Air Plane Survival 101

This post is to show how I barely survived 11 hours of traveling alone with the girls. We flew to Washington state to visit Josh's family and poor Josh could not come with us because he had to work. We are grateful for his job just sad to be away from him.

Eliza packed her bags over 2 weeks early. I waited until just before we left to repack them because I didn't feel like battling over what would go in her bags for 2 weeks. She had packed huge Pom Poms that took up over half the bag, old shoes that don't fit her and magic wands. She insisted that she would use the Pom Poms on the plane but I knew we would already have enough screaming and yelling on the plane and that adding cheers would not be a good idea.

I actually made it to bed my 10pm the night before which is something I have NEVER done before a trip. I think this is because Eliza told me repeatidly for two weeks that I needed to be packing. If you know Eliza, then you know I really mean it when I say she told me repeatidly.

Hannah loves planes and cars so she loved the great view.

Josh had to drop us off early to get to work and so we had 2 hours to spend in the airport before we even left the ground. We had eggs for breakfast and resisted the donuts and cinnamon roles. I had read on the internet somewhere not to feed your kids sugar before they fly because it will only make them more anxious. That was the last thing I needed when traveling with a 2 1/2 year old. I normally would have shoveled sugar down their throats all day trying to keep them happy while traveling which only caused them to cry and fuss for more candy and be cranky because they felt so sick from too many sweets. I had a hidden bag of candy that I was going to whip out if I got desperate but I never needed it. Truthfully, the times that I really needed it my mind was drawing a blank and I forgot I had it. I added my thing about needing more protein and less sugar for you Amy because you have to hear me blab about my weird ideas the most. :)

Luckily, the Orlando airport provides a playground for children to play on so we had no trouble spending an hour waiting.

Hannah doing Ballet. Yes, I let Eliza wear her night gown all day.

Next time I am not going to pack paper for her stickers because she put them everywhere but on paper. I had these sticker books that had shaded areas on the pictures for the girls to put their stickers. This was their favorite thing to do. It was like doing a puzzle and stickers at once.

We did a lot of this thanks to Grammy and Pa Pa for getting us a player with a 6 hour battery. A huge life saver.

I love the aqua doodle because the picture starts to dry before Eliza is done and therefore it is a never ending activity.

I don't think I would have ever made it off the first plane without this Grandma's help. She was wonderful with Hannah as I packed everything. She remembered what it was like to travel with children unlike the women who sat in front of Hannah on the plane. I have never seen Eliza make that face before and have no idea what she was pretending to be. She even gave Eliza a quarter which was her highlight of the flight. She insisted on holding it in her hand the next 5 hours or should I say trying to hold it in her hand. I was soo relieved when she finally let me hold it especially since I kept having to pull quarters out of my wallet and pretend to find her missing one. I was going to run out soon.

We had a 3 1/2 hour layover in Denver. Luckily, the marshmellows and toothpicks where a huge hit. I actually had to pull them away from the activity when it was time to get on the plane. I figured eating food off the ground and chairs would strengthen their immune system.

Hannah trying to lift her dumbell.

I made the message for Josh who I will miss very much this week. Hannah made about 50 dumbells and describe each one as a monster or house.

I asked Eliza what she made below her name and she said, "It's just a design."

Hannah is making a fruitloop necklace.

Eliza did wonderful and allowed Hannah to get her way when picking movies and seats so that things could go more smoothly. She received many compliments from the stewardesses. Eliza asked one of the sterwardesses how Hannah did and I think she put it best when she said, "Well, Hannah tried...she really tried...", then there was a pause because the stewardess could not think of anything else positive to say. Ninety percent of the time Hannah did great it was just the 10% of the time that tramatized everybody on the plane. She did the usual seat kicking and the lady in front of us kept staring at me. She got stuck under her seat twice and screamed until I could get her unstuck. I never got a picture because everybody on the plane was staring at us until I got her out. I knew they would not have understood the needs of a blogger and may have viewed it as neglect.

Another time I had just helped Eliza go to the bathroom and so I was washing my hands while Eliza went back and sat down. Eliza started screaming non-stop and I could hear Hannah laughing. It took me a minute to get to them to see what was going on. We had everybody on the entire planes attention as I rushed down the aisle to see what was going on. Hannah was standing on her lap with tennis shoes on and stomping. She had decided to use force instead of her words to get the window seat.

Another embarassing moment was when Eliza would say repeatidly very loudly as the plane took off, "The seat is tickling my bum bum!"

We made it finally and we're greeted with hugs, kisses, and beautiful flowers. Just like any other day...we laughed, we cried, I was embarassed a few times...and it was all worth it. :)

I pity the foo'...

Hannah has recently become obsessed with necklaces to the point that she now resembles the ever famous Mr. T.








- J.E.B.

Valentine's Song

Although it took some prodding (see below), Melanie captured the girls in the Valentine's Day spirit. This is one of the girls' favorite songs as their mother has sung it too them since they were babies. Now it is the song of choice when both Hannah and Eliza put their baby dolls to bed.



This next video is a funny outtake from Melanie trying to get them to sing on camera:




- J.E.B.