Vacation, part 1...Up, Up, and Away!!!

Oh my.  Never in the nearly four years of this blog have I gone a whole month without a post.  Just now, as I sat down to start this post, I spent nearly three whole minutes trying to come up with a catchy or alitterative title.  Then I snapped out of it.  If I'm going to get this post written I can't spend time explaining my absence (a combination of security issues and the boys being on different nap schedules) or coming up with great titles.  The thought of trying to document this, our first major vacation with both boys feels a bit daunting.  I've always had that issue though. The blank page/screen staring back at me is best met by just digging in....

I am starting this post while still on vacation.  There is so much to write, I think it best covered in parts, and best started before the little things start to fade away from my mom-nestic mind. We left our home June 24th for a two full week vacation in Pennsylvania and the New Jersey shore.   A sweet friend and neighbor drove us an hour away to the airport.  We had scheduled the boys first airplane ride two months prior when NB was still taking two naps a day.  We wisely, so we thought, chose a flight for mid-day, so he could nap before leaving home, then nap after we arrived in Philly.  Then, as happens with babies, his nap schedule changed and suddenly we were scheduled to fly during nap time.  No matter, I chose to put him down early, then get LO out of the house for a little Strider bike riding on the smooth sidewalks of Target.  Proud of myself for getting LO some outdoor active time before cooping him up for our travel day, I sipped my Starbucks (I had gotten up a 5am to get a run in  for myself), and watched my big boy glide along in the perfect morning breeze.  It was a good start to what promised to be some kind of adventure.

 LO was so excited about the flight.  We had read books about airplane travel and watched YouTube videos about moving sidewalks and monorails.  DH even simulated turbulence and take-off/landing noises while reading one book...I wish I had that one on video!  We talked about how silly security people would ask us to take off our shoes and walk through a funny door.  DH and I had read about a way to rig the car seats up with caribiners to attach them to the rolling check on bags.  We tried it out at home, practiced assembling and disassembling.  We also talked game plan.  We had been advised for one of us to board with the first call for families with young children.  That person (me) would check the bags plane-side (our plane was too small to allow cary-ons in the overhead compartment), then install the car seats and get everything ready for the boys.  DH's job,then, was to let the boys stay in the terminal until the last call, at which point he would waltz on the airplane, plop a boy in each seat and we'd merrily await the plane's push back and taxi.  It was a good plan.  We were as prepared as we could possibly be.  I had snacks, drinks, toys for NB, wrapped gifts and novel activities for LO.    

We arrived at the airport about an hour and a half early.  Plenty of time for us to feed our boys and get them through the small airport.  We made it easily through security even with all of our food and milk boxes for the boys.  The security people were so sweet to the boys, and patient with us.  We did not want to check any bags and had bought tickets for both boys, so we had one personal item and one carry-on for each person, but only two of us were carrying that...and we were carrying at least one boy all the time.  I really wish I could thank the TSA people (and the passengers who were so patient behind us) more.  They were all just wonderful.  LO was a little disappointed that he didn't have to take off his shoes, so they let him anyway.  When they asked me to step on the red squares, he wanted to do the same, and they let him.  They swabbed a wand over my hands, then indulged LO's curiosity by pretending to do the same with him.  I went through wearing NB in the carrier and walking with LO.  That left DH with two car seats, two rolling carry-ons, a rolling suitcase we bought for LO just for this trip, a small diaper bag, my purse, and a small cooler bag that I packed (which meant DH did not know the contents) full of lunch/snacks.  I didn't have time to tell him I wasn't sure he'd make it through with that bag, except to mention that, if they gave us trouble, he should just throw it all out.  Thank God they let him through with all of it...we were going to need it more than we planned.

So getting through the TSA checkpoint was pretty easy.  Our biggest challenge was taking the car seats off the suitcases, getting all the stuff on and off the conveyor, and reattaching the seats to the bags.  Once we got those back on, we put LO in the car seat and used it like a stroller through the airport.  He had a blast, and we moved to our gate in no time.  Good thing, because it was about 10 minutes before boarding time when we got to our gate.  So much for getting there early!  DH and LO ran to the bathroom while I tried to scarf down some lunch and feed NB a little.  I'm pretty sure I wore most of his lunch on my shirt for the rest of the day.  As DH and LO came back, they began the boarding process.  To my surprise, families with small children boarded somewhere in the middle of the process, not first.  When they finally made that call, I hopped up, grabbed the rolling luggage with seats attached and headed on.  It turned out they wanted to take my luggage right away, as in, I would have to take the seats off immediately and try to wrangle both of them down the walkway, onto the plane, and into the seats myself.  It also turned out that the final boarding call was about 90 seconds after my call to board such that DH was boarding the plane with both boys before I could even get the seats off the luggage.  Since he had both boys and four "personal items", he couldn't help much with the seats. Some member of the crew helped me get the seats to the plane.  

Ah,  a note about the plane.     We had a few clues, but really weren't sure what size this plane would be.  It was flying a good distance, so surely it wouldn't be a puddle jumper, but we knew it wouldn't be a 747.  Well, we were definitely right about that.  It had 50 seats and one poor flight attendant.  Joan would be half yankee comedienne, half flight attendant, and, by the end of our flight, self-professed girlfriend to LO.  She was a character, but we hadn't gotten to know each other yet.  (I'd later learn that Joan had 7 grown boys, one girl, and one grandchild.)  

Anyway, DH stood in the doorway of the plane with the boys while I wrestled with the car seats. Now, I have installed in the car seats several times in several cars.  I know them pretty well.  I had also read what I could about installing them on a plane.  In spite of having read that NB's seat could not be installed rear-facing, the Britax seat information seemed to imply that it could.  I tried to install it that way.  I asked for a belt extender as I had read I might need one.  I wrestled, I tugged, I sweated bullets.  I apologized to the plane full of 50 people all of whom were waiting for me to get these seats in, and I imagined my poor, darling, husband as he held my tired screaming baby boy.  Over my shoulder Joan asked what she could do.  She said she didn't know how to install these seats, so she couldn't help.  Finally I gave up on the rear-facing position.  The belt was too short to use by itself and the extension too long to allow me to tighten it.  I flipped it around and installed the seat the best I could in the forward facing position.  It wasn't tight, but I had to trust it would be ok.  Not that I wanted to think about it, but if the seat was truly needed, I'm not sure it would have made a big difference to be a little tighter than it was.  Then, I heard Joan in my ear...we're going to need to leave soon.  I didn't answer her.  "Um, no Joan, you will not leave soon, as my family still isn't it their seats.  You will just have to wait for me to get this done.  I'm doing the best I can." I thought.  Finally the first seat was in.  I turned to see that Joan had, in fact, installed the second seat.  "I'm not sure if I did it right, but it's in there," she said.  Yes Joan, it is, lets get this thing moving.  (DH later told me that the ground crew was at the front of the plane trying to close the plane door. He was standing in it so they couldn't.  I'm not sure what we would have done if they had been able to close the door and really been able to push back.  It felt like an eternity, but I think the whole harrowing process took about ten minutes.  

We plopped the boys in their seats and set about our jobs of entertaining them with excited explanations about ground crews, other planes, taxiing and take off.  I doled out raisins for each boy so he could chew his way threw the ear popping ascent into the friendly skies.  Take off went off without a hitch for our little guys.  DH and I fared nearly as well.  I have never felt so sick on a plane in all my life.  Maybe it was the focus on the ground as the objects got smaller, "Look the trees look like broccoli!" or maybe it was the bumps our tin can plane hit on the way up, but I felt green nearly the whole flight.  DH felt much the same.  

NB about 30 minutes into his first flight. We dressed him in footie pjs so he wouldn't be cold and we wouldn't lose shoes.

An hour into our flight things were going smoothly.  Neither boy seemed ready to take a nap, but they were behaving well, no kicking seats, not crying, and LO had only worked his way through a couple of his wrapped dollar store gifts.

LO and me on his first plane trip. Shades down so NB might nap...never happened.

LO with one of his gifts, dry erase markers to draw faces on laminated pictures of his family.

The captain came on with what I expected to be an announcement that we were starting our approach to Philly.  That's when it happened.  The announcement was, instead, that we could not land in Philly due to bad weather.  We were diverted to Baltimore.  We would be landing there in 20 minutes.  That's all the information we had.  Somewhere on the plane another passenger was texting her dad.  He was at the Philly airport where he saw sunny skies and planes landing.  No matter, it was deemed unsafe for us to land there.  We landed at BWI just minutes after we were to have landed in Philly.  Little by little we passed the time sitting on the runway.  I showed both boys the cockpit.  LO was a little intimated, but NB made friends with the pilots.  LO made a trip to the bathroom which was too small for us to both fit, so he had to drop trow in the aisle while other passengers averted their eyes.  At least half a dozen passengers entertained the boys at some point.  They played peek-a-boo with NB, spoke kindly to LO, complimented the boys while we paced the aisles.  Every 15 or 20 minutes there was some sort of announcement or comment about our status.  None of them very helpful.  Joan played "round ballie" with LO which seemed to be a Yankee/more colorful version of a rhyme we already knew.  Ours involved a teddy bear walking up the arm.  Hers included "slicing" up LO's arm instead.  Over and over we heard "one cut, two cut, tickle you under there" as she used her hand to "cut" across her arm.  Gave me the willies every time, but it was sweet of her to take the time.  At other points she handed out cookies to everyone (extra to the boys) and passed around her personal candy stash. Apparently, BWI was understaffed.  There were six planes grounded there and only two people to help them get in.  Finally, after two hours on the tarmac, it was our turn to get off the plane.  By that point the bad weather had made its way to Baltimore. It was about to storm and "they" will not let passengers on or off a plane it there is lightening in the vicinity.  We were told we'd better hurry off before we lost our window of opportunity.  That was easier said than done as we had pretty well spread toys, shoes, clothing (we stripped down the boys because it was so hot on the plane) over our four seats.  

A shirtless LO with shades down to keep cooler while sitting on the BWI tarmac.

Even NB went shirtless

We gathered what we could and hurried off.  In a matter of minutes everyone was off and our crew had vanished.  We had no information about how long we would be there, how we would know when it was time to board again, or how far it was safe to venture into the airport.  It was dinner time.

I suggested DH take LO and forage for food.  I stayed behind to listen for announcements about our flight.  After five or ten minutes I realized that no one there knew anything.  Two women from our flight asked if they could help me.  We walked together for a few minutes and discussed our options.  Finally I have my cell number to one of them and she promised to call me if they made a flight announcement.  I left then to find DH and get food.  It turned out that food was fewer than five minutes away and DH and LO were on their way back with the loot.  Fortunately I had over-packed food for the boys, so I still had enough left for NB to eat appropriate grub.  We then helped out other passengers by taking their cell numbers while they ran for food.  I ended up nursing NB in some corner of the airport as delayed soldiers finally made their way on various flights.  It was neat in the midst of everything to be able to point them out to LO.  It is hard to explain what our soldiers do to a three year old.  I had tried several times, but it was nice to show him the "real deal" so close to independence day. 

After about an hour, we got word that "someone" had overheard we would be boarding the plane again soon.  Sure enough our flight crew re-materialized about 15 minutes later, we boarded quickly and we were off again.  Mind you Toona and Gido could have driven to Baltimore and we could have been at their house long before our delay was over, but we didn't have our stuff and we didn't know that we would be delayed that long when the delay started.  Twenty minutes after take-off we landed, finally, in Philly.  

Joan gave each boy a certificate to commemorate their first flight. The certificate gives details of the plane we were in and is signed by the pilots and Joan.

Joan helped us get a cart to the gate and we loaded our tired selves and our delirious boys along with our belongings onto the cart and drove through the airport.  Toona and Gido had been waiting there for us for nearly six hours.  They helped us lug everything what felt like a full mile walk to the cars, and, forty dollars later, we were able to exit the parking deck for the final leg of our trip.  

We arrived at Toona and Gido's house about 9 pm.  I hurriedly set up the borrow pack-n-play, found pjs, lovies, and set up monitors while DH bathed the boys.  They were finally in bed about 9:30 and we collapsed shortly thereafter.  What should have been five hours of travel (from our door to Toona's) ended up being ten.  We survived it all, and, as stressful as it was at times, the boys did really well.  It was quite the memorable start to our vacation.