Traveling with an entourage...

After months of anticipation and weeks of preparation (I started packing at least 10 days in advance...as everyone knows, I'm part Lam, so pre-packing is perfectly natural), we finally made it to Dallas.  Before the flight, our main fear was Aaron's behavior on the planes and/or airports.  We also feared that he would throw a tantrum when he discovers that his dad won't be going.  That stems from his mini-tantrums in the mornings when Kelvin leaves for work or when we try to go out without him, particularly difficult week leading up to the flight.  

The entourage included Christy, Andrew and me.  Obviously, we were the entourage to the Lau Bros.  To our great surprise, relief and joy, both legs of our flights were uneventful and almost "enjoyable".  Aaron willingly walked through HK immigration without a fight (he did look earnestly for Daddy and even called out several times).  We had planned not to officially say "goodbye" so as not to trigger any unwelcome emotions.  We had breakfast without incident and boarded the plane to Tokyo for the first leg of our journey.  We had bought a portable DVD player especially for this trip to keep them entertained on the flight but we also knew that the planes would have inflight entertainment.  The Disney Channel came to the rescue and definitely kept them entertained for the most part of the journey.  

When we reached Tokyo, it appeared that we didn't have much time to transit, so our original plans of ramen, dan dan noodles, rice balls etc were all dashed as we had to dash our way from AA counter to boarding gate.  Again, Aaron was well-behaved and in a relatively good mood.  Needless to say, Jerry behaved best of all.  Unfortunately, AA was not showing any cartoons, except for Monsters vs Aliens, which Aaron watched, but Jerry was too "scared".  He watched some sitcom from the Disney Channel, and ended up watching it about 5 times.  As I mentioned, we had brought a DVD player, so, around 1/4 into the flight, I decided to take out this "lifesaver" to entertain the brothers.  "Ta Da"!  I intended to show one of Aaron's faves, Bear in a Big Blue House, but the player would not turn on, then Andrew spotted the fatal mistake...there was no battery pack!   !>_

Before I left HK, I had conscientiously plugged in the thing to "charge" the battery.  Little did I know that I had not inserted the bloody thing!  Actually, my first reaction was: Did someone take it?? Thinking back, it was a truly ridiculous situation.  Luckily, despite the lack of more entertainment, Jerry and Aaron managed to be entertained by the onscreen shows and their coloring books.  When they slept, they managed to share 2.5 seats out of our 4 in a row and slept for abt 5 hours.  They also managed to eat the airplane meals, Aaron ate just white rice, but that was good enough.  Best of all, we had 2 of Popo's salted chicken to share between us, neatly separated into 4 Ziplock bags complete with Viva! kitchen towels and plastic gloves.  

The only real trouble during this journey was in the line to Dallas immigration.  Aaron was overtired and getting extremely cranky.  I had them both on their leashes but he kept trying to run away.  That struggle was witnessed by everyone in line and other kind travelers tried to distract him, but to no avail.  After what seemed like an hour, we finally made it through to claim our baggage and got out asap.  Finally, when we met up with my parents and DKF and DKM, it seemed like we had made a major achievement.  The car-ride back home was comfortable and stress free and the boys enjoyed their rides in their borrowed car seats from Cousin Lucas in the borrowed van from Auntie Kwan.  

Dallas, here we are!