ZAGREB, CROATIA
MARCH 13 - 20
DAY 1 AND 2

I'd be better at posting these things if I wasn't so depressed...

What keeps me going is knowing that Sam is having a great time in Croatia, and getting experiences he could not have here in NYC (I'm trying, I'm trying!).

Our visit with Sam was both more wonderful than I had expected, and much harder than I expected. Like life, I guess.

It was with great pleasure that we hopped in the cab for the trip to the airport, and our first sight of Sam since January 1st. I love the airport, expecially if I'm the one who is flying. Perhaps if I flew more often it would become routine and maybe even annoying. But I ain't there yet. It's still really cool.

We were to take Alitalia to Milan, and from there to Zagreb. Bit of excitement/trepidation: we discovered our plane, which was delayed, would
a) not land in Milan until 30 minutes after the Zagreb flight was scheduled to leave, and
b) if we missed that 9 a.m. plane, the next one wouldn't leave Milan til 9pm.

So, hoping against hope, and not wanting to spend 12 hours in the Milan airport and miss 12 hours with Sam, we dashed from the plane when it landed in Milan, resisted the urge to run through the security guards, and arrived breathlessly at the departure desk for the Zagreb flight.

The plane hadn't left.

Because they had yet to locate the crew.

It was Alitalia. I should have figured: the Italian's loose definition of time is both well known, infuriating, and wonderful.

We boarded the small prop plane, caught our first sight of Croatia through the propellor of the plane, and landed at noon. Very glad to be there. We found out later that the 9pm plane "is usually cancelled," which would have meant being trapped in the airport for 24 hours.

Of course our luggage hadn't made it.

Nothing mattered though, if we could be with Sam. Sam was expecting us, but had become so anxious with excitement that when we did arrive he buried his head in Sonja's neck and wouldn't even look at us. Fortunately, having married a child development expert, it was not hard to understand. We had time. We could wait.

Within an hour he started to open up. We were so happy to be there that we were content to wait, as he slowly got used to us again.

We all went out for a walk on the snow-covered back roads of Zagreb, and Sam began to warm up. He was still a bit shy with us, but starting to come around.


(click to enlarge)

I confess that it was hard to see him so changed: talking like crazy, moving so easily and with such confidence; even his hands were different- longer fingers, more boy-like. Two and a half months at two and a half years of age is a long time.

Over the course of the day, things began to get back to normal. Simple things were best. He discovered my electric toothbrush, and proceeded to brush my teeth. He made sure to clean all those hard to reach molars.

He then felt it both necessary and appropriate to make sure that the teeth of all his dinosaurs were clean.

Then we watcheda skateboard video, covering NYC's five boroughs (a gift of my nephew Mark). We were starting to bond...

Finally, at the end of the evening it was time for Sam's bath. He apparently had resisted a bath for many of the preceding nights. With me he agreed right away. To me that was his welcome-to-Zagreb-great-to-see-you moment. And we had fun.

I was where I wanted to be.


(click to enlarge)


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