A Welcome Welcoming

I was away on a business trip for a few days and just got home yesterday. Since the flight landed just before Juliette normally goes to bed I quickly phoned home and let Becoming-A-Mom know I was coming home soon and not to put her to sleep yet.

Due to all the optimizations done at the Vancouver airport for the 2010 Winter Olympics my passage from the plane to the taxi happened in record time. I had *NO* wait at Immigration as I used their automated system – I can hardly believe it myself! And then the baggage arrived at the carousel just before I got to it, and for some lucky reason my bag was in the first 10 bags out, nicely standing up so all I had to do was grab the handle and head for the exit. At the Customs area again there was no line and I breezed through.

The strangest part was there being no one in line at the taxis either – so straight into a taxi I got and in a flash I was on my way. Total time from plane hitting the tarmac to taxi leaving the airport was about 20 minutes!

Anyway, that’s not the important stuff. Just the startling part.

When I got home I knocked on the door. Becoming-A-Mom answered, holding Juliette in her arms. It took about 5 seconds before Juliette realized what was going on – she had this kind of blank look on her face as she stared at me. Then the look of recognition came over her, and she broke into the biggest smile I’ve seen on her. She started to jump up and down in Becoming-A-Mom’s arms and make excited noises.

She immediately leaned towards me and grabbed on to my collar and I gladly took her in my arms. She gave me a big hug and sat contentedly in my arms, smiling away. She stayed there hugging me, pushing the side of her head against my cheek for several minutes as I chatted with her and Becoming-A-Mom about what happened over the past few days. I forgot how nice it was to just hold her and have her sit in my arms.

After nearly 16 hours of straight travel, including a frantic 2-hour dash through Heathrow Airport and nearly missing my flight home, this was the best welcome home this Becoming-A-Dad could have hoped for.