Flying Red Eye, Trying to get Shut Eye

We're back from vacation!! It was MUCH NEEDED time off , but I can't believe I actually survived the flights. We left on Wednesday evening at 10:55 and arrived at our first stop in Colombia at 6:00 AM! I can't even begin to explain what this was like for the girls. They are used to sleeping on their own and being able to spread out and move around (they both move A LOT while they sleep). I felt so bad because they both kept waking up when they moved to get comfortable and would look at me with the saddest eyes of discomfort. The woman that was sitting in front of the baby was very upset, she even turned around several times and gave her dirty looks to try and get her to stop kicking her seat. Now, I definitely understand that it sucks to have someone kicking the back of your chair when you are tired and on a plane but 1- she is a baby, giving her dirty looks means nothing to her 2- I had managed to get permission to use the paid ticket for the baby and therefore have her in her car seat so she slept most of the time, it was maybe 45- 1 hr that she was awake and maybe 20min to 30 min of sporatic kicks. Maybe it's because I'm her mom, but I was very proud of her and thought that she was very well-behaved. I mean two kids under 3 on a red eye??? I even had a woman copliment me on the girls on her way out so, besides the cranky woman in front of Leeya it seemed like others agreed with me.
On the way back to the US it was a muh different story. There was a huge mix up and hubby left when we were supposed to and I waited for my mom and sister. Even after the wait, the girls and I still had to leave without them (I am sparing you the details of a horrific 2 days dealing with Avianca employees that flatout lied to us). Liana was very cranky from the wait and to make things worse she spilled water all over herself and threw a fit until I took her pants off so she was in her panties from then on since all our luggage was checked. She threw another HUGE tantrum on the plane and I wanted to crawl in a hole and die!!! The flight attendants kept coming by and very politely saying how she really needed to stop screaming. I don't remember how I finally got her quiet but as soon as she got settled she fell fast asleep. After a few minutes in the air, she fell off her seat and while I thought that she would never get back to sleep, I realized that it was a blesing since she had more room to sleep on the floor and I left her there (PLEASE do not write me about how this is abuse, I swear I thought about it a lot, but she was truly comfortable and slept the whole way). Since she slept on the floor I was able to lay the baby out on her seat and sat next to her, holding her so that she wouldn't fall. Basically the only one that didn't sleep was me, making sure that both girls were comfy and that Leeya didn't fall on top of Liana while she was sleeping. She did keep hitting her head on the arm rest and she would wake up cying each time she did it, so I was also holding her trying to get her not to move up too far. Overall, it was a very very tiring trip and my lesson learned was to never do a red-eye trip with youg kids again OH and more importantly, never fly AVIANCA ever!!!


Here they are, sleeping on the way there:

Soaring above the clouds

I am taking the girls on their first international trip tomorrow and I am quite nervous about the flight. I have taken Liana on a short plane ride to North Carolina, that was only about an hour or so, but this is going to be 6 hours and 2 kids. Hubby will be coming as well as my mom and my sis. We're actually flying out because it is my grandmother's 90th birthday and the whole family is meeting up to celebrate it with her. So now my extended family will be able to meet my hubby and my kids :)
Back to this whole flying with two kids thing, any experiences??? thoughts??? I am "hopefully" bringing a portable DVD player (hopefully because my sister is in charge of getting it out of a trunk that is complicated to get into) also packing toys to keep my daughters entertained..... but really how do you entertain a 7 1/2 month old??? She hates being on people's laps, she doesn't really sleep in her car seat (she has to be EXTREMELY TIRED) and all she really likes is to suck on her fingers but then she makes a huge pile of drool and it's just a mess! If i have the DVD player then Liana should be good most of the way with Barney and Dora over and over. If no DVD player, well I will have to think of a REALLY great plan b.
The sad thing is that when I asked people for advice about flying I was told that I should give my children tylenol or something to calm them?!??!?!?! I barely give my children tylenol unless they have a certified fever... no precautious Tylenol before the shots, nothing like that. I just don't think it's good idea- sorry to those of you who may do this. I was just raised very hollistically and I think it messes with the immune system when you use it without actual NEED.
So here I am freaking out typing away and I'm thinking what I should be doing is thinking of a plan B... ok. I'm off to finish packing and find the best PLAN B there is.... but then again, is there really one that fits this criteria???? OH BROTHER!!! WISH ME LUCK- see you when I return :)

Gone for a sec, now I'm back for a minute :)

I apologize for being gone for a while. I got so caught up in other things that I let my passion for writing on the side and days turned into more days, that then turned into months. I finally decided it was time to be back FOR ME! So here I am with a little update about the girls.... thanks for reading. Hope you continue to enjoy our adventures :)

• LEEYA IS SLEEPING THROUGH THE NIGHT!!! It worked! After day 5 she had a few times when I thought it was ruined, but much to my surprise she has been able to get herself back to sleep rather quickly. Sometimes I think it may also be that I've gotten used to it so I sleep through her laughing (yes, people, when she wakes up she's not crying, she's laughing so I can't even really complain).



• Leeya now has two teeth and is an expert at "running" through the house in her exersaucer. It is quite hilarious since she thinks she is always in it and is like a jumping jelly bean while in anyone's arms.

• Leeya has been on and off a nebulizer... if anyone has home remedies for congested chests, etc PLEASE let me know... the nebulizer makes me want to cry everytime I use it :(

• Liana has discovered her father's "tail". She ran into the bathroom while he was showering and belts out "daddy, you have a tail!" It was hysterical.

I'll leave you with a current picture of the two BFF's :