Global Parenting

You haven't read any Fiona updates in the last week - because I was on the other side of the world. Last Saturday, I headed off for a "simple" adventure to the Philippines for work and Mike readied himself for a week of single parenting.

The trip did not start off well. My flight was three hours delayed out of Minneapolis, which meant that we missed our connection in Tokyo. (No, Dad, I didn't have a turd in my pocket. Thank goodness, I was traveling with a co-worker.) So we arrived in Tokyo around 9:00 pm, were re-booked on Japan Airlines for the morning, and shuttled to a Radisson about 20 minutes away.

My room had two twin beds (I didn't know there were still hotel rooms with twin beds!). I waited until 10:00 pm (7:00 am Sunday in MN) to use my free 3 minute international phone call to let Mike know where I was in the world. And then I tried to pretend I was tired. I wasn't. But it was fun to see Japan on the way back to the airport in the morning. Usually we just pass through the airport.

Monday morning, we had an uneventful flight to Manila and arrived around 2 pm ... just in time to go to work! We headed into the office, worked until around midnight, and then went back to the hotel. I fell asleep easily, but my eyes popped open at 7:00 am. The nice thing about being an early riser was that it was 5 pm back home ... so I got to have a video chat via Skype with Mike and Fiona. And then I hit the outdoor pool to enjoy the warm weather and get a little exercise. We pretty much followed that routine the entire week. Not a lot of sleep (averaged about 4 hours/night), but a productive trip.

The flight home was uneventful and on-time - my two favorite things with flights. We all say thank goodness for Skype and hooray for Fiona - who had a great week with Dad! It's really fun to see how close they've become ... and I didn't mind all the hugs and kisses she gave when I got home.

We learned that technology can definitely make this global parenting a little easier ... but are in no hurry to employ it again for a while. I think I'll just stay home with my favorites ... and try to adjust back to this time zone!

And because I know most of you visit to see pictures of Fiona, here is my "helper" as we folded all the laundry from the last week and a cute shot of her and Daddy.