Jackson's Escape Into Australia

We touched down in Sydney on Monday morning after a fourteen hour flight from San Francisco. The flight went well. Jackson slept almost the entire way, and was adequately entertained by movies on our iPod Touch the remainder of the time. Lisa and I were not able to sleep quite so much, and so once we arrived in Sydney, we had a very excited child who was ready to run all over the airport. We made our way to the Australian immigration area. Fortunately, with me traveling on an Australian passport we were able to wait in the fast queue. Well, faster queue. It wasn't exactly fast. Jackson didn't think it was fast. After Jackson made it clear he wasn't going to stand still in this long line while the immigration officials processed everyone ahead of us, I decided it would be best to pick him up and hold him. He didn't like being picked up and held after sitting in a cramped space for 14 hours. I explained I could put him down if he would stay still. I put him down. He stayed still. For a little while. Then Jackson suddenly took off, as fast as his little legs could carry him. I had a big heavy bag on my back. By the time I realized I was going to have to get him, he had already ran to the front of the line. He kept on going, right over the red line that marks the end of immigration, past all the immigration counters, out to where all the security guards were, and he kept on running, out toward the customs area! I had to chase him! So, I ran right past the immigration officials too. It'd have probably been pretty funny if I had yelled out "I have nothing to declare!" as I did, but at this stage I was just hoping my son and I weren't going to get arrested. I did manage to scoop Jackson up, and smiling, apologized to the immigration officials as I walked back to my place in line. I think everyone there thought it was rather amusing. None of them pulled out any guns or handcuffs. I was happy about that. One of them came over and asked us if we'd like to just go straight to the front of the line, though we declined and just explained we'd hold Jackson carefully. I think that we will hold onto Jackson more carefully when we return to the United States. Bush will still be president at that time, and I don't want to find out what the PATRIOT Act allows immigration to do to two year olds who try to burst through airport security.