Super Travelers

Not that I would want to do this trip alone on a regular basis, but the truth is it wasn't so bad. We got picked up at 10 to leave for the airport. Simon and I sat in the 3rd row of the van and Eli was in the 2nd row. He would turn around every few minutes and whisper "b'bye Daddy." I think he was a little sad to leave David. Then, when we got to the airport, Simon was sound asleep so I put him in the stroller and Eli was walking. Eli didn't see Simon in the stroller so he said "b'bye Simon." Poor kid, I guess he thought one by one everyone was leaving!! He was relieved when I showed him that Simon was with us. He know pronounces Simon as "Ty-Moan" with some sort of accent. It's very cute.
Anyway, we made it to our gate with minimal trouble. Eli felt very important walking through the airport pulling his spiderman backpack. Simon woke up at the gate and both kids were very cute getting on the plane pulling their bags. We had 3 seats across in the middle which worked out fine. I gave them each some benadryl as soon as we boarded. They didn't want to take it until I told them it was candy. It either worked really well or the fact that it was 1am and they were tired made them fall asleep almost immediately. Simon slept for 7 hours and Eli for 8. Eli slept fitfully at first and kept crying in his sleep so I ended up holding him for about an hour an then very carefully laying him down so his head was next to Simon's and his feet were on me. That was all fine until I got up to go to the bathroom and when I came back there was really nowhere for me to sit!! I was much happier being uncomfortable as opposed to risking waking them up. When Simon woke up, he watched about 3 hours of movies and when Eli woke up I entertained him fairly easily for a couple of hours. It was the last hour and a half or so that they both demanded entertainment that got a little stressful. At one point when they were both wanting me to do things at the same time, I broke out the big guns with the cry "who wants candy??" I gave them each their own giant box of mike and ikes and enjoyed the silence. Right as breakfast was being served, it got very bumpy and Simon got a familiar expression on his face. I said "uh-oh, are you going to throw up?" He nodded and looked a little scared. I handed him the barf bag and said "please try to get it in here!!" I was proud of myself for not freaking out and then very grateful when he didn't actually throw up. He was definitely nausous though because he kept grabbing for the bag every few minutes. I think it was just too much candy and too much turbulence. He was totally fine by the time we landed.
We got off the plane at JFK and I asked where the stroller would be. "Oh, you'll get it after immigration with your luggage" was the response. Yeah, that pretty much sucked. Eli wouldn't walk so I had to carry him and my huge carry-on and his bag and the DVD player. Simon walked with his bag and then we got to the steepest escalator I've ever seen. Luckily the woman who had been sitting across from us on the plane was there and took Simon's hand to help him. We made it through passport and got our bags and with the help of a skycap re-checked our bags to Boston and then walked a mile to our gate where we had to wait almost 2 hours for our flight. The kids were still ok at that point, fueled by some more candy. The flight to Boston was a very long 37 minutes!! It was a plane with 2 seats and 2 seats, so we had 2 together and 1 across the aisle. This was a problem because both kids wanted the window!! I really couldn't have Eli sit alone, so I forced Simon to give Eli the window and I sat next to him and Simon sat across the aisle next to a woman who looked very unhappy by her misfortune to be sitting near us. The flight was full of business travelers and it was very small and very quiet so everyone could hear every shriek of each kid and me yelling at them to be quiet and behave. It was not a fun flight, but luckily it was short!!
We were very happy to see Ducky at baggage claim and Papu at the car.
More later because Eli says it's his turn for the computer and I want to get the kids dressed so we can be at Target when it opens at 8!!