Our Adventure to Italy

So we got to Buffalo and went to the counter to check in our luggage and get our plane tickets. The man told me that I was supposed to bring the tickets with me and that it's not showing that he can get them electronically. Thank God dad was there because when I felt my face flush I could see another sequel to "Carrie" about to take place. Thankfully we got the situation figured out, all I had to do was call Washington and give them a couple numbers off of our passports/visas, and we left Buffalo on time. Caleb was bouncing in his seat with excitement as the plane got ready for take-off. As we picked up speed (and sound) he went to cover his ears and looked at me a little worried. I laughed and waved my hands in the air and yelled, "Yeaaa!!! Here we go!" He calmed right down, started to smile again, and his face was glued to the window the rest of take-off and throughout the entire flight. It wasn't long before we landed in Chicago. Unfortunately it wasn't until we walked inside the airport and I walked up to the counter for help that I realized my ears were completely plugged. That's what I get for being sick as a dog. I managed to get through the conversation without losing Caleb, which was a big feat for having about 50% of my hearing and battling against all of the planes, buses, and fun things luring Caleb's attention away. We had plenty of time to find the shuttle, ride to the other side of the airport, and find our terminal. Caleb made friends with an older couple along the way. The wait felt a little longer in Chicago, not sure if that was because my meds wore off or Caleb was starting to get very overtired and refused to use the toilet because I couldn't find one that wasn't automatic. When we boarded the plane everyone went nuts over how cute Caleb was and they stole him away into the cockpit to hang out with the pilots. We finally got settled into our seats and just as the cabin door closes, Caleb looks at me with a scared look on his face and says, "Mommy, I have to go potty!" When we finally got into the air I took him into the bathroom, where he took one look at the toilet and started screaming and crying. After a couple minutes I realized there was no way I could make him sit on the toilet without making the entire plane think I was murdering him in the bathroom, so I gave up and we went back to sit down. Virginia was not fun. This was my first time checking luggage so I was trying to figure out where to wait to pick up my 120 lbs additional pounds of crap when I realized my very overtired son was doing the potty dance with that scared look on his face again. I grabbed him and ran into the bathroom while he screamed all the way because he didn't want to go. Gotta love automatic toilets. We fought in the stall for maybe 2 minutes while I tried everything I could possibly think of to get him on the toilet when he suddenly grabbed himself and peed all over. Not only did it go all over his underwear, pants, socks and down onto his shoes, but it also managed to somehow shoot up onto his shirt and sweatshirt as well. Our luggage was sitting all over the bathroom, the rest of our luggage was waiting to get picked up and we didn't have much time left to find a bus/taxi to get over to the other airport. I stripped off his clothes and tossed them in the garbage, threw papertowel over the puddle of pee that was starting to grow outside of the stall, cleaned him up the best I could and threw on his pj's. Then we ran out, notified someone of the accident, grabbed the rest of our luggage, jumped in a taxi and rode to the other airport on base. The wait for our amc flight was a bit of a blur, but from what I can remember it wasn't too bad and Caleb was starting to get very sleepy. Our plane was huge and they gave each child on the flight a little zip-up baggy with crayons and little activity books. This time when we took off Caleb rubbed his ears a little so I figured they must have popped. Leave it to Caleb. He looks at me, smiling from ear to ear, and says, "Mommy, my ear burped!" The flight was very relaxing for the most part. Caleb slept almost the entire time. About 4-5 hours into the flight, the pilot announced that we were starting our descent into Portugal. I've never seen anything like it before in my life. Pictures don't even compare. When we started to come down all we could see was blue water stretching everywhere. Gradually we could start to make out mountains, and then came down overtop of a coastline that was so breathtaking, I was scared that I'd wake up from my dream any minute. I woke Caleb up and dressed him, and then a big Portugeuse man came on board and herded us all off of the plane and onto buses, which drove us through some fences and into a building with not many chairs, but lots of hand sanitizer. Caleb and I hung out with a woman and her 3-month old baby girl for the 2 hours we waited. I decided that I love Portugal when I walked into the bathroom and the toilet had a handle. Not long after Caleb did his business, they herded us back onto the buses, drove us to the planes, and we took off for Naples. Caleb napped for a couple more hours until they announced that we were starting our descent into Naples, Italy. We were still so high up that all we could see were the clouds below us, but off in the distance I could see one lonely mountain sticking up through the clouds. As the plane dipped down and bounced on the runway I almost squealed like a baby, but Caleb did enough of that for the both of us. We grabbed our bags and almost scrambled to get off the plane and followed the crowd to customs. We were only in line for a minute when a familiar face stepped out from around the corner. "Daddy!!!!" Caleb screamed loud enough to make every head turn in the room. The poor kid was about ready to take off through the ropes and run to his daddy but I had to hold him back until our turn came and they checked our passports and visas. The Italian men were trying to talk to him and be friendly but Caleb's eyes were glued on Michael. When we walked through the metal detector we ran into Michael's arms and offically crossed over into Naples, Italy and our new life together.