The biggest adventure ever awaits me. On a whim, and for a large number of reasons, I decided to fly to Portugal before the holidays to spend some time with the Mendes and Branco sides of the family. The biggest problem is that Nick won’t be able to come, given that he hasn’t been working long enough to have sufficient vacation time. Oh well. It will be me and the toddler twins, on our own, across the country and over the Atlantic; 15h one way (there), 18h back.
I went shopping last weekend for portable in-flight entertainment: coloring books, stickers (lots of them, dinosaurs, stars, boats, planets, shapes, cats…), crayons and markers, and a couple of tiny toys, a dinosaur and a motorbike (each). I spent almost nothing (thanks 99c store), and can only hope that each will last long enough, between meals and cartoons that they may care for, because I KNOW they will not sleep very much. Especially we-know-who (master Lucas…). Now I find myself getting nervous about the logistics of this all. Very much unlike me, I booked this flight before putting too much thought into it, because I knew I would eventually panic and change my mind. And I really want to go. But I think I can use some suggestions here, please keep them coming. Getting through security, shoes off, shoes on, and in the meantime, while trying to recover all of the carry-on baggage, how exactly do I manage to not loose one of the kids? What if they decide to explore while I blink?
The other thing is diapers. They are in the process of training, but I am not sure if I can take my chances on the flight or even at the airport, because we simply may not be able to go when they need to. So diaper will be on. But what about diaper changes?? I can manage going to the bathroom on the airplane with one child, but with the two it is just not going to happen. Not safely at least. So what do I do with the other?
And lastly, the arrival in Lisbon. From my experience, we have always had to get out of the plane into a bus to get to passport control and baggage claim. I need to get everyone out of the plane and into the bus, plus the carry-on and… the double stroller.
I don’t think it is possible to do this without an extra pair of hands, for what I am now only hoping for a generous soul to offer to help. When I flew back in 2008, alone with the twins, I was not very fortunate with the crew (they did NOTHING) but some passengers on one of the flights were amazing. The second flight was unfortunate in every way, but at least the twins were not mobile, one sat on my lap and the other traveled in a car seat beside us. Now it’s a different story, when we will each have our own seat. Ideas will be very welcome... we leave in two weeks.
