First steps

Today was the proudest moment of being a parent yet... My son got his first passport stamp! Now, anyone who has ever travelled to the USA will be fully familiar with the notoriously grumpy border staff. Today, however, was probably the friendliest customs I have ever experienced. The border guard spoke directly to Thomas and asked about his flight. We mentioned that it was his first passport stamp and that we love to travel and in response the guard actually made a little ceremony and made Thomas watch his first stamp go into the passport then congratulated him. Made my day (Thomas is blissfully unaware of this momentous occasion!)

Having never flown with a baby before, fitting everything into our bag and keeping under the weight limit was a challenge. I am astonished that we managed to fit everything in but, having completed that hurdle I breathed a sigh of relief. Our bassinet booking for the flight was confirmed and we found the airport lounge with a baby room to let Thomas have a wriggle around pre flight. All going suspiciously well.

Thomas's first flight actually went amazingly. All the advice books say to try to fly at night so your little one sleeps and we were flying over 10 hours from London to Los Angeles in the day, with a 7 month old who just started crawling. A recipe for disaster! However, we were pleasantly surprised. Thomas was blissfully non-fussed by being on an aeroplane and was just excited by all of the people who were willing to smile at him when he beamed at them. Never undervalue the kindness of strangers, from the customs official, to the ladies who spoke to Thomas on the aeroplane to make him smile, to the two gentleman who shuffled seats around so that we had three seats in the middle with a bulk head to give us space. All things we could have managed without but that made our journey much easier. We arrived in LA smoothly. Then reality struck... I realised that my mobile phone had been left on the aeroplane!!! In our haste to get all of our things and Thomas off the aircraft, usual meticulous checks didn't happen. I was devastated, particularly as there are lots of photos on the phone. A lovely lady at the car rental place came to my aid upon my meltdown (I'm sure the first of many that will occur when tired on this trip) and suggested calling the airline. As we had no number for them we decided to stop back at the airport on the way out and see if they can help. To cut a long story short I am eternally grateful (there were tears) to the Virgin Atlantic check in desk who not only located the phone but went beyond duty to reunite me with it and let us get on our way. I knew things were going too smoothly!!! A long drive down to San Diego in the lovely (!) LA traffic later we met our friends Mat and Stacey at the car rental drop off there and were checked in to our apartment in time to grab a bite to eat at a great bar called Hodad's. It was a crazy little place that did beer and greasy burgers to perfection! Now to figure out jet lag with a baby....