My Barefoot Babies: 2007

12/26/2007 10:30pm Somewhere between Panama and Peru

As soon as I uttered those words this afternoon, I knew they had to be the title of this post. I can't even begin to imagine where to start writing about today. What a nightmare. I guess the beginning is as good a place as any.

We checked in at Logan around 9:30am, and were told that we would have to check in again in Miami, since we were flying the rest of the way with another airline. They did check our baggage all the way through, but couldn't check us in for the flight or give us boarding passes. We figured we'd be fine, and didn't think too far ahead. Mom left us and we went through the security checkpoint. Let me tell you, it was one of the most difficult things I have done. We had to get ourselves, both boys, and two small carts each carrying a car seat and a backpack (plus we each had a backpack on our backs) through the line. Once we got up to the X-Rays, we had to remove all electronics from our bags (we had 2 laptops, 2 cameras, and an MP3 player) and put them in separate bins. We had to take the car seats and bags off the carts, fold up the carts and put all of those things in the X-Ray machine. We had to take off all our shoes and put them in bins. We had to take out our small Ziploc baggies of liquids and medications and put them in bins. We had to put Mack in a bin (which didn't go over well as you may imagine). After all that, we had to walk through the metal detectors one at a time. The man asked for our boarding passes. They were in a bin :o) He let us through anyway, with an escort. I went first, then had the boys come over one at a time, and Luis came last. When that was all done, we had to repack our bags, put shoes on, etc. etc. all while trying to keep the boys nearby, and trying not to hold everyone up. S-T-R-E-S-S!

On the other side we were able to buy drinks. Halfway down the hall, we dropped a bottle of orange juice, which cracked and spilled all over the floor. We told someone so they could call to have someone clean it up and moved on. At the gate, Luis put the rest of the bottle on a chair, which it promptly fell off of, spilling the rest of the juice. Other than that, the first leg of the trip was pretty uneventful. We got some pizza and pasta to share for lunch, and watched the planes out the window while we waited. The girl who gave us our seats was awesome and put us in a bulkhead row all together. The plane was enormous, it had 2 seats together, then an aisle, then 5 seats together, another aisle, and 2 more seats together. We were in the middle. The boys rode in their car seats until we landed, and were generally easy to entertain. It got a little hairy once we landed. They told us a broken down plane was in our spot, and there was no other terminal we could go to because they don't have a lot for a plane that size. They said it would be 10 minutes or so. We sat there for almost half an hour. We befriended Jaiden, a little boy Darius' age who was across the aisle, and was just as ready to get out as our boys were. They traded toys back and forth for a while. Every time he would hand Darius a toy, Darius would be sure to say, "Thanks baby!" Did I mention they were the same age? :o)

By the time we got off, we had less than an hour to check in and catch our next flight. Miami airport is HUGE, so I asked the first person I found where I should go to check in for Copa Airlines. She had no idea. Neither did the next person, or the next. Finally the fourth person told me, and don't you know, it was all the way at the other side of the airport! I was carrying Darius and a backpack, plus pulling the cart. Luis had Taye and the rest of the luggage. I honestly didn't think I was going to be able to make it. My arms were barely hanging on to him. I was ready to cry by the time we got there. The man at the counter asked what we needed, and when we said to check in, he said the flight had been closed!! He looked at our papers anyway, and made a few calls, then told us we'd have to check our car seats because they had no room for them, and to run over to security and they'd let us go to the front of the line. He also told us they didn't have any seats left together, but that he had people working on getting some for us since we had the boys. We went through the whole security hassle again, and finally made it to the gate with 2 shoeless boys, and wondering if we had remembered everything from security since we basically shoved everything in our bags and ran. There were about 4 people at the end of the ramp boarding the plane, so at least it wasn't like they held the plane for us. We heard them telling the woman in front of us that there was no room left for carry on's, and we'd all have to check our bags. They tried to tell us that, and we said no way! We were not going to be on that plane with nothing to take care of our kids. We let them take the carts, but nothing else. The woman argued that there was no room, I told her we'd stick them under our feet, no one will be sitting there! We went back and forth for a while, and finally they just took the carts and let us on with our bags (and wouldn't you know, there was room!)

At the same time that drama was going on, there was a man coming to tell us about the seating situation. At first he said they had 2 together, but were working on the second two. OK, no biggie. Then a minute later he came and said there were three together - 2 together in one row for the boys, and the seat right behind them for me, and Luis would have to sit somewhere else! Seriously! I told the man there was no way I was leaving my one and two year olds alone. He argued they wouldn't be alone, I would be right behind them! It still blows my mind as I write this. Really! What was he thinking? Does he know anything about kids? Anyway, I told him I would personally ask people myself to switch seats if that's what it took, but there was no way we were taking that seating arrangement (can you just imagine how much they loved us at this point? Let me tell you the feeling is mutual!) We ended up with 3 together next to each other, and one random seat by itself that we just didn't use. Darius is under 2 and we didn't have the car seats anyway, so he became a lap baby.

The boys were both exhausted by this point, we all were. Neither one wanted to stay buckled, but we had to make them until we got up in the air. We told Taye that as soon as we got up in the sky we would watch the Car movie on Luis' laptop, and I kept Darius busy pointing out everything I could see out the window. When we reached the cruising altitude, Luis got out his computer, and wouldn't you know it, the DVD player was acting up and wouldn't play the movie! Perfect. There were tears for a while, but somehow we managed to make him happy again. Dinner came, and we ate, and the rest of that flight passed fairly uneventfully. Its amazing how time flies when you are constantly trying to come up with new and exciting things to do. Like taking your shoes and socks off, and sticking your socks on your ears. Thus explaining the title of my post.

We got to Panama, and there was some other gate issue, so we ended up with a staircase being wheeled over to our plane, and taking buses over to the airport. By the time we got in, our next flight was almost done boarding. We ended up with 3 seat together again, but it was ok since we were planning to get the boys to sleep on the plane.

12/30/2007 5:00pm in Peru

I never got to finish this the other night because both boys woke up while I was typing. It wouldn't have been complete anyway without the rest of the travel story! The boys both fell asleep before we were even in the air in Panama, which was a blessing. But neither slept well, and both of them were awake again by the time we landed. They slept well for an hour and a half or so, but after that we had to do a lot of holding and rocking to keep them asleep. Finally about 20 minutes before we landed Taye couldn't go back to sleep and was pretty much inconsolable. At one point he was crying, "I like to go home! I don't like this airplane!" It was heartbreaking. We finally landed, and for the first time, had no delays and were able to get right off. We got into the huge line for customs, and got our one and only break of the whole travel nightmare. As we stood there, a lady in uniform came over to open the gate and let us through into a special lane for people traveling with kids. So we ended up with only two people ahead of us. We got through and went to collect our baggage. We waited and waited. Nothing. All 6 of our bags were still in Miami. Yay.

The man told us they were coming on a flight at 2pm the next afternoon, and gave us a receipt. We left and found Luis' mom. She was very happy to see us, and we had a nice reunion. His dad and our sister-in-law Vicki came too. We went out to get the bus his mom had rented (you know, since we were bringing so much luggage) and started the long ride home. The boys were fully awake by then, and couldn't stop looking around. The driver got lost several times, which drove Luis crazy. We were all pretty much ready to go home by then. Darius loved the salsa music on the radio, and entertained us all with his dancing. Both boys were asleep by the time we got home, but woke up again once we got in. None of us made it to bed until about 3:30am. It was a long day.

The next morning we went into Lima to get a few things, and also to collect our baggage. After we finished with our other errands (around 3:30) we called the airline to make sure our bags were there. The flight they were on had been delayed, so they told us they would be there by 5pm. We killed a couple more hours, and got to the airport around 6pm. Of course, the flight had been delayed again, and wasn't coming in until 7pm. We were beyond frustrated by this time. We killed an hour just letting the boys run around the airport, and went back to the office at 7. The man told us the flight was in, and brought us down. My name was the one on the forms, so I was the only one allowed back into the baggage area. Luis and his mom had to stay back with the kids. I went through and the man told me to wait while he got the bags. He came back with 4. The other two were still not there! I wanted to kill the guy. He apologized, and said the other two were probably on the next flight which was coming in at midnight. He told me he would give us $10 to cover our travel expenses when we came in to get the other two bags. We had no choice but to leave. We got a taxi for the two hour ride home. About ten minutes into the ride the guy realized what time it was, and told us he couldn't take us all the way. He said he rented his taxi and needed to have it back to the airport by 9pm or the owner would charge him for an extra day. He was basically planning on dropping us on the side of the road, and trying to find another taxi for us. Luis convinced him to take us a little farther to a better place where we could catch a new taxi for sure. So that's what he did, and we finally made it back to the house.

The next morning Luis called the airlines, and made sure they had our bags. He also asked if he could come instead of me, and they said that would be ok as long as he brought my passport too. He took our nephew in with him, and came home with the last two bags. One of which had our clothes in it (the boys' clothes were in the bags we got the night before). Finally we were able to shower and be clean! Yay!

And this is how our journey began.

Christmas morning was, as always, a lot of fun. We started the day by waking Nana with the traditional Christmas bells. She tried to kill this tradition one year by throwing away the bells (*gasp!*) but we were able to buy an exact replica at AC Moore one year, so the tradition lives on. We were also lucky enough to have Auntie Jackie staying with us this year, so we got to ring the bells twice.

After everyone was awake, it was time for presents! Some were opened individually:

And some together:

Through it all, Grover just wondered where the heck his presents were:

When all the boring (well, less awesome and fun) presents were opened, I couldn't wait any more. The train table was in the other room (wrapped!) so I went in and called the boys. Taye wasted no time:

Darius was happy to let Taye do all the work while he got down to business:

All in all it was a huge hit!

After presents and some play time, Nana made a delicious breakfast. Super thick French toast, sausage, and eggs - yum! We all stuffed ourselves, played some more, and then got ready to go to the Dorseys. We, of course, watched Cars on the way there. It was so nice to see everyone, and we all had such a great day.

Wrapping paper fight:

And now I know what to get the boys for Christmas next year (its never to early, only 364 shopping days left!)

We got home just in time for bed. Luis and I took down the tree, cleaned up, and finished the last minute packing details. And just when he (and we) thought Grover got nothing for Christmas, we realized we were wrong. He got the world's biggest cat bed (really my new cozy pillow corner):