The kindness of strangers

I may or may not have said that I was using this summer to do some traveling. Nothing grand, but one trip required me to board a flight with my children in tow. I would like to state that moving a three year old, a seven month old and luggage around by myself was more difficult than I had planned. I will have to say that it would have been impossible had it not been for the kindness of strangers.

The first kind man was at BWI airport. Andy had to drop me off and go to park the car. I was left struggling with a wayward luggage cart, a wired three year old who had a harness on (I am not going to apologize!) and a stroller. As I moved two steps forward and one step back, suddenly the luggage cart began to cooperate. I looked up and saw a lovely 6'4" (yes I can tell by looking) man from Houston, Texas who was pushing the cart for me. He stayed with me until just before I got to the check in! I had gone past at least 30 people who just watched me struggle and who just stared at me like I was some kind of freak before my gentle giant came to my rescue.

The next kind person was the grandmotherly person who stood behind me waiting to check in. She watched me struggle a little, but then realized that I was going to block everyone from moving their luggage forward unless she helped me along. She pushed the luggage cart forward about ten feet for me, which helped clear the way for everyone else. I would like to say that the next kind person was the check in clerk, but she seemed really put out with having to deal with me.

There really needs to be a better way of going through security when you have small children. For those who have had to do this, you know what I am talking about. You all know that you have to take your shoes off, but so do the children. Then, holding onto your infant and small child (harness off), you have to collapse your stroller, push it through to scan, turn your car seat upside down to push through to be scanned, go through the metal detector, wait for stroller, car seat, shoes, harness and carry-on to come through and then load everything up again. The security people were nice, but unrealistic. I was told that I could not put BJ down on the table-top because some child had fallen off a few years ago, so I had to figure out how to hold onto an infant and assemble everything. It would have been super to have had a room to go into and been scanned there; a place that I would not have had so much trouble juggling everything and two small children. There was a truly amazing woman behind me: she had four small children and had to move all of them through security by herself. I do not know how she did it!

On the flight, there was a lovely lady who had the misfortune of sitting beside me. She did not speak English, but with my half Spanish and her little bit of English, we managed to get along well. She was so nice that she even offered to allow BJ to lay across her so he would nap better. I am hopeful that I have an equally nice person for the return trip. The attendant was also helpful once we landed, holding onto MM while I got BJ into his car seat and stroller.

Once I got out of the gate, I had to look for the baggage claim which was a new challenge. At the Orlando airport you have to take a tram to another part of the airport, then go across a lovely plaza to the escalators to locate the baggage claim area. The only problem is that if you need to have an elevator, the signs are about as clear as mud. I was just enough tired at this point, that I stood in the middle of the plaza and said very loudly, "I need an elevator!" Someone was kind enough to point one out and I was on the move.

I know that I would not have had as enjoyable of a trip without the help of strangers. I do not think that I deserve to have help because I had small children, but it was wonderful that there were people who took pity on me. I will definitely help anyone I find in a similar position in the future.

On vacation?

My sister Debbie lives in Virginia Beach, VA. She is planning on finishing the remodel of her house and then put it on the market, so she invited us (my sister's children, my children and me) for a week of beach time. Well, I should say sort of beach time since we are redhaired/ fair skinned and so time at the beach is really from 5pm until 8:30 pm. Plus, since she is a resident, we only pay $2 for parking after 5 pm.

For those who know about the area, one way to get there is to travel along the bridge/tunnel system that connects the Delmarva peninsula to mainland Virginia. We left from Lancaster, PA around 2:30 in the afternoon, made a few stops, and arrived in Virginia Beach around 9 pm. We got off the bridge and BANG! some local kids shot out my back window! Thank God for tempered glass because the window was right beside my three year old's head. My insurance got my window replaced by the next day, but boy will this be a memorable vacation!

I had gotten a blow up pool for 6 at the end of the year clearance sales last year, so I brought it down. We put it in the backyard so that the kids could play in the water and be in the shade. Last night we built a Girl Scout campfire, made gluten-free smores, roasted hot dogs and got bitten by mosquitoes! I made homemade potato salad to enjoy with our hot dogs, but the girls were so full from the other stuff, that not much was eaten.

I have been the chief cook and bottle washer since arriving on Thursday night. It has been necessary so that our gluten free diet is taken care of, but also since my sister is really good at construction, but not so hot in the kitchen. I made up a menu so the kids could know in advance what we would be having and therefore would not be faced with a meal that they do not like. I even brought down my bread machine so that we could have fresh bread and use it to make pizza dough. The downside of this is that I am spending loads of time in the kitchen. I am beginning to appreciate my foremothers who were in the kitchen all the time!

MM has been in hog heaven. She loves her cousins and she is old enough to play with them without driving them too crazy. Right now she is getting into her bathing suit so that she can get into the pool with her cousins. We found a bathing suit that looks like a ballet outfit, complete with a too-too at Target. She already had a two piece bathing suit, but since we will be flying down to my parents' house to spend time there, she would need to have two suits. The most important reason is because she has recently decided that she wants to be a mermaid, ballerina, princess in a castle, Dora, Little Bill, Fairy, superhero.  I figured she can pretend to be a mermaid ballerina for now.