Thursday, February 26, 2009

What Would A Sane Person Do?

First, random photos.
Next, a survey.


I've decided to take these rugrats to Texas for short visit. I'm equal parts excited and full of dread, in my always-over-analyze-and-worry-excessively-for-no-reason kind of way. Excited to see our families and excited to go somewhere warm, and excited to eat sour cream chicken enchiladas with queso verde sauce and excited to be able to buy beer in grocery store.

I'm dreading going through the security line with two children. I'm dreading trying to figure out how to deal with a preschooler who needs to go potty while the baby is screaming the plane is about to land. I'm dreading schlepping all the crap around and I'm dreading packing. I'm dreading the possibility of everything being exhausting and wearing me out.

So. On that note. I have two choices on which flight to take. Which of these two scenarios seems least likely to make me want to stab my own eyes out with an airplane seatbelt?

1. We go to the airport with John at the ass-crack of dawn. We would have to leave home at some ungodly hour, like 4 a.m. He has to report earlier than our flight. So, we would have to sit around the airport for three hours before leaving on our flight. But, our flight would be in the morning and we'd arrive in Austin before noon. We'd be travelling during the best behaved hours of the day. The flight would also be really empty.

Or.....

2. We leave on an afternoon flight that is during naptime. No long wait at the airport, but travelling during crank(ier) hours, especially with no nap, and spending the entire day shuffling around here getting ready when we could already be in Austin.

Both flights will be about four hours in the air. Which would you do? Sit at the airport for three hours early in the morning? Or go during naptime? (Or, option three: tell me to quit worrying and just get on a damn plane and quit being so freaking NEUROTIC all the time what is my problem don't forget to pack the hand sanitizer geez holy shit!)

21 comments:

Anonymous said...

If the morning option includes John helping you get through security with the kiddos, do it. Won't Becca have plenty of distractions in the morning?

Swistle said...

I'd go in the morning. I'd like having another grown-up to do the transitions and to make sure we get there and so forth, and I'd like getting to our destination earlier and not having to mess around in the morning worrying I'll totally space it and not get to the airport on time.

Katie said...

Susan....OOOOH! I never even THOUGHT about him helping us through security. I actually don't know that he'll be able to....not sure about that. Good thing to think of though.

But, then what do we do for THREE HOURS? Ugh.

Anonymous said...

#1 for sure. Then bring random no-no toys (i.e., scotch tape, dental floss, you know, whatevs that is weird yet fairly safe yet totally forbidden normally) for Becca to play with. Oh, and don't forget the lollipops. Has she ever had gummy bears or worms? Those are also fascinating yet a bit taboo to a 3-year-old kid. The baby will just chill. The only down side is that you might get home and then Becca will feel she has free reign over said no-no toys. Such a small price to pay, though, I think. Good luck, and every bit of this is worth it for the food (and family!!!!) that will be waiting on the other end.

Anonymous said...

I remember the last time I flew (pre911) Sarah was about 2 maybe 3 we gave her Gum so her ears didnt pop!

Anonymous said...

Please please please do not use sticky candy. . .gummi stuff, etc. I'm just looking forward to her beautiful smile, decay free!!

Grammy Bonnie, DDS

Anonymous said...

Go with John. Three hours in the airport? Let's see. Have races from one gate to another and while thus engaged Becca can learn her numbers: Betcha can't beat me to Gate 27! Eat pretzels. Count people. I'll think of some more ideas and get back to you.

Anonymous said...

sooooo go with the am option! Yes, it'll be a longer wait, but in the terminal with stuff to look at and room to move. And always better to have another grown up with you, even if only to stay with one kid while the other goes potty. Plus, the flight attends with be more nice if you walk on with the pilot I bet. And have Becca wear a pull up during the flight. If she has an accident, who cares? Also, would it help to borrow my infant car seat? It's filty and gross but you won't have to drag one down here that way. let me know asap so i can run it to your parents house before you get here. CAN'T WAIT to see you guys!!!

Anonymous said...

PS...temps will be in the mid to upper 70's the whole time you're here...if that doesn't excite you, nothing but Chuy's queso compuesto will.

marthamydear said...

My vote is for the AM flight. Do you have one of those handy dandy travel DVD players? After the running from gate to gate wears her out, you can pop in a princess video and that should eat up at least one hour, right? Some of the best money I've ever spent was on the Panasonic with the 13 hr battery. Lifesaver on long flights!

PS You might want to check out an interesting book called Touchpoints. (OK, so it's not all that great, BUT it does give some heads up on developmental milestones that are typically preceded with behavior from hell) Once we had a good reason for the relapses, (as in a milestone is about to be made) it made them a lot more bearable.

Unknown said...

Get it over w/in the morning. Do you have a portable DVD player? I was against those until I discovered that they do distract for a bit. Or download a few Dora shows from Itunes or something that she hasn't seen and let her watch them on the laptop.

Someone recently suggested ace bandages as fun for kids on planes. Let her wrap up your ankle or arm, or her doll's body, whatever.

Katie said...

John will NOT be with me on the am flight. He would only be dropping us at the airport, then proceeding to the employee parking lot and on to his flight, which is totally different than ours! So, I would still be on my own. So, everyone thinks that I should voluntarily spend 8 hours entertaining the kids instead of just 5?

Unknown said...

I guess it depends if you're a morning person or not. I do mornings. I do not handle afternoons well (specifically, I have more patience in the mornings than I do in the afternoon and I've always been a morning person. Fav part of my day, etc.). So, for me, morning.

Anonymous said...

wait...i'm confused. why can't you take the earlier flight but have tracy take you later so you only have to wait an hour or so?

Jen said...

Totally morning. 1. Help from John. 2. Arriving before naptime. 3. You could let Becca watch movies on a DVD player during your morning wait. 4. Not travelling during naptime.

My sister just arrived here yesterday with a 22mo old and a 3mo old and they did the morning route. It still sucked, but was probably better than the afternoon would have been.

Anonymous said...

I'm with Meg. Can a friend drop you guys?
(Meg - brilliant suggestion, by the way.)

Anonymous said...

Susan,

With or without john's help, definitely the morning. Hopefully they will still be sleepy and may fall for a quick nap. I save some activities for special occasions. Maya likes the idea of going for a picnic. She likes the pretend game so we can be creative with the details. So, picnic breakfast or picnic snack? She loves books so I check out new books I know she will like. Drawing with new markers can buy time. Make it a letter or card and put in envelop telling somebody about the trip or just drawing. If you actually mail it (they usually have post box at the airport?). If she mails to herself, that would be fun too. Oh, just 1 or 2 markers will do so there is less to pick up when the fun is gone. New small toys. A few stickers, fake tattoo stickers, fancy band-aids. Maya is into dinosaurs and I found 50¢ "finger dinosaur" she can play with. Running game with directions -- tip toe in a circle then go around X and hop to Y. Maya likes challenging directions, especially the one involving somersault. Kids will move even if we don't want to, so go with their game and have fun. Airport shouldn't be that busy that early. Everybody wear comfortable cloth. Maya was in her PJs and funny slippers at the airport at that early hours before. Pack enough but on the light side. Borrow carseat or buy from craigslist. We have flat pack pop up ladybug tent that weighs nothing and it probably fits in a carry on. Never thought of using it for airport till now. Or bring light weight dark fabric/sheet that you can drape over chairs and stroller and make a tent. Last resort is DVD and a new or favorite movie. Planet Earth DVDs from BBC have very cool documentary that all can enjoy. If you must, study the airport and change locations a couple times closer to your destination. I think you need more than 3 hours to do all these activities.

Good luck.

Anonymous said...

My goodness, that was a long entry. I was going to mail you but change my mind. Sorry.

Tracy said...

I have school kid drop off and wouldn't be able to do both. That is why the pm option is in hand.

And bevo, you didn't happen to be a teacher in your pre-mascot days?? :) good suggestions.. TOtally stealing those next time I travel.

OH and Katie, so jealous. HOw I would love to be going to my favorite restaurants and seeing family and warmth... damn that child education thing.

Ann said...

Option 1. For three hours bring a DVD (your laptop plays DVD's right) other wise get a little DVD player from Wally World. I don't think they are too expensive. And my oldest (who is a little older than Becca) loves watching airplanes. Going though security is bad enough I wouldn't recommend trying it with cranky kids. (Read here: Learn from my mistakes!) Even if John can't help you through security he'll will be able to help you get all your crap into the airport and believe me that will save your sanity. (again learn from my mistakes) When we went to Alaska at Christmas we left for Alaska at the crack of dawn but left from Alaska around nap time. Our return trip was a living HELL! We spent 3 hours in Anchorage (after leaving Fairbanks) and it was awful! Future trips have been planned with that in mind! Ok this totally turned into a novel so I'll quit now! Hope this helps

Ann said...

Oh and one of the things that entertained Jonathan, my son who is just a few months older than Becca, was a magna doodle. He could draw and erase as many times as he wanted and I wasn't searching for paper or picking up dropped crayons. It was wonderful and it keep him entertained for almost 3 hours from Seattle to Anchorage!