5 Travel Day Observations with Sophie

As you probably already know, we traveled back to Haiti this past Monday, and the day went off without a hitch. From check-in (which was the easiest it has ever been taking 6 huge bags down with us), to a 45 minute layover to picking up all 6 of our bags in Port, to the fact that there was very little traffic getting home, we were definitely blessed with an easy travel day. With that said, it is funny how different it is traveling with a baby. Over the past 13 months, I have travelled back and forth to Haiti 9 times or a total of 17 travel days and only 3 of them (including yesterday) was with Sophie. She is definitely a game changer in a lot of ways. I am going to share 5 funny/awkward things that happened on the trip that probably many of you have experienced in some way or another with your children.

1. She wants to explore everything. As soon as we got to the terminal in Jacksonville she immediately wanted to start exploring. She would head in one direction, get too close to people she didn’t know (ie sitting on their feet), so we would go and move her, and she would get so angry that we were stopping her exploration. It was really funny how genuinely curious she is about almost everything (I think she gets that from her Dad) and how she does not want anyone to get in her way when she is on a mission. Luckily the lady whose feet Sophie accidentally sat on was visiting her own Grandchildren and was nothing but nice about it.
2. She doesn’t yet understand personal space. This was probably the funniest thing about the trip. On the first plane from Jacksonville to Miami Sophie (while I was in charge of her of course) just randomly reached up to the seat in front of us and just started tapping a lady on the shoulder. On the bus in Miami she kept grabbing a man’s water bottle out of his backpack pocket. On the flight from Miami to Port she kept pointing at a man behind us and saying “what’s that” (which is also pretty much the only words she really knows) as loudly as possible. The truth is, if you let your guard down for one minute, you just don’t know what will happen next.
3. Everyone loves her hair. Everyone comments on how beautiful her red, curly hair is. It is so curly it kind of has a mind of its own right now and that makes it even cuter. As much as she invaded other people’s personal space from time to time, just as many people invade hers and talk about how beautiful she is…I agree.
4. She loves her stroller. This is a blessing and a curse. She loves her stroller so much that as soon as we unfold it she begins pointing at it and saying, “that, that, that” which is her way of communicating that she wants something. It is a blessing because we can put her in the stroller and go wherever we need to and she is completely content. It is a curse because as soon as you try to take her out of her stroller, she starts to shake her head and get really upset. We even have to hide the stroller in the house.
5. She had no idea we were 30,000 feet in the air. This is just an observation I made and it is similar to when Hurricane Matthew came through and our little ones barely noticed it. There is this innocence that goes along with being a young child where you just have complete faith in your parents. It doesn’t really matter where we go or how we get there to Sophie, it only matters that her Mom and Dad are with her. It is such an amazing thing to think about, and especially after being out on your own for a while and being used to control and taking care of things. There is this comfort and relaxation that comes along with completely giving up control and trusting someone else…You may even call it peace. The truth is, it is the kind of peace that we are supposed to feel with GOD as our Father, but it is the type of peace that just seems so difficult to come by especially in a world where you are supposed to be self-sufficient and not needing to rely on others. I could stand to learn a thing or two about trusting someone else that completely and thoroughly…especially GOD.