better behaved in the second leg, every line we had to wait, he’d stand patiently and wait his turn, without fussing at all.

*And the best part, we arrived safe and sound and so did our luggage.

Few more days here and we head to Chennai for a hectic two weeks of shuttling between relatives. So, might as well enjoy this lazy downtime.

Got to go…my mom’s exercise bike (which, btw, has played three different roles in the three  days since Kodi’s arrival – that of a garbage truck, a motorbike and a piano) is under attack. Maybe it has transformed into an alien now.