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One mom, two babies, three hours, 30,000 feet

December 4, 2011 By

It was bound to happen. I wanted to leave California to go to Missouri to see my family. With my babies. Have a mentioned that my husband is gone right now?

Thank goodness, we flew on a direct flight there and back, and actually, everything went VERY smoothly. I was prepared for four hours of H-E-double hockey sticks. But thankfully, the boys were GREAT. For all you fellow moms of twins traveling with kiddos alone (or moms of one baby traveling alone…or dads of triplets traveling alone…or an aunt traveling with a niece…or a nephew…well you get the picture), I’ve assembled a few things I learned on my trip.

1. If at all possible book a direct flight. This was our lifesaver. One flight there. One flight back. Enough said.

2. The easiest part. Initially the thing I was most worried about was how I was going to get all my cr*p from my car to the airport. Honestly…this was probably the easiest part! I took the following:

-1 rolling bag for me
-1 small duffle bag for the boys
-1 messenger-style diaper bag
-1 double stroller
-1 car seat inside a carseat bag with backpack straps (we borrowed a second car seat from my best friend in Missouri)

We parked at a garage with an airport shuttle. The shuttle picked us up at my car. And the doors of the shuttle bus were wide enough so that the shuttle driver and I could just lift the stroller right onto the shuttle without taking the boys out or collapsing the stroller (SCORE!). Once we were dropped off at the airport I used one hand to push the stroller with the diaper bag on the handles, one hand to pull my bag with the duffle on top of it, and carried the carseat on my back. Once we checked in, I got rid of my bags and the boys duffle, so the stroller/diaper bag/carseat were all very manageable. I’m pretty sure we did look pretty funny though walking though the airport–I got some strange looks! (If we hadn’t had access to a second carseat in MO we would have obviously had to take that, too, and we just would have checked that with our luggage).

3. The hardest part. The hardest part was not getting through security (luckily I had a friend on the way to MO and my dad on the way back to CA who could go through security with me…but even without them, it wouldn’t have been too bad…the TSA folks are surprisingly helpful!). The hardest part was getting from the end of the jetway onto the airplane. I purposely flew Southwest so that that the person sitting next to me would choose that spot and not be stuck there because of a seat assignment (if you haven’t figured it out already I bought two seats…so one baby sat in the carseat and I held the other). Southwest’s family boarding policy says that Group A boards first (I couldn’t check in online because the boys’ DOB’s weren’t in the Southwest database) and THEN families. Of course all the people in Group A take the empty seats in the first 3/4 of the plane, so we had to go all the way to the back to find empty rows. Ick. Sooooo…the trip from the end of the jetway to sitting down in our seats went something like this:

-Push stroller down jetway.
-Arrive at end of jetway and move out of the way of other families boarding (families which all seemed to be made up of two parents and one baby…I’ve never been so envious of that ratio!).
-Take diaper bag off handlebars, get out baby bjorn.
-Take carseat out of carseat bag.
-Put on baby bjorn and load baby (whichever is fussing/antsy).
-At this point there are many people staring at me as they file on the plane and thankfully on each flight someone offered to help. I ask them to hold the other baby.
-I ask a flight attendant to take the carseat on the plane and find an empty row.
-The gate check guy asks what he can do at this point. I fold up the stroller (really easy with our Baby Jogger), hand him some bungie cords, and show him how to secure it.
-With the stranger holding a baby following me, I file on the plane carrying a baby, the carseat bag and the diaper bag trying not to hit those Group A people sitting in the front of the plane (I may be scowling at them a little at this point, too).
-I find the carseat, throw the carseat bag in the overhead bin, strap the carseat in, take the baby from the stranger and strap him (the baby not the stranger) into the carseat.
-Take a deep breath!
-Get nursing cover, bottle for baby in carseat, toys, pacifiers, etc. ready to go.
-Pray someone nice sits next to us (which happened both times).

4. Bribe the people around you. Before traveling I made little gift bags for all the people sitting around me, which consisted of chocolate, ear plugs, and a little note from Ollie and Miles saying “Thank you for traveling with us on our first flight! We are planning on napping a lot, but in case we don’t, here’s some ear plugs for you!” We passed these out to all the people sitting around us–they went over VERY well and we had lots of people offering to help us during the flight. For the person sitting in the third seat in our row and all those random nice strangers who went out of their way to help us out, I also packed starbucks gift cards. I figured if people saw me traveling with twins, learned my hubby was deployed, AND I gave them a gift and they still shot me nasty looks if the babies cried, they were mean people. Luckily, everyone was very nice, AND the babies didn’t cry! Woo hoo! Little aviators like their dad!

5. Remember: it’s only a few hours. Keep in mind that even if the kids scream bloody murder the whole flight, you get barfed on, and everyone on your flight hates you….it’s only for a few hours. Chances are, you’ll never see these people ever again. And hey, at least you’ll have a great story to tell!

 

 

2 Comments Filed Under: Babies, Military Life, Musings Tagged With:

Putting in perspective

October 16, 2011 By

As you know, usually I post about my latest baking or decorating endeavor or (more frequently as of late) the boys. But I just had to share this little moment in my life, because it really got to me the other day…

I’m not usually one to hand out cash to people asking for money (and we have a lot of those here in SoCal). I remember listening to a former homeless man who spoke to a high school group many years ago, who talked about how you should’t give money to people standing out in the street, but instead to the programs equipped to help these people. So I generally give to organizations supporting low income or homeless people when asked, and I don’t typically give to people down on their luck. But the other day I was getting gas and I guy asked me if he could wash my windows, which I politely declined. And then I watched as he trotted back to a little shady grass area by the gas station where he had his bucket and squeegee, a bicycle, and…his family, slightly hidden behind the corner. He was a pretty young guy, and sitting on the grass was his young wife/girlfriend and two young kids. A 3 or 4 year old and a baby, who didn’t look much older than my twins, who were cooing away in the back seat.

Now I hate it when people sit on the street corner with their kids, hoping for a sympathy donation, but that’s not what was happening here. The mom was off to the side in the shade, entertaining the kids, while Dad was over at the pumps asking people if they’d like their windows washed. And I thought to myself, “Wow, we sometimes have times where things seem a little tight, but never, ever have we been in a situation where we felt like the Hubby needed to work it at the gas station to make ends meet.” So I looked in my purse, and when I was done pumping gas, I drove over and gave the man the $6 I had in my wallet. Whatever the circumstances (and who knows what they were), I was pretty sure that this young family needed my $6 more than I did.

The man thanked me and asked if I’d like my windows cleaned. I declined, but he asked me one more time, saying that he really, really hated to ask for money, and if he could wash my windows he felt like at least he was helping me out, too. So I let him.

And as he washed my windows we chatted. His kids were 3 and 7 months. He had just recently lost his job and he talked about how hard it was trying to make ends meet without a job, but he couldn’t bring himself to just stand on the corner. So at least this way he could “work” for cash. And then he thanked me again and off I went.

So as I stress about preparing for a move to the other side of the world or grumble about the price of plane tickets as we plan our holiday trip to the East coast to see our family, that little interaction, however brief, really helped me put it all in perspective.

2 Comments Filed Under: Musings

When your dishes smell like penguins…

August 21, 2011 By

When my best friend Leslie was out here this summer helping me take care of the boys, she was doing some dishes, and walked into the living room with a concerned look on her face. She was holding my bottle of dishwashing detergent, and wanted to know well, what kind of penguin odor I had in my dishes. Because this is what was on the bottle:

Thankfully, I have no penguin odors in my dishes. This is just a case of some poorly place information about Dawn’s contributions to world wildlife rescue:

But it made us both giggle!

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Strawberries, Rhubarb, and American Girls

July 6, 2011 By

I hope you all had a marvelous Independence Day! Our holiday was pretty low key…we relaxed around the house with the boys, made a killer celebration dinner (including a new recipe: strawberry rhubarb crisp, which I’ll share below), and then yes, we braved the local firework display with our two 3 month olds. We had decided to punt the fireworks this year–my hubby and I were both a little bummed about missing them. But while catching up on my blog reading yesterday, I read that a lot of moms take their babes to see fireworks. Many babies do perfectly well with the noise, especially if they are commonly exposed to loud sounds. Since our two little guys frequently put up with Paul the Dog barking and have yet to cry from his loud voice, I figured we were probably safe. So off we went and it was perfect! We found a nice little spot in the grass, spread out our quilt, and watched a lovely little display with our two boys, who were a little more quiet and less squirmy watching fireworks than they had been all day! Woo hoo!

As for that strawberry rhubarb crisp, all I can say is YUM! I love rhubarb, but I’ve always been a bit stand-offish when it comes to doing anything with it myself. It looks like pink celery, folks! But don’t let the color scare you away. I was determined to use it in a dessert this Independence Day, and I found this recipe from Anne Burrell on Food Network.

Ingredients

Filling

  • 1 quart strawberries, stemmed and quartered
  • 4 stalks rhubarb, cut into 1/2-inch lengths
  • 1 cup sugar (Anne only called for 1/2, but I wanted it to be a bit sweeter!)
  • 1/4 cup cornstarch
  • 1 orange, zested and juiced
  • 2 tablespoons balsamic vinegar

Topping

  • 1 1/4 cups whole-wheat flour
  • 1/2 cup rolled oats
  • 1 cup brown sugar
  • 1 1/4 sticks butter, cut into small
  • 1 teaspoon vanilla
  • Pinch salt
  • 1 to 2 tablespoons water

Directions

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Combine all of the filling ingredients in a large bowl and stir to be sure everything is well combined. Spoon the filling a wide shallow baking dish.

In a food processor combine the flour, oats and brown sugar and pulse to combine. Add the butter, vanilla, and salt and pulse pulse pulse until the mixture looks dry and crumbly. Add 1 tablespoon of water and pulse until the mixture starts to come together and look crumbly. If the mixture still seems dry add 1 more tablespoon of water and pulse to combine. Crumble the topping over the filling. Bake in the preheated oven until the filling is hot and bubbly all the way through and the topping looks crispy and light brown, about 25 to 30 minutes. Serve warm with whipped cream (my favorite) or ice cream.

Yummy!

And now, totally unrelated to Independence Day or strawberry rhubarb crisp, I have a musing I’d like to share with you. Did you (or your daughter or your sister or your cousin or your neighbor or your best friend…) ever have an American Girl doll?

I had Samantha and I LOVED her. I had almost all of her clothing and would change her outfits frequently. While changing her clothes was always fun and exciting, it was kind of a pain due to the fact that she really offered no help when it came to putting on all her fabulous Victorian garb. And her fingers! They seemed to get caught on everything! But in the end, she always looked so stylish…

Well, that’s what I think of almost every time I get the boys dressed.

3 Comments Filed Under: Kitchen Adventures, Musings
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