Flying with Two is Fun to do.

I honestly feel like most of my brain works in songs. When you read the title does it become a song for you?

Now that I've got that thought out there I think some of you might enjoy reading about one of my latest adventures. And it has nothing to do with all the songs in my head. Ha.

About three weeks ago my fantastic parents decided to come pick up me and my children and take us back to Alberta for a couple weeks. Hopefully I will get to write all about that at some point but for now I am just going to write about our trip back to Regina just a short 16 days after they picked us up.

You see Jared did not come with us, he had to stay back and be a student and make the money. Poor guy, he is seriously so hard working I am so so fortunate to have him. And even though he has been working himself to the bone lately he was still so understanding of the three of us ditching him for some time with family.

Okay so we had a really wonderful time and were completely spoiled by my family. But Jared was ready to have us back. And I hate to say it out loud, but if our plane tickets hadn't been booked in advance I would have been tempted to stay a little longer. But I knew that it would be good to be back, the main deterrent was that Jared would be starting finals, which makes us see him even less than usual. Yes, you also read correctly that we would be flying back to Saskatchewan, me and my two children.

This kind of thing does not intimidate me, I am a pretty organized person and therefor feel pretty prepared to deal with my kids by myself. Plus I've had lots of practice, what with a busy husband and no family living close by for the past year and a half.

My Mom helped me get through baggage, and getting the carseats into the oversized/fragile drop off area. Then we said our goodbyes, parted ways and me and the two little hooligans headed towards security.

Security went super smooth for having 2 kids and a stroller. Luckily Magoo wasn't in the mood to be running around (by nothing short of a miracle). I had 2 backpacks plus our coats and luckily they didn't make us remove our shoes. I had pretty well emptied out all little pockets of the stroller into my coat pockets and zipped it in so I could just throw my coat into a tray and retrieve it without having to grab a million things (i.e. keys, phone, stroller adapters, etc.). Plus the people at security were relatively quick and helpful. My only hiccup there was when I tried to put Magoo back into his stroller, but I bribed him with the iPad and we were off.

Next I found a really nice bathroom in the new part of the airport, not that I needed the glam, but it wasn't that far from our gate, plus we had time to spare, and it was really quite in that area of the airport way with hardly anyone else around.

Changed diapers.
Found a place to settle down next to our gate. Magoo was happily playing the iPad so I nursed Stitch.
At this point we still had some time to spare, so once  I thought I would take a little walk over to the big windows to take a look at the planes. And of course get some pictures.

 (Me, oblivious to what lie ahead. Everything was hunk dory at this point.)

 One thing I should add is that the airport was ridiculously hot. Like weirdly so, and I didn't even really realize it until we were out of the building. Also I was running of 5 1/2 hours of sleep this day... a headache was lurking, but I was trying not to think about it.

So it was shortly after the above picture that Magoo started getting a little restless and no longer wanted to be in the stroller.
Ensue trying to escape while screaming at the top of his lungs...
But we boarded the plane without him actually escaping and with minimal embarrassment. Despite the fact that there were 4 people in wheel chairs boarding the plane and 3 other parents with strollers and children (okay everyone else was only doing this with one kid). Needless to say there weren't many employees to help us hold children/fold up strollers at the door of the plane. But we helped each other out and it all worked out.

We find our seats and luckily this little man is entertained for a second while I try to stuff our bags under the seats while the stewardess is giving me the run down on flying with kids and blah blah blah blah blah. Yes. Thank You. Done this before. Thank you. Not going to give you my full attention. As you can see I have 2 kids and my new neighbour just sat down in the aisle seat making things very squishy... like Magoo had a nice seat all to his little self, but Stitch was what is called a "lap child" making us share a seat. And I have a dude sitting on my other side, not a fat guy, not even husky, but on a plane anything bigger than like a 5year old and this kind of situation and your going to end up having to touch some parts of your bodies at all times during your tip, be it a leg, arm, elbow. Some part of them touching some part of you... and I had even put up the arm rest between me and Magoos seat in search for more space.

I decided I should introduce myself to this new neighbour what with me having 2 kids and there was a chance I might need a hand at some point. He turned out to be a nice guy, going to SK to work, no kids of his own but had nephews and nieces or something like that. Cool, not creepy, I was okay.

Turns out the plane had quite a few open seats and the kind stewardess offered a window seat in a row that only had one other person sitting in it. The guy refused saying "I think I'll stay and help out this lady out with her kids..." I reassured him I would be fine, and he still refused.
Turned out he was a little overly helpful, still not in a creepy way, but in a way that my own personality does not appreciate. He kept taking Stitch from me in attempts to "help" throughout the flight, when usually I was just talking to Magoo and not really in distress at all. Plus a few other things he did that just bothered me, but I'm over them now so I will move on.

So during the flight I developed a very bad headache. I didn't have any sort of relief on hand like advil or whatever, nor did I think to ask for any. Also I was feeling fairly nauseated during the flight but I blamed on motion sickness since I can get pretty carsick sometimes. And didn't mention it to my stranger-neighbour or any employee

Once the plane landed I waited around for a bit before getting off, remembering the many people who required help with strollers, thinking I would wait for them to get off then have my turn with less passengers around and more employees. Get to the door of the plane, see the stroller still folded up, but mine is the only one left, unfortunately Magoo was ahead of me and I just barely missed his hand when I tried to grab it and he saw freedom down the very long corridor of the terminal and was off like a rocket. 

I frantically grabbed the stroller, still hanging onto Stitch, trying to figure out if I should put her down on the grungy floor to open it, or just leave the stroller and come back for it, all while trying to look for help. A passenger saw my ordeal and offered to hold stitch or open the stroller. I handed her Stitch, flung open the stroller, grabbed my baby and was off, racing towards Magoo who was at the end of the terminal now, entering the main hall of the airport (keep in mind during this I am calling him, having to yell his name in attempts to summons him back to me, begging him for cooperation). At this terminal to airport intersection I see a group of WestJet employees standing there chatting, and I call out "help, please grab him"… they all stand there, giggling at the scene of this crazy free two year old, fleeing from his mother with pure determination to get as far as fast as his crazy legs would carry him, I was not impressed, and at this point I begin to loose it, tears forming as I see Magoo take a sharp left into the hall that leads to an escalator which goes down to the baggage claim…

I run as fast as I can, reaching these employees, swear words flying out of my mouth, (okay only one) I expressed my anger and disappointment to their lack of service and help of any kind. 
I take a left, spot Magoo passing what appears to be a pilot. The pilot misses him and half tries to re-catch him. 
With every plea I make to Magoo to come back, "come to me, please Magoo stop stop stop," frantically begging him not to go any further.
It only drives his little legs impossibly faster, it was amazing and so frustrating.
I finally reach this pilot character, let go of the stroller, hand him Stitch, then run as fast as only a mother can who has a crazed child. 
Reach him, grab him, put him in the stroller and synch him in. 
By this time I am balling and reaming out this pilot who is still patiently standing there holding Stitch for me. All my disappointment and exhaustion pouring out. Helpless.

Take Stitch, get to the Elevator, as I press the button I realize the walls of the hallway are glass, all the people in the baggage claim, including Jared probably saw and maybe even heard most of what just happened and what I said… Though I don't know for sure because I am to afraid to ask Jared due to my own embarrassment. 

The elevator doors open to a new West Jet employee, who sees me in tears, and then she asks if I need help, finally someone doing their job. I informed her that unfortunately she was too late, I had it under control now, and luckily nothing worse happened then maybe my own pride and self as a mother taking a beating a little… in the elevator I also realized that at some point, probably trying to open the stroller I had also ripped one of my nails, not enough to bleed, but part of it was just hanging there, and it sure started to hurt. 

Get to Jared, cry a little more, get my composure, collect our bags and carseats, load into the car.

Once finally sitting I realize I am actually really really sick. 
I have a migrane headache and everything hurts. Everything. 
Get home, grab Stitch, nurse her in my bed. She won't sleep, I take her out to Jared, who is being such a trooper considering he hadn't seen us in like 2.5 weeks and I come home completely sick and useless. 
My Dad calls to see if we got there safe talk for a second then hangup.
Make it just in time to the toilet to throw up. Finally. The nausea is going away.
I go sleep for just under an hour. Get woken up. 
Jared needed help feeding kids dinner then he had to bolt off to the school, he had to do a big presentation that night and still had one last meet up with his group.
Struggle (mostly due to my still pounding, relentless headache) to get the kids in bed, but in retrospect they were really good. It helped they hadn't napped at all that day!!!
After they're asleep is when my advil finally kicked in, and I have been feeling relatively well ever since…
I think I must have gotten some food poisoning or something, maybe from the meat at subway I had eaten at for lunch that day. who knows.

So if I were to do it all over again this is what I would do differently:
- get sleep the night before
- not fly during/close to nap time (for my kids a morning flight would have been better)
- body wrap/sling the baby as much as possible. Trying to have both hands free at all times. But especially when getting off the plane.
-only bring one backpack. Magoo didn't really like to wear the backpack I had for him, probably because I made it too heavy. (Plus I brought more stuff than was needed, I could have just brought the iPad, water and a couple snacks and been good (plus essentials like diapers and wipes of course).
- bring advil/tylenol and gravol for kids 
-consider a toddler leash thing for high stress moments. I do have a double stroller but there was a point a leash might have been a safe choice.
-the less stuff the better, if we can travel without jackets, do it.
-and don't get sick.

Yes Some of you might have a good chuckle as you read this. And I'm sure one day it might be funny to me as well. It was a crazy afternoon, but I am not scared of doing it again. If anything I feel more empowered to have a better on it the next time. 

Good luck with any of your flying attempts with children in tow, with another parent or not! Kids can sure give us a run for our money and I say the more advice and life experiences from others can only help us get through our own experiences in one piece with our dignity still trailing behind us somewhere.