I successfully flew alone with a 10 month old and 2 1/2 year old!
My armpits may have been sweating bullets trying to maneuver the stroller, carry-on, 2 year old through the security line (which, we made it through without getting stopped to examine any of our stuff) but we made it!
There was help along the way. A successful person is rarely successful completely alone. My sweet hubby weaved through the ticket line so we wouldn't have to figure out how to get 2 convertible car seats, 1 large suitcase, 1 carry-on, 1 bookbag, 1 stroller and 1 toddler through the line. He got us all the way to the ticket counter, where we found out that when I booked tickets online, they charged us for a seat for Charis, which is one reason why my price was higher than I expected it to be. It will be refunded though.
Then there was a sweet girl (I say girl, but she was probably 18-19 maybe?) who was right behind us in the security line. She was smitten by Cayman. She then helped me get through the security line - pushing my boxes forward when I forgot to, helping me set up the stroller while I was busy putting everything back in our luggage/putting shoes on Cayman/holding Charis/putting shoes on the Mommy...you get the picture. Then at the end of the flight, she got our carry-on down from the overhead compartment, carried it off the plane, helped set up the stroller again, and then to top it all off, she waited for us at the escalator because she knew there was no way I'd be able to make it down the stairs alone! (She didn't see the elevator sign though....she chose the elevator instead of the escalator.) And she sat right across the aisle from us on the flight, which I was thankful for, because there were three times where I'd worked out my plan to throw Charis in her lap in order to grab my puke bag just in time. It was a rough flight for me...not fun... Cayman asked me one time, "Mommy, why are your eyes closed?" "To keep me from puking all over you, son." The kids did great - Charis was pretty fidgety, mainly because she was so sleepy but wouldn't sleep. But overall, the flight went well, there were no major disasters or angry fits, and I was able to hold all bodily fluids inside of my body...where they belong...when you're flying alone with two young children...or when you're flying period.
At the bottom of the escalator (they didn't see the elevator sign either) were three of the sweetest ladies waiting on us! My mom, my sister-in-law Kathy, and my niece Graysan. Graysan made us the cutest welcome home poster and was holding it up high for us to see, and mom was standing there with her camera to take pictures of us. (She was so excited though that she her camera was off....I had to tell her to turn it on before she could take our picture...) :) Cayman was sooo excited to see them! He had THE biggest grin on his face! It was so adorable. Charis didn't know quite what to think of everyone gushing all over her. But she was excited when Grammy got her out of that stroller. Then we made a brief pitstop at the baggage claim, and I headed straight for doors leading out to FRESH AIR.
We then spent the next hour getting both car seats strapped into Kathy's Tahoe and finding places for all of our belongings. We went to Wendy's for lunch - just to pick up and eat in the car. But we ended up sitting in the parking lot for another 45 minutes because somehow Cayman got all twisted up in his seat (Graysan let him out for a reason I can't remember at this late hour, then when she tried to buckle him back in, he ended up with a shoulder strap looped around his body and over a leg - it was "stuck really tight around his privates..." - Graysan. The strap then got jammed when we loosened it all the way to get the poor child's private area freed and we had to take the car seat out to get it unjammed.) Long ordeal. 45 minutes later we were eating our lunch and driving to Augusta.
The kids played for a while when we got to Grammy and Big Al's house 2 1/2 hours later. I worked on getting the car seats transferred to Grammy's Camry. Then we were off again to Uncle Cot's (Scott) basketball game. Cayman had a great time cheering and making noise...he even yodeled during most of the free throw shots! And Charis had fun beating on the bleachers and eating veggie sticks. (Please note - Charis slept for maybe 45 minutes in the car on the way home. No real nap all day.)
When we got home from the game (they lost 49-50), the kids went straight to bed, absolutely NO ARGUMENT from Cayman tonight! That child was worn out. I just knew Charis was worn out too. But she ended up crying until 11:15pm, probably because her nose was stopped up, she wasn't in her bed where it smells like Charis, and Daddy wasn't there to rock her and sing to her like he normally does. So it was a pretty miserable 2.5 hours. But she's finally sleeping and has been for 1.5 hours. Hopefully she's down for the count. I put one of my shirts in there so she has a familiar smell. And she had some saline drops for her nose... We shall see!
Now. I'm going to sleep. And you know what? I'm probably going to sleep until 10 tomorrow if I want to! Two words. Super. Grammy. :)
I have more pictures but I'm having a difficult time loading them from my iPhone, so I'm off to bed - I'll load more tomorrow. If you're wondering why there's a picture of Cayman's zipper... He wanted my iPhone during the 8-10 minute descent... I ended up deleting about 55 pictures from those minutes. These are just two of the best ones... :)
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