The surprise...

It has been agonising for the past weeks not being able to blog about the surprise.

I am now in Beijing with En..

The Surprise

Yes, 

the decision was tough. And yes, we decided not to bring the kids.

But 2 thing

s made me change my mind when I eventually click the 'Payment' button on the SQ website..

1. The removal of the Visa requirement, that means I can bring En as a surprise for Papa who misses him a lot

2. En's unflagging enthusiasm and strong insistence that he wants to "Go china visit Papa and see Papa's new house"

The combination of both made me change my mind.. 

More importantly, En promised me that he will behave himself on flight, that he

 will not cry, make loud noise, run about, will eat his lunch and listen to me.

A lot of things to promise me for a soon to be 3 year old. But he did it today, and more.

Before I get to what happened today.. I must share En's sentiments about the trip. Once I told him he is going, he has been going on and on about the trip.

• He started putting away his "stamping drawing" for Papa.
  
• 3 days before the trip, he woke up in the middle of the night, or early in the morning thinking it is D-Day for the trip. One night, he asked me at 4 am "why the sun not come out faster?". Partly my fault since I told him casually that he needs to wake up early at 6am to catch the very early morning flight. So the backlash was him waking up in the night 2 days before D-Day.
  
• He started fearing that I will disappear on him, when we chatted on the phone, he would ask me if I am coming home.. 
  
• He talked about pilot, airplanes and airport to anyone who is willing to listen

All in all, I felt that if I have really not brought him along, I will feel immensely guilty as he probably will feel that I betrayed him. And I am glad I brought him along. I know it is the right choice, the moment he jumped into NJ's arms and kissed him numerous times. 

Hence, all the planning, last minute shopping for stuff and making sure we are self sufficient (since Papa does not know he is coming) is worth it. I feel that it seems more important for him to see Papa, than for Papa in the end, despite the surprise being planned for Papa. 

D-Day

En has been a great travel companion today. He outdid himself and really impressed me.

Many friends had rightly cautioned the toll it 

will be on me, a preggie, to being a young tod travelling alone. And aggravated by the 35 kg of baggage... 

I think prepping En really worked. From young, En needs to know what to expect, so that he is not overwhelmed by the situation. So I took pains to prep him weeks before, with a little more details as we get closer to the date. 

And I made him promise me that he will behave, in all the little things that will help.I bought him his own Bob the Builder lugguage bag, so he started packing that with his 'in-flight entertainment stuff" - books, crayon, surprise new books for him, cookies, diaper, wipes etc.

And I made him promise that he will pull that with him all the way, that I am not going to be responsible as I have this huge bag to look after. He solemnly promised that he will, and I added a threat for good measure, that if he does not handle it on his own, we will leave his bag of favourite things at the airport. *evil mum I am*

Today.. En has been cooperative from the morning.

He drank his milk, ate his breakfast and really took care of his trolley bag from Changi to Beijing airport. On the flight, he watched movies, coloured a little, read a little, and ate most of his lunch. Then he even took his noon nap as usual - I was really stretching it with the nap, but guessed the excitement tired him out somewhat. Hence, I even had some quiet time watching movies and catching up on rest on the flight. 

En is really impressive today, and he really made the trip wonderful just by being cooperative and sensitive. 

The only thing that made him cry a little was the toilet in flight, where the sounds made by the flush scared him quite a bit. 

And when we landed, he was eagerly waiting to see Papa. When we walked out of the gates, we did not see Papa. I had to call Papa, only to realise he was standing just in front of me. And Papa is pleasantly surprised to see En. 

For all his enthusiasm, En was very mild when he greeted Papa. The only give-away to his real feelings was in his initiative to kiss Papa several times. 

All in all, it is a well executed surprise. And both En and Papa seem happy to catch up on bonding for the rest of the day. I am now blogging as papa is patting En to sleep, with Papa around, again I am displaced to the second place. 

Lets just hope En will not put up too much resistance to going home.. I ve to start prepping him for that some time next week.

For now, I will let him enjoy his Papa, and the "very nice house" with Papa :)