"Goodbye Dad, We're Going to America!"

One great lesson that I've learned from having kids is to always plan for the worst (full stop).  Usually the maxim ends with "...and hope for the best," but I don't even consider that part.  I just plan for the worst, and when the proverbial "sheisse" hits the fan, I feel like super mom, because I can handle it, no problem.  And, since there's no "hoping" involved, I don't feel any sadness over unmet expectations of something turning out better.  This approach is still a work in progress, of course.  As a mom, my understanding of what defines "the worst" is always evolving, which means that there are times that I find myself less prepared than necessary, but as a rule, this philosophy makes everyone's lives happier.

Needless to say, when I realized that I would be flying 14 hours with my kids to visit family in America without Jonathan, I planned for the worst.  Luckily, it worked out that I wasn't completely alone since Uncle Joe's trip coincided with ours and we made sure that we would be on the same flight!  Still, 14 hours is a long time, especially for a 3 and 1.5 year old.  I meticulously packed our carryon to include toys, food, extra changes of clothes, and enough diapers to get us through any kind of intestinal apocolypse that may suddenly afflict either child on the flight (Once, out of no where, Sawyer got the worst case of diarrhea ever on an airplane.  We had to frantically beg a flight attendant to ask anyone on the plane who might have diapers, if we could have some. We barely survived.).

The preparation paid off.  Joe was a god-send.  My kids were actually pretty nice the whole flight.  The worst thing that happened was that just as we were landing Sawyer fell asleep and immediately peed his pants.  When we woke him, he was so distraught to be conscious, sitting in his pee, and with Uncle Joe and not me that he couldn't stop crying for a good long time.  Poor kid.  

We made it!  We landed in America.  We were home!  We were happy!  We were exhausted.  We arrived at the Stradling's excited and loopy.  I was able to keep the kids awake until 6pm before we crashed. The night was a blur of jet lagged wakefulness, but sleep was involved too.   The next morning Sawyer woke up coughing...dun, dun, duuuunnnn.

 On the train to the airport...

I'm already exhausted and we still have a 14 hour flight ahead of us.

Settling in on the plane...