Day 1 – We Have One of Those Kids

We all know that even though children may come from the same womb, have the same parents, same looks, same upbringing, etc…they will have different personalities. Flying with Reagan for her first flight (at 8 months) was actually a joy. We were worried at first, but she proved to be a very easygoing passenger. She even fell asleep in our arms. She was a pleasure.

Oh, those were the days. Today we realized our other daughter is one of those kids. You know, the kind of kid people dread seeing get on a really small, tight, enclosed, echo chamber space like an airplane? We came short of lying and telling everyone we were transporting someone else’s child because our child would never act this way…we came close though. More about that later…

Today is the first day of our Florida vacation. A much needed vacation that couldn’t come at a better time. We escaped snow on the ground and landed in 80 degree weather. In fact, here’s my pile of clothes that I brought for two weeks! You can only get away with this when you’re going to the warmer climates.

 It really is a small pile. And I fit Reagan’s, Ashlyn’s and my clothes all in one suitcase. Thank God for warm weather. I hate layers of clothes.

Ok, back to the story. The girls were troopers all day. We woke them up early in the morning to be at the airport on time. We dragged them around and made them jump through the hoops that is airport security. We fielded questions like: “why would be put bad things in our shoes? Why do they need to see the metal on our clothes?”

Our first case of having that kid and, well being that family came as we were getting ready to board the first plane. We had with us: two kids, a stroller, two carry ons, a backpack, two car seats and various jackets falling out everywhere. We toddle up to the gate checker, cutting in front of many a business person, because the voice on the loud speaker said that anyone with a child under five could make their way onto the plane. After cutting in front of everyone the gate guard assures us that it would be better for us to check the stroller and two car seats instead of leaving them plane-side. So this takes an extra five minutes that the business people behind us obviously didn’t have time for to begin with. But the plane wasn’t taking off yet, so what were they in a rush to get on for?

When we got on the plane I realized why they were in a rush. Southwest does not assign seating. You board, you find the first available seat, you laugh at everyone coming on behind you that has to travel farther back into the depths of the plane to find three seats together…that would be us. Reagan straps into her seat like an old pro. She is after all. Ashlyn starts bouncing around in our laps like it’s Baby WWE.  Here’s a picture of her first time on the plane:

Can you tell she’s thinking: “who’s head should I pound with Baby Bear?”

The first flight goes well. We connect to our second plane, and the two-nap-a-day girl hasn’t had a wink of sleep yet. You who have kids know, when little ones get really tired they tend to go berzerk in the moments leading up to passing out. This happened to us on our second flight. Wiggle, snatch, scream, throw, bounce; wiggle snatch, scream, throw, bounce; repeat. We tried to placate her by feeding her continuously with Wheat Thins. I thought this was a great idea until I looked down at my shirt later and realized she’d used my chest as her napkin to wipe her slobbery, crackery face with. Finally, after 1 hour and 50 minutes of our 2 hour flight the inevitable happens and she passes out…on Du’s hand:

 She had Wheat Thins in her hand, was chewing on one, and suddenly could no longer keep her eyes open. I’m not going to say the plane broke out in applause, but I think I faintly heard some sighs. In all actuality, she really wasn’t that bad (all the stuff I wrote about did happen though). A flight attendant did tell us we had really well-behaved girls. But you know how you feel in that situation, when you’re trapped in a sardine can with that kid.

And the fun doesn’t end there. We land in Orlando and make our way with all our luggage–which is everything I mentioned before with the addition of our suitcases. Du has the really good idea to fetch the rental car by himself while we wait there with the luggage. Why lug all that crap around when the car can be brought to us? It really would have been a great idea if the Orlando airport would allow passenger traffic to enter into the shuttle/taxi causeway…but they would not. So I get a phone call telling me (kindly) just to meet him up on the second floor, he’d be waiting for us with the car.

Uh, what? I’ll remind you readers of what I’m in charge of here:

• two kids
• stroller
• pack and play
• two suitcases
• one carryon
• two backpacks (one being Du’s so it could be considered another suitcase)
• two car seats
• jackets out the wazoo

 Remembering that we’re on vacation…in no hurry…there’s a little one who likes to mimic everything I do…I readjust my attitude from one big pity party to one where Super Woman could have done no better. Du only had to circle around the airport three times before we made it up there. But we lost nothing, so a big plus for me.

A long nap later (well for all of us but Driver Du) we make it to St. Augustine. The air smells like the ocean. The humidity is already messing with my hair (my skin will be next). The dress code is decidedly different from that of our current hometown. And we couldn’t be happier. Well, except for Ashlyn when I wanted to document what she looked like after falling asleep with a chocolate donut in her possession (just as second children have different personalities than their older siblings, they have different diets as well):

Don’t know if you can see it but there is chocolate smeared on the bottom half of her face and all around her neck. Donut has even made its way down her shirt and into her pants, and on her socks.

Dinner tonight was SEAFOOD!! Read the description of my dish:

Macadamia Mahi Mahi:  

Crusted with roasted macadamia nuts, topped with a Grand Marnier passion fruit beurre blanc and served with mashed sweet potatoes and vegetables.

I’m drooling on the keyboard just thinking about it again. Du had Fresh Grouper: Seared topped with a delicate shrimp and crab sauce. Ashlyn had bites of both of ours, but mainly enjoyed throwing food on the floor. Remember, she’s one of those kids.