Holy crap. We're flying to Spokane in two days.
Between work, parenting, and rehearsing for the Biggie Smalls tryouts, I'd sorta ignored the fact that we're traveling. Across the country. In TWO DAYS.
It hit me last night when I was fighting with my Mom over where we were going to sleep when we got there. Options ranged from my old bedroom (dark, full of spiders, currently used for storage), my parents room (clean, but...it's my parents room...eeewwww), and a hotel (expensive and guaranteed to create a family rift the size of Snake River Canyon). In other words, all solutions are bad. And we have TWO DAYS to solve it.
As usual, I'm more stressed about the actual traveling than what happens when we get there. When I'm by myself I can shrug off the indecencies of airline travel, but when a toddler and someone who is nicknamed "Oodgie" for a reason are with me the muscles on my back roll up like softballs.
The only time Cheeky's really a pill is when she's tired (just like her old man), and we have to wake, dress, and load her into a taxi by 5:30 AM. We're expecting turbulence. And since there aren't direct flights we get to deal with bags, strollers, and friendly airline personnel at least twice each way. We hope the excitement of flying will help Cheeky compensate for the time-difference, but she could just as well get there and crash harder than Lindsay Lohan on her third day out of rehab.
Kill me now
Don't get me wrong...I'm excited we're going. My parents don't get to see Cheeky nearly enough, and I know they'll LOVE playing with her. It will be fun for us to spend time with my family, too, and we're puddle-jumping to Seattle on Saturday so the Seahawks can give my dad a belated Father's Day gift (they'd better, after this weekend's debacle).
I just wish we had a transporter room.
Rule #1 - dress Cheeky for the flight before you put her to bed. Then maybe you won't need to wake her up before the flight. Just carry her sleeping to the cab, through security, and right onto the plane. This worked for me on a similar hour flight with Julia a few years back.
Rule #2 - check everything you can. The less you have to carry the better off you are. Especially with the changing flights. I'd even check the stroller unless you think it will be mandatory for the layover...
Rule #3 - whatever toys you bring to play with on the flight, make sure they don't make noise
Rule #4 - if you don't already have a portable DVD player, go out and buy one and an extra battery to boot... you'll thank me later
Posted by: Bill D | October 08, 2007 at 12:58 PM
Sign me up for the transporter room. The last few weeks have been hell commutes getting home.
H e double l.
The dvd player really is a godsend. And she's old enough for Miyazaka films now - Kiki's delivery service is a good start.
Posted by: Arwen | October 08, 2007 at 05:52 PM
I was feeling bad for you until I saw that video of the chickens.
Posted by: Kara | October 10, 2007 at 11:07 AM
I hope your travels are going well.
Posted by: William | October 12, 2007 at 09:01 AM
Waiting for the follow-up post with bated breath
Posted by: Mom101 | October 14, 2007 at 09:22 PM