Tales from the Airplane -Part 1

I recently took a trip on an airplane with just myself & my kids for the first time. I have flown with just my son before when he was a baby but, not both kids. There were so many things that went wrong but, yet, so many things that went right. The things that went wrong were things that were out of my control & most were not my kid's fault! I should say that we were flying out of the Atlanta airport which is an extemely large & busy airport. The line for the ticket counter wrapped all the way around the place so, that was horrendous in itself. Keeping Emily (almost 2) strapped in the stroller barely moving for 45 minutes was a real test. Not to mention, Emily's car seat was resting on top of her stroller canopy (& was wobbling around up there) & I was pulling a large suitcase (wheeled, of course)& wearing a heavy backpack while pushing the stroller w/the car seat on top. People either thought I was brave or insane (I'm hoping for brave). I was so happy when I got to the ticket counter & got to ditch the suitcase & carseat for baggage. Then, I had to make it thru security which meant taking Emily (& a carry-on that I had in the stroller basket) out of the stroller, folding the stroller & putting it on x-ray conveyer belt along with my backpack, Cameron's backpack, our carry-on bag & my shoes. Just a few travel items :) All of this while Emily is running around like a chimpanzee after finally being released from the stroller. Then they stop & go thru my carry-on bag because the x-ray showed something suspicious (which turned out to be a toy, yah, whatever!) & then they send it back thru the x-ray machine while I get Emily back in the stroller, you can imagine how she felt about that. Thru all of this, Cameron was such a trooper. He never complained about all of the walking (& sometimes running) & he answered all of the questions that any of the airport personnel asked him. A lot of people don't realize the extra effort that you go thru when you have a stroller because you have to take elevators instead of escalators & their not as conveniently located. You also have to wait awhile for the elevator sometimes & often wait thru multiple times because there can be lots of people in big wheelchhairs wating to get on too. Frankly, it's a real pain in the ass. On the flight, the kids were pretty good. I had to have Emily on my lap because she's still under 2 & can fly free then. I knew that wouldn't be easy but luckily, Cameron is small & with the armrest up, we had plenty of room. It was like our oown little 3-person bench, except it was more like 2 people & a chimpanzee. I think the other passengers got tired of me saying "No, no Emily", "sit down Emily", "stop that Emily" etc. but, oh well. I did have a couple of books & both kids sat attentively while I read to them. Of course, I also had the holy grail....snacks. The kids really enjoyed putting the tray tables down & eating their snacks. Luckily the flight to West Palm Beach is only about 1 hr & 45 min. I think if it was any longer, I might have had to try to check Emily as baggage in a dog crate. Don't worry, I'd still provide her snacks.