Thailand arrival!

Well, we have survived (so far!) We left Sunday morning after staying up most of the night due to the onset of a bit of a cold for Alex. We had finally gotten into bed around midnight when he woke up, screaming, with a low fever, cough, runny nose. So we were up for hours - we called our doctor to ask about what would constitute a strong reason to skip our flight, and we looked up information on our travel insurance to see what it covered, exactly. Got Alex back into bed around 2:30, then he was up again at 5:30 - Angela let me sleep until 7:30 while she hung out with him. But, his fever was quite low, really, and the doctor just recommended that we give decongestants before the flight, so Jill picked us up as planned at 8:30 & off we went. Oh, and I had a sore throat by this point, too. Our flight was booked through United, but operated by ANA, which is sooo much nicer than the US airlines. The food was actually tasty, there were movies in the seatback set (and the movies started when you switched to them - not all at once like the typical setup.) They gave alex an inflatable airplane toy to play with, which I left on the plane. The flight was direct to Tokyo (13 hours), and Alex took a one-hour nap early on, then stayed up until our next flight boarded (probably 20 hours after he woke up in the morning!) Our layover was basically uneventful in Tokyo. Alex had a great time - for about 20 minutes - playing with a 3-year-old and her older sister. The 3-year-old and Alex were crawling around pretending to be lions & other animals. The older kid took the lead, of course, and Alex imitated. He told the older sister jokes and laughed at himself (none of us can understand him!)

Alex slept for much of the next 6-hour flight, except for the two times when he woke up screaming & inconsolable. The first time lasted for perhaps 25 minutes, which is a really long time for a baby to scream on an airplane, and the second was perhaps 10 to 15. For anyone who cares, the first session was ended by giving him raisins and turning on a Baby Einstein DVD (we tried all sorts of food & amusement first, including cookies, fruit, TV, ect). The second was stopped by a cup of ice that he was allowed to play with.

We arrived at 11:30 and were met at the airport by someone from our hotel, and we arrived safely and all that. Then we woke up, ate breakfast - and, as usual, one of the wait staff played with Alex for a bit while we ate, which is one of the wonders of Thailand! We went back to the airport, found out our flight to Chiang Mai had been cancelled and so ended up with many hours to kill in the airport waiting for the next flight. We finally left around 3:15, arrived in Chiang Mai around 4:30 (or something like that) and were met by one of the doctors that Angela is working with while she's here. We spent the night at the International Center Hostel, which is modestly priced and decent, and we plan to spend the next two here before heading back to Bangkok. Last night, finally, we really got to sleep for a long time, or at least I did - I went to bed when Alex did, around 6, and woke up around 3:30. I think Angela was up for a long time, working in the bathroom so that she would not bother us!

I'm feeling better, and Alex is getting better slowly, but Angela is not feeling well now. Ugh.

Anyway, that's all today - no pictures, b/c they are on Angela's camera, which she has taken with her to the hospital.