I knew this flight was going to be rough. I had been dreading it for the past couple of months. Natalie is easy, she always has been, so I wasn't at all concerned about her. But Dominic has always been hard work. We can't even keep him still or quiet through a 1hr30 minute movie, never mind a 26+ hour trip. However he did so well on the flight from South Carolina to Seattle I had a glimmer of hope that it might not be as bad as I had imagined. Wrong. It was.
About 30 minutes into the first 11 hour flight I had to whip out the Dramamine. Dominic's stomach just wasn't right, I am not sure if he actually had motion sickness or if he had some other pain issue but the Dramamine made him fall asleep (after about an hour of non-stop crying). The good news was that there were a lot of other crying babies on the plane (never in my life did I think I would actually wish for crying babies on a plane) so he blended into the chorus of cries.
The flight to Yokota (near Tokyo) went smoothly after that - we played with some toys, ate lollipops and watched movies. Lollipops are my "must have" item for keeping toddlers happy on a long flight. The nightmare of this trip were the completely unnecessary layovers we had not once, but twice on the way to Okinawa. We had to hang around two other bases for 3 hours, with no entertainment whatsoever for the kids. This was apparently breaking point for most of the young kids on the flight because we heard a whole lot of screaming from then on. A lot of the screaming was from Dominic. It was easy to spot the people who didn't have children because they stare at those with screaming babies as if we are the worst parents ever.
We arrived in Okinawa at 9.30pm last night and Chris' sponsor picked us up and took us to our temporary on-base lodging. He had originally booked a 2 bedroom place for us, but due to our delay (thanks to the typhoon) we were bumped to the bottom of the list and were given a 1 bedroom place. It is awful. The sofa is all ripped with the covers falling off and it just looks like an unkempt motel. I was more upset about it last night than I am today, probably because I was so overly tired and just wanted a comfortable place to stay. Today I don't really care - yes it sucks but the fact that it is temporary makes me OK with it for another night. Then we will most likely move off-base to more suitable temporary lodging for our family. Our accommodation actually backs up into a sort of jungle. Imagine the landscape from Tropic Thunder and that is exactly what it looks like around our room.
Chris has been gone since 7.30am this morning at an all-day briefing. This gave me the opportunity to do laundry and explore the BX (Base Exchange) here. For those that are not familiar, the BX is like a miniature department store - or in this particular case a not so mini department store. With all the whining I heard from other military wives before I came over here, I was expecting to find a tiny ass BX with hardly anything in it. This place is amazing. Not only do they have almost everything I like to use here, but it's cheap! I scored Vreader games for Natalie for $4 each and a brand new Combi Cosmo stroller for $60. I stupidly packed our stroller in "express" shipping which is so express it takes a month to get uhere, so I picked up a stroller to use in the meantime. Sure they don't have EVERYTHING, but that's what the internet is for!
I found a Starbucks in there (yeah it's not my favorite but it's a latte none the less) and it was actually really delicious. I found a book store that had a party store inside it. I found a photo shop, cell phone stores, a nail salon, a hair salon, a food court...there were a lot of stores in there. More than I was expecting. And the Japanese are so nice - we have received nothing but smiles from them - even when Natalie screamed her head off when I suggested she drink some Sake that has a real snake soaking in the bottle. Gross! Haha!
Natalie's day was made when she found a stick insect outside our window. She made me take a photo of her with it. I will update this post with photos when I have access to the photos in my phone.
I'm off to take the kids to a playground to get rid of some energy. I am trying to get them back on a normal schedule but I think it may take a couple of days. Dominic is very whiny and tearful at the moment, it's exhausting for me to manage his mood. I look forward to us getting our own place to stay and getting back into a routine.
Sayonara for now!
I look forward to exp
