Pavlina: Life is Not For the Living

We were scheduled to leave for our two week vacation to England on Monday, July 30 at 8:30pm, leaving Dulles Airport. Excellent, I thought. The kids will sleep most of the flight, it will be great. The day started off BAD. Martin was high strung all weekend, I think he knew something was up. We wake up on Monday, finish all the last minute things, gets the kids and the luggage in the van, drive down to Dulles. They both fall asleep on the way. We get to the airport and we decide to drop off the kids and the luggage and drive the van to parking, instead of having to drag everything on the shuttle. Martin has a fit while we are waiting. Emma starts fussing in the stroller, so I spend the approx. 30 minutes or so trying to calm Martin down and chase Emma around. Jason gets back so we head off to check in.

Meltdown #1

Martin has a total and complete meltdown at the sight of our suitcases and Emma’s carseat being separated form us. He refuses to calm down, leaving us to carry him and drag along the small carry on suitcase with his car seat strapped on, the diaper bag and Emma who I believe was either refusing to sit in the stroller or having her own fit. we are also informed the flight is running about an hour late. Great.

Meltdown #2 (or possible, the continuation of #1)

We get to Security. Now that I think of it, while our wait in line Martin had calmed down somewhat. We get to the head of the line. Laptop and liquids (in the baggie) out of the bag. Bag on belt, car seat on belt, stroller folded up and put on belt, my purse on belt, Lion on belt. Oh, all the shoes on belt. Mild protestations from the kids at that. Then….Pooh and Back pack on belt, “No, no, no Pooh…” screams Martin and has to be drug through the detector, and refuses to be calmed. I grab Martin, Pooh, Backpack, shoes and Emma, leaving Jason to deal with the rest, and drag everything over to a window and try calming Martin down. After an eternity he is calm, but I am FREAKING OUT. He has never been this bad, ever! I needed a Valium. We all calm down a bit, get everything is order and head off to the gate. We ride the cool people mover over to our terminal. Martin had a good time looking out at the other people movers and the planes, he has calmed down a bit but he is still, shall we say, a bit anxious.

We get out and find the lounge, we go inside and get the kids snacks and drinks and just relax for the love of pete. After 30 minutes or so I decided to find something to eat, but Martin is not interested so he and Jason stay in the lounge while Emma and I go out and find a quite nice Japanese noodle shop. The kids love Yakisoba so I get that and some nice cucumber and avocado rolls. Emma loves them, but she doesn’t like the seaweed. Too chewy. While we eat, Jason and Martin come by but Martin just wants to run up and down the terminal. Fine. We let him, taking turns and we pass the next several hours this way because we no longer have any idea when we are leaving as 9pm passes and we have no info. So far, the kids are holding up well, watching a bit of TV on the DVD player. Well, it just keeps getting later and later, no information from the airline and the kids are getting tired. It is like 10 pm, and….

Meltdown #3

At this point of the day/night, I have realized that I have “that kid”. You know, the kid who is a walking, breathing ad for birth control because no one can even imagine life with that holy terror. Yes, I was “that mom” of “that kid”. The kid having a meltdown and the poor mom tearing her hair out. The anti-christ, the terror, whatever. I owned it. It is now after 10pm, the kids are usually in bed at 8pm, so they are getting cranky, we are hearing any minute now from the airline. Well, Martin is really getting irritated and he starts getting fussy, then he starts screaming. So we leave the lounge and go to the gate. Whereupon he enter full meltdown number 3 that puts the other two to shame and begins carrying on and demanding the attention of whatever parent is no longer with him. By this point Emma is upset that her brother is upset so she starts screaming. I remember looking at the clock at some point and it said 11pm and I was thinking “no way is it 11pm” and both kids were screaming and the airline personnel were looking at us and I was terrified they were not going to let us on the plane. I must admit they were nice and sympathetic, but still. I had Martin on the other side of the terminal and he is screaming and calling out for daddy so I take him back to Jason and I carry Emma and she finally succumbs to sleep. At last. One sleep and one mostly calm with hiccups now.

We finally board the people mover that drives over to the plane and we board the plane directly from the people mover. Very cool. We find out seats, get Martin’s car seat strapped in, and…

Meltdown #4

You know, I am not making ANY of this up. Martin did not want to sit in that car seat so he starts screaming. Oh. My. God. I felt soooo bad for those people. Luckily it was almost midnight so we can takeoff right away. I am over there rubbing and patting, hoping to calm him down, singing songs, counting everything I see, and by the time we start taxiing, he calms down. Poor kid. He was just that exhausted and confused. So were we. Stay tuned for the next episode.

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